[astro]

Gr8 pics nuro, looking forwards to ur report.

Managed to go to the fair today as well, so i might as well share my highlights:

Scalextric World - surprisingly great, even though it wasn't something i had been interested in. Strange its limited compatibility with digital.. hey-ho.

Scalex-moto, well its a new product I guess, but really one for true bike fans. The bikes are not as fast and dont seem to handle as well/realistically as the cars, tho the riders can fall off in a crash! It seems the 10degree banked curves were brought inn to increase bike performance and sum semblance of leaning, but I cant c that 10 degrees will do that much for either (banked curves werent on display)

Scalex Digital - prototype stage, but has promise. They are planning for the curved changeovers to be reversable (the prototype pieces were, and intentions were for the final pieces to also be), so the same piece can be a L or R turn. They are planning straight change overs. The mechanism seemed fast enough to stop tailgate-lanechanges, they were confident that this had been dealt with.

SCX Digital - fully working and a lot of fun, though there were plenty of SCX marshalls around to keep things flowing.

Carrera Digital - planned for June release in UK, lightning fast (though loud!) changeover mechanism on the straight, a |\| part, and the set seems to come with a challenger style pace car that changes lane. The digital cars feature a middle magnet that moves from side to side and gets closer to the track as the back swings out, very interesting

Carrera accesories - buildings and figures available august, but not on display

Revell - re-releasing the monogram/mrrc figures in pre-painted 4-packs,3 sets available (so not the whole range of original figures), very nicely painted and detailed. Also slot car spare parts coming too

Konami R-C formula 1s, as mentioned on a topic somewhere: the range is being accompanied by a compatible supercar & rally car range (smaller scale), that includes slot racing. The r-c cars can navigate onto the slot track onto special entry pieces, and change lanes using their r-c steering. Looked like a lot of fun, tho perhaps not such serious racing as ordinary slot cars

hope this is interestin,

Dave

 

[Difflock]

QUOTE (astro @ 30 Jan 2004, 12:10 AM)Carrera Digital - planned for June release in UK, lightning fast (though loud!) changeover mechanism on the straight, a |\| part, and the set seems to come with a challenger style pace car that changes lane. The digital cars feature a middle magnet that moves from side to side and gets closer to the track as the back swings out, very interesting
I wonder if they have the rights to use the term Jam Car, now that TCR has long gone?

A bit of a slur that, I've never seen digital in the flesh so I'm on the fence regarding my opinions of it. Will it be too much to cope with, thinking about a strategy? Who knows. We'll get the reports on SlotForum though - peeps will make sure of that

Yes, your post was interesting astro, thanks. Now, r/c car racing on routed track? Could be fun

Mark.

 

[Tropi]

An excellent mini report from Astro - many thanks for that.

 

[moped rider]

Its worth mentioning that Alan Smith now has coverage of the London Toy Fair at Slot Car Illustrated including his commentary on digital:-

Click here to go straight to the coverage, with more to be added later.

I am still amazed at the efforts folk are making to provide us with superb newsflow live from the show so well done again to all concerned and keep it up!

Moped

 

[Russell Sheldon]

Great reporting and great photo's -- but it's unfortunately at the expense of losing possible new members!

I've had three people e-mail me this morning, saying that they followed the link from SCI to the SlotForum London Toy Fair report and then wanted to visit the forum itself, but were unable to access SlotForum from there....

I hope it gets fixed soon!

Kind regards

Russell

 

[Xlot]

Clearly, congratulations - slotadictos immediately put up a link - and I guess we'll have plenty to discuss in the coming days

Some things it would be nice to know, if possible :

- the LC actuator seems to be entirely below the track piece (I mean, I don't see a trackside box like for trains)

- the actuator is powered by the rails (no separate wires apparent)

- where's the car sensing device that fires the actuator ?

- AND, how does the car "talk" with the sensor ?

If you manage to get this info, chapeau !!!!

Beppe

 

[Robert Davies]

QUOTE I hope it gets fixed soon!

Me too!

There is a slightly tortuous way in from the front page.....

Click on the Toy Fair banner link, and then on the page that loads click on the blue SF banner across the top of the page - viola!

-Rob

 

[moped rider]

Sorry that you are slightly frustrated Xlot at the limited information that Hornby are prepared to reveal but you will understand their reasons.

Rather than focussing on how it works, now that you have some limited information, why not focus on how sensor technology could be applied in the future?

That may well provide very useful discussion!

Moped

PS Challenger is one application of this technology.

 

[VOA]

I find this page most inconvenient. I used to click on "front page", and I had lots of options. Including going to the most recent posts. That's the way I navigate the site. Now all I get is London Toy Fair.

I'm not saying it's not newsworthy or of considerable interest to this group, I just find it frustrating , because it is interfering with a useful feature.

 

[Tropi]

It's not only a matter of what digital secrets Scalextric are 'prepared to reveal'. but that the complete system is not yet finalised.

