[PINHEAD69]

hi all, after spending a few weeks making my track look half descent and nearer to realistic than plastic looking
one thing grabbed my attention, the pit lane game stands out more than a hardon in a nunery...
the more i looked, the more it seemed it wouldnt look out of place in a childs toy box, it has that look about it,
so today i thought i would gravel the base, paint the main stem stone looking white, and the top like a silver pipe etc to break it all up..
as i was about to do it, i had an idea.... and i'm sure this is easily done
i thought you could remove the single lane and place the pit game just off the track somewhere and hide all the base within your scenery just leaving the main section showing (which isnt as overpowering then in looks)
i imagined then connecting it by means of wires from one to the new single lane in its place on the track
it was just a thought which i think would look better especially if your landscaping a little bit....
its to late for me to try it as mines done, but something to think about thati hav'nt seen done yet ;-)

 

[sealevel]

Yup, it has been done before....

I cannot find many examples of the PLG separation but here is Savage's combined PLG/lap tower display:

Savage Raceways separated PLG/lap tower display

For a look at some custom lap towers:

Custom lap towers

I am sure someone else will give you some more leads to separating the Pit Lane Game.

Cheers!

 

[sealevel]

Does anyone have a link to the procedure for separating the PLG from the base? I know Savage did this as have others, but cannot find the pictures on this forum.... been searching for most of the afternoon to no avail.

Maybe if someone can find them the mods can add them to the "really useful stuff" for the digital forum.

Thanks.
Cheers!

 

[Ade]

hi
have to agree with first post on looks,and once ssdc supports it i will be using track pieces only to detect pit in and out on my new routed layout...

 

[PINHEAD69]

wow, some great pitlane displays there, especially savage's...
think i need to build a permanent version this time with all the trimmings and more realistic detail ;-)

 

[DaveLat]

Hi PINHEAD69, this is what I did with my pit pro and lap display tower. Similar design to the one savage did but I did mine seperate

 

[PINHEAD69]

dave, niceeeeeeeeeeeeeee
i need to build another track to do that, got no space left lol, next version ;-)

 

[Ade]

hi
yes Dave very nice,just been eyeing up some smoked acrylic sheet up at work today to do something about my pitpro...

 

[DaveLat]

Ade, it does make the world of difference .
I did what savage did to his and separated it from the track then
Hacked off the green light and repositioned it below the red one
Securing it in place with some epoxy. It makes it more compct
And generally less like a kids toy.

Dave

 

[RikoRocket]

Looks suberb Dave! Good job!

 

[TeeKay]

Hi Everone

I have seperated my PLG, added a remote "SET" button, as well as some LED's for future use.

The tower is located at the opposite corner from where the PB is loacated and I did not want to walk around the table everytime to re-set the game.

Some photos of the separation:

Firstly, I have removed the base from the track, by de-soldering the power cables from the track and cutting the signal wires.

Then I soldered a length of RJ11 cable to the two sensor wires for easy connection to the tower - The sensor track is about a meter away from the tower location.

On the tower:

I have removed the 5 connecting pins at the bottom of the tower as I am not going to use them (or the base) - I've made a tight fitting hole in the table with a jigsaw to fit the tower into.

As the tower is powered together with some other accessories (i.e. lane changers) from a seperate DC power supply, I have soldered power wires (Thick black and red wires in the photo) onto connectors 1 and 5. (Polarity is not an issue as the tower has a built in rectifier)

I then soldered a length of RJ11 cable to pins 3 and 4 that will connect to the sensor track above. (Pin 3 - red connects to red wire of sensor and pin 4 - dark green connects to green wire of sonsor track)

The thin red and black wires are used to power a relay - see below. The yellow and green wires are for the remote set button...

Remote SET button.

In order to re-set the tower from where the PB is located, I soldered two wires (yellow and green) directly onto the pc board to create a switch in parallel to the set switch:

After playing around with the length of the yellow and green wires, I came to the conclusion that the "parallel switch" wires must be as short as possible. It seems like the PLG goes into crazy mode of this wire is too long. It must have something to do with some impedance interferance if the wires are too long.

Thus, I connected a relay a short distance to the tower and used the relay switch via a button to simulate the SET switch - again using RJ11 cable for easy connection.

While the PLG tower was open, I added 6 tri colour (dual anode) LED's for future use. The led's can be switched from green to orange to red. I'm thinking of using them in future for race condition lights i.e yellow flag condition etc)

Everything tested and installed and working perfectly! I love it when a plan comes together!

 

[Mr_DJT]

QUOTE (TeeKay @ 21 Nov 2011, 08:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Remote SET button.

In order to re-set the tower from where the PB is located, I soldered two wires (yellow and green) directly onto the pc board to create a switch in parallel to the set switch:

After playing around with the length of the yellow and green wires, I came to the conclusion that the "parallel switch" wires must be as short as possible. It seems like the PLG goes into crazy mode of this wire is too long. It must have something to do with some impedance interferance if the wires are too long.

Thus, I connected a relay a short distance to the tower and used the relay switch via a button to simulate the SET switch - again using RJ11 cable for easy connection.

Hi,
Your remote button idea is what I'm looking at doing for my c7030"
What problems happened when connecting direct to the pcb with a long length of cable?
What relay did you use and where did you draw the switching power.

Thanks
Darren

 

[TeeKay]

Darren,

It seems that when you use a long cable to add a switch in parallel to the the press button one on the pc board of the unit, that the long cable's impedance influences the electronics of the unit.

I had a 12V relay lying around (one that is used in cars for switching spot lights or hooters). Any relay that is rated for 12v DC with a normally open switch will work.

I have powered the relay directly from the power input to the PLG unit - pins 1 and 5. (Remember that I'm powering the unit from a seperate 12v DC tranformer and not from the track. (The track delivers 12V AC).

Hope this answers your question?

 

[Mr_DJT]

QUOTE (TeeKay @ 30 Nov 2011, 07:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Darren,

It seems that when you use a long cable to add a switch in parallel to the the press button one on the pc board of the unit, that the long cable's impedance influences the electronics of the unit.

I had a 12V relay lying around (one that is used in cars for switching spot lights or hooters). Any relay that is rated for 12v DC with a normally open switch will work.

I have powered the relay directly from the power input to the PLG unit - pins 1 and 5. (Remember that I'm powering the unit from a seperate 12v DC tranformer and not from the track. (The track delivers 12V AC).

Hope this answers your question?
Thanks for the reply.
I'm planning on running PLG on a seperate supply so I'm prolly going to run it the same as you did.