Help Needed Setting Up Our Digital Oval, What Do We Need To Do Next Options

[Michael363672]

Hello All You Digital Experts

We Need Your Help Please

So our Oval is all but built so now we need to move onto the actual running of it

1. Software to run a race meeting. What would you use ?
2. How do you make a cable to connect the PB to the computer ?
3. JCS100 our electronic wizz would like yo build a Digital controller
4. How do these controllers differ from a normal controller ?
5. We need to put in driver stations to pug our controllers into is this just a case of a lead from the PB to the Station That we then plug into ?

Anything else that you think we have missed ?

And so you can see here is a photo of our new track



And a fullish view - This is before it was completed



Thanks in advance for your help

Michael

[Savage]

1. Software to run a race meeting. What would you use ?

Without a doubt, SSDC, cheap (around a tenner) and good.
Only thing is,(unless I am mistaken) no heat or championship modes.
PC lapcouter supports digital, and has a wealth of features including heats and championship modes, but isn't cheap at around £50, although for a club that isn't so bad.

2. How do you make a cable to connect the PB to the computer ?

RichG on these forums will sell you one for a reasonable sum

3. JCS100 our electronic wizz would like yo build a Digital controller
4. How do these controllers differ from a normal controller ?

They are different, I dont pretend to understand the differences, but your electronics guy would soon be able to work out what he needed by dissasembling a standard one and poking it with a multimeter !

5. We need to put in driver stations to pug our controllers into is this just a case of a lead from the PB to the Station That we then plug into ?

Pretty much, just need to ensure the outside of the plugs into the PB are narrow enough fit and a power point for those that will want to use Slot.It controllers might be handy too, MrFlippant made some real nice stations in his thread HERE

Anything else that you think we have missed ?

If you haven't already,You might want to look into getting the PB modified to PB Pro with SH, definatly a good investment for home use, more so for a club

[Michael363672]

I was looking at SSCD and it looks Good apart from not doing a championship or heat racing
As this a second track don't really want to spend loads on software as it wont get loads of use

Is there any specs for the cable so we can make one ?

Looks like time to take the screw driver and multi meter to a scalex one then

The guy whos track it is has been pointed in the direction of the upgrades

Also Tel is there a thread on how you you built your old display with the pit pro game as he will probably put in a pit lane soon to the track

[distantkiwi]

Are you going to bank the corners?

[Savage]

No thread as such, I did post a simple explaination Here (it's quite simple).

[Michael363672]

Are you going to bank the corners?

Not on this incarnation but was talking about that last night and there will be a banked corner soon

Want to get this up and running 1st then we can modify it as required

[Michael363672]

Ok so we have had the power base modded

Would this be any good for the power

Power Supply

Michael

[Ade]

hi to all.
why are you asking for a pb aux to usb cable? Do you not require mine anymore michael?

[Michael363672]

hi to all.
why are you asking for a pb aux to usb cable? Do you not require mine anymore michael?

Yes I do

Was now asking about the power as I never really got an answer on specs on cable on the serial one

Chq is in post

[MrFlippant]

I don't see any reason why that PSU wouldn't work, but I'm not a PSU expert. The important thing is that it's outputting the right voltage (12v is good), has plenty of amps (20 is more than enough), and is regulated, which it is. It's not in a pretty shell with VU meters and switches/dials like most people get (including me) but it should still work just fine. Oh, and it has overload protection, which is also a good thing to have.

[Michael363672]

But do you need the meters etc ..

If it is in a box on the underside of the track where I wont see them anyway ?

It look nice and cheap

[hankscorpio]

The PSU you have shown is a large scale PC internal one i guess....

To be honest as long as you can keep it cool it will be fine, ones designed for a PC case don't always have there own fan relying on the case fan to do the job... As a power supply heats up the amps it can put out will drop... kept cool though it will do the job admirably.... the unit you have pointed to does not have a fan... putting it in an enclosed box with little ventilation will be an issue.

Fans, Meters lights and cases add to the cost of a PSU... I'm a big fan of the "Rapid" unit £65 which has a fixed 13.8 or variable output... One has been powering the ENSCA 100ft track for a couple of months without skipping a beat... The digi meters... The voltage one is fairly redundant for us because we use the fixed 13.8 amp output switch underneath... but it is handy for being able to reduce power to the circuit as a whole to keep things even but let newbs run the cars slower but fairly although much below 10amps and the PB will "brownout" at times of heavy load... The fan in the rapid unit is pretty quiet and thermally linked so speeds up when the unit is under duress (rarely in our case).

The Amp meter is much more useful for tracking problems... we found thaat the standard 8amp overload voltage on the PBPro was a little to low, the amp display allowed us to read the peak voltage we were pulling at the point of failure.... we just upped the overload to 12 amps and never had a problem since... although you could just adjust it by trial and error the display helped... a case is useful as we "break down" the power system every race night rather than leave it in the hall so it avoids any nasty dangly wires for people to come into contact with and more convenient to pack away etc beacuse of the easy to use connectors.... whether thats worth another £30 or so is debateable! but it is easier.

As ENSCA racers have slowly purchased their own cars mainly with "lights" and the number of "additional" XLC's not independantly powered has grown we find that 1-3 amps is an average loading, peaks of 6 amps are not uncommon in a close race down the main straight with lighted cars but rarely do we pull more than 10 amps... so depending on the number of drones you are a running the unlit NASCARS will never come close to causing the 20amp psu you suggest any problems!.... JUST KEEP IT COOL!

Hope it helps

[Stan]

Michael... very interesting design in combining the prefab lane changes with routed runs!!! I dreamed about something similar when I had my digital setup. Looks like you've executed it perfectly! One advantage to an external power supply I've found is the ability to quickly adjust the track voltage for different classes and/or driver types. I have not found the metering to be all that important, as I usually check voltage at the rails with a multimeter just to be accurate anyway.

Do you have a link to other pics of the construction of this track? I'd love to see more.

Stan

[Michael363672]

Do you have a link to other pics of the construction of this track? I'd love to see more.

Stan

Just for you Stan

The build thread of our Digital Oval

PS Lee built it but he does not visit SF so I have posted all the details for him

[Ade]

hi to all.
cable reveived ok michael? Hope your happy with it.