Home Racing World

Bill that power supply will do the job very nicely and I personally would lean towards the electronic controllers

I second that.

Pro Motor controllers for commercial raceways are positive polarity. I think all of their home set controllers are negative polarity. That means they are not interchangeable. Unlike resistor controllers (Parma), Electronic controllers only work one way. If you are content with home set racing, the home set version (negative polarity) controllers will work fine. If you want to get into re-wiring for positive polarity, you should get positive polarity controllers. My advice is to re-wire for positive, but I guess that's not necessary if you never leave your basement. I'm not sure why all sets are negative polarity, unless that us the standard for Europe.

You get all kinds of theories about the reason for one polarity or another when you get a bunch of slot car guys together. All I know is that negative grounding is standard for many things all around the world, including the car in your driveway. Is that relevant? I don't know! I never go to a commercial track anymore, so negative polarity is it for me. Frankly, I would just get another, cheaper controller for the occasional trip to a commercial track if I was in your spot.

As to the connectors, Just call MRC (they sell Ninco here) and see if they will give you a straight answer. I understand that some of the bad actors of the past there are gone. Otherwise, I'm sure we can figure it out right here on HRW.

Thanks for the clarification on the polarity issues fellas - very helpful. I'll be going with a negative controller, as I never go to a commercial track. The closest one to me is at Professor Motor, and it's really not that close. Friends and family racing at home is fine for me anyway.

Before I go and order the adjustable power supply, I'm going to need to verify if it will connect to the Ninco power base. I don't solder, so I need it to be plug and play. Is the 5 amp model that I linked to plenty of power, or should I pay another 10 bucks and get the 10 amp model? It seems like the 5 amp model would be plenty, but I want to be sure.

Is MRC the Model Rectifier corporation? I don't see where they sell Ninco.

Thanks,
Bill

The supply is fine. But it's not plug and play. You will need to wire the original power plug to it.

There ya go! Depend on HRW.

To adapt any power supply or controller, all you need to do is cut the hookup wires to the track from the current power supply and hook them up to the new power supply. You don't have to solder, you just twist them together and wrap some tape around them.

To change to standard positive polarity wiring all you do is switch the positive from your power supply to the controller feed and take the negative straight to the track. No other changes are made. Slot car wiring is the most basic you will find and there are great diagrams on the internet to show both polarities. The only difference in the two is how the wires hook to the power supply.

It is assumed the European standard is negative polarity, because the English have always treated ground differently than we do. They used to even have positive ground in their automotive wiring, they finally switched to neg ground in their auto wiring. Scalextric set the first standards and they hooked positive straight to the track and negative thru the controller and that started to standard of negative polarity as home set racing still uses.

Who knows? Since you only home race, it doesn't really matter.

Since you are American, your cars should run to the right as you look at the track!!! This is always a good discussion to start, too!!! Ha!Ha!

[quote="mattb"
Since you are American, your cars should run to the right as you look at the track!!! This is always a good discussion to start, too!!! Ha!Ha![/quote]

Oh boy - my track has much better flow when going to the left, in a clockwise direction. :(

I've done plenty of wiring on my boats over the years, but solder usually isn't indicated aboard because it doesn't hold up to the stresses of the marine environment. So it was always female/male fittings and heat shrink to cover the connections, making knowing how to solder irrelevant. Good thing too, because the few times I've tried at home, the results were less than impressive. :(

Thanks everyone for the great information.
Bill

I've had that power supply in the 10 amp version for a couple of years now and it has performed flawlessly. I also turn it down so the grandkids can run the wheels off of the cars. They love it.

Guys there are two "no solder" ways to connect two wires that are very good and will last nearly forever.

You can buy wire nuts for wire as small as we use. Just strip the two pieces of wire, twist them together and screw a wire nut over the twist.

You can also get splice connectors at the auto parts store. You just lay your two pieces of wire in the connector and squeeze it shut. You don't even need to strip the wire and it is completely insulated.

Guys in the hardware store or auto parts store would show it and explain it if you wanted them to.

For your purposes that power supply will be fine, for a four lane club track I would recommend a minimum of 10 amps however.
I have never seen a Ninco powerbase, but I do have a skidpad made up of Ninco track. I made up some clips like this out of phosphor bronze from the K&S display at my local hardware store, they fit into the underside of the track rails.



Track polarity is a confusing subject, it refers to the direction that electricity will go through the controllers. Set type tracks are wired for what we call negative polarity and most club type tracks are wired for positive polarity.





You can switch from one scheme to the other by switching the wires to the power supply and also the ones that go to the track rails, the cars will still run in the same direction.
If you only use resistor controllers it does not matter which scheme you use. If you wanted to use an electronic controller, electricity can only go one way through those, so you would need a controller that matches your track. For aftermarket controllers the positive polarity type is the most common, there are also a few dual polarity controllers available.