[racefreak38]

@ lawracing

Thanks for the welcome. And about the boy in our house, I'm sure i'm the biggest. haha. Just as you did, i found this forum and i love it because it is full of usefull information. I will be here very often i guess.

@ Rick (injectorman)

As you can read, in my prevous post here, i was reinfected with the slotcar virus. And you can see that i plan to do it in a right way. Meaning, building my own wooden track with some special things in it.

I like the idea of remotly controlled slotcars very much. And the idea of the ideal racingline also. And i realy would like to see both of them in my (to build) wooden track.

I think you feel it coming now, there is a but.

I don't have an unlimited access to money. Like most of us on this forum. There is a little man consuming lots of it and a mama that keeps an eye on my spendings.

With the amount of work an time and so on you have put in Scorpius, i think it will be a commercial thing. You will sell it to a commercial big company or you'll start your own. You once mentioned that the system you are making is in fact intended for professional usage. (racingclubs etc) I don't resent (i don't know if that's the right word, but it came out of the babelfish translationthing) you any profit of the hard work, time, money you have put in this project. So please don't get me wrong with what i'm writing next.

I'm just a personal user. There won't be many people using my to build track. I'm not a slotcarracingclub. I'm not a professional. Therefore i think i don't need all those programmable things on the scorpius project. I will tell you what i would like to see on my track.

1: remote controlled cars
2: cars taking the best racingline automaticly
3: some kind of anticollisionsystem. Because i don't like being deslotted for nothing (read because of lanechanging)
4: some kind of pitlane function
5: perhaps laptiming/counting (just to impress my friends haha) (and you can make a unit doing this)

I think that "Scorcpius" is going commercial (and go for that, you have deserved it). So it will disappear just like the blst project. And it will come back as a, for normal blokes like me, wannahave but cannaaffort.

What i'm am saying is. Think about a system called "Scorpius lite"

greatings from Holland

 

[injectorman]

Hi Race freak.
Thats a hard ask to make 2 levels. Also we need to make 1000 at least of everything to get costs down.
Essentially the hardware would be similar and only the software made different. Not much of a price difference.
With a timber routed track I can pretty much make a lane changer for little more than an off the shelf type and the chips are just $26.40USD with the Aussie dollar dropping recently. Then I would have 2 lots of stock to order and would blow the cash flow.
Maybe just build your track over time to keep the other half happy =)

Cheers
Rick

 

[racefreak38]

Hi Rick,

I see the point. It was just a thought. I love your project with all it's features. It's great to see how much is possible today if you compare it to my first slottrack.
As for my track, i don't think it will be ready tomorrow.

Cheers
racefreak38

 

[fronteren in 2. gear]

Any news on the website Rick?

Can you say anything about an oppeningday?

 

[injectorman]

The website is 60% complete in one language (English) so I expect a few weeks.

 

[Nulla]

G'day Rick

I was wondering if there is any way using the Scorpius System that we could handicap a particular car if that car is always out performing the other cars in the class.

Regards
Nulla

 

[injectorman]

Hi Nulla,
We have that already

You can set throttle ID 14's throttle curve to say 97.6% if you require. Then change the curve to suit.
Kiddies mode or handicapping, min speed (pace car), brake settings, throttle curve are all functions of the controller.

Heres a pic of the program how it would look on your PC screen. This one however is at 100% but it gives you an idea.

Cheers
Rick

 

[injectorman]

Hi Guys,

Latest membership count 52 from 15 countries.

 

[racefreak38]

And they all did pay already?

Because in internet people are very fast in saying yes i will.

 

[injectorman]

Yes they are, thats true =)
That is factored in so dont be too concerned.

But most offered to pay immediately=)
But until the LB is complete I cant possibly accept membership payments.

I believe people need to see the system complete then we can re assess numbers.
I would like to get some footage on U-Tube on Didiers track or PhilRs track or Drummers track using 100% Scorpius to back up the beta testing reports.
Then I can get final manufacturing costs, manufacturing time frames and real prices.
Until then no one is committed which is only fair.

Cheers
Rick

 

[Nulla]

G'day Rick

I thought thats how you could handicap cars using the throttle cuvre. All good then.

