Slot cars were my first hobby. I inhertited it from my dad who was active in building 1/24 scale cars and tracks. I was exposed to it for as long as I could remember. I had a lot of sets growing up as a kid and recently visited a new commercial track in my town, letric motorsports in Wilkes-Barre. So now I've been researching the hobby again and want to build a track. I really love the wooden routed track by Ted Gowder and I'd love to build one like it. I think the routed tracks by Luf have an unbelievable realism and watching the videos on his site is so cool. But as I'm returning to this hobby I might just buy an AFX set and start from there.

One thing I really like about auto racing in general is the sound of the engines as the cars zoom by. I think that's something missing in slot cars. So I have an idea that I think is possible. Since most of the serious slot racers have a PC hooked up for timing, why could they be used for sound also? My idea involves 5.1 surround sound and a 5.1 PC speaker set-up. Using reed switches located around the track in the 5 positions far left, left, center, right, and far right to trigger a sound effect for that channel. Then just have the pc reproduce the zoom sound of a formula one car as goes by out of that particular speaker. It's conceivable to have a slightly different sound for each channel AND each different lane. The sound of the different channels and sounds coming out of them as the different cars pass would be awesome. I have the idea but not the know how so I just wanted to throw this out there. Maybe this could be a nice open project for a few of our friends who are programmers.

I always thought it would be cool to have race sounds and narration from an announcer while you raced. There's tons of soundtracks out there from al forms of racing.

Also thought it would be cool if someone made a production out of an event where the cars and track would be filmed and put up on TV screens. Have the drivers presented with graphic overlays of statistics and stuff like you see before a NASCAR race or similar, showing the driver with his qualifying time and position. Or have a computer program that showed updated track positions on a horizontal scroll like on TV with the race video in the background. :thumbsup:

Another thing that would be cool is along with the other switches if you could put sensors of something on certain points on the catch fence so when a car would come off you would here scretching tires and the sound of a crash. I wish I could help out, it sounds very do-able. The switches and sensors are the easy part, writing the software is the hard part. :)

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I have Trakmate and just started playing with the sound. It seems there are a lot of various sounds and circumstances that you could use. I enjoy it, but I do agree with some of you that it can get annoying if you use too many of them.

Yes it would certainly be only entertainment value, but it could also appeal to kids at a party event or something.

Daniel at Trakmate proved his skills with me years ago when he wrote the program for my track. I heard the beeps of his first DOS version and asked if he could change that to signals outputs to drive LED's. After some back and forth code adjustments, together we produced the circuit board to drive the starting lights through transistors that ended up powering my starting tower. He never produced the version commercially though.

I imagine with some work, the audio outputs could drive other things on your track and perhaps even read back the lap times as AFXToo desires. I have a 3D program with a talking 3D head model and it will speak anything you type in 3 or 4 different voices. It will also speak AVI files with audio! ;)

The sound effect I'd like to hear is the engine of the car as it races across the track. The "zoom" if you will. With a surround sound set up in a track that is long or wide, 4 x 16'. having speakers mounted across the back of the layout. Lets say the back stretch goes from one end to the other have a trigger at the curve of one end and have the sound of the car follow the car, from one end to the next sweeping from left to right or vice versa. With the capability of even a basic surround sound card founf in most pc's today, imagine each of the 4 cars on your track having the engine sound follow them as they travel from side to side.

There are some very appropriate sound files available that are used in the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season PC game. Some of both voice and engine sounds might be set to trip points to make for a very interesting circuit.

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i think it'd be tough to get realistic engine sounds because of the scale speeds involved. I mean, I have two 13-foot straights on my layout. In 1/87 scale (true model railroad HO) that would be 1131 feet. We know Tjets are closer to 1/72-1/76... let's go with 1/76, which would be 988 feet. We know a quarter-mile is 1320. How long would it take a real car to go that far? How many times would it shift? That's the coolest part of car sounds, is winding the engine out and shifting. But that long straight on my track is over in like a second and a half, maybe two seconds tops, even for my average Tjets. No time to get real shift sounds in.

All that said, I think a random soundtrack of cars revving and shifting might be cool. Heck, I often have movies like Gumball Rally or Two-Lane Blacktop or Vanishing Point playing while I'm running cars just for the background noise.

--rick

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In the early days, we used to cut the dust covers under the armatures so that a small flap rode in the arm itself, giving a whining sound. It was fun. You could really hear the RPM's go up and down during a race. It was similar to sticking cards in your bike spokes as a kid. Got really irritating but it was a cool fad for a while. :freak:

In the early days, we used to cut the dust covers under the armatures so that a small flap rode in the arm itself, giving a whining sound. It was fun. You could really hear the RPM's go up and down during a race. It was similar to sticking cards in your bike spokes as a kid. Got really irritating but it was a cool fad for a while. :freak:

Probably sounded something like an AFX Magna-Sonic, no? i actually have one of them that I get a kick out of driving...

--rick

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AfxToo, I think the dust cover they are talking about it that little clear plastic piece on the bottom of inline chassis such as the SG+ . I always had cards flapping in my spokes as a kid. Then as now with my Mustang GT, loud pipes save lives!

Yeah I hate the clickety clack. I've never heard cars on a routed track. Well, at least HO. This makes me want to build a routed MDF track.

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Hey, I just tried to stick the Jack of diamonds in the wheel of my FF Yenko Camaro. It sure doesn't work for me......

i think it'd be tough to get realistic engine sounds because of the scale speeds involved. --rick

All this is very possible with digital chips.............particularly in the larger scales.
Right now LOC Sound makes digital chips for locomotives that can be programmed to sound exactly like the prototype. Is synchronized to the throttle, and function keys on your throttle can give you other options (like blowing your horn)
Imagine running a General Lee on your slot track listening to that engine wind up and suddenly the distinctive horn wish i was in the land of cotton popped up LOL )
This is all Possible, the question is will it be developed for slots like it has for the model rr guys.

Probobly it will take someone aftermarket to lead the way..............fortunately we have lots of entrepenurial types in this country who would love nothing more than to be able to make a living from thier hobbies so i DO expect this WILL happen in the future........How long? Hard to say but whoever does it WILL make money if they do a proper job of it!!