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I've just spent the last 2 evenings researching and modifying a carrera go power track to give full power to the controller plunger and turn the turbothrust button into a brake. Actually less than 2 hrs work with minimal soldering skills. Has anyone ever been done this before? If so what kind of longevity can I expect of the controllers?

Randy

sounds interesting! I'd like to know how you did that.

Randy,

Sounds like a good thing and should not hurt the controllers. Do you now get "turbothrust" when the plunger is fully depressed?

Kihm

blu58, What I did was to remove all the resistors on the power track circuit board and run 2 jumpers. I used the newly vacated holes on the circuit board after I cleaned them out with a 0.045" drill. There are 3 contact strips on the controller connection. I ran 1 jumper from the center contact on the controller to the - (neg) contact (front rail, red wire) on the power connection. I ran the other jumper from the right hand contact on the controller connection to the black wire (rear rail) contact on the circuit board.

Kihm, Yes I do with a nice smooth controllable transition from stop to full throttle. The turbothrust button is now a very positive brake.

Randy

sounds very interesting. can you press both buttons at the same time for a variable brake effect? or would sparks fly? :o
thanks

The turbothrust button is just an on/off switch, so if you press both at once you get a similar effect as using a lineloc on a 1:1 car. I'm trying to learn how to just tap the turboBRAKE button but the controller is so smooth and responsive that I find the brake really isn't necessary

Terrific idea! I do not know of anyone who has done this. PLEASE, put up a schematic and we'll put it in the tips and tricks! :banana-rock:

Thanks Chuck, I'll try and get some pics taken and post them this evening.

Randy

Great job Randy!!! This thread is definitely a "keeper" for Building Tips.

Ok, Here's what I've done.

First of all I've been informed that we are going to Edmonton for Xmas. Where a certain pint sized racer intends to hand me parts of my anatomy on a platter as I've never thumb raced before. Not going to happen!



I put this together a couple of weeks ago to practice thumb control. Plus I was bored with the Artin track. I was not overly impressed with the stock Go controller as it was mostly a matter of holding the plunger down and bumping the turbothrust button. I decided to look inside the controller to see if there was something that could be changed to increase controller response. I discovered that the controller is a 3 wire system, with a black, blue and red wire. I ran resistance tests on the soldered ends of the wires in the controllers and the contact strips at the terminal end. The black wire is a direct feed from the + (pos) on the power pack lead. The blue wire was connected to the rear rail of the lane on the track with 35ohms resistance. The red wire ran through a contact switch activated by the turbothrust button and ran to the rear rail on the track with 3 ohms resistance. This is where the light bulb started to get a faint glow (it takes awhile to get to full intensity) :lol: . I buttoned it back up and pulled the bottom off of a power connection track.





Looking at the circuit board the +(pos) lead from the power supply connection (marked on the track connection terminal) goes direct to the left contact strip on the controller connection. The red wire (turbothrust) from the controller goes to the center contact strip which goes through a 3 ohm resistor to the black wire soldered to the rear rail of the lane The blue wire from the controller goes to the right contact strip through a 33 ohm resistor back to the center contact strip. At this point the light bulb is starting to get real bright.





I decided that if I removed all of the resistors and ran a jumper direct from the right hand controller contact to the rear rail contact that I would have full power to the controller. I then decided that if I ran a jumper from center controller contact strip to the front rail contact strip that I could use the turbothrust button as a brake. Here's where reality sets in. I went to The Source (used to be Radio Shack) to get 22 gauge wire in black and red. $11.00 a roll for solid and they only had 1 color. Then I spotted these for $4.95



I made my mods put the bottom plate back on and did a test drive for about 2 hrs. What a difference. I have full control from idle to WOT, instant response from any speed, and the car comes to a complete stop in under 12". Total time was about an hour mostly taken up with pulling the resistors and trying not to touch the circuit board.

Randy

Amazing and very creative idea!
Awesome job and thanks for sharing!!
Greg

Very cool, thanks for sharing this with us!!!

I've been frustrated in the past with the whole "trubo" thing -- exactly as you said getting a good time usually boils down to thumb all the way down and precision blipping of the turbo. This looks like a great improvement -- so now I've got a fun weekend project ahead of me :-)

Thanks again!

Great tutorial, Randy! Posted to "Building Tips" thread.

Thanks guys. blu58spider, let us know what you think of the mod when you get it done. P.S. those 4 small resistors had to be "worked" out one leg at a time. I rested my hand on the board to hold it steady and used a pair of tweezers to pull on them while I was heating the leg. HTH

Randy

Randy at least you were successful where I just ruin mind, not having any back ground in wiring It's new territory for me so I gave up on that.

Glad that you thought it out so when I replace my terminal, I'll be able to have brakes.
Bib I hate the turbo button also but I love the size of 143 so I stick with it.