Dr_C

Hi Paul, Now that you have a short circuit causing the APB to trip into safe mode, it’s probably time to separate the powerbase from the track in order to establish whether the short is inside the powerbase or within the racetrack. If the latter it could be a rail-to-rail short or perhaps an internal short within the lane changers. Clearly a simple rail-to-rail short would be the easiest to fix so let’s hope that is the case. However, the gradual deterioration you describe over your earlier posts does suggest that a failing electronic component may be the cause. I hope these thoughts are helpful in addition to what Andy has already suggested. c

Hi there, From my experience the most common fault that occurs with Scalextric lane changers is the mechanical one described above where a solenoid link pin becomes detached leading to the flipper only operating in one direction. Repair is straight forward but a bit fiddly. The second most common fault (from my experience) is an electrical one whereby a small self-resetting fuse fails - either as open circuit or intermittent open circuit. This results in the lane changer becoming completely dead or erratic in its operation. The self-resetting fuse is a ‘polyfuse’ with 0.5Amp rating - typically labelled ‘LF050’ with board-level white silk screen printing as ‘R6’. If the fuse fails then it needs to be replaced and this requires some basic electronics/soldering repair skills. c

Hi Paul, There is a FFC style ribbon cable which connects the LED/button panel to the main circuit board. If some LEDs and buttons are not working, most likely this cable is not seated correctly. There are surface mount sockets at both ends. If you have electronics repair skills you could open up the powerbase and re-seat the cable at both ends. Note there are release tabs on each socket. If you don’t have the necessary skills or if it’s still in warranty, a return to Hornby for repair would make sense. Hope that helps. c

Andy P. as always has provided a very nice, and accurate, response to the question raised. However there is another opportunity here - particularly if you want to measure the speed of the Scalextric cars in your own collection. For some users the answer could be to build your own track-side speedometer. Good results can be achieved using a couple of blade detector boards (for example as used in the ARC range of powerbases), an Arduino microcontroller (with some simple code), a small LCD/LED display and a handful of resistors. The possibilities become seemingly endless when Scalextric systems (either analog or digital) are combined with an interest in electronics IMO. c

I like the fact that Scalextric have developed a DPR decoder which has excellent power control for digital slot racing, and in addition, which has a nice hidden extra for users who wish to develop/apply their soldering skills. Rather than route folk to another website (as per above post), perhaps it makes better sense to have a DIY upgrade section on this forum. This could be used to exemplify the types of upgrade which can be carried out on Scalextric products to unlock their more advanced features - for example brake lights in this case. Is this an appropriate topic for the Scalextric forum? c

Thinking about trouble shooting an ARC PRO which fails to bind on some (but not all) IDs I would recommend two simple checks to ensure all of the six green LEDs and all of the six buttons on the top-panel are functioning correctly. 1/ to check the six green LEDs. Here you need to monitor the LEDs as power is first applied to the ARC PRO. Do all six LEDs briefly flash once ? If all is well they should. 2/ Having checked the green LEDs are all functioning then test the buttons one at a time. Here you should make a double press (as used for binding car-to-ID). Does the corresponding green LED flash three times? If all is well it should. Knowing that the LEDs and buttons are functioning correctly is a useful diagnostic for the problems you described earlier. I hope this is helpful. c

Are you sure the lane changer is functioning at all? Maybe the flipper is left in the change lane position and the powerbase itself may have been set to analog mode? In analog mode the red and green throttle channels control the power to each of the two lanes respectively… so if a car crosses from one lane to the other (which it shouldn’t do) then control of that car will pass from one controller to the other - precisely what you report. c

Hi Mark and Andy, If the curved lane changer functions correctly with the ARC PRO in digital mode then likely you have a later variant of the ARC PRO. In this case the issue in analog mode is simply that the curved lane changer was originally designed for digital mode only as it has a flexible circuit board inside the curved lane changer which permanently electrically connects the two lanes. This causes an overload in analog mode. At the time the curved lane changers were designed there were no dual mode digital/analog powerbases - so the analog problem only emerged later on. As Andy mentions there is a simple modification to snip or detach the flexible circuit board in two places - you just need to make sure you identify the correct two places! Sorry I don’t have any photos to exemplify. If searching.. it’s often called ‘the analog snip’. Hope this helps. c

Yes… I have been stumped by this question for a while, i.e. how to adjust braking strength? For the APB C7042 it required hobbyists to adapt the powerbase firmware and the in-car decoder firmware in order to implement adjustable braking. For the ARC PRO the BLE protocol allows for adjustable braking which is nice. However the Scalectric ARC APP doesnt as yet implement this added feature - and even then the in-car decoder would need updated firmware (which has been tested by hobbyists but its not an authorised Scalextric/Hornby upgrade). So that’s the progress in terms of firmware upgrade potential. Meanwhile there may be other options. So prompted by this post I will take a fresh look then report back - if that would be helpful?

