[Billy_Cart]

As a follow up to the actual Pace Car race demo video in this link https://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=50963&p=2323941 I have been tweaking my new Slot.it pace car setup to get it to go faster and provide more challenging races, I don't like to lose

, but I do like it if I can programme a pace car that can win races, if you know what I mean

.it makes racing alone in these COVID-19 lockdown times much more interesting

I get a lot of questions asking how to setup up competitive pace cars so I thought I would share my latest Easter tinkering, the answer is of course persistence, and using Sectors to suit your own track and tweaking each sector individually as the car runs around in Test mode. I reckon it is like real race car setups, you can change the slightest thing to get a big improvement and then the smallest tweak in the chase for perfection unwinds everything.

If there is any interest I could try to do a full tutorial from start to finish, although I hope the above will be of assistance to those who want to try and get a competitive pace car running.

 

[Billy_Cart]

Woke up this morning Easter Saturday, made breakfast and coffee's and wondered out to the garage to have a pace car race with my newly tuned up pacer, no warm ups just straight into it, cold track, cold motor and cold tyres.

30 lap race, I crashed 4 times trying to push too hard as I was behind most of the race and the pace car only crashed twice. With these Slot.it Pace cars I don't use the Autocorrect option in a race as the adjustment to make up lap times can have them go too fast in sections and crash too often.

Average lap time for me was 13.923 and pace car 13.942, my fastest lap was 9.792 and pace car 10.441. I won, but only just (to be honest I got the benefit of the pace car circulating at the fixed default speed of only 20 after a crash which allowed me to catch up late in the race), here is the RCS64 Race Result Report showing how close things were.

 

[Billy_Cart]

...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....

My Joker Lap really messes things up!

Yep the pace car characteristics do change as the weather, track conditions, motor temperature and tyre condition change.

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.

The beauty of this is that it is not a computer game, the cars are just like their 1:1 counterparts things change, tyres wear, tracks get dusty, motor temps change, this just makes the end result more enjoyable.

Now the Joker lap is a variable I hadn't thought about, is it possible to create a Sector that allows the normal lap and Joker lap to be negotiated at the same pace, although my brain is now starting to hurt at the down stream impacts of this.

 

[Billy_Cart]

...I think the pace car becomes intimidating...:yikes:

This is it exactly, it puts you under pressure and you make mistakes, this is the difference between just doing laps on your own (which I do enjoy) and hard racing on the edge.

It does mess with your head though when the pace car I programmed doesn't crash and the car I am racing does 😨😭

 

[Billy_Cart]

Hi Graham, that is why I tweak each sector at a time as the car is driving around in Test mode, I'll get Sector 1 working then Sector 2 and so on....... in the video there a ton of red lines that I have added (some very close to each other) that I have used then unused etc. during the fine tuning phase, but I leave them there because they come in handy if I have to resolve down stream impacts etc. or have to make small adjustments at a later date.

At the end of all this I have a car that circulates for ages in Test mode as I follow the yellow line and the car and tweak bits to improve the lap time, then I stop, let the car cool down, give the tyres a clean and then re-do, run a race and if needed re-do, then run another race and if needed re-do (or undo

) until the car starts winning races

and then it is on, one night I had 12 races before I cracked a win and didn't I enjoy my beer after that

.

I'll try and do a whole demo video, it will be highly edited though because I'm not sure anyone would want to watch the whole hour or so it may take to get it just right. I'll make sure I include the key bits though.

 

[Billy_Cart]

Another 30 lap race v the Slot.it pacecar.

I actually broke the rear body screw post on the pace car last night while testing and racing and had to repair it this morning, luckly the bit of plastic that broke off the post was still inside the car so I could superglue it back into place and then bog around the whole post with epoxy, working all OK so far.

Anyway, back to the race the pace car won, I stuffed up my pit strategy and tried for a one stop changing from Hards to Intermediaries hoping to carry them through a predicted wet track. It didn't work the track got too wet, too quick and I had to adjust driving style (braking earlier and accelerating later). By the time it was evident I should pit to change to Wets the time in pits would have further destroyed me, so I soldered on, quite pathetic really .

Anyway the real interesting bit is the pacecar's best lap time of 10.708 was a bit slower but the average lap time of 11.599 (which included one pit stop) was insane.

This confirms Shorty54's statement that these pacecars "become intimidating" it just kept coming and as my tyres went on me, I couldn't maintain control at the speeds I wanted to drive. This was a seriously great race, even though I lost AGAIN! You can see my average lap time of 12.556 was effected by my poor tyre strategy

 

[Billy_Cart]

Next race, no excuses my pit stratey was good, both cars had 2 pit stops I lost by half the front straight, this was after a massive effort to reel the pace car in without crashing following a late pit stop on lap 24 of 30 to change tyres and splash fuel for the final stint. (I should have gone harder in those corners) Average laps times much closer, how do I deal with the fact I am beating myself

 

[Billy_Cart]

Add some traffic! ... but that probably needs an anti-collision/auto overtake system

And I still have the firmware you sent me 👍, I have been avoiding purchasing a Picit thingie due to lack of electrickery soldering confidence etc. But it is still on my radar, I tend to put these things off and then eventually do them and think "why didn't I do that earlier?" Like using a soldering iron, soldering in a digital chip, building and installing my own power taps, soldering track pieces together, doing the Riko APB power mod, doing the powered XLC flipper mod. You reckon I should be ready for the anti-collision mod by now 😎.

 

[Billy_Cart]

OK this pace car programming is getting additive, I just tried the "Recording a pacecar Without a Controller" method in RCS64 and after testing was putting it through it's paces in a race. (Slot.it McLaren F1 GTR Gulf livery)

RESULT- a sub 10 second lap 😲, 9.993 to be exact and that is on our twisty 32m track which has a lap record time of 8.631, I am so going to programe a pace car to achieve a lap record one day 😁

EDIT - next race and it got a 9.901

 

[Billy_Cart]

hit the lap record by computer and things start to be self aware

Nicely done though :thumbsup:

Very deep Leopard, I have run a few 3 car races against the 2 Slot.it pace cars this evening and only thing I was aware of was just how hard it was race against 2 flat out cars, I have created monsters and pace car racing has just gone up a notch, I've had a couple of seconds but yet to win a 3 car race when the pace cars are circulating in sub 10 second laps. Seriously it takes everything I have to try and stay in touch on the lead lap and execute a pit stop as efficiently as possible.

 

[Billy_Cart]

Hi Graham, yep I only starting using Slot.it pace cars in the past few weeks (COVID-19 period) as I had always thought they would be too quick and too hard to setup. Prior to this I had programmed a few of my Scalextric Aussie V8 supercars and up until now had been my goto pace cars for racing (standard setup but I have changed the tyres to MJK urethanes). Here is a link to a thread with this demo race of Scalextric pace cars I did a couple of years ago.
https://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175938&p=2068898

 

[Billy_Cart]

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

Now that is starting to sound like a dream job Shad, happy to oblige, not sure the "cost/benefit" analyses will stack up, but if my costs are covered I at least will benefit 😁😎.