Switching between Analogue & Digital on permanent track?

[Nezza42]

Hi, I'm new to forum and to Digital. 

I have a lot of classic & sport track along with accessories like the sport pacer system, sport lap counter, multiple sport power bases & a lot of old cars (70's & 80's)

 

I've just bought (ostensibly for my kid......but really more for me!!!) the Bugatti Digital Supercars set.

 

What I would like is to build a permanent layout with option of using either digital or analogue power.

I would like to mainly use it in digital with the analogue power bases, lap timer, pacer system installed (but not powered) but when I'm feeling like a bit of "Ol' School" racing, unplug the digital base & power up the analogue. 

Is it possible to do this? 

Cheers

 

[Andy P.]

Hi Nezza42,

Make sure you check this out:

https://www.scalextric.com/us-en/support/scalextric-digital

Couple of things to keep in mind:

Scalextric Classic track (the round "spoons" or "loops") have a shllower slot. Some newer cars "bottom out" in the slot.

Digital track must have near perfect connectivity. Older track (whether Sport or Classic) is often warped or rusted. It really has to be prsitine to work well.

 From what I know (I could be wrong as I am not yet digital) the 4-car powerbase (PB) that comes with the Bugatti Digital Supercars set cannot be switched between analog and digital. The 6-car PB hower does have an analog mode:

So if I am right that would mean you would have to pull ou the the digital PB and replace it with an analog one.

If by the "sport pacer system" you mean the Sport Challenger system it is analog only as well. I do know the Challenger system does work with other analog brands.

If you have the old, "classic" pacer system the problem is that the cars have no brakes.

The 6-car PB also has pace cars:

One thing to remember is that digital PBs put power to both lanes all the time so anything contacts the rails will burn out.

Some lane change curve sections have to modified to to work in analog mode. (see link above)

There were several lap counters available so, again, if it gets power from the rails it will likely only work in its intended mode (digital or analog, but not both).

So from looking at all this, you may want to just go for a 6-car PB and save swapping things in and out.

Have you seen ARC AIR? It has a lot of cool features not even your digital set has (pit stops, lap counting, lap times, speedometer) just not the lane changing....

[Nezza42]

Thanks for the detailed reply. After considering this & doing some further research, I have decided to just go for the advanced 6 car base & then sell my analogue stuff.

 

Seems to be the best option long term

 

Thanks again :)

[Chris99]

Good decision. New C7042 APBs are regularly going for about £70 on Ebay, which I think is a bargain. 

I actually use the APB  a lot in analogue mode as  it would be unecessarily expensive to put chips in all my cars - the controllers are smoother for one thing.

 

The as-yet unreleased ARC Pro powerbase would be an alternative worth considering if it were to be released soon, but it was actually announced a couple of years ago, so I wouldn't wait around for it.

[Andy P.]

Do a search on youtube for Greg Gaub. He has a ton of videos on how to get the most out of the 6 -car APB.

[Nezza42]

Cheers, thanks for all the info

[Adrian L]

I was given some incorrect information online and bought miles of classic track (only $50 for 300+ pieces), hoping to mix classic track and sport track with a digital system.   Bad idea.   All of my digital cars (F1, Lambo, Bugatti) have guides that are too deep and the cars scrape.   I simply gave up and started buying more sport track.

[CoraDias]

Hi...i am a new user here.If your analog cars have stock scaley motor or you just want to test your analog cars, then the analog mode of the APB will suffice. However, as Greg mentioned, the APB delivers PWM here the P stand for Pulse and believe me any serious motor will start pulsing making the analog mode completely useless. Some motors are more affected than others but in any case the racing is not as smooth as in a standard analog track.