by
Daniel J. Dyke
I have been doing a project for Cincyslots (Bruce Yeomans) for several months. He gave me several Ninco Pole position timers. Most worked after you fiddled with the receivers in the sensor track. He wanted one adapted to work with Scalextric track. The sensors could be made to fit Sport track, but they made the track higher at that point and did not read accurately. I next put a light bridge up over infrared receivers. I hate light bridges! I either couldn't get the bridge aligned or the light was too hot and started to melt the track. The whole enterprise was put on hold until I could find a better way.
RMS Sensor Track
The other day while digging through my warehouse of stuff I found one of those accursed Sport RMS thingamabobs that I got conned into buying (not by Bruce) and wondered how it worked. The screw driver came out and the bottom of the track came off. Inside was a clever reed switch setup. I wondered if it would trigger a Ninco Pole Position timer.
The first picture shows the insides of the sensor track. The two things labeled A are flippers which operate the reed switches (B) when the guide passes through the slot. The guide pushes them over so that they make the two arms of the reed switch make contact. The reed switches send an impulse to the time that registers a lap.
Wire Cutting
In the the RMS sensor track there are four wires: two black, one blue, and one white. Cut these off the RMS interface. Open the the Ninco Pole Position Timer sensor track and cut the cable off the infrared receivers. When you open the cable's shielding, you will find four wires: black, red, green, and yellow. I am a guy, I think in basic colors. I know the yellow is something else, but my manhood prevents me from knowing the name.
Solder the Scalextric Blue and White wires together to the Ninco Black wire. Solder one of the Scalextric Black wires to the Ninco red wire. The other Scalextric Black wire to the Ninco Green wire. The Ninco Yellow wire does nothing that I can figure out and so it does not get stripped.
Next take the interface out of the hood and pitch it into the parts bin. snake the Ninco Interface wire out through the hood and plug it into the Ninco timer. Screw the covers back on the track. It worked the first time out. Could the wiring be done another way? Sure, but I know this way works.
Here is what Bruce's timer looks like:
If you notice the track can be used three ways if it is used with the supplied half straight. Both track pieces have an SCX/Classic hook up on one end and a sport hookup on the other. If you hook the pieces together using the SCX hookups then you end up with a Sport track but if you do the opposite you end up with a classic straight. If you use them separately then you have two sport to classic adapters.
CAVEAT: Do this at your own risk. I can't guarantee the color coding of your wire is the same as mine. Probably is though.
What does the BLUE button do? Nothing except confuse Bruce.
There is a separate article on how to give the Ninco Pole Position timer its own power supply.
Dan