Cars not staying on track very well

[halliday]

Hello I've just bought my son a digital Scalextric and track extension pack at Christmas and having some problems with getting the cars to stay on the track when going round corners. Most of the time they skid off the track at each corner. You can't get a full lap with it the cars coming off, I've turned down the controllers to the slower speed and still they come off. It worse on the hairpin bends but happens on standard curves also. Can anyone advise what i can do to stop this happening, it's frustrating and my son is loosing interest in it cause the he can't get any proper use of it. 

[woodcote]

Hi halliday!

 

Some Scalextric cars are grippier in the corners than others and adjusting the speed on the controllers (or via the app with ARC) can really help. However, all Scalextric drivers do need to learn to slow down for the corners - sliding off is a sign of going too fast. A competition to see how many laps your son can do without coming off might be a good start.

 

There are a few things that will help with increasing the grip...

 

1) Keep the track clean. Before racing (and before turning on the powerbase) wipe away any dust or debris with a slightly moist (but not wet) microfibre cloth.

 

2) Clean the rear tyres on a strip of masking tape or duct tape. The sticky tape lifts dust and dirt off the tyres. Clean tyres and clean track = more grip.

 

3) Keep the braids straight and neat. If the braids - at the front of the car - are a bit messy, the car can de-slot too easily in the corners.

 

These tips are included in an article on the website, together with some pictures and advanced tuning techniques: www.scalextric.com/uk-en/scalextric-tuning-tips

 

I hope that helps!

[Dr_C]

Is the lane changing function working? if not you might be in analog mode. When digital cars run in analog mode with the ARC PRO - they tend to run too fast in my experience... and demonstrate the annoying characteristics you mention...

 

C

[Andy P.]

That is because digital cars in analog mode have no brakes... you need to anticipate the braking point more...

[Dr_C]

Hi Andy, the point about no brakes is correct but only part of the analog mode story... digital chipped cars have very poor low/medium speed handling in analog mode specifically with ARC PRO... it is to do with the powering up cycle of the digital chip during low duty ratio PWM signals from the ARC PRO. The advice should be digital cars only for digital mode and analog cars only for analog mode.

 

The subject was raised here because a user was experiencing difficulties with low speed handling... wrongly set to analog mode is a possible cause. Hope this helps...

 

C

[gorp]

C ,

Was going to thank you for your post which possibly explains the recent wave discussion at SF and would save me from making a costly mistake.

 

But now after testing , am wondering.

Do know the chip eats up just over a volt from early days of SF scaly digital and thus toy will run slower than analog but it is fun to beat them occasionally.

 

Set up arc one to try those very nice,new controllers (8440 ?) and got result expected.

On first step , analog moved at toddler level while digital did not move.

Second step analog moved at child level and digital at between level 1 and 2 analog.

Step 3 seemed like a major jump up with analog moving quick and digital stuck between 2 and 3 analog.

Step 4 was fastest analog and bit slower digital.

 

Now the unexpected.

Put arc pro with Riko SF fix back in track and switched it to analog using only lane 1.

First tried digital and it does not have low speed but slow medium is ok for my normal use.

When car started moving, took it off and put analog on, but it did not move.

Gave it more power until it moved slowly , then replaced with digital car which moved quicker.

Back and forth about half dozen times testing with same result.

 

For this reason , do not believe problem is digital running on analog, but is something else like excited driver trying to go around a hairpin curve with a long wheelbase car or the guide plate needs corrected or any of the things woodcote suggested.

 

Since you and woodcote, believe have the new version of the arc pro, asking either or both, to please try the same test, to see if your arc pro does have more hand control movement range for you with digital than analog  (again not concerned about lack of slow crawling speed for digital)  when running analog.

 

Thank you, gorp

 

[David Oxford]

(deleted)

[gorp]

There was a lot of details missing from the original and only post (other then repeating it under pitlane subforum) from this new track owner.

We assume when he said he bought a digital track that it is the arc pro.

He also does not mention buying any other cars so cannot assume he knows difference between  digital and an analog handling. 

There have been other new posters here who said they bought digital too, but we learn later that they bought the arc air since it looks similar with the wireless controllers.

So assuming that it was an arc pro that was switched to analog after setting the speed slower on the digital app and not on the analog app , one would expect that the main complaint would be that the changers would not work, not that the cars were too fast on the curves.

Of course if he set it on analog and then loaded the analog side of the app, the speed control should have worked with the digital car (from the set), unless this is a new found problem with the arc pro and then does that now mean the brake button on the controller also does not function for digital under analog ?

But then again he did not mention the lane changers not working.

One possibility was that his choice was to take 2 digital cars and  race them intentionally on analog while knowing the changers would not work so nothing to complain about with them, but that is not likely.

Therefore I believe the advice on digital brakes on analog probably does not apply directly here because he very like owns an arc air with 2 analog cars.

 

An interesting discussion here could be about which analog controller (3 wire with brakes or 2 wire without) does the arc air and the  arc pro wireless controllers' brakes  actually compare with.

Noticed the older wired scaly analog sets were 3 wire but today they are brakeless 2 wire.

[woodcote]

Agreed gorp. Without additional information from halliday, we are all making a lot of assumptions 😀

 

Re. braking... All modern Scalextric cars come with traction magnets as standard. Even without a brake circuit to give dynamic motor braking, lifting off the throttle does stop the car quite quickly due to the magnets - especially on a small home circuit. In eaither case, the key to slowing down is lifting off the throttle. Some of the smaller set layouts - together with the Super-Resistant cars with stronger magnets - the cars can be almost flat out. Add in a couple of extra straights from a track extension pack, the speed increases and cars come off easier. If the track extension pack is the hairpin, then you really have to learn to slow down.

[gorp]

Woodcote,

Would you please try the unexpected test from last part of Feb 9 posting.

 

Another thing have been curious about is why most, if not all, of the modern day scaly analog controllers are 45 ohm instead of say 25.

Do remember day when scaly dealers offered modified parmas with scaly plug attached or just plug with connectors attached to add your own controller choice

While back, though saw pendle still offered them.

Do know the 25 improved 1/32 car control tremendously and found only a rare track using stock 45.

(Even earlier, all tracks then running h o here used 45 instead of the stock standard set 60.)

[gorp]

Guess no one wanted to do the simple test from feb 9.

 

Really had expected that analog cars would have a longer controller movement range on arc pro analog than digital cars runninng on analog.

So getting the opposite result must be because of the powerbase itself.