Home Racing World

If you are going with the packaged Trackmate set up, dead strips are easier to set up in most cases too. I would go deadstrip on an oval for as you mentioned, " the clean look". and the only they way the DS can double count is if an errant car jumps into the wrong slot just before the DS.

I used both. Dead strips is the way to go. Easy, clean look, reliable.

+1

I've used both, and now that I have dead strips I'll never go back.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You won't have to worry about double counts due to a car in the wrong lane because you can set a minimum read time. Any lap that is less than the minimum will not count. A car that goes over the counter in the wrong lane will miss a lap, you can add a lap by pressing Shift and the lane number. You can subtract a lap by pressing Ctrl and the lane number. I put colored dots on the corresponding keys of my computer to make that easier. With the latest versions of the Trackmate software an asterisk appears next to your lap total when you cross the counter and you score a lap. Sometimes a car coasts over the counter after a track call or at the end of a heat and the lap is missed, in that case there would be no lap counted and the missed lap can be added.
All of the Shoreline Model Raceways tracks have dead strips except one. The cars cross the dead strips without slowing down. The dead strips only need to be a couple of inches long. Of course if your car happens to stop on a dead strip it will not run. If you are racing and you got the lap you would move the car up a little before the power went back on. If the lap had not counted you can either add a lap and move the car up or put the car a few inches behind the dead strips.

How long does the dead strip need to be running Trakmate?

2 inches is a good standard sir.

There is another type of dead strip that will work with Carrera digital cars. More information on this is included in the article that I wrote on dead strips. If you would like a copy of the article drop me a PM with your e-mail address.