DPR wiring.

[john_lowe]

Has anyone else had difficulty fitting DPR chips into recent cars because the wiring is too short, I have found this with the later MG's , Cortina's , Escorts and my latest car , the new Bentley.

[Kommandant33]

I had this with my neighbours Aston Martin GT3... in fact after drifting around the corner, one of the wires seperated from the guide!

[gdoti]

I have had this problem on a Maclaren 12C and a Vantage V12.  But it seems not to be an issue with the model of car as such - rather a manufacturing fault - no consistency in the length of cabling from the braids to the chip.  I had 2 other Maclaren 12Cs and they had sufficient play and worked just fine.

I did a bit of soldering to insert more wire on the Vantage.  Might have to do the same for the Maclaren but have asked Scalextric if they can help.

The digital coversion went OK technically, I was able to connect the chip.  What I saw was on one car the cable disconnected at the brushes end when spinning out on a corner.  I reconnected it using solder and reverted it to analogue, reassigning the digital plug elsewhere.  The Vantage had an odd symptom - changing tracks failed and it went into the middle of the cross over then returned to the original lane.   After extending the wires it worked OK and reliably.

[gorp]

It seems wire length is determined by scaly engineers to be the minimum length needed to reach the analog dpr connection.

They need to realize that using the dpr chip requires a slightly longer wire to reach a new dpr connection location.

Otherwise the solution is cutting and soldering 4 times to fix their design error.

Noticed this on chevy transam.

Since most of mine are not dpr cars,

when using the original chip in toys designed before digital age,

cannot expect scaly to have known this problem ahead of time.

[gdoti]

I got a reply from Scalextric and they were happy to warranty fix it.

I didn't have the patience so tried it myself and wound up having to order a spare for the leds, which had all the wiring I needed but more work attaching it. At £2 it wasn't an overly expensive error and my solderless method of splicing in cables proved equally useful in converting a Carrera evo Bilstein Vantage to dpr after cutting a trap door. 

[Blagard]

Snipped .....my solderless method of splicing in cables proved equally useful in converting a Carrera evo Bilstein Vantage to dpr after cutting a trap door. 

That sounds as if you were wiring in the DPR C8515 module to a non-DPR car. You don't need to cut "trap doors" if you use the C7005 which is the part to use if the car does not have a DPR plate fitted. What solderless method are you actually using?

[Blagard]

I was really supprised to read the first two posts. If I understood it clearly what you are saying is the socket to the blank DPR plate is in a different position to the socket on the C8515 module so that when you swap the blank DPR plate for the C8515 digital module the plug on the cars' wires will barely reach it! - That is very important to understand because a car sold as DPR simply should not encounter that problem.  I would expect Scalextric to replace the car or repair it when the plug does reach without the wires being under tension all at no cost whatsoever. Technically the correct route would be to return the car to the shop for just that action. The shop in turn would have to go back to scalextric.

 

The thread is very useful as a quality control issue as I feel sure scalextric will have specified to their suppliers that all DPR cars should have wiring long enough for the plug to reach the the socket on the C8515 module or the blank plate.

 

For what it is worth when working with those small plugs and scokets and in particular when the wires have very little spare length I use a pair of bent tweezers like the item linked. My fingers and thumbs are not exactly the slim type!  

 

Edit:

Whilst it is good to see Scalextric offered a warranty repair this is a fundamental fit for purpose issue so age/warranty should not be issue as you may not find this out until long after the warranty has expired. You certainly throw away such rights if you attempt to fix it yourself! 

[gdoti]

I was really supprised to read the first two posts. If I understood it clearly what you are saying is the socket to the blank DPR plate is in a different position to the socket on the C8515 module so that when you swap the blank DPR plate for the C8515 digital module the plug on the cars' wires will barely reach it! - That is very important to understand because a car sold as DPR simply should not encounter that problem.  I would expect Scalextric to replace the car or repair it when the plug does reach without the wires being under tension all at no cost whatsoever. Technically the correct route would be to return the car to the shop for just that action. The shop in turn would have to go back to scalextric.

