Lane change disablers

[proxieken]

[dw5555]

Ed just started building these. He has also built it with a hand operated switch..
http://www.slotcarillustrated.com/porta ... hp?t=91644

Dave

[KD11]

An easy way to prevent the ghost cars from changing lanes and crashing into each other or the drivers cars is to put a small piece of black tape over the lane change IR LED on the bottom of the cars, again only on the ghost cars. This will eliminate lots of crashes. I usually run one ghost car on each lane, I have tried to use up to four ghost cars, but the problem is making them run identical speeds and when the speeds differ the slower car always get hit in the rear by the faster car, so what happens is a ghost car pile up or the faster car just pushes the slower car a little faster. Also you can use the Enter/Start button on the controller to stop all cars and the race. Then you have time to get everything ready to go again. Push the Enter/Start button the normal start sequence starts and the race restarts. The good part about this is that all of the lap information, car position on the tower and fuel gauge are not affected and continue as the race was never stopped. Give this a try, if it doesn't work for you then you can move on to the more complex solutions

[buspor63]

[proxieken]

Thanks for the info. I am going to try the tape trick. Mostly I am thinking of trying out racing against the ghosts, giving them magnets and me none.

In regular races I have an issue with the latest layout. One lane is shorter than the other and when the leader gets parked in that lane it becomes very difficult to pass. If you drop in to the slow lane you start to fall back. You switch back to the fast lane and catch up but then you can not get round. By adding a ghost to the slow lane it would force some switching back and forth. I just never liked the odd habit the ghosts have of slamming in to each other and me. If I can reconfigure I will to make equal lane lengths. The previous layout had a preferred line that required 2 switched per lap to get the best time and I think that worked better.

I did purchase an aftermarket supply and it has made a tremendous difference. I took a voltage reading a the rails and found I was losing about 2-3 volts from the power supply. So I run 20 volts for 124 cars and it gives me the 18 at the rails. The cars go quite fast.

[b.yingling]

I've been using anti-collision on my D1XX track for several years now. I love it. While the tape on the LED trick has some uses, when I'm running against ghost cars, I find it more challenging if they can change lanes randomly. The anti-collision chips also make human on human racing less destructive. Depending on how long you make the sensor patch, you can eliminate all or most car-on-car accidents at lane changers. The sensor lead varies on my track. The shortest are only 1/3 straight long (coming out of a long parabola), the longest is a full straight (near the high speed entrance to my main straight). Probably the best aftermarket investment I've made in my track.

Anti-collision also makes running with my grandkids less troublesome :) .

[proxieken]

Nice to see you on this forum! Your software is a real treat to use and we love the points system.

Does the sensor patch ruin the track or require much fabrication? How does it work?

[b.yingling]

You need to electrically separate one rail leading into the lane changer from the rest of the track, and have it get it's power from the anti-collision board. I did it by removing one of the little metal spring clips that connects the rails between two track sections, and taping over the rails so they didn't rub. Some people cut through the rail, but I wanted something that was reversible.

It sounds and seems more difficult than it is. Your first one will likely take you more than an hour from opening package, reading instructions, wrapping your head around it to actually installing and testing. But I did my 6 (including two doubles) in a couple of evenings. Double LCs take a little longer, obviously.