[darainbow]

Carrera Pro-X allows up to four USER-controller cars.

You can have as many ghost cars on track as power will supply. So you could have four people racing with four ghost cars.

The ghost cars seem to switch randomly about 1/3rd of the time. Sometimes they will collide with one another, but usually one set on a higher setting will manage to pass.

The approximate speeds of slow/medium/fast settings are 30%, 40%, and 50% of full throttle respectively. They are close enough in speed that if they rear end one another they will not deslot and eventually the faster one will pass.

 

[Carrera124]

QUOTE (darainbow @ 1 Dec 2004, 20:15)Carrera Pro-X allows up to four USER-controller cars.

You can have as many ghost cars on track as power will supply. So you could have four people racing with four ghost cars.

Sorry, this is not correct. You can have 4 cars at total, i.e. 3 people racing and one ghost car, or 2 people racing and 2 ghost cars... etc.

 

[Maltese]

Hmmm. Interesting. Is the logic for changing lanes and such inside the car or is there a sort of controller thing plugged into a controller port like Scaley Challenger?

If you had 3 lane changers on the track would that mean that the car would most often change lanes on the third lane change track or would it likely change lanes on each of the pieces within a reasonable period of time.

I hope they are not dumb questions, I am just Pro-X ignorant.

-Maltese

 

[darainbow]

QUOTE (Crazy-Chris @ 1 Dec 2004, 20:42)QUOTE (darainbow @ 1 Dec 2004, 20:15)Carrera Pro-X allows up to four USER-controller cars.

You can have as many ghost cars on track as power will supply. So you could have four people racing with four ghost cars.

Sorry, this is not correct. You can have 4 cars at total, i.e. 3 people racing and one ghost car, or 2 people racing and 2 ghost cars... etc.
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The ghost cars are all run by the same channel. You can have three or more cars on the medium channel for instance. So you mean to tell me that the base unit knows how many ghost cars are being run and will limit it to only four? That would mean that the cars are transmitting something back to the base unit.

The only limitation that I can see is power. With aftermarket power you should be able to run more cars. But I dont have five cars to test this. Do you have five cars? Do you own Pro-X?

 

[darainbow]

QUOTE (Maltese @ 1 Dec 2004, 20:54)Hmmm. Interesting. Is the logic for changing lanes and such inside the car or is there a sort of controller thing plugged into a controller port like Scaley Challenger?

If you had 3 lane changers on the track would that mean that the car would most often change lanes on the third lane change track or would it likely change lanes on each of the pieces within a reasonable period of time.

I hope they are not dumb questions, I am just Pro-X ignorant.

-Maltese
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It is completely random. Two ghost cars on the same channel could be following one another and one will take the switch and the othe will not.

I believe the base unit transmits short, random change messages that cover say 1/3rd of time. So there is a 1/3rd chance of a car switching. However, sometimes cars will seem to take switches on a very frequent basis. Im not sure what logic they are using, but when timing a pass you cant be sure what the ghost car will do.

 

[Carrera124]

QUOTE (darainbow @ 1 Dec 2004, 21:58)The ghost cars are all run by the same channel. You can have three or more cars on the medium channel for instance. So you mean to tell me that the base unit knows how many ghost cars are being run and will limit it to only four? That would mean that the cars are transmitting something back to the base unit.
It is no matter of the digital protocol. It is a matter of power supply.
By specification, the power supply is designed for no more than 4 cars. If you have an aftermarket power supply, of course you may run more than 4 cars. But then, these cars might need more amps than the Blackbox might be able to manage....

QUOTE Do you have five cars? Do you own Pro-X?
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Yes, I have 5 cars. Yes, I own Pro-X (I also own Scalextric Digital, and I owned SCX Digital).

 

[darainbow]

Right, I said the only limitation was power. I will let you know how experiments with aftermarket power goes. I have an extra black box.

 

[astro]

my understanding was there were 4 independent cars, and each of these could be manual or ghost. I understand that for the ghost car channel, you could put loads of cars on, but surely this means you can race 3 manual (digital) cars + lots of ghost cars going at the same speed, or alternatively 2 manual cars and lots of ghost cars going at 2 different speeds?

I don't have Pro-X, so just trying to clarify the actual situation. Which is it?

 

[darainbow]

Its actually pretty cool, the black box transmits on 8 channels

1-4: User Cars
5: Slow Ghost Cars
6: Medium Ghost Cars
7: Fast Ghost Cars
8: Pace Car

The black box does not limit the number of ghost cars driven by a channel. You could have 4 or more "medium" speed ghost cars. The LC messages seem to be sent quickly and randomly so even cars on the same channel will do differnt things.

Of course you can have two or more user cars on the same channel, but that doesnt make sense.

The limitation is getting power to the track. Aftermarket supplies have been shown to work, but what is not known is what is safe for the components and what custom wiring will need to be done.

I envision four people racing against a huge field of ghost car traffic. I want to figure out how to get the poewr reliably to the track to do this.

