How It Works
The Best Lane
Slot Track, what is it?
What does it
mean : Best lane! The ideal trajectory, in English means in fact: the
ideal or perfect racing line. Slot racers would probably say ‘in the groove’.
OK, what
happens in a motor race? What do we see?
After a
slightly chaotic start, the cars follow each other all on the ideal racing
line, in other words, the line that is the fastest, but not necessarily the
shortest.
Here are
three examples of the ideal racing line . . .
Let’s
continue our comparison with the real car racetrack. Now that the cars find
themselves one behind the other, how do they overtake?
Well, in general, at the exit from a
turn, if two cars are too close to each other, the second will pull out to
position itself beside its rival by the following turn (I am not forgetting
slipstreaming that makes this method special). Then, they stay side by side
until one of them can take advantage of the other. At that moment, they return
onto the ideal racing line. And so on until the finish.
That’s all
very well, but how to reproduce it on slot track?
We’ll take
Barcelona as an example! The last three turns.
The ideal trajectory/racing line
(arguable) is in green. When the cars are far apart from each other, they will
follow this line.
Now, for them to overtake, one adds two
almost parallel slots (blue). At each intersection, a track switch (lane
changer) is going to be placed which, in its default setting will direct the
cars into the green slot.
Good, that’s
not too bad, but how are the switches (lane changers) activated? As well as one
can!
Thanks to
electric current sensors (a diagram will be shown in the Electronics Section).
A current
sensor detects all current usage between the right and left track rails. And
that is ideal because an electric car motor uses a lot of it. We can connect
this sensor to various things, a lamp, a relay, to the input of a
microprocessor. But we are not boffins in electronics - we are going to simply
connect it to the coil of an electromagnet, which will switch the lane-changer.
Now, where to
put this sensor?
We want to switch a car that
follows too closely at the exit of a turn? OK. But we also want to avoid collisions!
The yellow arrow indicates the
direction of travel.
The diverting sensor is marked
in light blue.
When a car passes over it, it
activates the switching mechanism for the duration of its presence over the
sensor section, which has the effect of directing the following car into the
adjacent lane.
The red sensor activates the
lane changer also, and in the same way, it is the anti-collision sensor. The
car that finds itself in front of the lane changer (indicated) whilst another
car passes over the red sensor will see itself directed towards the adjacent
lane.
The
advantages of this system are interesting:
- Everyone
has the same lane, no one is disadvantaged.
- The lane
changes are completely automatic, not manually triggered, all that is needed is
to move closer to attempt a passing manoeuvre.
- The same
electrical power for everyone.
- It doesn’t
matter where the cars are re-slotted.
- Any car can
be used; all that’s needed is to add a DAVIC chip for example.
- The racetracks are very realistic:
overtaking by late braking, Pulling out to overtake by slipstreaming, etc.
-The number
of cars is only limited by the control system (DAVIC = 15, SCX = 6, Jouef
circuit Z = 2).
A
disadvantage:
If all the
cars are working, the track is special, not compatible with other makes.
The development has progressed in leaps
and bounds for two years and I have just finished the fourth prototype (the one
on the video). The first one was made of plywood, 2.50metres by 1.80 metres
where I routed a 5-meter length and 8 lane switches in plastic. It worked for
three hours. The second was already modular but I only managed to produce a
6-meter length track with 10 lane switches in aluminium. This only worked for
two hours. The third is with an individual in Monaco. It represents the
principality’s Formula 1 circuit before its transformation in the Seventies. 24
electrified track switches in aluminium, elevation changes, etc. I am forgetting, power DAVIC timing control
for 6 cars. Finally the fourth, modular, 22 sections including 14 with lane
switches, a good fifty possible combinations, the circuit is continuously
twisty from one end to the other, like the real thing, the perfect racing line
presenting itself in a very obvious manner. This last prototype was intended as
a possible future plastic track to be sold as a set.
The fifth
prototype is currently being built.