[GTR XU-1]

Gday all,

Being Australian I usually just post on the local auslot.com forum. My brother (twin) and I have been slowly (actually very slowly) putting together a 4 lane ninco digital track. I just thought I would post it officially on slotforum now that I have named it ...Copper Mill Raceway (I hope no one else has used that name before!!) The track is on a 2.4m x 4.8m table that fully suspends into my shed roof - suspended table below...

The intent of having the four lane track was to run a digital track but not so the field spreads out to much. the intent wasnt to run best lines or anything but just to have good fun close racing with 4 cars effectively vying for the lead whilst the cars behind try to look for a way around. I have set the lane changes up so at the end of the start straight there is two double cross overs so cars can pass off the start line (although I am sure in practice this is not likely) or at the end of the main straight. At these cross overs lanes 1 and 2 can only swap with each other and lanes 3 and 4 can only swap with each other. The next set of lane changes on the mid track straight consist of three single lane changes in a row so it is possible to go from lane 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 or just 2 to 3 or 2 to 3 to 4 etc. The last lot of lane changes are on the back straight which are three single changes in a row but in the opposite direction. So you can go from lane 4 to 3 to 2 etc.

I have now installed Rich Gs simple H mod (Thanks Richard - bloody brilliant) and fully cleaned the steel rails and applied the copper tape (you wouldnt want to do that too many times!!! - it takes for ever). Richard - H mod installed neatly out of the way and running off large regulated PSU

As for the rest of the pics my brother and I have just been plugging away at the scenery - We were aiming for a typical Australian looking race track from the late sixties / seventies. The race tracks in that era werent that flash. Pretty much some simple gravel traps or just runoff areas, a bit of guardrail here and there. We didnt want to put in a propper pit wall as there often wasnt one back then.

The start Line

Pit entry

Main straight

Turns 1, 2 and 3 (photo from a litttle while ago)

Turn 4

Turns 4 and 5

Turn 5 and Ninco Tower (Painted) Colour was messed up due to camera sttings

Toilet block and benches

Toilet block and benches again

The last turn

The Shed

At the moment we will be pretty much running the 8 Fly capri cars and also the 22 scalextric mustangs and camaro liveries that have been produce thus far (for a bit of old school american muscle)

Will keep you posted with updates.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Graham Lane]

Very nicely done Dave.

I like the idea of 'boxing in' the complete layout for hoisting to the ceiling, keeping it rigid and contained. Can you disconnect the wires once it's down? A set of carabiners would do the trick. I particularly liked the toilet block, for some reason. Must go, nature calls.

 

[r3k0]

Really nice looking track, and same as Graham i love the dunnie

and ya checkerd bunting.
all you need to do now is get a load of borders on there and rip all the girly magnets out of ya cars

thanks for the pics.

 

[GTR XU-1]

Cheers guys,

The toilet block didnt come out too shabbby, my brother made that and most of the signs. My old man made the windmill whilst he was suppose to be at work - bit of a family effort.

Graham - it would be possible to disconeect the wire rope but it doesnt really get in the way. The table sits on 8 frames when lowered so it doesnt rock around butr I still keep tension in the wire. It is only lifted at four points and yes - the table is very sturdy...and heavy!!!!

r3k0 - Just cant get away from magnets. I havent been able to get the cars through the short ninco change overs at speed without the magnets. I have been looking at ways of doing it though to make the cars a bit more 'loose' at the rear, and even so, I would still use a weak magnet at the front. Just about all forms of motor racing rely on down force and magnets are just another way of achieving that. I am working toward a more lively set up on the cars.

Dave

 

[boleyngoo]

That's a great set up - as other's have said the idea of suspending it from the ceiling is brilliant. The track and scenery look great - I'm sure you're in for some terrific racing!

 

[PSRRFH]

nice set up your family have there, and top job on the implementation.
4 lanes just look the best to me for a racetrack.

so how does it run ?
do you find that certain lanes are used more than others after the race begins ?

a video and a report would be ultimate.

cheers

 

[rallyP]

Great looking track!!!

What is the Rich G H mod? With the PSU set low can you run without magnets? Two year ago, I tried Ninco Digital and felt it was very difficult to have a good control of the cars, does the H mod have to do with this? The fact that you run with magnets even using a PSU indicates that maybe the control of the cars is still not as good as analogue. Looking forward to getting your input.

 

[Tremelle]

Very nice layout. Do you have any pictures of the hoisting layout? I have been considering constructing my table to be hoisted to the ceiling when not in use.

 

[knoath]

Knowing what happened to sax's track, I cringe when I know what gets parked underneath it.

