[jimgym]

Not sure if this is the correct forum.

Ok I have a scalextric challenger.

I have bought a switch and plan on using a spare scalextric sports hand controller (I have loads spare) to cut the lead and wire the switch straight up to the lead to give the track constant power like the plugs you get with the scalextric challenger system with the added benifit being able to turn the power off to the challenger car at the flick of a switch.

My question is that there are 3 wires that go into the sports controller, can anyone tell me how I would need to wire these together to give the track constant power?

Thanks

James

 

[tibius181]

well i know with Parma controllers its, red to red, black to black and green to white. what you really need is someone to tell you what wires on the controller go to what. hope this helps.

Doug

 

[jimgym]

Thanks for your reply

I have just opend up my scalextric sports controller.

Red goes to 1 end of the resistor green to the other end

Then black wire goes to the trigger,

So would I need to goin the greeb and the red wire together, solder this to one side of the switch

Then connect the black to the other?

 

[jimgym]

Figured it out, it's just green to black and you don't use the red

 

[pault86]

Hi James,

Yes, you are absolutely correct. The green lead is power, the black lead is track common and the red lead is the brake. To "short" power to track as the Challenger plug that goes in the power base would you connect green to black.

BTW, the way these leads connect to the plug at the end of the controller lead is shown incorrectly on Grag Braun's HO racing site, the only place I've found on the internet that purports to show how the tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) connector is wired.

The correct connections for the TRS connector are green to sleeve, black to ring, and red to tip.

I talked to Greg and he will correct the picture on his site.

Paul

 

[jimgym]

Hi Paul

Thanks for your reply, lean a new thing every day!!

Do u have a link to grag's HO site?

Thanks

James

 

[pault86]

Hi James,

Yes, Greg's site is www.hoslotcarracing.com/. I tried to access it just now and could not so perhaps he is doing an update. Greg's site has been around for years and has a wealth of information on it. He also sells a good bit of stuff, mostly HO.

Last fall when I returned to slot cars after a 30 year hiatus I called him and ended up talking to him for about 3 hours! He goes to the slot car trade shows, knows just about everybody and races go-karts at Road America in Elkhart Lake.

One other thing to be aware of once you start getting into wiring is polarity. Since Scaley uses AC wall-warts and does the conversion to DC in the power base we Scaley users are insulated (no pun intended) from issues of polarity. To race in both directions we can just put two power bases in our layout oriented in opposite directions as shown in this article. Polarity only becomes an issue if we decide to buy electronic controllers - we have to buy negative polarity controllers because Scaley's green wire is connected to the negative DC terminal while its common and brake wires are connected to positive DC.

I learned this the hard way recently. I decided to get rid of my power bases and build custom driver's stations and a wiring harness to my veriable power supply. When I finished the first driver's station and hooked up the power to test it I found my electronic controller would only make the car go when the trigger was depressed almost all the way. I had connected the green wire to positive, not negative. Fortunately, the solution was simple - just reversing the leads at the power supply.

The driver's stations are neat, they allow you to reverse directions at the flick of a switch and also to turn dynamic braking on or off. I really like being able to control braking, I was surprised what a difference it makes with some cars.

When I build the second driver's station I will take photos and write a tutorial to post on my website. In the meantime, the schematic for the driver's stations is here. Andy (Professor Motor) has a chart that shows the polarity of all his controllers and a page that talks about polarity, with links to .pdfs that illustrate positive and negative polarity graphically.

Sorry for such a long reply!

Paul

 

[Mampara]

Thanx pault86

, finally something I understand. Thanks to Prof. motor aswell.

 

[pault86]

Thank you, Mampara!

If you are thinking about building driver's stations the creme of the crop has to be Philippe Marchand's. Here is a link to a page on his site that has complete instructions.

It is well worth the time to browse his entire site at http://homepage.mac.com/pmarchand/. He built what I think is the one of the finest 1/32 slot layouts ever, the Circuit de la Wanne. He is now into 1/43 scale racing but his site has tons of links to great resources, vendors, and information.

Paul
Circuit TrustChrist