This discussion mentions open source code, with pro's and con's of each. I would like to suggest that open source WOULD work. If you look at different communities that have implemented open source software, they, for the most part, are doing well. Model railroads DCC, radio controlled cars / planes / copters / drones with OpenTX, and even voice assistants with MycroftAI. While I can see advantages and disadvantages for open source hardware/software, I am very much an advocate for "open" everything.

Let me know what you think

 

Hi, nice to meet you.

I think it would take a while for people to get used to the idea. But there are people on this forum who believe in open source.

It also takes a great deal of investment to get a project working, there is an open source Carrera D143 decoder project on github but it hasn't been updated for a couple of years. There was a similar project on another forum that was open source, but then a small number of contributors put in a lot of effort and eventually the keyholder to the git repository pulled it all down. And it became a commercial product. So I think it is natural that people would be reluctant to put in a lot of effort because there is a chance things won't go the way you had intended or expected.

The open source controller that has come up recently, perhaps that might become a showcase for what is possible.

Interesting about the success stories in other hobbies.

Have fun.

 

Can't remember if I mentioned somewhere recently, but there was a coding project (in German) to re-write the firmware for the Black Box (or CU, I can't remember), but then it became another project that stalled, and I wonder how many people ended up with a Black Box that was no longer of any real use.

A system from scratch would be cool. But is there enough people to do the work? I kinda wonder if the hobby is big enough.

 

@builderjer have you seen this project, maybe of interest.

WiFi Raspberry Pi based Lap Counter/Timer

WARNING THIS PROJECT IS UNDER DEVELOPMENT - WORK BACKWARDS FROM THE LAST POST AND ONLY TAKE THE LATEST DOWNLOAD! I always felt that the Scalextric C7039 Digital Lap Counter on my Scalextric Digital system left a lot to be desired. I wanted something that showed the lap timing as well as lap...

www.slotforum.com

 

If you are ok with, or willing to try coding in C or C++ then the Arduino ecosystem offers a lot of options.

 

Interesting subject…

When I brought ICP v4.0 decoder firmware to the community (building on the earlier very great work of MIH in NZ) I chose to share the hex files only - and not the updated source code.

With a multi-protocol powerbase I am working on… the cost of bringing to market as a commercial unit (with all necessary regulatory approvals and customer support each destination market) cannot be justified I suspect for the relatively small market size involved (most folk are happy to stick with the powerbase from their preferred brand e.g. Scalextric, Carrera or SCX). So the natural route to bring this concept to market would be open source design for the hardware and open source firmware.

Then there are lighting gantries and other similar track-side accessories… here hardware kits with open source firmware may make sense. Where more advanced features are added which place these projects a long way ahead of the commercial state-of-the-art - these features may benefit from a paid licence access model.

Just my thoughts… and great to see interest in this space.

c

 

@Drifter2 , that look promising. I will dig into that some more. As for Arduino, I am familiar with them and even have one running my HVAC unit. And some versions of them will let you run a stripped down version of python on them instead of C

 

I have one with a PIR that reports movement back to an SQL DB on my website. It’s for an elderly person who lives alone.

 

NiclasF 's Arduino-based wifi laptimer is one of the very few open-source based projects that I've seen here:
https://www.slotforum.com/threads/simple-wifi-laptimer-for-scalextric-ssd.148698/
https://bitbucket.org/foogadgets/esp_slot_car_laptimer/src/master/
I don't think anyone else added any coding or developed anything else from it - it's probably way out of reach of most forum members, but it's all there, well documented and it works great after long and intensive on track testing by a couple of forum members.

 

NiclasF also built his own Powerbase and car decoders. Although those projects aren’t o/s the SSD protocols are well known.

 

I am just passing by.

I can for sure open source the power base software. It is however written for a PIC microprocessor so it is not compatible with scalextric ones, since I made my own pcb design for cars and power control unit.
The ones that can read C could understand the mechanisms I used, and start off where I left it.

If this sounds interesting to anyone I can put some efforts in to finalize it. My kids have lost the interest so this project have been on the shelf for a long time.


/N