How Do Carrera Digital Lane Changes Work? - What happens when I push the red controller button?
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- A lot of people ask me how the Carrera Digital Slot Cars change lanes.
This video answers the question "What happens when I push the red controller button?".
The red controller button on the front of the Carrera Digital Slot Car controller operates a lot of features on the Carrera Digital tracks.
These include :
1.) Coding the cars to the controllers
2.) Changing lanes on the track
3.) Turning your headlights on and off
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It is recommended to install a straight piece before a lane changing piece because when you go really fast, the "eye" of the car may miss the eye in the track if you are drifting out of a turn.
Good point! Thank you for the additional information!
They come a long ways since to late 60's. Our controller had 3 wires. pos., neg., and brake
I have some of those in a box. They are round like a cylinder, have a "Plunger rod" for a speed control and hook up, like you say, with 3 wires. I like the new wireless controllers as it gives us the freedom to walk around and reset our cars on the track.
thanks for explaining this, fascinating! I still have a Carrera Ford GT in original pale blue and orange
Nice car! no problem. I am glad you liked the video.
Nice, I was wondering how the switch could distinguish between 6 different cars, now I know :) I have been wanting to put together a carrera track track for a while now. The guys at work have been on me to set up my 4x12 ho set again and get the saturday beer and racing league back. I am working on it.
Sounds like fun times!
Great ! MANY of my questions answered .
That's what I like to hear! Glad to be of help.
You seem very knowledgeable on how everything works. I recently joined a club, we have a carrera 132 digital track. What we are experiencing at times is that the cars will slow down at random times (doesn't matter with car count) and the lane changers (not all but randomly stick) we have a variable external supply and have checked for any type of debris. I believe it maybe a power issue, the reason I think that because when you turn the power up to around 16v it seems to go back to normal. I was also wondering if there is a way to power the lane changing separately so we could lower the output from the psu to 13-14v. We also have burnt some chips out running the higher voltage.
We do have jumpers installed
I am not sure. Sounds like you guys modified the power system. I just ran my track "right out of the box" with some power jumpers at the mid point of my tracks.
This is dope I haven’t played with race cars In a long time I’m thinking about buying a kit to install in my recording studio to put on the wall
They are fun!
I was thinking about it too......but damn they are expensive now. I remember buying a decent airfix kit for like $22.00. I think a similar kit now is over $200.00.
Kind of the reverse of r/c planes. When I was 12 it was about $2000 to get into the air. NOw? $50 for a foamie.
@@muskokamike127 Yes, I don't quite understand how the hobby manufacturers are marking up the prices...and i sell this stuff!
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore same as the tamiya 1/12th motorcycle kits and 1/20th car kits. I remember when they were around $10 to $12 each now? Min $40 and up. No matter what electronics they put in some pieces, the basic track is just a chunk of plastic with some metal strips attached assembled by the millions by cheap labour in China.
@@muskokamike127 I know...it also has to do with inflation.
Can the tower show the position of a autonomous car ? Mine is ever showing the 7th position for an autonomous car even if I have only two cars running on the track.
It should only show the car in the 7th position if you are running a "Ghost Car". I am not sure why your tower is doing that without a Ghost Car set up.
Thanks for the explanation .
You are welcome!
So cool - I never knew how that worked.
Glad you liked the video...and that's why I made it! :D
OK, I get how the lane change works and how it's similar to a model railroad switch. But the thing with a RR switch is that when you throw the switch, it stays thrown until you throw it back. How does that work with slot cars? After you car changes lanes does the switch stay going in that direction or does it automatically set itself straight again after the car passes? Do you have to do that manually?
The switch is spring loaded, so it returns to the original position after the car goes through it.
Does the action button do multiple things? How does it distinguish on what to do?
The action button is used to program your car and then turn on the headlights and change lanes. Beyond that, there isn't too much more that it is doing.
As for how it distinguishes what it needs to do, it is based on what it is doing in a race. For example, if you want to turn on/off your headlights, your car must come to a dead stop for a few seconds, you push the button and the lights come on/turn off.
When you are racing at speed and hold the action button as you come to a switch, the button will open the switch. It won't turn on your headlights. It's all in how Carrera programmed it.
