Cars Converted to Carrera Digital

[edmagner]

This is the place to share your adventures converting cars to Carrera Digital .

This can be with a Carrera chip or any of the aftermarket chips - the more trick the installation the better.

Let's see what you've done..

[dw5555]

I thought I would start this off with something a little different. All the cars in the pics I raced with my family back in the 60's. They are all 1/24 scale. When I built my analog box I had to see if they still worked and they actually ran pretty well. Nothing like todays cars but interesting. After selling my analog/digital box I decided to see if these could be run digital. It turns out that they were almost made for it.
The subject Panther Pink (obviously new paint) Daytona Cobra I believe it's an AMT chassis with a Cox motor. The 732 chip fit exactly between the rails but the issue was how to attach it to the metal chassis. The front wheels used large nylon bushings so the chip was hot glued to the bushings. The left rear ear rested on a chassis nut so that was hot glued. The sensor sits pretty high in the chassis but there has been no issues running. Once I get it all put back together I will get a short vid of it running the track.
Dave

[Slotspeed]

This one is a bit different in that it is neither a Carrera decoder or an aftermarket one. It is a DIY decoder chip, it is designed and codewritten by Frank Redlich of http://redlichelectronics.de/

It is not for the feint hearted. Building the decoder chip involved ordering custom PCB's from a PCB manufacturing house, ordering the correct parts from an electronics supplier, manually soldering the SMD parts (I solder SMD as part of my job but until recently I had never soldered such tiny diode packages that kept falling over and were about half the length of a small ant) and finally uploading the pre compiled firmware to the chip (again, Frank's work)

The car is a Matra 670B from slot.it and I am very impressed by this car. Amazingly, the tyres came almost perfectly true out of the box. I prefer non mag running so first thing I did was remove the magnet and was expecting to have to fiddle with some weight to get the balance and handling right but it just ran perfectly as a non magnet car and was very quick. The original tyres were perfect on Carrera track for non magnet use.

The photo below shows the self built decoder/chip package. I will need to re-arrange the voltage regulator as it is too close to one of the capacitors and heat is a problem for that capacitor. I have a new PCB design that I am working on, that will use slightly larger components to make assembly easier. The downside of that is that the width of the decoder will increase 2mm over Frank's design. There is also no polarity reversal switch so it cannot run on an analog track like the original Carrera decoders can. But if I add an internal harness with connectors this could be fairly easily worked around. You can also see that the decoder overhangs the motor pod but there is enough clearance underneath.

[Area 51 Raceway NC]

Slottechnik Digital chip conversion on an NSR Corvette.

[Ronin Slots]

Here is a video I made awhile back. I converted a Pro-x superbird to Carrea digital. Hope it helps.

https://youtu.be/E9uU9CUbAws

[dw5555]

Great video.

[edmagner]

Scaley VW bus fleet converted with Carson DPR and head & taillights wired in

[dw5555]

Can I assume those are mainly casual cruisers? Seem like you would need to add a lot of lead to keep them planted.


I also like the idea of posting on the post instead of making a separate post to reply. It cuts down on the clutter.

[noddaz]

I would have never thought to chip a VW bus. I will have to change that.
Scott

[Bluevista]

Carrera Evo Plymouth Superbird converted to Carrera Digital then converted into the TV Batmobile with the Polar Lights model kit.
I used the Superbird chassis because I had it and it has the right wheelbase and track width.
The chip is a newer style Carrera cop car chip with flashing roof light connection, no big deal, fits without trimming anything IIRC.

On the modeling side I opened up the headlights/parking light and tailights and covered with painted amber, clear, and red plastic and mounted mini 3 volt smd led's behind them, the center turbine exhaust is lit the same way and has your basic Lego fire exhaust. I milled out and used the the spoked centers of the kit wheels and Bat center emblems over the Superbird wheels. I didn't paint the body, just polished the plastic with Novus then applied the decals and brush painted it with Future, could have airbrushed it but found it all levels out just as well with a good brush, love that stuff.
After seeing the VW vans converted to digital, I may have to make one into the "Batmobile Parachute Pickup Service" van, not a Ford Econoline but close enough.
Then I'll have to make the twin Batchute packs on the back of the Batmobile working and be able to be released opened and detached for pickup remotely?
I have the hippie van and a few other Scalextric cars, I use Carrera chips, not as clean of an installation as the Carson but way cheaper and use Carrera size pst connectors so they're plug and play, except for drilling a hole for the IR led of course.

[dw5555]

Very cool. The Lego flame is a nice touch.

[Eric P]

Fly Lola T70 MK3B.
First time that I removed the factory guide/motor wires and replaced them with proper silicon jacket wires.
Easier to do than I thought. Just heat the old wires and tug. I did add more solder to the chip and tinned the wires.
For the lights , I used the OG (VW term for Original German) wires and made my own harness for the body. The lights are 3 mm eBay LED bulbs.
Use your modeling skills to install, small holes, file the LED dome flat for figment etc.

[perrotoro]

Like your chip installation. Curious how you have your track tied closely to the contours of your layout? Looks good. Also, what green and gray material are you using for landscaping and sidetrack? Thanks!

[Eric P]

Fly Ferrari 512S Coda Lunga
The chip and light harness was done just like the Fly Lola.

[dinglebery]

If you use some black hot glue over the LED's you can eliminate the light shining back inside the car.

[noddaz]

Looks very nice! How does it run?

[Eric P]

Looks very nice! How does it run?

Ive got both of them running smooth and quiet. At the moment, they're a little loose on plastic and urethane tires.

[AG Randy]

Did a D132 conversion of a Fly Brabham BT44 a couple days ago. My first open wheel conversion and the first with a Slottechnik decoder. It was still a tight fit but went smooth.
Still lots of tuning to do to make it a fun runner.

[dw5555]

Lookin good!!!

[Firstgear]

Maybe this doesn’t belong here, I am ok with moving it. I recently received a used Carrera car that didn’t have any lights. I bought some SMD Xenon lights from a shop in Austria. The specs are 3.2V and 25mA.

I didn’t add any resistors.

Hooked them up in parallel with the fronts and rears each by themselves.

added the proper connector and plugged them into their respective connectors on the digital chip.

when the car runs on the track the lights are very bright, which I expected with the Xenon lights, but the rears do not get brighter (if that was even possible) when the throttle is reduced and the brakes applied.

did I do something wrong? Should I have added resistors in front of each light? If so what value?

any guidance here is appreciated.

regards, Herb

[dinglebery]

Does your chip have a "Brake light" feature?

[dw5555]

Agree with Dinglebery. Are you sure you plugged it into the brake light plug? (the orange and white plug) The lights you used are the correct voltage for the chip.

[Firstgear]

I will get some photos of it and post them later today.