Slot Cars Adelaide
Interferance to Lap timing equipment by controller relays
A capacitor of correct value can be fitted across the relay actuating to suppress the interferance generated by the ESP & Power relays fitted to Difalco and other controllers
Alternatively a diode can be fitted across the ESP and the full power relay coils.
Either of these forms of suppression can be used and stop interference to Lap Counting interfaces & other track equipment .
There should be an article on how to fit the diodes soon. So you can choose what method to fit .
Both systems work on testing . The capacitor fitting is not current sensitive and will not damage the controller if fitted in either direction on the correct relay coil positions.
The diode fitting does have to be fitted in the correct current direction or damage can occur to the controller power transistor.
Will pass on the diode fitting info when I get it.
Apparently some commercial lap counting interfaces are built with inbuilt suppression methods and shielding so they do not get affected buy spurious emissions from the activation & deactivation of the relay coil. One such interface appears to be the Trackmate brand of equipment.
Here are the capacitor values and also the fitting points for both capacitors - with some more details of the fitting points.
The Capacitor is a 100 volt Polyester Capacitor .047 uf ( which is the same as 47nf )
The polyester capacitor can come in several different case colors but is dark green in the pictures below.
The power relay connecting points One leg of the capacitor ( dark green capacitor with “N” on it ) goes to the power input to the Orange wire connection point. The other leg of the capacitor goes to the white wire connection point This places the capacitor in parallel with the coil power relay.
The ESP Brake relay connecting points this is the same 100 volt Polyester Capacitor .047 uf ( which is the same as 47nf ) as fitted to the Power Relay
One leg of the capacitor goes to the blue wire connecting point on the relay. The other does to the terminal which is connected to a wire shunt which goes diagonally
across the relay to the terminal at the other corner of the relay . The diagonal shunt wire is hidden by the new capacitor in the picture .
I hope this is clear enough to be able to do the capacitor fitting - if not arrange with me to have a look at my controller to see the actual fitting .
Welcome