 

The thread is very useful as a quality control issue as I feel sure scalextric will have specified to their suppliers that all DPR cars should have wiring long enough for the plug to reach the the socket on the C8515 module or the blank plate.

 

For what it is worth when working with those small plugs and scokets and in particular when the wires have very little spare length I use a pair of bent tweezers like the item linked. My fingers and thumbs are not exactly the slim type!  

 

Edit:

Whilst it is good to see Scalextric offered a warranty repair this is a fundamental fit for purpose issue so age/warranty should not be issue as you may not find this out until long after the warranty has expired. You certainly throw away such rights if you attempt to fix it yourself! 

It is a quality issue Blagard, but I'm reluctant to be to harsh harsh on Scalextric.  In positioning the DPR to pug it in and then positioning it to screw it back in place, it's possible all the turns were in the same direction and used up all the play.  Simple process tho it is, there's still room for error on the part of the user.  Always nice to be able to get some help if that happens.  That said a bit more spare cable in the build would be appreciated.

In my case tho, to be clear, the plug could be fitted, but it didn't run properly.  It didn't change lane, bounced back to the lane it started from, and then a wire came loose from it's solder on the pickup.

The solderless method of plugging was using a spare cabled plug from the led kit (any dpr car's spare works, but I used W9930 at a cost of £1.99) and cutting the cables, stripping them, twisting the copper together and then taping it with insulation tape.  I'm getting more comfortable with solder but was finding it didn't adhere, it often dripped off the join and onto whatever was below, in one case the digital plug which was promptly rendered useless.

I prepped SCX DBR9 today using solder and it is now DPR for when I get the chip.

[gdoti]

Snipped .....my solderless method of splicing in cables proved equally useful in converting a Carrera evo Bilstein Vantage to dpr after cutting a trap door. 

That sounds as if you were wiring in the DPR C8515 module to a non-DPR car. You don't need to cut "trap doors" if you use the C7005 which is the part to use if the car does not have a DPR plate fitted. What solderless method are you actually using?

Thanks for the steer on C7005, the size looks much better for some of the smaller internal spaces.

[gorp]

The round 2 part guide has 2 thin pieces of wire attached.

They do break over time and have repaired them.

One that still works was with banding but expect it to fail.

The rest by soldering.

Never had guide problem with one piece guide.

New and improved may not be.

[jimjgsr]

Hi , I have found that trying to install the chips as shown in the directions is not possible for me . I have found that taking the car apart , the unscrewing the hatch and passing it up through the underpan will the then allow me to unplug and install the chip , then I pass the chip back though the hatch hole and screw it to the underpan. You will need to angle the chip to do this but I found by doing it this way keeps me from breaking the little forks or cradle that that the light board rests in if they have lights. I also then wipe out the excess lubrication. I also will apply Inox to the screws before putting the car back together so they don't lock up when you need to take the car apart later on

[gorp]

You must really have a problem when you cannot install a dpr

in 30 minutes like instructions show.

Have to use a pry bar here just to get it out 1st time,

even when take the body off first.

Oh is it suppose to be 30 seconds ?

Never mind guess it is just another scaly instruction guide written obviously

by someone who has never even seen the part. 

BTW you sure use a lot of lube on your toys

[jimjgsr]

@gorp

I'm sorry if I didn"t  express myself correctly. When I purchase a car I take it apart becuase the lubrication they put on the parts is to much leaving the rear axle and gears back there wet to the touch from the factory, I wipe out the excess so as not to attract lint.dust,cat hair ect.. . I live in the desert in rural AZ so dust gets into everything. My wife will apply a minute amount of Inox on the body mount screws to act as an anti seize when we put them back together so the metal screw comes out of the plastic body. We wipe off where there is to much and a tiny amount where needed in screw holes. Sorry for confusion bad headache today from weather

[Andy P.]

@gorp: jimjgsr stated in another post that he suffers from after effects of a severe illness. If it takes you 30 seconds or 30 minutes is immaterial.

Please be considerate.

[gorp]

The joke was scaly 30 second switch is a lie,

not jimjgsr.