Wireless Digital Bonanza!, Scorpius Wireless Digital & Slot.it oXigen Digital Options

[ss67]

An interesting concept. Slot.it oXigen has two lane change buttons: lets call them the outer button and the inner button for clarification.

If you have used digital on large circuits - say a club track or a championship track - you will realise that it can get confusing knowing which lane you want to get into especially if you are some way off from your car. Knowing which lane change pieces will take you to the inside and which to the outside can be confusing or difficult to see in the heat of the race.

Basically you know if you want to go to the inside or outside of the track as the concept of left and right is confusing from a remote driving position. So if you want to go to an inner lane, you press the inner button and likewise to go to the outer lane(s) you press the outer button. You can just hold one button to move right in or right out over a successive number of lane change pieces.



I've updated the oXigen review with this info.

How does the system know which is inner and which is outer?

On a track with many left & right hand turns the inner & outer would be different lanes many times!

[Doug]

...
I am interested in how the Scorpius controller compares to the slot.it and if you have used other high end controllers like ACD Pro, Difalco etc how it compares to them.
...

I honestly am no expert on controllers. I don't race at clubs and tend to use whatever I have at hand. I have a MRRC controller that I use for analogue.

In terms of responsiveness, both the Scorpius and the oXigen are good. The Scorpius has a lighter feel, but apparently it is down to the spring and stiffer springs are available.

On my track the car makes more of a difference than then controller. Unfortunately I can't interchange the Scorpius and oXigen controller on the same car.

[Doug]

How does the system know which is inner and which is outer?

On a track with many left & right hand turns the inner & outer would be different lanes many times!

I think there are dip-switches on the LC pieces. As most tracks tend to go around in one direction the concept of inner and outer are easier to conceptualise than left and right.

Perhaps Maurizio can clarify this - I'll show him this topic.

[astro]

Great reviews Doug, and great to see both the systems finished and released!

[Slot.it]

Hi.
Yes, there's a dip switch on the LC driver, so that you can set it as 'this LC goes from outer to inner' or viceversa, or a 'standard' LC which changes in both cases.
Doug could not test this as his track is already wired, but we use it in Modena and I would not do without...

[astro]

I tried out the Slot.It selective lane change at Gaydon and it worked well and intuitively on the two lane set up, and I am sure it would be invaluable on larger multilane circuits.

[sealevel]

Thanks for the explanation, Doug.

Once again, a very interesting comparative analysis.
It would seem that SSD users would have to do more investigation into what modifications are needed (per your suggestion) to see how difficult a move to wireless would be using these systems.

Cheers!

[jsmadsen]

Hi Doug,
thank's for a very good and thorough review of the two wireless systems.

What I'm especially interessted in is your views on the responsiveness of the throttles on the two systems?

Me being on a 4-lane N'Digital I would really like to get more throttle steps available than I have today and I'm looking at the wireless systems as a way of getting more controlable cars.

I can see that the two systems have throttle resolutions of 320 steps (Scorpius) respectively 255 steps (Slot.it oXigen) so I guess it would make a big difference to the existing N'Digital throttle step set up? (comments from Scorpius and Slot.it would also be appreciated)

Best regards
Jesper

[Doug]

You really don't notice a difference between the 320 steps and the 255 steps. Both are very responsive using a Hall effect sensor to detect trigger position with a magnet on the trigger part.

Other things play a part and influence the feel - curve, brakes etc.

Slot.it SCP-1 allows you to adjust the power to the car on the throttle in real time whereas the Scorpius has its Learner mode on the menu (cars stop when you access the menu).

I didn't drive all the Scorpius default curves - I quickly decided that S9 was the most comfortable for the cars on my track and so stuck with that.

For the Slot.it SCP-1, I am sure there are other experts that can advise on how to get the best out of it, but I left it alone once it felt OK, leaving only slight brakes.

I remember trying Ninco Digital on my track - it didn't really work. The power had to be turned quite a bit up to get the lane changers working and the supplied cars (Lamborghini I think) were very rough. The excess power made them uncontrollable. Both Scorpius and oXigen are a massive improvement over the Ninco Digital. They are both like or are even better than a very nice analogue setup. Sure, I am using NSR and Avant Slot cars with Scorpius and Slot.it cars on the oXigen system - spoilt for choice.

I would advise trying to get to see a demo if you can. Ask your favourite slot shop to set up a demo.

[injectorman]

(comments from Scorpius and Slot.it would also be appreciated)

Best regards
Jesper

Hi Jesper.
Basically you can design your own throttle mapping and store up to ten said curves on the controller. Each throttle curve or map is divided in ten trigger steps. On each step you can choose how much power is delivered (PWM) from 0-100 in 1% increments, giving millions of possible combinations.

The maps can be designed on your PC, then transferred to the controller or if out and about, can be changed on the controller itself using the menu.

Ten maps should be more than enough for most slot racers, but you can change any of the curves in seconds regardless.

Each curve or map has a number 0-9 (ten maps) so you can relate it to a given car, motor, voltage or track situation, just dial and use.

This gives many fold more possible outcomes in terms of controller sensitivity than a single knob. As ANY curve you can think of can be replicated for any car, motor, voltage, track combination you could imagine. Also a 15A wireless module is coming soon so even power wont be an issue for BIG motors. The current module is 7A. All Scorpius power ratings are continuous not peak.

Rick Field
Scorpius Wireless

[Nigel Pendrigh]

Doug

Thank you very much for the useful and helpful reviews - I am looking forward a similar review when either or both systems are in production :-)

[jsmadsen]

Hi Doug and Rick,
thank's a lot for your comments on throttle responsiveness - I guess next thing is to see how the systems work in real life

Best regards
Jesper

[Doug]

Finally got around to filming and editing the Slot.it video.

Below, a video of four of the Slot.it test cars running oXigen Wireless Digital on the BLST track. Two cars are running automatically in Ghost mode (the silver Sauber Mercedes C9 and the white and red Jaguar XJR9). I am controlling The blue Sauber Mercedes C9 and my son is driving the pink and white Porsche 962C. With two drivers racing, two ghost cars plus the filming, things are a little hectic on the little track, hence a few de-slots and nerfing manoeuvres. Good fun though.

[Slot.it]

Very nice Doug, thank you. Now you really need the working pit lane!

[Profoxcg]

I have to ask, which one was your favorite and why?