[Chris - DSR]

Hi,
I use the D132 Mode in an Oxigen setup to use the carrera lap counter (with smart race or cockpit xp).

The car counts all laps correctly. The hall sensor detects the magnet 100% reliable.
An "L" is always displayed on my SCP-3.
BUT
The Car has to switch on the LED after it passed the magnet. And that part is broken.
Sometimes (1 out of 10) it works, most of the time it does not.
To ensure that the IR led is working correctly, I checked if it works when I press the LC button on my SCP-3.
And yes, in deed it works 100%.
So the problem has to be inside the chip, how and when the LED is activated.
I use a type "c" chip.

What I tried is to find a good position for the magnet. I thought that the distance between magnet and IR receiver in the track might have an impact. It does not as long you are at least 2cm away and within 6cm. It works sometimes.
I could not manage to make it reliable.

I also tested it on 2 different carrera tracks. Same issue.
Any help appreciated.

In the video the sound of the CU is switched off, so you have to look at the monitor.

 

[GRUNZ]

I believe that this will require some investigation from slot.it.
Have you tried to email Maurizio?

 

[Chris - DSR]

@Slot.it This feature might be a game changer for Carrera fans at Germany. Most of the people are not aware of this feature. That's why I try to get it to work. Maybe you can help me?

 

[Yattr]

The polarity and strength of the magnet along with the orientation of of the hall sensor are all very important. It appears that the orientation of the magnet and hall sensor are ok - works sometime. Based on your inconsistent results, increase the strength of the track magnet.

The structure of the magnet should be as shown on the right south up to the underside of the track surface.

 

[MrFlippant]

That's why he stated that the O2 lap counting/triggering is 100% reliable. If the car ALWAYS counts a lap in O2 mode, then the magnet itself is not the problem. Since the D132 lap counting only works in a particular sweet spot of speed, that means that the specified 200ms of LED activity after it detects the magnet is not happening, otherwise he could reliably get laps when going slowly, but not a crawl, or even going extra fast.
The distance between the magnet and the D132 sensor is not specified in the @Slot.it oXigen documentation. It merely states "before" the lap counter. It does say that the LED will be active for 200ms after that. 0.2s is a pretty long time/distance for a slot car traveling at almost any speed other than a crawl. So much so that Slot.it advise against having a lane changer too soon after the control unit, otherwise the cars might change lanes. My conjecture is that the LED is not only not emitting for a full 200ms, but also not beginning its emissions immediately after the magnet is detected.

 

[Chris - DSR]

Exactly @MrFlippant

 

[Slot.it]

We will look into that.

 

[MrFlippant]

A friend of mine emailed me a thought... Carrera designs it's cars to have the LED emitter relatively high above the track, recessed into the chassis in most cases. While he agrees that the 200ms window is probably not happening, he thought maybe raising the LED would expand the effective area for the emitter. Worth a try?

 

[Chris - DSR]

I tried it but it didn't help. And important note if I press the LC Button on SCP3 the lap is always counted. So if I activate the led manually it works 100% reliable.

 

[MrFlippant]

Ah yes... another good indication that it's not the LED position, but rather the timing of the automatic LED for D132 lap counting.

 

[Yattr]

Not sure if you have your replacement Dongle yet, but you might want to investigate the O2 ID6 setting versus Carrera ID4 issue. I’m not implying this is related to your issue but with software one never knows…

 

[Chris - DSR]

@Slot.it Any news?

 

[Slot.it]

This should now be fixed with version 3.16d, now available.
The time during which the IR beacon was transmitted to the PB was too short, and sometimes it was unreliably triggered.
The next APP version will allow some adjustment of said 'beacon on' time.

 

[Chris - DSR]

I can confirm, 3.16d solved the problem for me! Thank you very much!
The opportunity to change that 'beacon on' time makes sense for very fast cars or tracks.