[FZR1000Exup]

Hi guys,

I hope this isn't gonna sound too complicated:

I've recently purchased a PM controller for my Scaley sport set and it runs beautifully without a single problem..... until now. Since the controller is for use with Scalextric sport tracks, a 3.5mm jack was already installed. Now I've decided to use the controller at the club as well as at home, so I would need to create some kind of adaptor to enable the switch between the 3.5mm jack and a 2amp 3-pin plug, for use at home and at the club respectively.

Anyway, I managed to make the adaptors: I cut the wires on the PM controller (3.5mm jack) and I also cut the wires on my 35ohm Parma controller(which is installed with a 3-pin plug). Then I soldered the wires up with some RC car battery connectors (one end is male, the other female). So the end result was that I could plug in either of the adaptors according to the track:

__________female adaptor----3.5mm jack
|
|
Controller----------male adaptor---------
(PM or Parma) |
|__________female adaptor----3-pin plug

So you can see there are 4 possible combinations, however, one of them fails to work:

-Parma controller-----------3.5mm jack (works) [Scaley track at home]

-Parma controller-----------3-pin plug (works) [SCX track at club]

-PM controller---------------3.5mm jack (works) [Scaley track at home]

-PM controller---------------3-pin plug (DOES NOT work) [SCX track at club]

The actual problem is that when the throttle is 100% open, the car has some movement, but when the throttle is at ANY other position, nothing happens. (This only happens when I try to use the PM controller with the 3-pin plug in the club. The PM works perfectly with the 3.5mm jack at home)

Honestly guys, I don't even know where to start......I need some

!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apology for such long post, thanks for reading (if you made it this far).

Cheers.

 

[Harry Porsche]

There is something about the scaley tracks being wired for negative polarity...but you could e-mail them. I will be in there(PMotor) Thursday and can try to get an answer for you as well. Anyone else with better electrical expertise than mine?

 

[FZR1000Exup]

The diagram for the connections is buggered, here's another one:

//////////////////////////////////////////////__________female adaptor----3.5mm jack
/////////////////////////////////////////////|////////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////|////////////////////////////////////////////////
Controller----------male adaptor---------|///////////////////////////////////////////////
(PM or Parma)/////////////////////////////|///////////////////////////////////////////////
/////////////////////////////////////////////|__________female adaptor----3-pin plug

Please ignore the ///////////////, I only use them to space things out.

 

[Fergy]

FZR, I think Harry may have nailed it. Check to see if the polarity at both tracks is the same. If not, the PM (assuming it has no polarity switch) will not work correctly. Diode controllers can only pass current in one direction.

 

[Nep72]

I agree with Fergy and Harry Porsche.

Electronic controllers have polarity. So make sure voltage is applied in the same way for every track. It's common to wire tracks no matter polarity, so resistive cotrollers work fine but install an electronics one and... ¡suprise! it doesn't work.

Check if you can install a reversing switch in your controller.

 

[fouldsc]

Take a look at :

http://www.professormotor.com/trackwiring.shtml

http://www.professormotor.com/2044instructions.shtml

What you are after is :
PMTR2036 Reversing Switch System (not useful with Scalextric Sport)
Seems like your club track is wired the other way round.

http://www.professormotor.com/2036instructions.shtml

 

[mtucker666]

I had the same issue and I bought the polarity reversing kit and installed it and it works fine now on my Scaly and club track. Without it it will only work on positively wired tracks.

Making a permanent adaptor I thought was too dramatics so I purchased a Scalextric Sport throttle extension and a 3-pin electircal pulg and wired the together. Now I use my controllers at home with its original Scalextric plug and when I go to the club I just plug it in to my 3-pinned throttle extension

Matt

 

[fouldsc]

QUOTE Making a permanent adaptor I thought was too dramatics so I purchased a Scalextric Sport throttle extension and a 3-pin electircal pulg and wired the together. Now I use my controllers at home with its original Scalextric plug and when I go to the club I just plug it in to my 3-pinned throttle extension

Matt

Being a thicky on these things , do you have a wiring diagram for that ?

 

[mtucker666]

I'll take a photo of the plug showing which colour wires go to which terminal and post it tonight

Matt

 

[fouldsc]

QUOTE I'll take a photo of the plug showing which colour wires go to which terminal and post it tonight

Matt

Thanks alot. could you possibly say what parts / bits I will need to buy to make
this conversion.

Chris

 

[mtucker666]

As promised
1) Buy a pack of Scalextric Throttle extension cables (pic 1)

2) chop the plug off exposing the three wires (red, green and brown). Expose the wiring using a pair of wire strippers

3) Buy a 3-pin electrical plug from local electircal store (about 50p).

4) Attach wires as per picture below.

5) Finsihed adaptor for about £3.50 that goes from Scalextric Sport to 3-pin socket.

Hope this is useful

Matt

 

[BEEJAY7]

Brilliant Matt.......I understand pictures!.

Regards

Alan

 

[FZR1000Exup]

Hey Matt, that's a really good idea!! Very neat indeed.

It's a shame I've cut the wires on mine already......

By the way guys, thanks for the advice on the polarity issue. I've been on the PM website and read some relevant topics and it seems pretty certain that is the problem. Do any of you know anything about this polarity switch (PMTR2036)?? I mean when the switch is installed, I could switch to either polarity freely at any time, right? (as in not fixed permanently to one polarity) You see I'm real bad with electric stuff.

Thanks again..

 

[a Bill]

When the switch is installed it's a little hard to operate. I ended up drilling a small hole in the switch knob(?) and bending up a small piece of wire that sticks out enough for me to grab and pull or push. You could probably drill a small hole in the handle and poke the switch with a stick but I'm not like that. Too lazy to find something to poke with

This link shows a picture of a controller with a switch installed.

 

[fouldsc]

Matt I salute you - thanks alot !

 

[Harry Porsche]

I spoke with the prof. today and he explained that the polarity can be reversed on his controller, but that the brake lead cannot be used (with a positively wired track). The purpose of the reversing switch ($6u.s.) is to allow the full use of the controller on either type of wiring. It "isolates" the brake lead. If you can get it to work another way, then good for you, but he sounded pretty confident. I can't understand why the car still goes forward on a track with reversed polarity (to it's normal wiring) without reversing the motor leads. What do I know? (not much,anymore.)

 

[Nep72]

Harry Porsche,

As far as I know, PM controllers are based on active electronics components, diodes to be exact. These semiconductors, as its name implies, only let the current flux in one way only. Thus the controller can be wired exclusively the same way the diodes are installed. After that, you can reverse the wires that feed the track to change car direction.

One way to use the controller anywhere is installing diodes opposite to the ones from the factory, I mean, if you have 16 diodes type "XXX" you need 16 diodes more, same type, and solder them together with the original ones BUT marking ring must be opposite to original one.

We were discussing this item in the spanish "SlotAdictos" forum, we created our own "PM" controller (named "Profesor Bacterio") starting from any standard controller, we substituted wired resistor for a P.C.B. with diodes. And it works fine. We made instructions to create it but they are in spanish.

Hope you understand my comment.

 

[Harry Porsche]

Uhhh,errr,okay!

 

[RichD]

If you want a diode controller that will work on any track you can use bridge rectifiers instead of regular diodes.

 

[FZR1000Exup]

Hello all, I've checked out the polarity reverse switch and I tried to get hold of one, but it seems that no one stocks the little bugger anywhere in the UK. I was just wondering, would it be possible to source similar ingredients, ie. the switch and the wires, to complete the job? Or is the polarity switch kit a unique product and only that will do the job?