Flyslot Toy Fair 2012 Report

Sounds like a great idea!

seriously though, kinda gimmicky and really should be throttle linked ....... but will keep my ears open for working reviews before condemning the whole idea!

Sound has been available for model trains for a while. Early on, people were obsessed with synchronising the 'chuff' with the wheel position (and thus piston position). To do this they used to add disks to the inside of the driving wheels with black and white stripes printed on them. Then an opto-diode under the loco would pick up the wheel movement and produce the chuff accordingly. These days, it is much more common to link the motor output voltage and back emf to the chuffing sound and it works quite well. It gives a very satisfactory effect whilst not perfectly synchronising the chuff to the piston position - anyway when moving, it is virtually impossible to see any error.

With cars, you have the revving motor and then the gear changes. We don't change gears on slotcars so one would have to link up-shifting to acceleration and down-shifting to breaking - but how would that work on a small home track with plenty of corners - most of us flutter the controller ans we wiz around the track. I doubt that realistic driving sounds would be achievable linked to throttle etc, but I think that these simulated sounds may be interesting all the same.

We'll see when the car is on the track. A review will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

Sound

If its linked to gear quality it should sound like... phutt phutt phutt bang!

Lets hope they can add a smoke generator so the car bellows smoke when the crown gets stripped of all its teeth!

I love it all. And with sound, it can only improve the fun.

I am really intrigued by the 'new chassis concept' inline mabuchi......what ever will they think of next!

QUOTE (capnfutile @ 4 Feb 2012, 16:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Sounds? Nah. I've run an car-sound website for 11 years (enginemusic.com) and consider myself a car sound geek. I think this is a terrible idea. The tiny speaker will always sound tinny. The sound WILL get annoying.
Agreed - a small speaker like this doesn't have the frequency response (even with a tube after it) to mimic a rumbling V8, but it might be ok for a screaming racer and squealing tyres.

In the early 1980s I had the Scalextric sound system, along with the think tank and fuel tank, it was fun for a while but I was pleased you could switch it off, and most of the time it was off. As a kid, exact realism matters less so perhaps it won't be as annoying as watching a film where the car makes constant upward gearchanges

QUOTE (capnfutile @ 4 Feb 2012, 16:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I wish manufacturers would just concentrate on making the wheels round and the gears mesh. Please.
That would be a tricky one for a marketing headline. "Buy our new slot cars with wheels that are actually round"
"Errr, weren't your wheels round before?"
"We'd rather not say"

QUOTE (capnfutile @ 4 Feb 2012, 16:53) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I think the only major advances to be made in slot cars are in the controllers - telemetry for the nerds who want to squeeze the last thou out of a lap time.
That's maybe true to make racers faster, but for making cars fun there's lots of things they could do

I have in recent times become a big fan of the Fly(slot) classic F1 cars. I always liked them and originally bought a couple but now I am buying more and more and have a desire to collect them all (but don't tell the bank manager!).
I find it strange that at the major toy fair of the year they do not show a car (or even a picture of it) that two weeks later they announce. (The Belgium Grand Prix Lotus 78.)
Therefore I live in hope that the Brabham might still make an appearance. The Renault however, I think is long gone and will never materialise.

Philip