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Hello. Thanks for watching Part 3 of this instructional video series for the Scalextric
Advanced Digital 6 Car Powerbase.
This time, I'll be describing how to use the CAR options, including the heavy favorite,
PACE CARS!
First off, make sure the powerbase is in Professional Mode.
Just watch the screen when you plug it in, and if it shows "Basic" then you have a couple
seconds to press the Right arrow button to change it to professional.
To get to the car options, press the down arrow button, and then left or right until
you see CAR at the top of the screen.
Press the down arrow again to enter the car options.
Before we can change anything about a car, we first have to choose which car we're going
to change.
Use the left or right arrow buttons to choose from cars 1 to 6, or All.
All is great for when we want all cars to have equal power settings, for example, but
settings can also be applied to each car individually and therefore differently.
If you're using the base in analog mode, although you can still change settings for all 6 cars,
only cars 1 and 2 will matter.
Once you have selected the car you want to edit, press the down arrow.
The screen and lights on the powerbase will show that you've selected that car, and allow
you to press the left and right arrow buttons to choose from four options: Power Scale;
Brake Behavior; Throttle minimum percentage; and Pacer car.
Power Scale lets us set different power levels for different types of cars or different driver
skills.
Press Down again, and use left and right arrows to choose between 100 percent, 50 percent,
75 percent, and 88 percent.
Lower percentages are great for magless racing and letting new drivers get used to slot racing.
Press the ENTER button when you see the percent you want to use.
Brake Behavior lets us choose what kind of brakes, if any, we want for our car.
Press the down arrow, then left or right to choose from: OFF, which is no brakes at all;
Button, which is when brakes are only applied by pressing the large brakes button on the
controller;
Dynamic, which is when brakes are applied by fully releasing the throttle;
or Both, which means you can either press the button or release the trigger to apply
brakes.
Experiment a little to decide which type you like best.
Press the ENTER button when you see the setting you want to use.
Throttle Minimum percentage lets you set a base line for your throttle.
This is good for cars that don't move until the throttle is at a certain level.
You can set this up so that as soon as you touch the throttle, the car will move at a
slow speed, giving you more overall control by not wasting any trigger motion on the low
end where the car doesn't even move.
Press the down arrow, and then the left and right arrows to choose between 0, 2, 4, 6,
8, 10, 12, 14, and 16.
You'll probably need to do a lot of experimenting with this for each car, so it might be a good
idea to keep notes on which setting works best for which cars.
Press the enter button when you have decided what option to use.
Now we get to pacer cars!
As soon as you press the down arrow to change pace car settings, the whole screen changes
to show the current pace car settings for all 6 cars.
Keep in mind that while you can set up a pace car with a controller plugged in for that
car, the controller needs to be REMOVED for the car to function as a pace car during practice
or racing.
If a controller is left in, the base will assume the car is to be driven by a person.
As soon as the controller is unplugged, the car will take off.
There are two ways to set up pace car performance.
You can set them manually using the buttons on the powerbase, or more dynamically using
a controller.
Let's start with using the buttons.
The up and down arrows now allow you to change between cars, as well as all cars at once.
Be careful not to scroll up past 1, though, as that will exit the pace car settings screen.
The number on the left side of the screen and the lights on the powerbase indicate the
selected car.
Choose the ID that the car is programmed for, and put your future pace car on the track.
By default, all the speeds will be zero, so for your first time programming pace cars,
they should all stay still.
Be careful, though, as any programmed pace car will start running as soon as it's placed
on the track.
The left and right arrows increase and decrease the speed of the car, from zero to 99.
You can also press and hold the button to increase or to decrease quickly.
Press and hold the right arrow until your pace car begins to move.
Watch the car as it goes around the whole track.
Increase the speed a little at a time until you see the car begin to tail out around your
tightest turn or the turn after your longest straight.
Decrease the speed a notch or two to keep it from coming off.
That will be the optimum speed for that car.
If you have a large collection of different types of cars, it might be a good idea to
take notes on what the best speeds are for each of them.
The Start button controls the pace car lap count and lane change options.
The first letter represents if the laps are counted. G for no lap counting and L for lap
counting.
The second letter represents lane changing, either n for never, r for random, or c for
constant.
When the field is blank, it means no lap counting or lane changing.
I'm not sure why they didn't have it say Gn, but there you are.
Using the ability to set up all cars at once is a great way to get started with multiple
pace cars, but it's likely that each car will need some fine tuning to make them more even.
When you change them all at once, be sure to press the ENTER button when you're ready
to fine tune each car, or all the changes will revert to their previously saved settings.
After saving the settings, press down again to tune each car individually.
With multiple pace cars on the track at once, you can see which ones are slower, and speed
them up, or slow down the faster ones a little so that the other cars can keep up without
deslotting.
You can also setup a pace car using the controller, but only for individual cars, not all cars
at once as you can using the buttons on the powerbase.
Make sure there is a controller plugged into the port for the ID you are setting up as
a pacer car, and press the large Brake button to activate hand set control.
The speed setting will blink to indicate that it is ready to be set with the controller.
First, choose your lane change behavior by pressing the small lane change button on the
controller until the code you want is shown next to your car.
Begin driving the car, trying to maintain a constant speed such that the car is going
as fast as possible without crashing anywhere.
When you're happy with the speed, press the brake button again to set the speed as the
one you want to save.
However you set up your pace cars, you need to press the ENTER button when you're finished,
or all the changes will be lost.
As soon as you press Enter, you are returned to the Car options screen.
We can re-enter pacer car options, or back up to practice mode or run a race.
Remember, a pace car will not go unless the controller in that car's port is unplugged.
Also, pace cars will run around endlessly even while setting other options in the powerbase.
The only way to stop pace cars prior to a race is to press the up arrow button until
you're in pre-race mode, then press the enter button to activate the Set Grid mode.
Set grid mode shuts off car control, including pace cars.
This lets you set up the cars on the starting grid before the race, without them running
off at high speed or jumping the gun.
You can also change race settings while set grid is active by pressing the left or right
arrow buttons.
The base will jump right to the lap or minute setting for the previously selected race type
so that you can make changes before starting a race without having to stop and re-grid
all your cars.
As soon as you press the Start button, the race will begin.
Note that pace cars and having power on at race start doesn't work well, as the pace
cars will start as soon as the countdown starts without a false start penalty.
When using pace cars, it's best to have the Power at Start set to No. I prefer that for
racing with friends as well.
For you advanced users with pit lanes, you'll also want to experiment with the No Pit and
Free to Pit options in the Start/End options.
These control when pace cars will be allowed to change lanes so that you can keep them
out of your pit lane.
If a pace car enters your pit lane, it will just drive though, potentially causing a damaging
collision.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to setup and use Pace Cars with the Scalextric Advanced
Digital 6 Car Powerbase.
Next time, we'll talk about how to use Yellow Flag mode as well as some of the other useful
options provided by this powerbase.
Thanks for watching, and Happy Racing!