[cedriclegault]

I'm new to slot car and started building a scalextric digital track with C7042, Pitpro and RCS64. The dimensions are 22' x 8', the circuit look like Central circuit with some modifications.

I have a lot of difficulty controlling the cars and staying on the track.

I bought several different cars some are better than others. I trued the tires with a Tire razor style tire truer that I made,

I bought some Paul gage tires. But nothing works well, I can't stay on the track at a good speed in the curves, the tires slip
or the car goes off track.

The worst, I just bought a slot.it Ford GT40 car that I digitized and this one is faster but even harder to control

I've read a lot about tire prep but I can't figure it out. With a Scalextric BMW E30 we drive 7-8 seconds per lap, with a Scalextric Porsche 911 RSR 8-9 seconds but with several cars
and the Ford GT40 slot.it, you can't do less than 10 seconds despite it being faster, if you accelerate it doesn't hold up. When I brake, the braking is too fast, if I slow down, it's too slow and I loose time. I clean the track frequently with damp cloth.

BTW Weather is disable, so my problem is not related to weather conditions.

Thanks for your help

So what is my problem. The tires? am I a bad driver? the throttle profile of RCS64 is not correct?

 

[rastas]

A couple of questions first,
With the cars are you still running with the magnets in the car's?
With the Slot It car's have you set the front axle hight?
What voltage are you using and how long is your track?
Did you glue the tires on the rim's before trying?
With these answers the digital peaple will be a little more able to get you up and running properly and enjoying the hobby!
Cheers,
John.

 

[GRUNZ]

First of all: man that is a kick-ass layout.
There are small things I would change but still a very good start.

Now about your problem: First you need to slow down.
A slot.it car comes with a much stronger and quicker motor than your scalex cars.
So unless you can change it for a slower motor, you will need to set a profile on RCS to bring the max power down to 80%.
If you are using magnets, then remove them and slow down.
A video of the cars going around and showing what is happening would help providing you with more feedback.

As a reference, this is how a magless car with good tyres should go:

 

[cedriclegault]

A couple of questions first,
With the cars are you still running with the magnets in the car's?
With the Slot It car's have you set the front axle hight?
What voltage are you using and how long is your track?
Did you glue the tires on the rim's before trying?
With these answers the digital peaple will be a little more able to get you up and running properly and enjoying the hobby!
Cheers,
John.

Hello
Here's the answers.

I'm using a c7042 with only one standard power supply with 1-2 cars on track. But I don't know what is voltage.

I'm running with magnets
Track is around 60-70 feets
I did not glue the tires

 

[MrFlippant]

The problem with magnets is that they are all over the place with respect to how much "stick" they provide. While many things affect their attraction, the fact of the matter is that one car might have double or triple the attraction of another car, and the only way you can tell (without a Magnet Marshal) is that the lesser one slides out more.

For rubber tires, treating them with light oil, such as light motor oil, 3-in-1, sewing machine oil, or even WD40, will soften the outer layers and increase grip. Let it soak in before putting on the track.
For Urethane tires, clean them with isopropyl alcohol to increase grip.

One of the reasons many racers move to no traction magnets is the disparity between cars that have them, and how difficult it is to even them out. While a non-mag car is not necessarily perfectly even with another one, it's a LOT closer, and the performance depends much more on the driver than the magnet.

 

[HO RacePro]

I don't see any skirts on the outside of your curves. Even with magnets you need skirts to prevent the car on the outside lane sliding off the edge of the track. Note the track skirts in the video above.

It's also important to have a clean track. It doesn't take much dust to make the track slippery.

Is your driving an issue? I recommend you practice driving for 25 laps without coming off. Don't even try to be fast, just stay on. Until you can do that consistently going fast can wait.

Ed Bianchi
York Pennsylvania USA

 

[cedriclegault]

The problem with magnets is that they are all over the place with respect to how much "stick" they provide. While many things affect their attraction, the fact of the matter is that one car might have double or triple the attraction of another car, and the only way you can tell (without a Magnet Marshal) is that the lesser one slides out more.

For rubber tires, treating them with light oil, such as light motor oil, 3-in-1, sewing machine oil, or even WD40, will soften the outer layers and increase grip. Let it soak in before putting on the track.
For Urethane tires, clean them with isopropyl alcohol to increase grip.

One of the reasons many racers move to no traction magnets is the disparity between cars that have them, and how difficult it is to even them out. While a non-mag car is not necessarily perfectly even with another one, it's a LOT closer, and the performance depends much more on the driver than the magnet.

I will try with no magnet and as mentioned above to reduce speed for slot.it.

I thought that I would have more traction with magnets but I understand what you meant that all car are not driving the same with magnets, this what actually happened, some drive more easily that others.

I will try to oil the tire, I was not sure it was a good practice. But I can try it at the end.

Is there a specific profile I should use to avoid applying brake but still be able to slow down quickly but corners? When I brake using brake button it cut power for too long. When. I slow down the driving is jerky because I accelerated after corner but the length of the straight is not long enough so triggering the controller cause Jerky driving.

 

[cedriclegault]

I don't see any skirts on the outside of your curves. Even with magnets you need skirts to prevent the car on the outside lane sliding off the edge of the track. Note the track skirts in the video above.

It's also important to have a clean track. It doesn't take much dust to make the track slippery.

Is your driving an issue? I recommend you practice driving for 25 laps without coming off. Don't even try to be fast, just stay on. Until you can do that consistently going fast can wait.

Ed Bianchi
York Pennsylvania USA

Track is under construction so yes I will build skirts but actually the cars don't slip off most of the time it just jump out or roll.