I have a double pit lane and my entry lane keeps d slotting my cars sometimes or won’t have my cars go into pits. I’ve tried everything to try and figure what’s wrong. Very irritated. Any ideas what might be the problem. Maybe the track has gone bad not sure .
Pit lanes and switches can be tricky.
First, check that the gates are opening and closing correctly.
Second, it may be the guide keels on the cars themselves and may need a little reshaping at the front with a file or sandpaper to make the front of the keel a little thinner and more arrow shaped to help direct the car into the groove.
Other than that, there could be a defect in the track parts.
Third - if all else fails, contact Carrera. They might have a solution neither of us has thought about, or even give you a replacement part if it's under warranty.
Best of luck.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore thanks a lot for your response. I’ve tried different guide keels as well. I believe it’s not opening all the way. It’s opening up literally almost but just hair off. I checked my other pit entry cause I have a double pit lane. That one I can see a slight difference as it opens 100% and never an issue with that one. So not sure if something got inside the gate somewhere and preventing it to open 100% I’ve never had any issue with my double lane change til this point . I will also do some filing on the guide keel see if I can make some adjustments there.
That's amazing, thanks for sharing
You are welcome
Do all slot car brands that are digital work on carrera digital track also do analog cars work on digital track ( obviously you wouldn't have lane change capability).
Off the shelf, only Carrera Digital cars, (Or Carrera Analog cars that have been converted to Carrera digital) will work on Carrera track.
That being said, you can convert any slot car (Motor arrangement and interior space permitting) into a Carrera digital car by installing the Carrera Digital Chip.
This is because of the location of the electric eye used to pick up the digital signal in the lane changing and lap counting features.
Analog cars will go at full speed and without any control if you just drop them directly onto the digital track. This is because the digital frequency (or power) is constant.
Hope that helped out!
Scalextric tracks the sensor is in the middle of the track , slot.it chips are compatible with those tracks as well as their chips bit carrera chips maybe only for their tracks
@@hippo4g93 Yeah...it's the location of the sensor. Like you say...those two brands are in the middle of the track. Carrera is on the left hand side.
Does this also work for the carrera 143 digital set?
I am not 100% sure as I never had the 1/43rd sets, but I can imagine it is similar.
So, can you run as many cars as controllers? If you have four lanes but eight controllers, could you code all of them and start four across two rows deep?
The Carrera control unit can only handle six 1/32 cars or four 1/24th scale cars. Hooking up extra controll units doesn't solve that problem...It would be nice to run 24 NASCARS on a circuit though! :D
I have one of these tracks and was looking for a way to sell it.
Could be tricky. Maybe EBay?
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore i dont have ebay but i could try amazon
@@fallenjonathang12 Good luck to you!
I've spent way too much money on Carrera Slot cars. They're the best!
You know it...i know it...just don't let the spouse know it! :D
Rexx Thunder worst cars to mod , heavy and sluggish
real tuning slot cars are slot.it and scalextric
...but quite indestructible. My tables are 32" of the ground, and i has kids shoot cars off at full power into the corners. The Carrera cars will fall off the table and keep going once you put them back on the track.
Our Scalextric cars exploded on impact!
When was this made? I had no idea this kind of tech was available in slot car racing
Came out around 2010.
Since 2004. Where you been?
Thanks for this! Great explanation(s).
You are welcome! hope you can check out some of my other slot car racing videos!
Hi. What scale is the car? Thanks
1/32 scale. Carrera also makes 1/24th scale Digital. They share the same controller unit.
Recent bought one of these, and tried ghost racing however, the after pressing the code button twice and saw the two red lights, I pressed the lane changer and nothing happened. I reset the controller but still nothing. The lane changer button works so I dont know what to do next. Any advice?
Not too sure on that one. Is your controller synced to the receiver?
Hey
When You Operate more than 1 Autonomous car the lapcounter in the Carrera App Can Not destinguish? Can the Carrera Lap Counter divice?
Any solution?
Any and all cars that get coded as "Ghost Cars" will all default to position #7 no matter how many cars are on the track. There is no way to change this. - sadly.
madcapromanian this is a Big shortcoming in an otherwise fantastic system (dongle and app)!
If Possible You could race alone against 5 others counting the correct number of laps.
Now it counts every time one of the ghost cars passes start/finish... i.e. 5 times as often as mine!
It should be Possible to make in a digital age!