I guess one more thought… for analog slotcars the current to the motor is usually controlled directly by a variable resistance inside the throttle controller so this resistance will get warm at high motor amps. For digital slotcars the throttle controller sends a signal which then codes a digital signal which is delivered over the track rails to an electronic decoder inside the car. This decoder then controls the motor power directly. With the wired controllers used with the APB this is still a variable resistance plus added resistance to signal brake and lane change. With the ARC PRO powerbase the throttle controller signals are wireless at 2.4GHz. So as Andy P says… this subject gets quite complex depending on what system you have… and what you wish to achieve… Hope this adds some useful detail. c

First, many thanks Andy P for reference to my work on firmware for pacer cars. Upgrading firmware in our digital decoders (or DPR chips as we often call then) is one way to unlock extra features for digital slotcars. A good few years back a digital slotcar enthusiast called Ian Harding (MIH) wrote new firmware to unlock extra features such as adjustable braking strength and head/tail lights on/off. It was primarily aimed at use with the APB C7042 powerbase. Many of the added features did not transfer across for use with the ARC PRO powerbase. I took a look at the firmware and did a partial update in January 2019. As Andy P mentions there is more to be done… i.e. to bring back those nice extras for use with the ARC PRO digital powerbase and importantly to add some additional pacer car features too. The extra features and new features in the pipeline are: 1/ Lighting control. 2/ Adjustable braking strength. 3/ Tunable low speed running. 4/ Programmable fixed speed pacer car function. The fixed speed pacer car function should include random lane changing (as per the question raised by this thread) and will enable up to six cars to run as pacers within the Hornby ARC app. It’s work in progress over the winter of this year… but it will happen so please stay tuned. That said, loading new firmware is not for everyone… its a bit technical in places. Kind regards, c

Sorry for a very late response on this thread… the above post which suggests that a simple rotation of the lap sensor through 180 degrees facilitates reversal of race direction will have some limitations: 1/ it will function correctly with the Magic app but likely will give problems with the Hornby app which needs to read the ‘exit’ sensors too. 2/ the problem in using this approach with the Hornby app would not be apparent in a simple two lane oval test track. However, if there were any lane changers in the forward direction between the ‘lap’ sensors and the ‘exit’ sensors then in real race conditions then some laps will fail to register. Not a good idea in my opinion. Hope this is a useful input. c

Hi Justin, Welcome to the forum and certainly an interesting question. The answer is not too straight forward sadly so a few thoughts from me: 1/ The socket/s will need very careful replacement as they do several things: - pin and outer connection for PSU power and here the outer and inner diameters are a bit unusual and hard to source from standard electronics supplier. - the solder pad footprint of the replacement part needs to fit too. - both sockets include amake/break sense function to alert the powerbase as to whether 1 or 2 PSUs are plugged in. This sets the parameters for the current overload circuits. Based on the above I think there are only really three options: 1/ send back to Hornby for repair. 2/ ask Hornby if they could supply replacement dc sockets or identify a part number. 3/ use a forum such as slot car international to ask if anyone has a dead SSD powerbase they could send you to salvage the required sockets. For my part I will take a look at the 4 car powerbase, the APB and the ARC PRO to see if they all use precisely the same type of socket. Hope the above helps... at least to some extent? Kindest regards and hope you get things sorted... please share progress on the forum...as a last resort to get the powerbase running we could look at some kind of flying lead arrangement with careful allowance for the sensors I mentioned. c

Hi Robcab, As mentioned by woodcote the protocol has not been released by Hornby. The ARC PRO controllers use a nRF51822 microcontroller in conjunction with a Nordic proprietary 2.4GHz protocol known as Enhanced Shockburst (ESB). The project you propose would be quite complex to implement. The ESP32 doesnt have an ESB mode. So you would need to use an ESP32 in conjunction with an nRF24L01+. This would provide WiFi via the ESP32 and ESB via the nRF device. As I mention this would be quite an advanced project, and depending what you wish to achieve there may well be easier options. I hope this information is interesting and helpful. c

The idea of putting two powerbases electrically in tandem is a really bad idea as highlighted by Andy and others above. The techical reason is that the track rails are driven by electronic circuits which are intended to supply power to the track but not absort power from the track. The latter is likely to damage the circuits inside the powerbase. So one powerbase per track only. The damage likely to result would not be prevented by any kind of software feature... it is simply a really bad idea. C