Current Break Track

[barryhi33]

When and why would you use a 'Current Break Track' ?

[woodcote]

It was part of the old Scalextric Sport World system that was sold between 2004 and 2008, where racers raced each other over the internet. It was a nice idea, probably ahead of its time and never took off. The RMS side of it was supposed to be pretty good. Maybe ARC could integrate some of the Sport World idea, in a simplified form, via social media.

[barryhi33]

It was part of the old Scalextric Sport World system that was sold between 2004 and 2008, where racers raced each other over the internet. It was a nice idea, probably ahead of its time and never took off. The RMS side of it was supposed to be pretty good. Maybe ARC could integrate some of the Sport World idea, in a simplified form, via social media.

Errrr ok .....

If anyone could translate into English that would be good :)

[Dr_C]

In very simple terms the track piece with dead spots is a simple car position detector. In analog operating mode, the powerbase can then look for breaks in track current in each lane... these occur for each lane every time a car traverses a dead spot. Two dead spots were used on each lane within a single track piece to create a double signal in order to reduce false positives. Of course the technique does not cross over to digital where multiple cars can share the same lane. In this case IR phototransistors that read car ID signals are much more useful for position sensing.

 

All of Woodcotes explanation then describes the particular Scalextric analog product that made use of this dead spot sensor approach... so the only users who would have had need of these specific track pieces were users of that now long discontinued analog product. As and when internet racing returns... as it certainly will (in my opinion)... no one will need recourse to those old current break track pieces... something far more advanced will become available...

 

Does this help?

 

C

[barryhi33]

In very simple terms the track piece with dead spots is a simple car position detector. In analog operating mode, the powerbase can then look for breaks in track current in each lane... these occur for each lane every time a car traverses a dead spot. Two dead spots were used on each lane within a single track piece to create a double signal in order to reduce false positives. Of course the technique does not cross over to digital where multiple cars can share the same lane. In this case IR phototransistors that read car ID signals are much more useful for position sensing.

 

All of Woodcotes explanation then describes the particular Scalextric analog product that made use of this dead spot sensor approach... so the only users who would have had need of these specific track pieces were users of that now long discontinued analog product. As and when internet racing returns... as it certainly will (in my opinion)... no one will need recourse to those old current break track pieces... something far more advanced will become available...

 

Does this help?

 

C

ok - I am making progress :)

So for what reason would the powerbase need to identify the car position in analogue - there is mention of internet racing but I am still struggling to connect the dots. So each users powerbase would know when a car passes over this section of track (presumably this track would be positioned near the the finish line ?) - so would there be software both ends that used this to count laps and identify a winner ?

Thankx

[Dr_C]

I believe in those days the idea was to have multiple current break track pieces distributed roughly evenly around the track... the base would then know the time at which the car enters each zone of track. But this is where my knowledge of the obsolete system comes to an end... but l8e you I would like to know more... there must be a new product opportunity for Scalextric which makes use of state-of-the-art internet-of-things technologies... any Scalextric Sport World enthusuasts oit there who would like to share a wish list of what a functionality should be included in a 2018 version of internet enabled slot slot car race system should? Presumably digital 6 car mode at the very least?

 

C