Carrera Digital chips for other manufacturers...

[ronbok]

I picked up a Carrera DTM Furore set recently and am contemplating getting back into this hobby a bit after 40 years.

Now that I've discovered HRW, it seems like perhaps there were other manufacturers out there like Fly, Revo, Slot.It, NSR, Scalextric I should have looked at before diving into the Carrera set.

What do folks do as far as fitting out these other manufacturers cars with a Carrera digital chip? A Carrera chip or something else?

Do folks race digital or are they more analog still these days? Seems like there's a greater selection of cars that are analog and perhaps there's more options on the Scalextric side of the house than Carrera.

[DRW-FJ40]

I have a Carrera digital track. LIke you, I got back into the hobby with Digital after 45 year hiatus. I have a mix of Carrera brand chips and Carson digital plugs. Some cars like Slot.it and Revo are designed to accommodate a Carrera chip which basically means it will fit for the most part and the holes for the switch and sensor light are in the chassis already. I have some Scalextric classic F1 cars that I am considering the Slottechnik chip because of it's small size. A lot of the newer Scalextric cars and Pioneer cars are DPR, digital plug ready & Carson makes a plug and play unit for Carrera. Some people don't care for them because they don't support all the Carrera features like ghost cars but if you have a lot of cars, the Carson chip is so easy to switch out you don't have to have one for every car.

Frankenslot has a chip for Carrera and Slot.it has some options but I don't know too much about either.

[ronbok]

Thank you. I'll look into these further.

[32lbking]

Try going to the "slotcarillustrated.com" site [you don't need to be a member], scroll down the front page to the Carrera forum and click on it. Scroll down a little. The first thread in the "sticky" section is all about chipping different cars for Carrera Digital. There are over 1200 posts in the thread. A lot of the pictures are missing but some are still there and all of the posts are there. Very informative stuff.
That forum [SCI] has had technical difficulties for the past couple years and is being worked on. Sometimes it runs a little slow, but that thread is the most information in one spot for the information you are looking for. I just checked it out and some of the links in the thread are not working, but again the information will help you tremendously.
Check it out, you'll be glad you did
And definitely continue to ask questions here. Quite a few digital guys here to, many that posted in that thread, including myself.
You might get more responses if you post in the Carrera Digital North America sub forum here on HRW.
Pretty much any car can be chipped. Some require a little more work than others such as very skinny F1 cars or front motored cars.
Randy

[noddaz]

The Carson chips work pretty well. But there are other upgrades that can make Carrera Digital more fun. Examples can be found here:

https://digitalracingsolutions.com/index.html

Especially their Ramjet-X controllers and Lane Gate.
Then you upgrade the software that runs the track. Carrera's is ok, but there is better! Smartrace (https://www.smartrace.de/en/ ) is one that is available.
Have fun! You have just started!

[Fourshipp]

Lane gates are the bomb! They let you run multiple,ghost,cars,if you race solo and eliminate 70-80% (my estimate) of crashes when racing with 3 or MOU drivers.

[EyesofFreedom]

I do the same thing.

I have a Carrera track and run alot of Scalextric cars along with some Fly and Ninco.

As far as Scalextric is concerned you can get the Carson conversion chips... usually about $40 each.
They will simply plug into a DPR Scalextric car. Problem is, they're getting harder to find.

Another problem is they don't support all functions that the Carrera Digital cars do, like ghost mode or pace car.

You can put Carrera chips in, but you'll have to cut a hole for the diode for the lane change and often cut the chassis and/or the bottom of the interior for the chip to fit. It's the largest of all the options.

Other options are out there by manufacturers like Oxigen, Frakenslot, and Slottechnik.

I've been researching them all. Oxigen is an interesting setup cause that single chip can be programmed for multiple layout operating systems. Say you have Carrera at home but your buddy has Scalextric. That chip will work on both. But it doesn't do ghost mode. The chips run about $50.

Slottechnik has a very small chip. You can fit it in tight spots and in most cars with little to no cutting. You will have to drill a small hole for the lane change diode. A huge plus is the new SCD 2022 chip does support ghost mode. I've seen these chips go for $40-45 each.

I have about a dozen or so Carson chips to install and after that I believe I'm going to be buying Slottechniks for the rest. I will miss the plug n play feature but for me personally, ghosting is a huge selling point.

I guess the best advice I can give is this...

Make a list of features that are important to you like...

Easy of installation
Ghost/pace mode
Multi track brand compatibility

And then research each manufacturer and see who best meets your needs. I have no need for multibrand track compatibility so that and the price eliminated Oxigen for me early on. I like being able to find my chips so that and the ghost feature is why I'm drifting away from Carson.

Just my $.02 🤓

[32lbking]

Great informative post.
Randy

[checkeredflag1]

I run multiple ghost cars, but I have cut the diode so they do not change lanes. Then I set the speeds so that they run slower than the other cars and they then act as blockers. You have to get really good at timin g your passes around the curves to get into the lead and stay there. By setting the speed slower, they also do not de-slot on the turns.

[checkeredflag1]

Forgot, after cutting the diode, you have to short out where the connection was.

[Bluevista]

Cut the diode off? I just put a little piece of black electrical tape to cover the diode on the ghost cars and no lane changing .
You can get the Slottechnik chips for less than 40 bucks from Europe including shipping if you search around. I personally extend the diodes with pigtail wires on Carrera new style chips and then you can fit them in just about as many places, way cheaper and the things do everything. Same goes for the Scalextric conversion, half the price of a Carson chip brand new scavenged out of new Carrera digital cars every week on Ebay.
I just can't see paying more to convert a car to digital than the car costs to begin with, but to each their own.

[checkeredflag1]

have used 3 layers of electrical tape, still changes lanes, that is why I just removed the problem from the equation. Plus I always use the same ghost cars, so no matter.

[Cincyslots]

The Slottechnik chip is very easy to install. It runs about $42. There’s an install video on YouTube.

[ronbok]

The Carson chips work pretty well. But there are other upgrades that can make Carrera Digital more fun. Examples can be found here:

https://digitalracingsolutions.com/index.html

Especially their Ramjet-X controllers and Lane Gate.
Then you upgrade the software that runs the track. Carrera's is ok, but there is better! Smartrace (https://www.smartrace.de/en/ ) is one that is available.
Have fun! You have just started!

Thanks. I've got Smartrace up and running after updating the firmware on the Carrera CU. I'll check out the other items as well.