@@martinf213 I know...but what can you do if it's flawed from the factory? Perhaps Carrera will fix this in the future, or someone in the aftermarket already has?
Is that the same principle employed by Scalextric ?
Actually, I am not too sure. It should be similar in theory.
I have a digital lane change stop working. Do you have any repair parts or know where to find them? Hate to through it away if there is a way to repair it.
Contact Carrera and explain the situation. They might be able to replace it.
Thanks
You're welcome. Glad to be of help.
Cool
Thank you Scott. glad you liked the video and I hope you can check out some more on my channel.
(I have track plan building videos)
Can two cars run on the same track at the same time? If sohow are they controlled separately doesn't the current run through the track?
Think of it as remote control. Each car is coded to the controller. The track rails are sending the signals to the cars. Therefore, more than 2 cars can run on the same rails because the rails are able to send up to 6 individual signals on each rail consistently.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore okay so the track is not sending the power for the electric motor then? It's just sending a signal to the car? Does the car have a battery in it then?
The track sends power as well as the signal. It's operating on AC current instead of the old DC current from the analog days.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore Okay so the track has full power and the signal allows the car to use varying amounts of that power?
If there are 2 cars close together, and the first car wants to change lane, is there ever a risk that the second car will accidentally change lane as well? E.g. if they're going fast and the paddle doesn't have time to swing back?
Also, if you're going really slowly, is there a risk that the paddle will swing back before you've reached it, making it impossible to change lanes?
2 cars have gone through the lane change at the same time when they are bumper to bumper.
As for going slow, as long as the front red button is held down long enough before entering the gate, the car will go through it. However, your car can get stuck if it hits a "Dead Spot" in the track where the track is insulated. this is also true of those "Forced Crosses" at the center point.
Cool - so am I right in thinking the gate opens if a car-with-red-button-pressed passes over it, and the gate closes when either another car passes over it, or the previous car's red button is released?
No, as soon as the car passes over the "Electric Eye" with it's electric eye (Red button depressed) then that opens the gate. Once the car passes through, the gate closes automatically until another electric eye with button depressed passes over it again. The gate does not stay open. But in the case of a car following another car, that gate will open long enough to catch the car behind it's slot guide, forcing the switch to remain open long enough for both cars to pass through.
But if it only has a sensor before the gate and no sensor after the gate, how does it know whether the car has passed through or not?
It's an electric trigger set to 2.4 gigahertz. No electricity, no trigger.
What’s the best track to get that’s cheap
Depends on what you want to do. If you want 2 lane analog, you have a choice between Carrera, Ninco and Scalextric. If you want to run both 1/32 and 1/24 cars, you need Carrera.
If you want digital, you can get either carrera or scalextric.
If you want 4-8 lanes, the only company i know that has it is Carrera.
As far as "Cheap...well, that depends on your location and the stores around you, or look for someone's used stuff at flea markets, Amazon, E-bay or Kijiji.
Hope this helps~!
Nice but confusing and to much to go wrong, if something is digital it’s going to fail. Give me an old school afx track anyday
We never really had anything go wrong with the system in the 4+ years I ran it. The only times it glitched is if the car brushes touched both tracks or if someone brought in an extra controller set to the same frequency as another controller.
Wtf is an electric eye ? You mean a sensor ohhhh lol
Yeah...saying "sensor" would have just been too booring. This is 2019..."The Future"...and in the future, all cars are equipped with Electric eyes! :D
Oh...and everything is CHROME!
lol
Sensor is old school lol
@@hippo4g93 Well...i am 45. :D
42 myself ! How do u keep your rails so clean tho ?
I used to cut the headlight wires as a kid as it made the cars quicker. This lane changing stuff is cool
It is quite amazing and does help with keeping score too!
That’s a furphy.
Ok so now for a real explanation.
The part in the car that broadcasts a code. It’s not an eye. It’s an LED.
The part in the track is an eye, a photo transistor or photo sensor.
Pressing the button changes resistance in the powerbase that notices you have sent a lane change request. The powerbase sends a code via rails to every lane changer telling them to look out for a particular car ID, broadcast by the car. When the lane changer sees this ID number from
1-6 it activates a solenoid which
operates a flipper.
As the car passes through the guide hits a mechanical part which resets the lane changer.
That’s how it really works.
Thank you for the clarification.
