Track Power Issues

[Chiefy2shoes]

Hi, I'm having issues with power inconsistencies over my track. I haven't had any scalextric for about 25 years but last week went a bit crazy and purchased loads of stuff. The cars go round the track fine but I need to depress the trigger a bit more in certain sections. It was a lot more evident that there was a drop in power on certain parts when I tried calibrating cars using the Magic App. 

Could this be due to the track being 24m long?

Not only are there track inconsistencies, I am also seeing wildly different performances from different makes of car. The Scalextric GTE runs quite nicely but the Carrera BMW M1 and MSC Metro need way more power to get them round the track. Is this normal?

I have hoovered and cleaned it to no avail.  

The GTE needs 20% power while calibrating to get half way around the track and then 30% for the remaining.

The Carrera BMW and Metro needs 30-50%

So ultimately, two questions really:

How can I improve track power?

Why do different cars need different amounts of power?

Any help appreciated.

[McLaine]

Whole host of reasons why different cars would need different power. I'd worry about that after getting a good clean running track.

 

Digital racing needs good power throughout, as signals are sent down the power to the chips in the cars.

 

1) Track maintenance: Turn suspect track peices over, and gently tighten the rail to the plastic by bending the metal tabs with a spoon handle or something blunt that won't harm you or the track if you slip.

 

2) Jumper cables: I'd say essential for longer ciruits. I just bought some from Jadlam racing. Simply a decent length of wire with female ends that clip directly to power tap tabs on the underside of standard straights. Wire one end near the power base, and the other about half way around (can break it into more sections with multiple taps). Care to wire each end of a single wire to the same rail.

 

3) Track cleaning: Theres some gubbins, Inox I think, that Gorp or others can tell you about. I just use a bit of wet n dry with wd40.

[gorp]

Nice job McLaine  !!!

 

Make sure you have 2 power packs on the arc pro.

 

Off the top of my head and just guessing at the missing details,

carrera is another brand and may have different power requirements,

And if the metro is a scaly,  it may have a different style motor than the gte,  with different rpm.

Excessive magnets can also slow things down.

[Chiefy2shoes]

The track uses ARC Air.

I have ordered a pwer tap and will do the track maintenance you suggested. Hopefully that will resolve it.

Thanks for the help!

[gorp]

Gee,  never knew magic was for analog too.

But now see that McLaine  mentions it over on arc app forum  

        

Anyway, skip 2nd power pack suggestion.

[McLaine]

I do the track maintenance regularly Chiefy.

 

I don't have a fixed circuit, so the first thing I do after building a ciruict is locate the bad connections, then take out the 2 offending peices and tighten up their rails.

 

Unfortunately, if you rebuild often like me, the connections get loose over time.

[Andy P.]

Yep.. but a quick twist of a flathead screwdriver should fix it. :-)

[Mr.Black]

I just upgraded to digital by buying the ARC PRO base, thankfully from what I've read here I seem to have gotten latest version (2 white plugs visible through cooling slots track-side, stamped 3518REF01 on the bottom) I've added this to the Sport track I've already got in place of the power base that came with the GT Interactive set. 

 

I've only recently found these forums so please forgive me if I havent had a chance to search it all yet and post duplicate questions.

The ARC PRO base came with only one power supply but has two spots to plug the power supplies into.

Is this like my older Sport base, In that if I plug in two power supplies, each will power one lane individually?

Is it necessary to have two power supplies given that I never run more than two lanes, and will rarely (if ever) run more than two cars at once?

[gorp]

Will skip the long answer.

 

Short answer is you will never regret having a 2nd power pack.

 

See slotracer.online for arc pro manual.

 

 

 

 

[Andy P.]

You can get by on one power pack but two will give you more peace of mind.

[Mr.Black]

Thank you!

Will get a 2nd power supply asap