VOA
You are quite right and Nuro apologises for this.
I know he will make all efforts to remedy it just as soon as possible.

 

[Doug]

I have found an internet connection in London at last - although I'm not able to upload my photos and text just yet - working on that.

I've written a full report on the Sportworld system based on the demo that I was given. More photos and some cool info to follow soon.

Keep tuned.

Regards
Doug

 

[astro]

scalex digital sensors and track:

scalextric did have some secrets, mainly on world racing. They seemed quite open about how the digital worked though.

There is an infra-red sendy thing behind the guide, in the place u can usually put a button magnet. This can just be seen in one of nuros pics, its blue. This sends to a sensor in the track just before the change over piece, about half a cars length before i think. As for powering, there was no evidence of extra power leads to the scalex, scx or carrera changeover pieces, so i have assumed they are track powered. I get the impression the controllers talk to the cars via modulation of the dc current in the rails.

2 other things i remembered: Carrera digital 'only' supports 4 cars, not 6; Scalex world relies on dead strips, and the start/lap counter bit uses an optical sensor instead of the old mechanical one

i'm sure nuro and the others today will have found out much more useful stuff

Cheers

 

[Tropi]

Track current is usually AC for digital sytems.

 

[astro]

Are you sure about AC, tropi? that seems to make no sense, since the cars would have to have bridge rectifiers or similar on board for motor and chip power, and how would they know which way round they were supposed to drive? And the challenger system would not be compatible.

I have never had the point clarified on this, but it seems very unlikely for the above reasons

 

[Xlot]

Well, astro, I CANNOT BELIEVE IT !!!!

Scalex are using EXACTLY the principle I had suggested for converting SCX Digital to compatibility ("Looking for Mr.Bugs" thread on SCI/Tech Q&A) - as a matter of fact, I also considered putting a lap counter sensor in parallel, to avoid false signals from room lighting

That only leaves open the question of how the lap counter works - it's the same as for SCX, while Carrera should still retain their oblong, code-notched guide

Tropi, the track current is chopped (modulated) DC - but we'll talk about this later !

Beppe

 

[Tropi]

QUOTE the track current is chopped (modulated) DC - but we'll talk about this later !
Thank goodness for people like Beppe/Xlot, who have thorough knowledge of thse matters and are in a position to correct us (me!). I see that he has already opened a new topic on this subject in the digital forum and I will look forward to my further education, later today.

Beppe, thank you very much for that - I really don't want to be the cause of misinformation.

DCC Power Supply

 

[jonny s]

Just got back from London with Tuck and the Phoenix gang. I`m not going to steal thunder from Nuro but just to say I`m glad I went. Scalextric display blew the rest away. Bikes, well they wobble not lean and didn`t stay on. Tim got to sneak a lap in as we were not allowed to play with them They looked great but we visited this stand last after some fast furious digital fun and they seemed very slow.

Scalex digital was great, loads of track time and assistance from Adrian. Used three cars between us, very smooth, mega brakes,lane changing was very,very good even with one car following close behind, It only let the one car change. Very clever how it works and It`s gonna be great for the home racer. Don`t think it will suit a club, too many crashes and offs but early days and maybe running non mag will be better? Superb for those with limited space and I honestly believe it is different enough to be sepearte means of slot racing. Hectic and challenging.

I was knocked out by Scalextric World Sport. Oh my word yes, If that works as demo`d then we are in for a serious treat/kick up the backside ! With pit stops,fuel tyres and weather effects included in the racing quite brilliant. Suit the home and club racer and you get to watch the cars from three different camera positions. At around £70 Adrian informed me.

SCX was fun. The track is great,good grip and lots of chaneover track sections. We managed a 6 car race and tons of practise. The system worked most of the time as my car missed a few changeovers and the cars suffered power surges when change lane was selected. Too many crashes for my liking and marshaling was hectic so issues here for the club racer but as a home racing set yes I reckon it`s great. Lap counting was well tested and did the job, I honestly had no idea where my car or others were in relation to each other.

Carrera? Had a quick go. Not impressed and very noisy. To be fair we gave up early. Revel , nice job of the painted figures, retro period racers are gonna be very happy.

My other highlight was handling the Lister, beautiful. Matt liberated it from the display and all I can say is that the pictures will never do it justice.

Thanks to Adrian and Luca for their time. Nice to meet Matt Tuck and Cambridge Blue.

 

[Doug]

Just fixed the frontpage after a mission of reinstalling windows, internet, ftp and the whole works on an old machine with freeserve dial-up.

I'll get the reviews off my laptop and onto the server tomorrow. Hang tight.

 

[Intergrali]

good to see you fixed the main page

Rob.

 

[Dennis David]

I noticed thatb somebody said the Scalextric banked corners only had a 10 egree bank. Is this pretty flat? What is Carerra's?