[DB325i]

I just jumped ship from Carrera D132 over to SSD. I found a great deal on the digital platinum set which really pushed me to make the switch. The kids and I really liked the headlights/brakelights on the Carrera cars and looked forward to getting cars with these for SSD. I knew the cars in the digital platinum set didn't have headlights/brake lights so went ahead and bought 3 Le Mans cars which do have them. I'm sure by now you know where this may be going. We unboxed them and gave them a test run on our new track. I was REALLY surprised to see they only work when the throttle is pressed. Is this the case with ALL Scalextric cars? The Carrera cars all seem to have headlights you can turn on/off and brake lights that brighten when the throttle is released.

I've searched on the forums here and only see RichG's conversion of the Ford GT40 thread which seems to address the issue. Is this just something I am going to have to accept as a con of making the switch to SSD...am I just going to have to live with cars that don't have realistic light functions?

 

[GregK]

Hiya and Welcome to the Forum .....

There a member in New Zealand who made a major contribution to SSD by re-writing the firmware of the Scalextric chips. Part of his work made the head/tail lights available together with working brake lights amongst quite a few other improvements.

Check this LINK for a more detailed insight. Essentially, you would either need to upgrade your chips to Incar-Pro either flashing the chips yourself or getting someone to do the job for you. The DPR chips, as used in the Platinum Set, are not so easily converted for use with lights whereas the Saloon C7006 chips have the circuitry on the PCB.

All the best - Greg

 

[MartinT]

It's terrible the way Scalextric wired the lights as they do nowadays! Most front lights even still have the reverse current protection diodes on the green PCB in place, I don't get why they opted for this silly "predigitaltime era" option of only illuminating when throttle on...Maybe Adrian Norman from Scalextric can shed any light (pun intended

) as to the why of it.

Any way a quick and simple fix (if you're comfortable with a soldering iron) is to disconnect the light wires from the motor, rewire the tail lights with a longer piece of wire, (or lengthen it) put a reverse current protecting diode in line with the rear lights (like said: most front lights have the diode already in place!) and connect the light wires to the braids (well to the green and yellow wire coming from them).
Takes about 10 minutes per car. (including taking the cars apart and reassembling them)

Like Greg says above, the more sophisticated (a lot more trouble) is to connect everything to the chip, but that really only pays off if you want the brake lights or have it reflashed so you can turn the lights on and off at will (but what's the point of that? I mean: you wnt the lights on anyway...)

Cheers,
Martin

 

[Keeto]

Hi DB325i welcome to the forum and SSD,

If you would like to wire the lights as Greg mentioned then I have documented it here and here.

HTH.