Scalextric walwart wires., which wire is which ? Options

[Grunt]

Just wondering if anyone knows which of the scalextric walwart power supply wires is which ?

One wire has a white stripe, one has nothing.

Thanks.

[zendragon]

Idont think it matters as they produce a/c voltage which is converted in the power base
Regards
Zen

[Grunt]

Thanks for the reply.

The reason i'm asking is cause i've cut the wires off the walwart and have connected the wires to a variable power supply.

It's working fine with the wire that has the stripe on +positive.
I haven't tried swapping the wires over as yet cause it's working as is.

The problem is i'm getting an electronic controller and i want to make sure that i've got the polarity right for it, so i don't damage the controller.
Using standard scalextric controllers it currently doesn't matter what way round i have the wires.

[RichD]

With electronic controllers the issue is which way electricity will go through the controller. Solid state devices only conduct in one direction. With some electronic controllers you must have a brake circuit or you will only have full speed, other controllers do not have to be connected to the brake circuit, but both types are polarity sensitive. Several makers have dual polarity models. With positive polarity tracks the brakes are connected to the negative side of the power supply and to the left hand track rail looking in the direction of travel. The wiper is connected to the right hand track rail and the full power connection goes to the plus side of the power supply. With negative polarity tracks the brakes are connected to the positive side of the power supply and also to the right hand track rail. The wiper is connected to the left hand track rail and the full power connection goes to the negative side of the power supply. 1/32nd plastic set type tracks all use negative polarity.

[stoner]

the white stripe is + all black is - hope that helps john

[Grunt]

Thanks John,

That's the answer i was after, and is how i have it hooked up at the moment.

I have a slot.it controller module for scalexetric home set turning up today and didn't want to fry it with my variable power supply being wired wrong to the sport power base.

I am waiting for the sport power base to fry though, but it seems to be running just fine at 10v to the rails. I guess time will tell.

[Grunt]

RichD,
Thank you also for your very informative reply, your answer is why i was wanting to make sure i had the power supply the right way around for my electronic slot.it controller.

When i eventually get my bench built and a track layout that I'm happy with to keep permanent I will hard wire the track properly with driver stations.

[Ade]

hi
just to clarify that if you use a dc transformer then the solid white stripe is the - and the white dotted one is the +.

[stoner]

hy grunt, i had to hard wire my track anyway.i was using a 15v 5amp power supply with a few hot motors and i got fed up repairing the circuit board every time it went pop. i bought another supply 12v 30amp to run my really hot motors on. the supplies are dead cheap from china £22 for my latest one. your powerbase will handle all the motors in the standard cars up to 1 amp draw at 12v. most of the aftermarket motors fall into this catagory. if your not sure about a motor just check it out in the motor list. john

[RichD]

If you ever get a short across the rails when you connect a big power supply to a Scalextric power base the diodes in the power base will probably get cooked. If you don't want to scrap the powerbase and hardwire your track you can open up the powerbase and install jumpers around the diodes.

[Grunt]

Thanks guys.

I got the controller module yesterday and it's all running good,
well, with the one exception of the red LED in my controller handle has stopped working but that's another issue.

RichD, i picked up a second hand powerbase which i'm using in the case it did fry when i first tried it all.
My power supply is a 0-24vDC 15A regulated running 12v which comes out at around 10v to the rails.

I have seen the thread regarding putting jumper wires accross the diode's but the reference pictures are no longer there and i couldn't quite figure which diode's to jumper accross.

It's just a temperary stop gap till i get the setup more permanent.