Any tips for troubleshooting lane changes? I have one that goes left to right with one car but only sometimes goes right to left. For my other car, 8t pairs fine but won't change lanes. There's another single lane change on this track that doesn't seem to work at all
@@Tasjudoka Could be a faulty switch. I would recommend contacting Carrera. They might be able to replace it under warranty.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore THank you. Bought the set second hand so not liking my changes... Probably going to replace a controller or piece of track. Do you mean likely faulty switch in the track? ... The other thing I'm not so sure about is the old black box and if I should look at upgrading to the new CU
@@Tasjudoka Could be a faulty switch in the track. When I raced slot cars at the store, I had switches failing a lot. I have an "X" that one side failed.
You gave me so much light explaining how it the lane change work, but what sill confuses me, is that if there are two cars in the same lane ¿Do each car still detects the poteniciometer of the controller? Since all of the cars are only connected to the same Vcc and GND as parallels...
It works much like radio control with each car being set to each controller individually. Therefore, their placement on the track does not matter. It is the internal chip of the car that picks up the signal from the controller. Car 1 = Controller 1, Car 2 = Controller 2, car 3 = controller 3, and so on.
I was looking forward to seeing the actuator under the track. It would be good to see what it is and how it works.
It's a big computer chip with a lot of wires! :D
did you sell warhammer figueres and stuff at some point ? your logo seems like that !
I still do : www.monster-hobbies.ca/Hobby_Products/c864-games-workshop-models-books-and-supplies/
We had to close the brick and mortar store in September of 2021, and now we are working on building our web site and shipping online.
My lane changers are not working. Now what happened is I had set my track.up everything was going fine.then all of a sudden I got nothing. Now I tried to program my cars and they wouldn't run. I read the Carrera book again and did everything that needed to be checked. Now when I try to program my cars they do nothing. So I changed the switch under the cars and they run. But, I know before I had switched the button under the cars they run. The problem is that when I program the cars my control track lights only flash 4 lights and not all 5. In which when programming the cars the the lights will flash and the cars would move and then its running. So I don't know if I need another power track or find out what's wrong.
Make sure the track isn't dirty or that the brushes accidentally crossed onto both tracks.
Might help to phone Carrera and describe the problem. They might send you a new "something" under warranty.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore Thanks I think I will call Carrera 📞.
Good luck with it all!
Cool, much different from my HO cars in the 70's.....lol. I have a thought for slot car racing that mirrors my thoughts on computer racing. I always use the drivers eye view when computer racing because to me it's the best way to judge speed and the driving line. With this in mind have you ever thought of developing a system where the slot cars could have a video camera in the drivers position and you could race with a view of the track as if in a real car? There can be tv's mounted on the wall for each driver, or even more realistic.....you could wear video goggles.
A lot of other RUclips Slot car videos have cameras mounted on the cars. I don't have such technology though, and I am unsure if they are racing while filming in the way you are describing. All I know is that it would probably cost me more money than i have right now to set that all up. :D
You can't steer or really drive this car like a FPV Drone. FPV slot car racing doesn't really make sense. That's probably why something like this will never appear
@@florianj6490 there is a new slot car format called "Slotless racing" which would probably be a lot better for FPV.
Love the Capri. 👍
Thank you!
What scale is this car?
1/32.
are there also pistol grip controllers that can be used for C. digital with the action button for lane changing ?
I only know of these controllers, but it is possible that someone makes them. Perhaps Google will help you out?
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore gotta make it myself ... i solder i dremel ... i screw etc... hehe , can t be too hard i guess
@@solunasunrise You probably can find pistol grips from Parma or such and then re-work the Carrera "guts" into the controller.
@@monsterhobbiesonlinestore thats what i meant in a sense !
Dam tracks have come a long way
The Digital makes all the difference..especially in lap counting.
I’m new to Carrera and new to slot cars and I ordered and received a Evolution Break Away set, which is analogue. Would I be correct in assuming that the lane changing, lap counting, wireless controller and the ability to have four lanes with six cars with pace cars-functions are features of Digital only? I also loved having the ability with the four lanes and lane changers to have your positions displayed on a LCD display with sound.
