[MARK GREEN]

Hello all

It has been over a year since I used this forum..

2 years ago I started my first Scaly Digital layout, kinowing very little on the subject..
Iv since had kids and rebuilt some engines, and so it got put on stanby for 18 months until now.......

I am most of the way there with the track build, there are many things i am not happy with and I have learnt allot of lessons, but it seems i have more to learn...

Currently I am running a PB pro with Simple H mod, approx 8M of track ranging from 4 lanes wide to 1 lane at its narrowest point.
I also have a pit-pro which is plugged in but doesnt seem to be doing much (iv nto tried to do much with it yet)

oh carp,, im rambling..... ok to the point..

MY first issue i would like to ask everyone about is as follows:

during digital use regardless of car or lane,,, my cars seem to randomly suddenly go to full power and fly off the track... more often this happens after a LC or PB but not always..

any ideas of the cause? Its getting very frustrating and is destroying my scenery..

I have cleaned the track with Carb cleaner (xylene) as it looks a bit tarnished after over a year of sitting idle, which did help and has reduced the issue a little, but its still there.

Any ideas ?

 

[Ade]

hi
Mark, the runaway problem is well known and is usually down to the old spec rev f dpr chips.

There are a number of solutions to cure this,first off is to replace them with rev g one's or have the existing one's re- flashed to a better mih spec.

There is also a later version of the xlc wich has more of the rail replaced with plastic to help althoug it is possible to paint the existing one's to the same effect.

Also it is important to keep the braids nice and tidy and tight into the guide flag, splayed one's are a no no.

 

[MARK GREEN]

Ah i see, well thanks for such a fast reply bigbird...

hmm replacing all of the chips sounds expensive

I bought 20 in bulk 2 years ago whats the bet they are all early ones...

im going to search the re-flashing and see what i can find... is this something the end users can do via rs232 or similar?

 

[Ade]

hi
a few members have contacted hornby and got the chips replaced free of charge but not sure as to whether they had receipts or not, it could well be worth a call to customer services though.

To get them re-flashed you need a pic programmer wich i am told is quite cheap to buy and the new firmware is free to download..

Once it is installed there is no return path to hornby spec,also you loose the analouge function wich is no bad thing to some including me,this means that the car does not jolt forward when it is placed on the track,the cars are much nicer in feel to use as well.

Perhaps someone will be kind enough to do the link thing to the mih site and thread.??

 

[GregK]

Hi Mark,
The lane changer fix is here and Incar-Pro is just over here.

 

[MARK GREEN]

well bigbird, i am very greatful for the point in the right direction..

I have found MIH and a few of his posts (got about 25 windows open) its just a case of finding the download and infos associated...

I have a pic programmer so if the benefits look good i will gove this a go..

I`l probably give the customer services route a go too, though my telephone mannor is carp so im likley to just upset people before i get anything replaced..

I agree with you on the analogue mode,, useless to me too as my track is only 1 lane wide in places..

 

[MARK GREEN]

wow that was fast CHEERs Greg

I had seen the "PRO" chip option in SSDC today and wundered what the hell it was for.... now i know

 

[Ade]

hi
Mark my layout had a serious workout yesterday and with all cars running in car pro chips we never had one changed id or runaway the whole event.

They are the muts, but you should be ok with later spec revg one's and the painted flipper route if you dont want the work of re-flashing.

So whats wrong with your pitpro then.???

 

[MARK GREEN]

that sounds good... im happy again now........

as for the pit pro,, im not sure to be honest, it could well be ok, i have only plugged it into the track and the pc a few days ago and have invested very little time in using it due to the other issues i was having..

I have been trying to decide which software i want to use, I tried the big 3 and found that PC lapcounter could not find the pitpro. it gave me an amber light on that com port..

I think i have come to the decision to use SSDC but im not 100% yet.. as for SSDC it doesnt seem to give an indication that the pitpro is found or working correctly even when set to the relevent com port and switched on..
(im still doing my homework on it though as i dont know exactly what its meant to do in full)

currently i only have the 1 sensor in the pitlane (the factory one in the base) I do have an Exit sensor to fit, but this means drilling into my layout base from below as the track is bonded down

 

[Ade]

hi
you should be seeing the comm port numbers for the pb and pitpro at the top of the screen,if you click on the correct tab you can then define your pit settings.

With pitpro when you start a race the led's are programmed to countdown 5-4-3 etc and the green light is lit to show go.

When a race is underway the three led's that are aligned to one car then act as fuel level lights,three lights meaning full down to three flashing wich means pit soon.

Also when a track call is placed the main red and green flash in tandem with ssdc..

It is well wort the effort to use the second senser as this means you can have pitlane speed limiter in place..

One sure fire way to know it's connected up right is to hear a excited murray walker as you hit the pit in senser..

 

[MARK GREEN]

Thanks again bigbird,,

Iv got the relevent Com selected,,

im going to make a coffee find some speakers and head out to the garage and have a fiddle with it...

il let you know how it goes

 

[Michael363672]

Hi Mark,

PCLapcounter should automatically find pitpro as long as you have it checked that you are using it
and plugged in properly

I hope you have more luck with SSDC V5 than we have as I can not get it to run properly on our PBPro SH setup as the cars stop after the finish line when using fuel and then restart after a while

Michael

 

[MARK GREEN]

Hi Michael

yes i have been getting this with V5,, as soon as they cross the line it just stops dead, until i push it over the line again.. weird

 

[Ade]

hi
that bug is not v5's fault as it is present in v4 as well. The only remedy that was posted way back then was to place the pb in a braking zone.

I believe it is firmware related to pbpro and would need Andy sykes to solve it.?? this does not happen with apb.

 

[RikoRocket]

Reflash, yes good idea, but you will still need to address the shorting issue dpr the solution

 

[MARK GREEN]

BIGBIRD: righto so this old version (v4) i just downloaded is no use.... lol im glad you got that in there before i rolled back.. ta!
RikoRocket: DPR solution is tonights project, that and fresh braids all round,,, I really hope it fixes it.

Cheers for the help guys, the freindlyness and helpfullness of this forum is second to none,, hopefully i can give some back soon..

 

[Michael363672]

QUOTE (bigbird @ 2 Jul 2012, 22:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hi
that bug is not v5's fault as it is present in v4 as well. The only remedy that was posted way back then was to place the pb in a braking zone.

Doesn't matter where you place it its is a bug in V5

Also I have not had that happen in V4 unless I go to a very low full tank setting, but nowhere near like V5

QUOTE I believe it is firmware related to pbpro and would need Andy sykes to solve it.?? this does not happen with apb.

Not so sure its PBPro's fault
I have with the APB but no where near as much

PCLapcount doesn't stop at all

And we run all 3 at the club I think last time out it was 1500 laps and not one stop on PCLC after the line

They all have plus points and minus points aswell depending on type of races you want to run ??

 

[awallace]

The bug with PB-Pro is partly PB-Pro and partly SSDC v5. I have a fix, but it doesn't totally solve the problem - there was still an issue with v4 caused by a unresolved comms problem in PB-Pro. I am looking at providing an option to turn off throttle map adjustment for PB-Pro users who get fed up with this issue. The result will be that cars won't stop, but you won't get smooth power increase as fuel burns.

 

[MrFlippant]

An option to disable throttle mapping would be great, Andy. I'm looking forward to that update.

 

[MARK GREEN]

would like to thank all that helped with the solution to this issue,, Riko the painting of my XLC`s has ironed out 90% of the runaway issues....

I fried my Pic programmer las time i used it (which i had forgotten about) so i have ordered a new one.. I will reprogram my cars next week..

I will now create a new thread with my next issue