 

[astro]

that's pretty cool!

 

[indianasteve]

Any updates on aftermarket power supplies with pro x? If so how are you hooking it up? please explain I've never done it before.

 

[darainbow]

QUOTE (indianasteve @ 7 Dec 2004, 00:26)Any updates on aftermarket power supplies with pro x? If so how are you hooking it up? please explain I've never done it before.
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I will post pics and directions soon. But I will need more cars to test the assumption that more than 4 can be driven.

 

[indianasteve]

My ghost cars run extremly slow Aout 30% even at highest speed setting. I also bought the red roadrunner but it won't even run as a ghost car. I set the switches but it only moves about an inch and stops. It works on all controller settings ( 1 thru 4 ) but nothing as a ghost car.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[darainbow]

MAybe there is something wrong with the car. There must be too much resistance for it to run at low speed.

Take off the rear magnet as a start. Inspect the wheels. Do they drive on the ghostcar chanel with the rear lifted?

What is the clearnace of the floating magnet? Same as other cars? Is there more, same, or less downforce?

Also, it may very well be a braid issue. Swap braids with another car. Or push them up to fatten and bend the tip down.

How does it run as a normal car?

 

[indianasteve]

The car runs great as a regular car, smoother sounding and faster than the others. The two cars that came with the set are alot noisier and one is (#7 superbird sounds like it coming apart at speeds up to mid throttle. It sounds like a very bad vibration. When running the #7 and the roadrunner on the same channel the roadrunner is about a half a lap ahead after just three laps. I put a stop on the controller to get an even throttle speed. I changed the braids to no avail, they run and sound the same as before. The cars don't have 20 min of run time on them.(work and holidays)

 

[darainbow]

I have four cars. The cars require tuning just like other slot cars.

Of the four cars, the #7, #99, and #42 superbirds are all about the same speed. The #41 Dodge charger is faster than the other cars. One reason it is faster is that it runs smoother. There is alot less resistance in the driveline, so the car just smoothly rockets to speed. Also, I believe it is ligter with less weight hanging over the front and rear. That is probably why your roadrunner is faster.

The #99 dodge daytona has been my test mule and probably has 15 hours of running time (no kidding). The paint is scraped off in many places. This car has become a rattletrap and has that rough acceleration that you refer to. The reason is because play has developed in the driveline. The play is not in the gear mesh, in fact the carrera gear has a self centering mechanism which works well. The problem is that the motor moves slightly in its mount. I believe the way to fix this is to hot glue the motor in place, but I have not done this yet. I will let you know the results.

In contrast, my fastest car (#41 dodge) has the same top RPM, but is alot tighter and there is no movement of the engine. Of course this car did not go through the growing pains and multiple crashes of testing my track, so it is bound to be alot tigher basd on the fact it has had less abuse.

As a workaround, I have found that periodically adding gear oil to the crown, pinion, and axle bearings helps it to run *alot* smoother. The new cars ship with grease on the gears which disappears quickly. The directions mention that they should be periodically lubricated.

ALSO, I have found that the condition of the braids makes a big differnce in performance. This is a little more pronounced than with analog cars and is harder to detect. With analog cars, poor contact equates to gapping. With digital, the cars just doesnt accelerate with the same authority, so it seems a little slower.

I am going to add a section to my webpage on tuning these cars.

 

[Slotrace.dk]

What is the answer?
Is it limited to four cars - ie. two racecars and two ghostcars - or is it four racecars and add-on ghostcars ie. up to eight ghostcars?

 

[oxx44]

I would love to know the answer to this aswell....
If anybody with 5 plus cars can test this out we all would love a review regarding this topic.

 

[darainbow]

QUOTE (oxx44 @ 2 Jan 2005, 18:19)I would love to know the answer to this aswell....
If anybody with 5 plus cars can test this out we all would love a review regarding this topic.
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Well, this would only be needed by power users with very large tracks.

I can tell you that from a driving and training standpoint, little is gained by going from two ghostcars to three. I'm sure even less would be gained by going from 3 to four ghostcars. Also, ghostcars occasionally deslot and would need to be put back in. I can drive for a long time against two ghost cars without them deslotting. The more ghostcars you add, the greater chance there is for mishap.

I think from a modelling/demo standpoint having 6 or more ghostcars would be great. What people havent figured out yet is that there is a practical maximum of cars that you want on a two lane track for racing.

So how big is your Pro-X track Oxx?

 

[oxx44]

[/quote]So how big is your Pro-X track Oxx?[/quote]

I currently have just the stock oval with banked curves setup right now.
But here is my design for the track I am building right now.
I just finished the table today and have half the track I need. Almost there though.
Keep in mind I am waiting for the pitlane to be released for final amenments to layout. My goal was to havemore technical sections as this is what I like slots for. I always thought that races were won in the corners noy on the striaghts. But I also wanted to do some scenary.

The deminsions are 17 x 8 feet (5.18 x 2.44 meters). track length is 72.44 feet (22.08 meters) egaul lengths.