My questions are what are the features of analogue vs Digital because I have not opened the box yet and depending on your answer, I might just send it back and get a Digital set. The wireless is something I like and I heard that analogue cars can be reprogrammed on a digital track, which would use less current and run slower. How hard is it to integrate four lanes? I want to kind of future proof my purchase and expand, so I figured I would ask an expert such as yourself. Great layout and content.
I'll have to break your comment down to answer your questions :
" Would I be correct in assuming that the lane changing, lap counting, wireless controller and the ability to have four lanes with six cars with pace cars-functions are features of Digital only? I also loved having the ability with the four lanes and lane changers to have your positions displayed on a LCD display with sound. " - Yes, those are all the digital features.
Both analog and digital feature a wireless set-up. If you want to convert analog cars to digital, Carrera sells a digital Chip for their cars which is very easy to install...unscrew the car from it's body, unscrew the "Left-Right" switch underneath, pop out the "electric Eye" plug, unplug the motor and front pick-ups from the left/right switch, remove the L/R switch, and drop in the Carrera digital chip in it's place. Then screw the Digital chip in the same place as the L/R switch, plug in the motor/front pickups, and then screw the body back on and you are good to go!
For four lanes and more, Carrera makes a special piece of track now that plugs into the top of the Digital Control track. 1 of those tracks gives you 4 lanes, 2 gives you 6 and 3 gives you 8.
Hope all this helped you out. Check out my other track videos. I think I have a few "how to build" ones as well.
WOW! you could have full-size cars run off slots if you can change lanes.
Could do! :D
Can you rank accessories in order of which to get first?
I would say that the most crucial are the digital start/finish gate, the digital extension track for the Start/finish gate, the 4 extra wireless controller docking parts and a digital lap counter. The other pieces can be added as you see fit.
How much does a set up like this cost?
Depends on the layout, but for a starting basic Digital set, it's about the same price as a Playstation 4.
Much the same price as a Playstation 4 for the Digital Starter Set...but if you want to expand it like I did, expect to pay $2500 US.
yup
Million thanks for the instruction video Treve.. its so useful..!
No problems. If you get a track, I hope you have fun!
No hope here.. so am working on one of my room, un used, about 5x7 meters, making platform by marine plywood, as an oval track, mostly for my 1:24 rc vehicles.. while two sensored tracks will be added.. so cars will run its own,through track, all along, guided by magnetic signature.
@@roopeshkrishna34 Sounds cool. You could also try non-digital slot cars routered through a table using copper strips.
Planning to make a sensor based car control system Treve.. so the sensors on road and cars communicates each other, keeping them in predetermined course.. the cars will be fully radio controlled, including lights, brake lights, direction indicators and reverse.. by switching it to auto mode, turns to a sensor based car.. done two, in 1:14 scale.. working on track.. need more marine plywood, but not possible to collect as we are under lock down..
@@roopeshkrishna34 Best of luck. All will be fixed in time.
Thanks for the details. I'm hoping to upgrade my analogue set soon. I think wireless is the way to go.
wireless is great because you can walk around the track.
Wireless is great cuse when you got 6 ppl racing you can have each driver turn marshall as well my rule at my house is everyone stops for caution then when car is back on track back to green
Nice explanation. In my day if the track had 6 slots, you could race 6 cars. No electronics, any kid with a car could race. Kids don't do this anymore. lol
ThanX for enjoying the video. I have a few kids coming in to race. :D
Good explanation of lane changing,
Thank you. Glad you liked it!
It looks to me like digital tracks have a ton of room for even further advancement. I can think of over a dozen things that could be implemented including all lanes fully powered and driver control data sent to and from the cars over that same system or through an RFID type system in the track.. Lane change opportunities all around the track allowing you to over take another and then return to the best line. Real time monitoring of car performance telemetry including WOT speed, current draw and slot brush integrity where the bench tech would know in advance what the car would need for the next race. I could go on.
Have a look at the Carrera webs site. They do have a lot of options for their digital track including pit lanes, refueling, pace and ghost cars, Bluetooth options and track that records car speeds. there are also aftermarket guys that have built better computer control devices for the track that you can hook a laptop or tower computer to and get driver stats and overall pole positions and so on. I only have so much money I can devote to this track, and I'm just at a basic tech level. :D
Brother!! Need help!! Why some of the 1/24 scales doesn't switch lanes,looks like doesn't read the sensor, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, please help!!!
I would contact Carrera. If there's a problem with it, they should send you a replacement.