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Scalextric Porsche 997 (green) C3074   £22.95   info... Slot.It Ferrari F40 Le Mans 1995 Kit SIKF02D   £47.95   info... Scalextric Nissan GT-R (white) C3072   £23.50   info... Slot.It Ferrari 312 PB Monza 1972 Kit SIKF01D   £47.95   info... Scalextric Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 GT C3010   £32.95   info... Scalextric Ferrari F430 (light blue) C3067   £22.95   info... Scalextric Peugeot 908 HDI FAP 2009 C3011   £32.95   info... Fly BMW M1 (Playboy series no. 11) FLY99096   £39.95   info...

Third party products and add-ons

Slotcarcentre > Scalextric Digital power and control > Third party products and add-ons

Third party products and add-ons Scalextric Digital has spawned a community of slot-car petrolheads who are also a dab hand at electronics and computer programming - mostly based around Slot Forum - who have come up with a selection of products to fill gaps in the Scalextric portfolio. Hornby is above all a toy manufacturer and can't justify developing high-spec electronics for a product that is bought in large part by families and children. But if you are coming to SSD as an experienced slot car racer looking for more functionality than is available in the standard boxed product, you may find it here.

PC to Powerbase cable These can be obtained from UK SlotForum member "RichG". Click here to visit the SSD section of Slot Forum. Price is 20 Pounds Sterling for a 1 Meter lead. For 2 Meters £20.50 GBP - For 3 Meters £21.00 GBP - For 4 Meters £21.50 GBP - For 5 Meters £22.00 GBP - For 10 Meters £24.50 GBP (Not available for Aux to USB as not reliable) Postage to the UK First Class add 1 Pound Sterling. Postage to rest of World, Air Mail, Add 2 Pounds Sterling To enquire and purchase, see below.

Lap Count / Timing Tower A trackside tower which shows all 6 race positions and lap times on a clear display screen is available by special order. Connects to the 6-car powerbase. These are made in batches to keep component cost down, you will need to pre-order a tower from RichG on Slot Forum. He is taking orders right now for towers so place your order ASAP. The more orders he receives it brings the cost down. The tower comes in the format shown so you can build it in to your trackside scenery. See our one built into the side of a Control Tower on the Hornby Scenics page. To enquire about or order, either the PC cable or Lap Count Tower, click here to email Rich direct.

SSD Powerbase Pro (PB-Pro) Over at Slot Forum the wizards have been at work. Harry Potter has got nothing on this. Many of the things you wished had been possible to do with the 6 car powerbase are now available via an unofficial firmware upgrade. Outwardly there is no difference other than on-screen. But the PB-Pro Upgrade provides the following additional functionality, and more: A more informative screen and structured menu system "Track calls" - the ability to stop or slow other cars in the event of an accident The ability to tune the speed of cars for novice and junior drivers One touch Car ID setting (not the half a dozen on the original product) Pace cars / ghost cars to race against, with fine-tuning of their speed; they even change lanes and can be told to stay out of the pit lane Slowing down / victory laps True 1000th of a second timing (the original powerbase suffered from some rounding errors) Hand controller equalisation to iron out any slight performance differences between throttles Compatibility with, and control of powerbase by, PC programs such as PC Lapcounter, SSDC and Slot-GP, and also interface to the Lap Count Tower, developed by users of Slot Forum Retention and enhancement to original PB racing modes (Pursuit, and so on) Analogue mode, run analogue cars on a digital track without a chip For full details see the PB-Pro home page.

How to get a PB-Pro If you are interested in having your own PB-Pro, you will need to have a fully working Version 1.5 6-car powerbase, (see below regarding earlier versions) and you will need to send it away for initial upgrade - subsequent enhancements to the firmware can then be applied over the internet using one of the PC-to-Powerbase cables in our hardware section. NB: Once upgraded you will not be able to return it to its original Scalextric firmware, any Hornby warranty will be void, and for support you will have to refer to your local PB-Pro contact, not Hornby.

