ARC Pro App some caveats.

[RoyalScam]

Greetings All!

     A few weeks ago I received my ARC Pro Platinum set and I finally had a go with it.  First let me say coming from my SCX classic set,  I'm very happy to finally go digital and am very happy with this set. 

     Awhile back, in conversation with a friend at work, (my Boss actually),  I mentioned years ago when I raced RC cars, that the club would occasionally get together and put together these massive slot car tracks in my restaurant. We were closed monday evenings.  We'd drink beer, eat well and race double elimination style.  As the years passed, people moved away, families were started, some just lost interest in racing hobbies. I myself, eventually sold the restaurant, and moved on to other things but I still had a lot of the track and cars in storage.  He said "We're racing Saturday, your place!".  After that race, he invested in a Pro Platinum with the 6 car powerbase, as did his brother, that was a year ago now.  There's been a lot of cars, track upgrades and a move to SDCC and a PC, which we're very fond of.  I decided to pre-order the ARC Pro Platinum and we used it at his house this Saturday.

     We all loved the wireless controllers and even most of the App, but a couple things we'd like to address;

Yellow light. 

So as far as I can tell, the Yellow light functionality requires someone to touch the screen of the tablet or phone to initiate.  We'd like it to act like the 6 car powerbase in that if your car comes off the track, tapping the brake button initiates.  The software could be configured to run half power or pause just like we've become used to. 

Lap Counter.

Also , we're all in our mid-fifties and our eyesight could be better, LOL.  While the App screen is informative, even when hooking it up to a TV, we still can't see what our current lap is.  Perhaps a voice stating 10 laps to go, for the leader of course, would give us a good indication of what our position is in the race.

Running without a Phone/Tablet

Sometimes, you just want to play with the set.  It doesnt seem possible to use the track without running the App, although I haven't tried analog mode.  Is this correct?

I saw in another posting that Scalextric is in the preliminary stages of releasing usb protocol for the ARC Pro powerbase.  If this happens perhaps some third party developers will get involved and address the minor issues on my wishlist, what's on yours?

I welcome all comments, and if I'm wrong on anything, please correct me.  Again, I'm very happy with my purchase and hope to involve more people into our hobby.  There's gonna be a helluva setup in my rec room eventually!

Regards,

Scam

 

 

[gorp]

Run my arc pro app free.

Scaly analog lap counter used purchased separately on ebay.

Converted scaly 4-6 car digital lap counter to separate pb4 power which also serves as great quick id-er.

[RoyalScam]

Thanks Gorp!

I'd love to try your app, point me in the right direction to find it, I'll give it a shot.  As for the lap counter, I see them on E-Bay, and know my way around a soldering iron. I'm assuming that the conversion involves separating the power rails from each lane as I recall reading several posts about the ARC Pro incompatibilities with some previous Digital Options. If you can lead me to some discussion about the conversion, it'd be much appreciated.

 

Thanks, 

Scam

[gorp]

No app is used with my arc pro.

 

Instructions for using arc pro in track without using app for lap counting.

 

Power to separate scaly 4-6 car lap counter must be removed from arc pro lanes.

Note which wire goes to right side of lane (direction of lap counter is always right to left like powerbase).

Attach 2 wires (mine has on and off switch for when lap counter is not necessary) to 2 coming out of lap counter.

Solder wires to throw away piece of short scaly track , checking with ohm meter to maintain the right side of lane,

Then connect piece to off track pb4 ( best to id with) or the pb6 or apb , while still maintaining the right to left direction of pb4 and attached wired piece.

Add scaly used analog lap counter for arc pro analog use without app.

 

Believe this is shown poorly ( my fault wanted to show how easy to do) under glad part 3 at slotcar illustrated home page, articles, how to , then scrool down.

Turned down manufacturing it and just made glad a free how to there.

 

BTW if you are one of those who cannot live without their curved changers,converting fully to glad will allow their use with arc pro off track and run analog by lane chips and is whole other how to.