steve m
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 11:41 AM |
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Scalextric classic track to digital
A couple of months ago i ressurected my old scalextric (1970 model) for myself and grandson, and have added some new classic track with new handsets
and power supply etc from ebay, cheap!!
I am now thinking on going digital, so we can use more cars at the same time.
so if i buy the digital pack and track converters (sport to classic)
question,
will the old track be suitable with the digital ?
roughley how long can the track be before we loose power on "the other side"as we currently have about 40 pieces of track with no
noticable power drop
and with the new setup, this would be 60-70 track lengths?
and, ! has anyone noticed the price hike in scalextric on ebay since James May did the Brooklin track programme ???
some items have doubled in price
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MK9R
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 11:55 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by steve m
A couple of months ago i ressurected my old scalextric (1970 model) for myself and grandson, and have added some new classic track with new handsets
and power supply etc from ebay, cheap!!
I am now thinking on going digital, so we can use more cars at the same time.
so if i buy the digital pack and track converters (sport to classic)
question,
will the old track be suitable with the digital ?
roughley how long can the track be before we loose power on "the other side"as we currently have about 40 pieces of track with no
noticable power drop
and with the new setup, this would be 60-70 track lengths?
and, ! has anyone noticed the price hike in scalextric on ebay since James May did the Brooklin track programme ???
some items have doubled in price
The new digital stuff looks brilliant!! My son has a sports set which is slowly growing, i think as time goes on i may have to upgrade to digital for
"him"
From what i understand from my reading up on it, any track works with digital, you just need the cars and controllers
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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02GF74
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 12:12 PM |
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not knowing the details, I suspect this is much like trains.
the digital signal is passed on the rails and requires a decoder inside the train.
if that is the case, the track should be the same but as you say, new cars, or modified ones, are required plus the controlled.
sounds like a PIC project if you knew the protocol.
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 12:32 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
sounds like a PIC project if you knew the protocol.
Scalextric Digital Protocol
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Liam
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 01:06 PM |
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The loosing power at the far end of the track problem is caused by voltage drop due to the resistance of the track and poor connections between track
pieces (so worse with old dirty track, and would be worse the higher the current demand is - i.e. multiple cars with digital). I would have thought
you could eliminate this by running higher guage cable from the power supply to the extremities of the track, therefore keeping the whole track at a
nice 12V (or whatever it is nowadays). In fact I'm sure this is so obvious to scalextric people there must be off the shelf products available
for this very task!
Liam
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Bluemoon
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 01:35 PM |
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You can, run digital on the classic track, but you need an adapter as the tracks are different. You can by a kit that transforms you classic system to
digital (can contains the above converter track), it is possible..
Also you can convert the old cars to digital so long as you can fit the electronics into the old cars...
As above though the track needs to be clean and good connections else it may not work.. So I guess it depends on the state you your track..
Dan
[Edited on 23/11/09 by Bluemoon]
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rallyingden
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 03:05 PM |
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When I was a kid Brother & I had a track that filled parents drive ...... including a 30 foot stright !! Pits etc... Wish I still had it it would
be worth a fortune 
RD 
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 03:53 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Liam
The loosing power at the far end of the track problem is caused by voltage drop due to the resistance of the track and poor connections between track
pieces (so worse with old dirty track, and would be worse the higher the current demand is - i.e. multiple cars with digital).
Many years ago dad built my brother and I a huge 4 lane Scalextric track in the (converted) loft. Poor connections between track pieces was such a
problem that he eventually soldered small link wires between every track section since it was a permanent layout. Was totally reliable after that
unless you didn't play with it for a while, in which case the tracks needed a bit of a scrub with emery paper.
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contaminated
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 04:07 PM |
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Just get yourself a digital starter set. It'll be fine as long as your classic track is reasonable. Some info here:
http://www.slotcarcentre.co.uk/acatalog/upgrade.htm
Interestingly I've just yesterday dug all mine out. 25 cars (3 I scratch built), two complete Scalextric Sports sets and a fair bit more sport
track
Oh, and bear in mind it's not just that you need to "chip" old cars to get them to use digital capabilities - analogue cars
won't actually run on digital track. So if like me you like playing with the older stuff don't bother and just get some Sport track and a
couple of converters.
You can use special Scalextric jump leads to power up far away parts of the track and Scalextric Sport let's you power each lane independently
to avoid this. For digital, since 6 cars run in two lanes it's not an issue - other than a particular track piece that you need every so
often.
[Edited on 23/11/09 by contaminated]
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stevebubs
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| posted on 23/11/09 at 04:50 PM |
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You can have a pretty long setup on one power supply..
 
Scalextric 1
 
Scalextric 2
[Edited on 23/11/09 by stevebubs]
[Edited on 23/11/09 by stevebubs]
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steve m
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| posted on 24/11/09 at 10:51 AM |
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Thanks Guys for the response, also shows that im not a "sad git" for playing with toy cars
I will look on fleabay to source some new digital track
Steve
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Liam
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| posted on 24/11/09 at 11:55 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by steve m
Thanks Guys for the response, also shows that im not a "sad git" for playing with toy cars
No, it just shows there are a lot of sad gits who play with toy cars 
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