Races2U has been asked to build or consult on many interesting slot car projects over the years, but it is a rare opportunity when we get to act as a consultant and others do almost all the work. One of our most recent projects is an amazing piece of work, created by SISU Devices for Cisco, in collaboration with Races2U and talented acrylic artist Bill Cornelius of Central Texas Plastic Fabrication.
Although Races2U and Cisco have crossed paths many times at various tech trade shows and events such as the Open Source Convention (OSCON), NetApp Insite, and OpenStack Summit, this was a project far beyond our expertise, or that of any slot car guru for that matter. For what Cisco wanted, they really needed a talented mechanical, electrical, and software engineering team, so they turned to SISU Devices to develop and integrate some high-tech features into an otherwise pretty standard slot car track.
The purpose of this project was for Cisco to be able to demonstrate through a visual means how their Time-Sensitive Network Switches (TSN) would route priority traffic over routine traffic to keep networks running smoothly. How better to demonstrate this than using actual automotive traffic, on a smaller scale. The track was designed to have a series of features that would normally impede traffic flow- a draw bridge, toll gates, and giant windmills (not normally a problem on most roads, but hey…). The idea was for users to be able to drive their cars on the track, both in “normal” mode, where they would have to wait for the obstacles to clear (or crash), or to run in TSN mode, where the obstacles would sense the cars on the road and synchronize with them to keep traffic flowing smoothly. In the event of a crash, there are emergency switches (red buttons on yellow boxes)at either end of the track that the staff manning the track can hit in an instant and stop the action.
SISU Devices is an Austin area company that specializes in industrial automation, and is staffed by some of the best and brightest engineers and designers in several different fields who create robots and machinery that help make difficult tasks seem easy, or in this case, create a slot car track that would fulfill the needs of their client, Cisco. So, if you have all kinds of engineers on staff, but no slot car experts, where do you turn? Well, to Races2U of course. We spent several hours with some of the talented folks at SISU going over the merits and drawbacks of various types of slot cars and tracks- digital vs. analog, routed wood vs. plastic manufactured, the differences between various brands of track. After much discussion, we settled on using Scalextric sport track for the project, based primarily on its width, flexibility, and smaller turn radii. The idea was for the track to evoke the streets of San Francisco, and to allow for some elevation changes (although in the end that was not necessary). The cars are a mixture of Scalextric and Carrera modified with smaller guides to run on Scalextric track. (Carrera models shown). The overall size of the track is roughly 3.5 feet wide by 14 feet long, and all assembled weighs close to half a ton!
Now where it gets techy- Rather than running a DC voltage through the controllers and the controller varying the voltage on the track, the engineers at SISU connected the controller to a power amplifier that would simultaneously send power to the track and signal to the other electronic components integrated into the overall system. Through a series of sensors built into the track, computers knew the precise location of the cars at all sectors through the circuit. The magnets in the bottom of the cars would trigger some sensors, while laser sensors would trigger other responses when their light beam was broken. This allowed not only synchronization with or removal of the obstacles, but also for interesting visual effects, such as LED lighting placed along the edge of the track to follow the cars as they drove around the track. The effect is mesmerizing and quite exciting to watch. Rather than create skyscrapers to simulate downtown San Francisco, Cisco’s own network devices act as buildings, and their prominent placement on the track allows them to show customers exactly what they look like, while in a very differing setting then where they would normally be used.
All of the telemetry from the cars was visible on the displays mounted above the track, and you could see where a car was in real time on the track map. Another interesting feature of this track was the use of high resolution/high speed cameras to show the cars from various angles. Although this is not the first time that cameras have been used to show the action on the track (Click here to see a track we built for Interstate Batteries), it may be the first time that it was done with such clarity and the ability to see the action replayed in super-slow motion. The action and replays are also displayed on one of the screens above the track.
Now, to go along with the high-tech nature of this track, it needed a high-tech look as well. A Central Texas artist, Bill Cornelius, created a landscape built out of various colors of acrylic. A deep transparent blue was used for the water, a smokey grey and white for the terrain, and layers of clear stacked acrylic for the iconic Trans-America tower. The Golden Gate Bridge (modeled after the Cisco logo, or is it vice-versa) was built in red. We always wondered why the Golden Gate is red- it’s actually vermilion and it is to be more visible in the fog, but that’s another story.
The exposed wires, relays, laser sensors, switches and cameras all add to the high-tech look and feel of this masterpiece. The entire assembly is on an alulminum frame and industrial casters so it can easily be transported/moved to various trade shows and expositions wherever Cisco needs it to be. The TV gantry even lowers down into the base. Overall an amazing piece of work, and Races2U was proud to be a part of it, no matter how small our part was.
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