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ummmm...
the way I understood DCC and other digital systems (and it is at present not completely clear how the scalextric system works) is this:
There is no AC involved at all - as in alternating sine waves;
The signal is sent as pulses of + or - DC, similar to square wave, althought the duration is not regular but coded. The + or - voltage is BETWEEN the rails, the rails do not have 'different' stuff on them. The base station makes this signal - out of a DC signal. The 50Hz sine waves of AC would not be particularly helpful.
There is never zero voltage between the rails.
The car/train rectifies the signal to end up with a constant + voltage, which the control chip in the car then regulates to send the appropriate qunatity of volts to the motor.
So that is why a DC transformer makes sense, and why the car still has to rectify the signal.
the way I understood DCC and other digital systems (and it is at present not completely clear how the scalextric system works) is this:
There is no AC involved at all - as in alternating sine waves;
The signal is sent as pulses of + or - DC, similar to square wave, althought the duration is not regular but coded. The + or - voltage is BETWEEN the rails, the rails do not have 'different' stuff on them. The base station makes this signal - out of a DC signal. The 50Hz sine waves of AC would not be particularly helpful.
There is never zero voltage between the rails.
The car/train rectifies the signal to end up with a constant + voltage, which the control chip in the car then regulates to send the appropriate qunatity of volts to the motor.
So that is why a DC transformer makes sense, and why the car still has to rectify the signal.
there is another alternative: the chips could be in different shapes. Or the F1 chip could be in 2 parts, one half for each side pod....
scalextric claim strongly that having a standard powerbase on the track, even if it is unplugged, may damage the digital power base!
you may be right, but it is askin a lot to request other guys risk their (at present rare) equipment to test it!
Very interesting new videos.
Lots of the anti-digital camp have been commenting on how shunts will lead to offs - well there are a lot of shunts in these videos, and they are not resulting in the cars crashing!
Lots of the anti-digital camp have been commenting on how shunts will lead to offs - well there are a lot of shunts in these videos, and they are not resulting in the cars crashing!
Scalextric Challenger CANNOT run on a digital system. The videos are of challenger 'style' racing, I think they have wodged a controller to give a fixed speed or something.
QUOTE (SinclairZX81 @ 13 Nov 2004, 23:31)I wonder if a request to brake (say) might ever get 'lost'.
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i don't think the controller is supposed to send once only messgaes. If you stab the brake, you are probably holding it for 1/10 second or something, which hopefully is time for 10 or 100 messages, depending on the systemes frequencey. Even if 15% of the messages get lost, you will end up braking for about 1/10th of a second, or at least from the time of the first succesful 'brake' message to the first succesful 'don't brake' message. (big error percentages are most likely to lead to a sluggish response and a feeling of delayed response)
Similarly with lane changes, you hold the button down until the lane is changed, it is not a click once operation.
This should apply in theory to all the digital systems, not just scalextric.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
i don't think the controller is supposed to send once only messgaes. If you stab the brake, you are probably holding it for 1/10 second or something, which hopefully is time for 10 or 100 messages, depending on the systemes frequencey. Even if 15% of the messages get lost, you will end up braking for about 1/10th of a second, or at least from the time of the first succesful 'brake' message to the first succesful 'don't brake' message. (big error percentages are most likely to lead to a sluggish response and a feeling of delayed response)
Similarly with lane changes, you hold the button down until the lane is changed, it is not a click once operation.
This should apply in theory to all the digital systems, not just scalextric.
Analogue cars will not run on a digital set up
Challenger will not run on a digital set up
Yes - you can arrange a switch to the rails to choose between analogue and digital. Apparently scalext LC's do not link the 2 lanes electrically, if this is the case, then the powerbase must link them. So in theory you could have one lane digital and one analogue (but the guy on the digi lane must remember not to swap onto the analogue lane!
Challenger will not run on a digital set up
Yes - you can arrange a switch to the rails to choose between analogue and digital. Apparently scalext LC's do not link the 2 lanes electrically, if this is the case, then the powerbase must link them. So in theory you could have one lane digital and one analogue (but the guy on the digi lane must remember not to swap onto the analogue lane!
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