[shorty54]

Great tutorials Phil!

I have spent hrs setting up pace cars. Then I change a bit of track and have to almost start over...

I have an issue with some cars changing speed from cold to warm motors.

I can get a car to work great around the track when its cold, but after 25 laps its blowing corners and changing lap times.

I have been trying to run the car at practice for 20min or so, then start setting up the pace car.

My Joker Lap really messes things up!

Enjoy,
Shad

 

[shorty54]

Great video, can we hire you? Yes we were (are) so proud of this, thank you for using it how it was meant to be. A lot of people give up to soon but practice pays off as you demonstrate so well.
@shad:
If I remember correct you can adjust speed (throttle) of pacer while it drives with lc and brake (1 up/1 down) if you find it gets too fast or slow in time.
Also I think it can negotiate a joker lap if it has pit in and out sensors. Set a constant speed for that part and stop time 0. It might work, but you can't have a pitlane and joker with sensors in 1 track. Also depends were start-finish is.

Correct, you can substitute a pit lane for a Joker Lap, but cant have both (yet).

Pace cars work great if you stick with it, time and patience. They are fun!

Shad

 

[shorty54]

Great to see the pace car option being used so effectively.

A lot of time was spent on perfecting it in the development phase. I did a video at the time of an RCS64 pace car versus a Scalextric Challenger - great fun.

The one thing that got me frustrated was when I changed the speed graph or braking in one sector it threw off the timing for all subsequent sectors and it was a bind to have to modify them all to compensate. In the end I just kept recording complete laps until I got one I was happy with and didn't tweak it.

Shad, I might be wrong as it's been a while, but I think you can set a target lap time to get round the problem of cars getting faster or slower as they heat up.

Cheers,

I have played with the target time also. Its like you said, as I have had the same difficulties, if you have any sectors set up and you change 1 sector, it affects them all. By changing the target lap times, I think is similar, it speeds up in the wrong sectors or changes speeds in sectors causing de slots or missed lane changes.

I am still working with it to find the best solution.

Enjoy,

Shad

 

[shorty54]

When tweaking the sectors I try and not take it to the full limit (although I want to get as close as I can) this way I try and allow for these variables and the car can be at least 90% reliable during a race.

You are 100% correct! I have learned the same thing. I push the pace car to the edge, then back it down and make it reliable.

I have found mine seem to start out a bit slower at first, but then slowly speed up. The real driver thinks they have the race but that pace car starts slowly increasing and the real driver get nervous and crashes!

I think the pace car becomes intimidating...

I will experiment with that joker lap....

Enjoy,

Shad

 

[shorty54]

Winning a race is all about keeping your laps clean and consistent. Your pacer does exactly that, while you are making tiny little errors while pushing harder and harder. If you forget about the pace car, and focus on your brake and acceleration points in order to keep a clean line so that you are not sliding all over, you'll find yourself catching up to the pace car much more quickly. This is one of the hardest lessons to learn. To go faster, you must slow down. ;-)

This could be directed at life in general, not just slot cars.

Enjoy,

Shad

 

[shorty54]

Hey Phil,

When the world gets back to normal, prior Covid that is, you can start traveling the world setting up RCS64 pace cars for everyone!

Enjoy,

Shad