[ggonsalves]

Hi Guys,

Planning to run some endurance races at FRC and was wondering whether anyone has come up with a simple way to set an uninstalled chip's ID so that entrants can prepare spare chips after qualifying and before the races begin.

Any idea would be appreciated.

Gordon

 

[tahi.taringa]

Use DPR chips and cycle them through a car? Should only take a minute or so per chip.
Or have a spare powerbase available, and they set the ID before they put onto track.

But why do you need spares? Do you think they'll burn out?

 

[MrFlippant]

Any Non-DPR chip can be programmed by holding the braid contacts to the rail and programming it like it's a car.
But, I think it would be much better to have a spare base on hand to ID cars, if at all possible.

 

[staglinger]

Hi gordon
cant see you soldering chips between races so you must be talking about the DPR chips?
So this is what I done I've pre programed 6 chips so I can put them in which car I need
and put coloured stickers on them to match.
hope this helps regards ade.

 

[ggonsalves]

Thanks for all the responses. The reason I posed the question is that it was brought up by one of our drivers with regard to our forthcoming "endurance" event and I want to cover all bases if possible. We tend to run a variety of chips - F1, Saloon, Slot.It and sometimes the DPR ones - depending on the class. Also, some classes have no limit on motor RPM or magnets (not my favourite classes, incidentally) and these tend to put a lot of strain on chips, so they sometimes blow/burn even in short (40 lap) races. Racing for 30+ minutes can really tempt fate with these, so the guys want to have the possibility of changing chips during the race if necessary.

When we qualify, drivers are assigned driving stations (1 through 6) based on their grid positions and therefore car IDs are set based on this. I thought of rigging up a guide with braid and leads with clips to set the spare chip IDs after qualifying and this may be the best way to go since I don't have another 6-car power base to set cars during the race.

Thanks again for your input...
Gordon

 

[RichG]

For an event like this I would say it's essential to have a spare 6 car Powerbase for reprogramming. You will get some cars losing / changing ID and you want to be able to reprogram a car quickly and easily off track. Once you have this you have solved your first problem.

Rich

 

[MrFlippant]

It's only too bad a stock C7030 has such terrible Car ID functions. It'll do in a pinch, but PB-Pro is the way to go. While those aren't as expensive as they used to be, they're still not all that common, especially at low-low prices.

Hopefully he can get a spare PB. Heck, even a 4 car base would be better than nothing. Hopefully MIH can finish and release his 4 car upgrade plans to make it a 6 car ID machine soon. Those are certainly plentiful.

 

[GregK]

Gordon ....... if you get the diodes uprated on your Scalextric chips to 3A ones, you should be able to handle 27k motors without any problems and you should not suffer too many burnouts. It's not so much the RPM but the current draw that kills the chips.

So far I have now chipped 5 Avant cars with the 27k Hurricane motors and all are doing well as are the half-dozen with the 25k motors in.

 

[MrFlippant]

+1 on that. Upgraded chips would be an even better idea for endurance events. The one upgraded chip I have (from gmyers) took a 29k motor in a car with 1000g magnetic downforce (two magnets in an offset motor pod slot.it Nissan R390) without flinching.

 

[ggonsalves]

Having a second power base would be ideal as I had not thought about cars changing IDs which we have experienced in races before. Several of the guys have gmyers-upgraded chips, however my last batch had some F1 chips which would go wild, changing ID or simply sending cars flying off at full speed despite there being no throttle applied, so I'm now a bit wary of them.

All that said, one of our drivers has a 6-car power base with PB Pro SH like mine, so maybe that's the solution.

 

[GregK]

The PB-Pro SH would be ideal for ID'ing cars plus it will also give you a backup.

The F1 chip is well documented to be disrupted by interference from the motor. It is best if you fix a ferrite man there at best or just a capacitor there as a bare minimum. I am surprised that your uprated chips are giving you such trouble. Perhaps these "hot" motors are causing problems with the mosfets.

All the best - Greg

 

[ggonsalves]

Hi Guys,

Finally ran our endurance event (race report here). I did as RichG suggested and got a spare power base and power supply for setting IDs. It actually had to be used during a race when my car had to have its ID reset while being driven by my co-driver. So thanks again for all the suggestions.

Gordon