I asked because I was thinking of a way to handicap cars for a championship like they do in the Japanese Super GT Championship. But instead of weight penalties we can knock a few perecent off the throttle curve. Ideally this could give more people a chance of winning rounds and closer racing with more of a challenge for the best drivers.Here is a example based roughly on Super GT.

Throttle Handicapping (Performance adjustment)

Race results: In each class, a throttle handicap will be compulsorily allocated for the subsequent race to cars finishing in the top 4 places, according to the scale at below:
Throttle Handicap
Race 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th-
Throttle -5% -3% -2% -1% 0% +0.5% +1% +1.5% +2%

Maximum Throttle handicap would be at 10% and if a car does not participate in a round they recevie a 2% reduction.

Of course this is just a example ,but if you are going to race say 16 Ninco Super GT cars with scorpius chips then why not make it as realistic as possible.

Regards
Nulla

 

[injectorman]

You could make a program that could organise that for you.

 

[injectorman]

Hi Guys,
Scorpius now has 24 car IDs (for 8 lane digital comp racing)
I think 16 will generally suffice but you never know.

Cheers
Rick

 

[fronteren in 2. gear]

24 car ID´s for 2, 4, 6 lanes aswell?
Harmonica crashes, why not?

 

[h00ch]

How about 24 slot-snowplows on a single lane track

 

[injectorman]

Personally anything over 16 is a wank but hey it costs nothing to put on.

 

[PSRRFH]

QUOTE (injectorman @ 28 Oct 2008, 04:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Personally anything over 16 is a wank but hey it costs nothing to put on.

Hey I think we need a video with at least 16 cars running, preferably 24
I think the public deserves it.

Cheers

 

[injectorman]

Pressure like that will get you everywhere =)

 

[PhilR]

Ok then..this was a test Rick and I did at my shop quite some time ago..only 14 cars running.

Follow the link all the way to youtube and you will be able to choose the view in high quality option..

We had 16 cars but there was a glitch in the v1 prototype chips that were causing loss of id between cars 10 and 11..I think that was it..or something like it anyway..
The really unfortunate part was that we had to rely on 2 or 3 rank beginners as well as 2 very young children to make up the driver numbers,so there was a fairly high degree of chaos..
The scorpius cars were running on my ninco track..using dc power to the track rails and the ninco powerbase bypassed..the cars were changing lanes using the standard ninco lane changers.
This track is too small to run 16 cars..
I have recently made it longer by adding a lot more turns ..but lap times for the cars we used in this test are still only in the 17 sec range
But that is still too short a lap time for 16 cars..
My experience thus far has taught me that you need a lap time of at least 15 seconds to cope with 8 cars..so therefore a lap time of 30 seconds or more should allow for relatively cohesive racing for 16 cars
I will be trialling the new scorpius chips as well as the usb dongle and lane brain in the not too distant future on the modified longer version of this track.. I will only be running 12 cars max though..But the good thing is that I will have 12 very good and very experinced digital racers for that test and there will for sure be a video!
Note well..The scorpius system will provide car controll and tunability to a level no yet experienced by the slot car community..
But until you have driven in heavy traffic on a two lane circuit..and learned the necessary skills ,nothing will help to make it less than a hectic experience..
Racing experience on the traditional one car one lane system will be of limited use to you,as it requires only very limited skill.
Digital racing requires big track layouts,experienced and competent drivers as well as an appropriate number of experienced and competent track marshalls.
I believe that 16 car digital slotcar racing,on large 2 lane tracks will one day be a legitimate and popular sport..the technology is here now,but the drivers are not..
I have a group of drivers in my club that I believe would best any group of analogue racers in the world..Put my guys in a 16 car race on a 2 lane digital track and they would know what to do..the analogue guys would just fall to pieces..
Phil

 

[Billy_Cart]

I agree with PhilR when we have 6 cars racing on our 37m track we get lap times of 13 to 15 seconds and its still chaos.

The RMS software with automatic track call to stop or slow cars down when there is a deslot is really helpful in avoiding the chaos and rear end collisions with so many cars on a 2 lane track.

All the analogue guys who have driven our track all comment on how much extra thinking that has to be done to race digital (avoiding collisions, overtaking, blocking, dealing with slower pace cars, pit stop re-fueling strategy).

For me this complex strategy stuff is the fun bit that digital offers (except when too many beers have been had) & Scorpious will take it to a new level.

Cheers

Phil