MIH

Yes. The analog part is disabled in the InCar-Pro, and the standard ID is sent all the time as a 'lane change' command cannot be detected.

Depends!!! The tail light work the same as those on your motorcar... When the headlights are off, only the brakelights come on (brightly) When the headlights are ON, the taillights are running (dimly) and under braking they come on brightly. Turning on/off the headlights is a co-operative feature of InCar Pro, and the APB6-Pro coupled with SSDC. Its commanded from a function-key somewhere. Ian

I started getting too clever on the PB4 and moved scope on the ideas too far (trying to get it talking to the outside world too). I'm paring back, but its not reliable enough as yet. Ian

Definite maybe. But the success of v3.3 for the vast majority of users means that whatever goes in has to be pretty jolly good. Ian

After a small amount of discussion with Scalextric and Slot-It, I can now announce that the Slot-It chips are now included in the License to Use of the InCar-Pro firmware upgrade. To make it absolutely clear to all: I HAVE NOT tested the code on a Slot-It chip, and I CANNOT undertake at this time that it will work. However, I am led to believe that it should as the original code on the Slot-It chip is the same as that placed on the Scalextric chip. Therefore the assumption is that it should be ok. BUT I have not tried it, and I don't have a chip to try it with, so I cannot confirm. For those who are brave and want to give it a go, try it on Slot-It and tell us how it performs. I wish you well. Ian

Heating the wire for half a minute! That's a long time... Wet the tip of your iron with a tiny amount of solder, then apply to the wire for a couple of seconds, then apply solder at the point where the iron touches the wire. Let the solder melt and wick onto the wire briefly, and then remove both solder then iron. Should take you no more than 4 seconds all up per joint.

But that much 'Strayean money is about 40 bucks in NZ!!

How about these? http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=575693213 http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=575693384 http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=575693283 Ian

Should work Ok, but only trial will show... Bigger drivers do imply an increase in capacitance of the mosfet and so can be a bit slower/laggier to respond - especially when switching from full power to braking, and back. If the two drivers take longer to respond, then you can end up with a dead short across the power rails. That can then cause an overload through them and they can blow. I know that from testing the InCar stuff, where I wasn't delaying enough for the mosfets to decay one driver before turning on the other. Ian

Colin is correct. The MOSFets are not driven 'hard enough' to ensure really efficient operation on the PB4. However the Mk 2 and Mk 3 PB4s did make some improvements over the original design. To mitigate this though, is that the 'heatsink' area for these devices on the PB4 is more than 4 times larger than that on the PB6, so there is more cooling capability. Changes in PB4 firmware unfortunately cannot correct the issue of power spikes when the car deslots. This is because there is limited (read poor) voltage management in the PB4 to ensure more constant volts based upon load. It looks like the APB6 has some voltage management under the huge fan-cooled heatsink inside the unit, which should keep the track voltage somewhat equal even when a car falls off. Ian

No R17 is unlikely to have much affect. Adding another 0.1 ohm resistor to either R15 or R16 will be what you need. That, or change the firmware! Nothing releasable on PB4 Pro yet. I sense there's little enthusiasm for it, and many people who would make the effort now have 2 PBs.

You are correct with the current sensing as R15+R16, taken into pin3 via filter R17/C4. Its easy enough to work out the expected volt 'drop' as current grows. The high current raises the voltage at pin 3 (into RA4 ADC) from close to zero to about 250mV at 5Amps R5/R21 and U2 watches the incoming [under]voltage. Ian

The rule of thumb is 1 amp per standard car when fired from standing start. Cruising is normally about 1/4 amp for a standard Scalextric motor. Many meters are too slow to give you the true current peaks, so its likely you'll not be seeing that. How many LCs do you have? Each one takes over 1/2 amp as the car travels over it (whether or not changing lanes) for about 1/2 second. With lots of LCs and 4 cars, its surprising how often that high current is drawn. All of it goes through the PB. (And a quick spark/short when crossing a XLC or switch track can also peak the PB) I'm not saying that your PB is not a bit too touchy, but the PB4 is targeted at the entry-level 3 car set, without any significant additional track/changers, PLGs or lap counter. Theoretically it should handle it, but reality is different. Ian

All done... Happy to help. Ian

There is a circuit inside the PB4 which reduces the incoming voltage by about 2v, then other losses drop about another 1.5v, giving about 11.5v on the motor. 13.8v is close, but by the time it loses the 3.5v, you'll be only at about 10v on the motor. Moral - either keep the 15v PSU, or make some mods to keep the motor voltage right. The PB4 has a 5 Amp fuse on its input - yes, you can blow it which requires a repair, but the internal CPU overload protection usually kicks in before this fuse blows. So as long as there are no other PB mods, a larger power PSU is unlikely to cause issues if its properly managed environment (ie no-one adjusts the PSU voltage lots higher!) Grabbing your brother's Toshiba PSU is the best first test. Ian