Digital Lap Counter cant be used in Analogue mode with C7042

[cobro]

Digital Lap Counter cant be used in Analogue mode on C7042 !!!

The Digital lap counter (3 big red LEDs and a green LED) causes a short when using analogue mode with the C7042. Replacing it with a 1/2 straight, analogue works fine.

Why would the Digital Lap Counter cause this problem (Why would it join the tracks together?)

Is there a simple 'Cut the wire' fix, like there is for the curved digital lane change track?

Any help much appreciated!

Thanks

C

[Andy P.]

In digital mode the tracks (rails) have power all the time even if no car is on the track. For that reason must digital-only track pieces i.e. the lane-changing straights and curves (not to be confused with C8203 crossovers) the with a "flipper" on them and the lap counters have the lanes electrically connected inside.

Pulling the trigger on a digital controller basically sends a signal to the car (which has an ID) "take power now" as opposed to an analog controller that is just a switch, phyiscally blocking power to the lane.

Because up to 6 cars can be on the track at one time on a digital layout each car has an ID assigned to a controller. The little LED under the car not only signals a lane change, but it also signals the car's ID. If you could see infra red light you would see it blinking slightly differently depending on the car's ID (think of Morse code).

For that reason simply decoupling the lanes is not enough for lane counting to with the digital lane counter. The digital lane counter needs to know the ID of the car to count the laps which is not possible in analog mode.

For lap counting (and a whole lot more of fun features) I recommend ARC AIR. It is basically the best possible analog powebase out there. If money is an issue you could be ARC ONE but I would hope ARC AIR would be within your budget...

[cobro]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for replying.

I'm using the C7042 Digital Controller set to Analogue mode and it works just fine with analogue cars. (To be honest that's the main reason I bought the C7042). Like many scalextric fans, I've got a lot of cars that will only ever be analogue.

My circuit has the digital straight crossover in it, but as long as the lane changers are set to not change lane, it all works fine in Analogue too.

I'm deliberately not using the digital lane changing curves as I know that causes a short.

As I'm sure you know, the Digital lap counter doesn't provide power to the track, it actually gets it's power from the track, so perhaps it's connected to both lanes - hence the short in Analogue mode.

I wonder if anyone in the forum is aware of a mod to make the Digital Lap Counter still work in Digital Mode and be passive in Analogue mode (not counting laps). I know there's a simple snip mod for Digital Curves to make them Analogue compatible (obs no lane changing) so I live in hope..

Cheers

[Andy P.]

As I said the digital lap counter has a sensor that picks up the ID of the car from the LED in the digital chip. If it does not see an ID (in this case an infra red [iR] flash) it won't count it,

There is no easy way to to modify the sensors to simply detect a car passing.

That requires and IR light beam to be broken which the senors int he lap counter in incapable of doing.

The sensors in ARC PRO are a more modern version that do have the ability to switch in between.

You could likely modify the lap counter (I have only ever used ARC products so I am not sure) to at least not short out in analog mode but the time and effort to make it work in analog mode are simply not worth it.

You could isolate the lanes and leave it and an older analog lap counter like the C8215 or failing that get an ARC ONE and do the "brake modification" (it can be found here and on other forums) which means all it does is count laps and provide pitstop ability.

I reckon ARC ONEs will go real cheap come February...