Yes getting the track with no dust it's not easy but we clean often. Actually my track is on a mezzanine floor in my furniture plant, I plan to close it with walls.

 

[MrFlippant]

Is there a specific profile I should use to avoid applying brake but still be able to slow down quickly but corners? When I brake using brake button it cut power for too long. When. I slow down the driving is jerky because I accelerated after corner but the length of the straight is not long enough so triggering the controller cause Jerky driving.

When I drive cars with traction magnets, I tend to turn brakes WAY down, if not completely off, because they slow down much too quickly with brakes. So, for those cars you're still running with magnets, try turning brakes off, or button only, so that releasing the trigger only has them coasting, not braking. Save the brakes for the end of the longest straight, if any time.

For the non-magnet car(s), you'll probably want brakes set to "dynamic" or "both" because you want the car to slow down when you release the trigger, and no brakes with no magnets will have them coasting WAY too much.

 

[Roguejackal]

If you take the magnets out the cars will run a lot easier and so will be easier to control, yes the rear end will slide out on corners but this will be controllable once you get a feel for the driving of each car.
If you can make your borders instead of using the scalextric ones this would be better as the scalextric ones have a slightly raised red & white kerbing which can make the cars unstable when sliding over them.
Learn the speed to compleat laps without coming off the track at all and then you will get faster naturally.

 

[P944guy]

To reduce the voltage for running the cars without magnets, use the “pro magless” settings for the throttle settings in RCS64. We usually run pro magless 40 for our cars. That equates to about 11 volts at the car motor. Reduce the number until you can control the cars and move the numbers up to get more speed as you become a more proficient driver. You can also set a pace car to race against if you are alone. As for tires I use slot.it 1171G25 or 1172 G25 rubber tires for most of my cars. They offer good grip on scalextric sport track but are not easy to true. If you want to see a race in real time check out “ Road America Northwest” on YouTube. I post weekly races there on Scalextric track using RCS64 and a pace car. Good luck with your track.

Mike M.

 

[Ed Gasket]

If this is scalextric sport track, then I had great difficulty keeping cars on the track. I'll probably get 'flamed for this but what I did was roughen up the track surface on the corners using some wet n dry abrassive paper. Theres a thread on here about it, think i used 120 or 200 grit but you can experiment with something finer to start with. Now i have no problem with the track whereas before sanding, it was awful.

 

[RichD]

We found that we could get about the same grip on Scalextric Sport, Carrera and routed tracks. If you try to clean a track with a damp cloth you may only be pushing the dust around without actually removing it. My club usually used only silicone tires, a few times we ran a class with urethane tires for a year or so before switching those to silicone tires. We often hosted proxy races with mandated urethane or rubber tires and all of those ran well on our tracks. The club races without traction magnets at 10 volts. The majority of set type and other RTR cars are intended to be run with traction magnets, without those many cars will be difficult to drive unless you spend some time and money on them. See this article: Tuning for Non-Magnet Racing Rev 5.pdf
Here is an article on tires: Tires for Slot Racing V2.pdf
You can improve the grip on plastic track by painting it.

 

[rastas]

Another thing with Scalextric sports track the more you use it the more rubber gets layed, which will provide better grip! But this does take time, myself I would avoid sanding the track and keep it dust free and let the rubber build and the track will come good in time!
Cheers,
John.

 

[cedriclegault]

Wow it's more then I expect Thank you all for your good answers. I lack time reply to everyone but I will try every advice to see what is best. I did start my track last winter and put it aside in the summer to get outside with RC's. But winter is for sloting! So I need to improve this track and my goal is to have it all with scenery and everything I see all around but by the time I build it, it's fun to race a bit, but it's sad when you take more time to re slot the then playing. I'm confident I will be better now. I will get back to you shortly once I will have try those advice.

 

[cedriclegault]

To reduce the voltage for running the cars without magnets, use the “pro magless” settings for the throttle settings in RCS64. We usually run pro magless 40 for our cars. That equates to about 11 volts at the car motor. Reduce the number until you can control the cars and move the numbers up to get more speed as you become a more proficient driver. You can also set a pace car to race against if you are alone. As for tires I use slot.it 1171G25 or 1172 G25 rubber tires for most of my cars. They offer good grip on scalextric sport track but are not easy to true. If you want to see a race in real time check out “ Road America Northwest” on YouTube. I post weekly races there on Scalextric track using RCS64 and a pace car. Good luck with your track.

Mike M.

I will check video's. How do you know what voltage you have according to setting in RCS64? Do you measure this on the track with multi-meter or I can read voltage in RCS? I know how to adjust throttle profile for 1 to 63, I guess this is about voltage. What value give 11 volt?

 

[GRUNZ]

I think MIke (P944guy) measured the voltage on the motor contacts...there is not other way of knowing what voltage the motor will get from the RCS settings.

 

[Charles R]

My take... ditch magnets, get shoulders, use variable power and forget lap times. Play around with voltage, tires and various cars until you find a fit for the track... one that's still accelerating at the end of the straightaway and one you can control the slide. At that point you have a car you can race. Then the layout disappears and it becomes about you and your driving. That's the enjoyable experience.

 

[GRUNZ]

He is using the APB: you can plug a variable power supply but there is a hard limit on how low you can go.
I have run mine down to 13V but that was really pushing it.
Another option would be to modify it but I am not sure if he is up to it.

 

[Roguejackal]

I was not happy with the grip or look of Scalextric so I painted mine with Plastikote Stone paint. It made the grip better and the look. Almost everyone who paints the track says grip is improved but its only an improvement, you will still need to drive carefully and get a feel for the car and the track.