PB-Pro "Simple-H" Power upgrade There's more! Sparing you the technical details, a component has been found that can provide improved power to the track - at least 8 amps continuous. What's more, it can be applied to older 1.2 to 1.4 versions of the powerbase, of which there must still be thousands in circulation. So if you have a pre-V1.5, you can have the PB-Pro functionality described above, if you have the Simple-H upgrade at the same time. Will work with C7004 power supplies but for even better results use a separate third party "bench" power unit such as the Rapid/Manson/Maas SPS9250 shown here. This upgrade is therefore aimed more at the experienced digital afficionado. For more details read the power upgrade thread on the digital section of Slot Forum.

PB-Pro Contact Your contact for either upgrade is listed here, and depends on where you are in the world. You will need to register on Slot Forum (if not already) and send the upgrader a personal message via the forum to establish contact and book your PB in for upgrade. Prices depend on availability of components but certainly you can expect to pay a fair bit more for a PB-Pro with SH upgrade than for a C7042. Ask your upgrader for current pricing information.

If you do not already have a Version 1 6-car powerbase, you will need to buy one, probably now second hand, there are usually some to be found on Ebay:

Overseas power supplies To use a UK Hornby power supply in Europe or the rest of the world, you need a Travel Adaptor like the ones available at Maplin - we've run a UK Scalextric set in France with no problems using one of these plug converters. If you buy a set from another retailer outside the UK it should have the local version of the standard power supply already included.

Scalextric Digital Car ID Labels   Ref: LABELS These labels have been specially commissioned by us for use on digital cars - they are peelable and can be re-stuck several times on different cars. ... LABELS: more info… £7.50 (€8.64)

TrackPower TrackPower is an alternative to the Scalextric Track Designer program, a 2D planning tool that will allow you to model analogue and digital layouts using other brands of track as well. Available from the developer direct for a small fee paid via Paypal.

PC Lapcounter Scalextric Sport Digital was in great need of a software package like this, but Scalextric have not (yet?) got around to making one.

So PC Lapcounter was developed by Guy Langenakens of Belgium, this is the package we use here at Cheddar on the trackside computer, to display lap times and race positions from the 6-car powerbase (it's not compatible with the 4-car powerbase). But it does much more - you can also use it to provide race commentary, car sound effects, simulate fuel strategies, manage pit stops, run endurance races with timed driver stints and more besides. In fact we have liaised with Guy to test each new version, provide feedback and suggest improvements so you will find many features that are only in here because we asked for them, such as fuel calibration, "driver finished" indicator, a full lap chart facility and complete results database - to name just four. It works via the cable below and has recently been upgraded to work with the PB Pro (see power and control page) and also other digital systems such as SCX.

SSD Console A recent addition to the SSD PC software stable is Scalextric Sport Digital Console, which is focused specifically on the 6-car SSD and PB-Pro combination and provides the same kind of functionality as PC Lapcounter but with enhanced features like pace car speed control, track calls, and throttle maps specifically designed for the SSD environment. Requires the connecting cable below. Not compatible with 4-car powerbases.

Other timing and race management programs Other software is continually popping up as IT wizards with a penchant for slot car racing get their programming hats on. All work through Rich's cable. One such is Slot-GP, which you can find out more about if you follow this link to Slot Forum.

Scorpius Wireless Digital project A further recent development is the Scorpius project which is a wireless, powerbase-free digital slot car racing system developed in Australia. It's compatible with SSD and Ninco Digital, and uses a wireless in-car chip, wireless throttles, a semi-wireless lane change mechanism (you have to wire it in to your existing lanechangers), all driven from a wireless USB dongle that plugs in to your PC. Intended for top end home and club users. Find out more at the Scorpius web site.

Slotcarcentre > Scalextric Digital power and control > Third party products and add-ons