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

[Profoxcg]

also please correct me if I am wrong, but in this review, the lane changing was being done by the BLST electronics not by Scorpius or Oxygen correct?
You were only using one LB in the case of Scorpius to log lap times, and the magnets of O2. ?

[Doug]

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

There are so many factors involved - if you read the reviews you get my opinion and you'll see the positives and negatives on each system.

I think that we will have to wait for the RMS for each system to be ready and to test each system in a race environment to really make a choice if you are racing in a club environment. PC Lap Counter is being updated to work with oXigen and Scorpius is developing their own program.

For home, both systems work well. Take your pick, perhaps choose on price or colours available for the controller, but both systems do what they set out to do. The wire from the SCP-1 to the battery pack is not an issue - you get used to it in 30 seconds and you still have freedom to walk around. Non rechargeable batteries in the Scorpius controller is not an issue - the batteries last well. Scorpius will sort out the dongle issue. Slot.it has some cool features with their Hall effect magnets - pitlane speeds etc. Scorpius perhaps will do similar things with the software. Slot.it oXigen has a slightly longer range, but in a room environment, that doesn't matter that much.

I have tested both versions on plastic tracks - sure the Scorpius version was a few years back - but lane changing is fine and as you would expect on both. Perhaps the buttons on the SCP-1 are a little better, but you get used to one or another controller very quickly.

also please correct me if I am wrong, but in this review, the lane changing was being done by the BLST electronics not by Scorpius or Oxygen correct?
You were only using one LB in the case of Scorpius to log lap times, and the magnets of O2. ?

As I said, the track is BLST. I'm not fussed about this at all. Like I said in the review, we don't steer the cars - we rely on the slot for that - so why press a button to change lane? It is not something that has to be so. With BLST you advance or back off from the car in front or the car behind to change lanes yourself or to force the car behind to change lanes. It works really well and is a pleasure to drive and it remains all about throttle control.

As I said, one Scorpius lane brain was used as a Start/Finnish line (ID 0). Magnets on the S/F line was used for oXigen. Both systems worked fine. If you are basing your purchasing decision on price, with oXigen you don't need a Lane Brain an magnets are cheap or come out of cars. The slight lag on the oXigen data - lap times being shown on the PC - is not really an issue. The bonus is that if data packets are lost and the time doesn't update on one lap, they are updated and corrected on the next pass as the car/controller stores the number of times that it has passed the S/F line. With Scorpius, if the lap is not counted for whatever reason it is lost.

[zarko]

The slight lag on the oXigen data - lap times being shown on the PC - is not really an issue. The bonus is that if data packets are lost and the time doesn't update on one lap, they are updated and corrected on the next pass as the car/controller stores the number of times that it has passed the S/F line. With Scorpius, if the lap is not counted for whatever reason it is lost.

In my opinion this would be a deal breaker for me. As we all know, digital racing is prone to laps being missed for one reason or another so having the ability for the car/controller to store data and then update it the following lap is crucial!

P.S. Thanks for the detailed review, gave me plenty of food for thought.

[Doug]

Scorpius and SSD rely on a photo transistor/diode and if (for whatever reason) that contact is not made then you miss a lap on the RMS.

When I tested the Scorpius laps, I had one miss in all the laps I tested over a few weeks. This was when the car was intentionally driven sideways down the straight - I had swung the car hard into the barrier just before the finish straight and it hadn't recovered by the time it crossed the S/F line.

Before the magnets were introduced, oXigen initially relied on 3rd party light bridges (DS etc.) and I was told that missed laps do occur (sometimes for obscure reasons) - that is why they have a manual adjustment tool on their demo RMS software.

The magnetic field under the S/F line and the Hall effect sensor in the cars of the current oXigen system make it virtually impossible to miss a lap. I didn't miss one in my tests. I did notice once or twice however that the laps weren't updated - perhaps due to interference - but the next time around the correct figure was shown. As I said before, the car sends the lap count to the controller and that is then passed on to the dongle and software. The info is stored (not sure if it is in the car or controller) so if there is an error, it is corrected when the data is transmitting correctly again.

[Profoxcg]

Thanks for the reply. I apprecate you reivew, but the beauty of O2 and Scorpius is also their lane changing features.
Essentially you only tested lapcounting and throttle feel. Throttle feels essentially single handed as you really did not have to use your second hand to craddle the controller in a LC changing possition.

Great use of o2 and scorpious on a BLST track, but not typical to most users / buyers.
Thanks for the video, I am dissapointed to learn the most of the exitement shown in the video between passes and such were handled by the BLST sensors and not the controller imput. I think it was a misssed oportunity to show everyone how these things really work.

[Doug]

Profoxcg, you are showing troll-like behaviour. If you don't have anything nice to say then don't sour the topics with your gloom.

If you had any idea of BLST or if you had taken the time to read what I have written, you will see that driving BLST correctly involves quite a bit of skill. Why should you have to change a lane with a button - is that the be-all and end-all in slotracing?

I have used oXigen and Scorpius on plastic tracks and I have pressed the LC buttons on both controllers - no major effort needed there - in both cases ones left hand comes into action and a finger of the left hand presses a button on the controller held in the right hand. These reviews didn't use that feature so I didn't go into it in detail but if you want more info on how the finger of the left hand works, I am sure I can write some more.

The only major difference - as we have discussed before is that Scorpius has one LC button and you can press it to switch lanes on the next LC piece you pass over. oXigen has 2 LC buttons - you can set the LC pieces to be a left or a right piece using dip switches on the Slot.it LC adaptor - then when you press the left LC button the car will change lanes on the next left LC piece, perhaps skipping any right LC piece it may pass over - same for the right button. This is useful when the car is on the other side of a large circuit and you may not see where the LC pieces are exactly or you may be disoriented slightly due to the direction of travel.

[blst]

Hi all,

Doug, thanks to use my system compar both wireless digital.

I tried couple off years ago Scorpius on my own track and the big advantage in wireless is that cars don't loose power and signal on switch. cars continue to drive smoothly.

best


david

http://sillage.atelierdrupal.net/fr/node/13

[MrFlippant]

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.

SSD users wouldn't need to modify anything, really. SSD users have two choices to go wireless.
1) get an oXigen chip for a car, and a cartridge for their controller (or the whole O2 compatible controller) and then run the car as Car ID 1-6. When chipping their car of choice, include the special chip to rectify the SSD track's AC to the DC the chip needs. Then run the car wirelessly on their SSD track, right along with other SSD cars.

2) Get the appropriate SCP-01d for their powerbase. Get the oXigen controller cartridge and the Cartridge Radio Interface (CRI) and plug them all up to plug into any controller jack on their SSD powerbase to control whichever SSD car they want to control. No PC, bluetooth connection, or special software needed.

If that SSD user wanted to convert their SSD track into a FULLY oXigen track, they'd need to install magnets under the SF line for lap counting, a couple magnets for pit lane entrance, and power the track with straight DC rather than a Scalextric Digital powerbase. Then there is no need for the bridge rectifier board. SSD lane changers will still work with all 20 possible oXigen car IDs. If you want the selective lane changing, then the lane changers would need to be augmented with the oXigen lane changer board.

[injectorman]

Hi Everyone,
I've had quite a few enquiries in Scorpius car decoder reception/transmission.

Heres a few links that may help.

Car decoder antenna position



Video on reception.

Reception on Scorpius test track 19m or 60 feet no problem.

Rick

[mustang]

when can we test this system?