 

[GTR XU-1]

PSRRFH -
Havent really raced in anger yet - I assume the middles two lanes will get used the most as they are safer - they do not have the really tight radius corners on them. All the lanes run smooth and fast though.

rallyP -
I dont really know the technical details of the simple H but essentially it sends the power straight to the rails and bypasses the computer. This way, the available current can be increased without blowing up the ninco unit. The standard Ninco PSU supplies power to the computer and a regulated after market one to the track. It basically makes it possible to run the 8 cars without any significant power surging between the cars. Without the H mod, there simply isnt enough current to run all the cars and the cars slow down quite considerably. As for Analogue and digital, I had an equally as large scaly track and wouldnt really say that one was better than the other. From what I understand (which isnt much!!) the problem is with nincos control unit and the controllers and not necessarily a digital problem in general. Having said that, in professional mode the control is pretty smooth. If you are asking whether I would rather this than analogue, I am very happy with the digital set up now with the copper taping as well. I would probably run with magnets even if I had analogue though. I like a bit of extra down force at the front and have the rear a little loose. In theory, there shouldnt be any difference in control between analogue and digital, it is just power running through some rails feeding a little electronic engine. Other than the way that that power is controlled (ie restricted through the lane or restricted at the chip) there is no difference between digital and analogue. The problem is though, most lane changers are put in down the straights and the cars cant really go through such a savage change (with the short Ninco changers anyway...I think Carerra are longer) with out deslotting - hence magnets (or similarly dead weight) is required to give the car extra downforce at the guide.

Ultimately, I will set the bulk of the cars up so they can be easily raced by novices with out too much destruction. Close interactive racing is the main aim that I am striving to achieve but most of the racers when I host a big night will probably be my mates that dont race all the time. I guess I am trying to reach a medium between analogue style racing where there are a few cars vying for the lead and digital stye racing where the cars can interact with each other and you obviously need to be the first car in your lane to be in with a chance of winning the race.....i apologise for the long essay!!! I dont know if that really answers what you are asking but after we do a good bit of racing I will let you know how it all went.

Tremelle -

I posted these a long while ago on www.auslot.com. They dont really show any detail but it probably worth noting that you should not use cheap material. I figured for the amount I had to lose (AAaahhh!!!!! - Knoath!!!) I shouldnt skimp on the lifting gear. I have used two heavy duty boat winches, 2tonne wire rope and a series of good quality pullies. I also use 500kg truck ratchet straps as a secondary failure mechanism when the table is suspended.

Hope it helps.

Dave

 

[peteij]

If I strapped that to my garage roof the whole garage would be a pile of rubble on the floor!

There is something I really like about your layout - the scenery works well, but for those with a little less talent than the likes of Graham Lane, jmswms, etc. it looks quite achievable too.

I didn't really notice the toilet block like some

- it's the benches that caught my eye as it shows how effective something very simple like that can be.

Really good placement of trees and bushes too.

 

[Slotrace.dk]

That's not bad at all.
Any chance of a video from some races?

 

[athrlyth]

Hi and well done.

The track looks wonderful good to me.

Do you have a completed track plan please.?

I really like the scenery as well.

Oh well back to work and reality, thanks for sharing.

Athrlyth

 

[GTR XU-1]

My brother and I did a little more work on the weekend but unfortunately the camera battery went flat before we had done too much more work. We only have a retaining wall on the back straight left to do and a small stretch down the middle of the table. There's nothing really that new or even that spectacular (compared to others scenery work on this forum) but just some more shots all the same

Or you can visit the Australian slot forum for a bit more info:

www.auslot.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6238&st=40&start=40

Cheers

Dave

 

[MrFlippant]

VERY nice track, and the scenery is great.
One question, though. Why no functional pit?

 

[GTR XU-1]

MrFlippant,

Thanks for the comment. I guess the reason for the non - functioning pit is I dont think Ninco built a pit that functioned properly or provided a good looking pit lane. The yelow paint all over the track looks very plastic or arcade like (which is easily fixed with some modelling paint) but ultimately the pit lane is only one lane wide and can only service 1 car at a time. For a system to run 8 cars it should have a multi-lane pit with at least 4 bays (ie: half the number of cars on the track) with the ability to service cars simultaneously.

I am very happy with the system without the pit though - it works well especially with the Rich G simple H mod. We will probably run 5 - 10 lap races anyway with crash and burn style racing where a pit is required to a lesser extent. The 5-10 lap races works well for us also because most of my cars are scalextric. I find that the scalextric motors start to slow down after a couple of minutes race length on the N-digital system.

Dave

 

[Tremelle]

Really nice work on the layout. I see you don't muscle cars.

 

[GTR XU-1]

Hello all,

The scenery is just about finished and have done a few little touches here and there. I appologise for some of the blury photos but you get the general idea.

Dave

 

[Tremelle]

It looks really nice. I like the landscape a lot.

 

[Captain (Aus)]

If you've been following this build you'll notice the photos appear fuzzy. The lighting in David's shed is fairly dim, so that combined with poor equipment and no photography skill results in pics which don't really do the track justice.

The last sector of the circuit copped some scenerey. I reckon we need to put a rusty broken down support vehicle near that white tyre (behind the large bill board). I think the windmill is getting a rusty tank too. These photos were taken yesterday and I reckon they are clearer than what has been shown already.

You'll notice Dave has added paint marks on the armco...

Cheers

Kirk (Dave's brother)