[mondo]

G'day All,
Its been about 18 months for me without any slot track at all! Have moved house and renovated a room to use, so as a famous Aussie once said, It's Time!

So I've got a plan for a Scorpius routed track. Ive got a bunch of bits including 10 LBs from Ricks first production run that have never yet seen the light of day.

The track will be 2 lane digital/analogue configurable and able to take 1/32 & 1/24 so 100mm lane spacing. Overall lane length is about 23m. In digital will use up to 4 cars.
I plan to go with 1 LB per LC to take advantage of the full functionality of the LB (now and future). will probably not use AC though.

In an ideal world I'd have full best line and 4 bay pits all with LC from day one, but the budget tells be other things.

To the layout, first the layout with an ideal LC set up:

This would need 17 LBs (including one for the start/finish) on the main track then more for the pit entry/bays.
For the first construction phase I'm OK with leaving out the active pit part, that may come later.

So that leaves me 7 LC to drop at this stage of the build.

My take on this is, Dropping LCs 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 15 & 16 :

As this is my first true digital design (and first routed track for that matter) though I'd seek input from the wealth of experience out there.

Any thoughts/comments welcome.

Cheers
Ray

 

[injectorman]

I love it actually, except I'd like to see the walls of the room to judge how its going to be marshalled. I find marshalling is a crucial aspect of track design. Track design itself looks 10/10

 

[diegu]

Ray,

Wow, what a great track design! Long straights, ambitious corners,... all one deserves.

During the past two years I did a lot of testing and racing Scorpius digital, mainly on a Ninco track.

I designed the track so, there was sort of a racing line. Lane change of course on the straights before the curves. Before each (major) curve you could select to take the inner lane and so always have the best lane.

Result to me was somewhat frustrating: On comparable drivers, almost no overtaking was possible. In fact, sometimes it felt like blocking.

We then changed LC positioning so, that there were positions on the track you had to decide between equal options. i.e. have inner lane on 1st curve, but outer lane on the following. Giving chance to overtake for a following driver. This really added to it.

As far as I understood Scorpius, there is no logic forcing the front driver to move to the outer lane, when a faster driver wants to overtake. So will be hard to overtake on a 100% best line track.

My personal feeling is: Having less LC's makes it more interesting.
So I like, how you decided in your 2nd design.

My two cents:

• Especially I like LC1 without the following LC2 and LC3, as the driver will have to take a decision.
• I think you do not need LC5, LC6. LC1 and 4 are just fine.
• I like LC7, but would leave out LC8, LC9 as then if you change inside on LC7, you would then have to be outside on the following 180° turn
• LC13, LC14: I like
• Concerning pits: I would suggest to make use of LC17. This will give you full pit functionality
• You will have to think of positioning beacons for pit exit. Imho it is optimal, when they are on the same height as S/F line beacons.
  As I understood your layout, Pit exit detection will be after S/F line beacons. So pit exit lap will always be shorter than a standard lap resulting in "wrong" fast lap display.

I know there are other opinions on that, and I have to admit I never had the possibility to run on a real best line track, so I am curious for other opinions.

Regards,
Diegu

 

[diegu]

...and think of "line of sight" when racing with four drivers.

 

[mondo]

QUOTE (injectorman @ 29 Jul 2012, 19:16) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I'd like to see the walls of the room to judge how its going to be marshalled. I find marshalling is a crucial aspect of track design.

It's a realy odd shaped room, I've tried number of layouts to try & balance track access and the room access as well.
Here is the overall room layout to give you an idea:

Diegu,
Some good insight, thanks. I hadn't even thought about the pit exist in relation to the S/F line. thanks for the tip. I'll have a think about the LC options too.

Thanks guys

Ray

 

[injectorman]

Its nice you can access from various sides. I would maybe just add LC10 back into the second drawing and if I ever go to Hobart Im coming over! Its really a well thought out design, well done

Are you hand routing or CNC machining?
Rick

 

[mondo]

QUOTE (injectorman @ 30 Jul 2012, 06:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...... if I ever go to Hobart Im coming over!

Are you hand routing or CNC machining?
Rick

Welcome any time Rick!

Reckon I'll start with hand routing & see how I go, got a reasonably well set up workshop., but I guess CNC could save a lot of time.

Anyone out there no of good CNC places to deal with in Hobart or Tassie in general?

By the way the triangular table area to the bottom right in the layout will be a mountain rally stage as well, thought a bit of variety would be good.

Cheers

 

[GTR XU-1]

Mondo,

Good to hear I am not the only one hanging out for Scorpius to get the track up and running. I reckon I must have ripped up my ninco digital track when about the same time you pulled your track up. I have been getting my racing fix on Syd's (from Auslot) analogue track in our local race group so all is good.

Your track design looks excelent as Rick poited out. That would be an absolute hoot to race on with 4 - 6 cars. I like the last section from under the bridge to the finish line. Looks like it would be a real test of skill if drivers were side by side making the last dash to the finish line.

Dave

 

[mondo]

Quick Update,
Ive tweaked the layout as shown below, reduced the overall number of LCs. Now have enough to do pit entry exit as well as well as one bay (other bays plus pace car lane will come later. and have bidirectional.
Also have an idea to add a rally/hill climb stage to the side. Wont finalise this till after the main track is built so I can judge better how it will integrate.

Going to start the base support structure this weekend. I've also chased a couple of options for CNC in Hobart but looks like it will cost in the order of $500 for the CNC time. So have decided to do the routing myself.
The peco solenoids arrived today & have ordered braid (going magnabraid, so kids and flyby nighters can control it). Also found a place that will CNC the aluminum flippers (24) for around $100 + postage.

I'll start a separate build thread in 'track & scenery' soon.

Cheers
Ray

 

[diegu]

Hi Ray,

Wide curves, technical sections, clever (at least imho) use of LCs. I just like it. Go for it.

Regarding S/F-line. Did you take a decision yet?
I just learned, that you can have S/F line anywhere in the pit with Scorpius RMS. So you should be free to do whatever you like.

Looking forward to your building reports

Diegu

 

[injectorman]

Make sure you make the braid recess 1mm at least wider than the braid so the guide never touches edge of braid.

 

[Slotrace.dk]

When can we expect photoes?

 

[mondo]

René,
I started a new thread for the actual build in track and scenery.

Click on the new build link at the bottom.

Cheers
Ray