Since version 5.08 Pc Lap Counter is compatible with the new Advanced 6 Car Powerbase from Scalextric  (C7042).
To connect your C7042 powerbase to your computer you need a special USB cable, you can buy the cable by just sending a E-mail to Richard Girling at richard@girling.net (the cable for the C7030 does not work with the new powerbase C7042), you can also buy the cable at Professor Motor or Slot Car-Union

What Pc Lap Counter can do with the new powerbase C7042:

• Reduce the cars performance against the fuel tank level.
• Control the track power when starting, pausing, resuming or stopping a race and lights up the power on/off led of the powerbase.
• User can Start/Pause/resume the race by using the “START” button of the powerbase
• You can program the cars directly from Pc Lap Counter.
• Specify the drivers preferences like throttle map, dynamic brake, maximum power, track call enable/disable, brake strength.
• Specify the drivers cars max power, for  example for  kids you can setup the top speed to 75%
• Manage pacer driver/Ghost car and furthermore, with the C7042 you can modify the pacer speed during the race by using the “ARROW UP” / “ARROW DOWN” buttons of the powerbase.
• Manage track call (depending on the track call method to initiate a track call driver have to press the BRAKE button + LC button +  zero Throttle or just LC button + Brake button)
• When a driver ask a track call Pc Lap Counter will lights up the corresponding car ID led of the powerbase.
• When a driver not push the throttle button during a specify delay Pc Lap Counter can generate  a track call automatically
• Detect false start and give a stop & penalty to the bad driver.
• When a driver fail to make his stop & go penalty then Pc Lap Counter will stop his car.
• You can Start/Stop pace car mode (Yellow Flag)
• Detect pitstop by using the Pit-Pro or SmartSensor or using old C7030,  you can also simulate a pitstop by using different method like pushing the LC button during 2 sec.
• Limit the max speed of the cars in the pit lane.
• You can use old powerbase C7030 to detect pitstop, one C7030 for Pit-IN and eventually another for Pit-Out, but of course you need to modify your old powerbase C7030 otherwise you will brake your powerbases !
• You can use old powerbase C7030 to detect other S/F like detecting S/F in the Pit Lane or detecting S/F on a 4 lanes digital track (of course you need to modify your old C7030 otherwise you will brake your powerbases !).
  Another solution to detect other S/F is to add sensor to your C7042.
• Since the firmware v1.04 of the C7042 you can switch to analog mode when the tower is not connected : on the C7042 hold the left+Up+Right buttons and press Start 5 times
• Since version 5.31 you can use Scorpius Wireless controller
• Manual or automatic refuel , same for stop & go (since version 5.41)

How to configure Pc Lap Counter for the Scalextric Digital C7042:

• In the options windows select the detector ‘Scalextric Digital C7042’ and click on the “setup...” button
• Change the serial port if necessary.
• Select the Pitstop detection method.
• After you only need to set drivers on good lane when you set a race (lane 1 correspond at car 1, lane 2 correspond at car 2....).

Advanced options for Scalextric Digital C7042:

• Track call will:
  When a driver ask a “track call”  you can specify if  all cars will stop or if it will start pace car/Yellow flag and slow down the cars, you can also give a stop & go penalty to the driver who ask the “track call”.
  During the “track call” the  refueling of all cars can be stopped or not.
• Impact of the fuel on max power:
  A car with 100L of fuel will not have the same performance than a car with 20L of fuel, so here you specify the impact percentage of the fuel on the car performance.
  For example if you specify a fuel impact of 20% it mean that a car with 100L  will have 80% of his max performance and a car with 40L will have 92% of his max performance.
  The fuel impact option have no influence on “pacer” driver as there is no fuel management for “pacer” driver.
  If you don’t want to set the car performance against the fuel level then set the fuel impact option to 0 %.
• Out of fuel max speed:
  When a driver run out of fuel you can reduce his car max speed to force him to refuel
• Pit lane max speed:
  Reduce the cars max speed when their enter into the pit lane.
• Pace car / yellow flag max speed:  See pace car explanation
• Driver race end max speed:
  When a driver end his race Pc Lap Counter will  automatically reduce his car speed to this value, a value of zero will stop his car.

- For each driver you can specify the throttle map, maximum power and other preferences:

• Track call enabled:
  Here you specify if the driver can initiate a track call or not, depending on the track call method to initiate a track call the driver have to press the BRAKE button + LC button + zero throttle (or just  LC button + Brake button)
• Dynamic Brake enabled:
  Here you specify if the driver use dynamic brake or not, dynamic brake enable mean braking is automatically applied when the throttle is fully released.
• Max power :
  This will limit the driver car top speed, for example for kids you can set it to 75%
• Brake Strength:
  Since version 5.14 you can specify the Brake Strength,  “Hard” means that the brake signal will be sent immediately to the car, “Slow” means that brake signal will be sent every six times.
• Throttle map enabled, throttle map data:
  Here you can specify if the driver use a special throttle map or not, throttle map allow the driver to modify his hand controller behavior by changing the power curve.

Initiate a Track call:

Depending on the track call method press and hold the hand controller BRAKE button + LC button + zero throttle (or just BRAKE button + LC button), to end the track call press the START button on the powerbase or just press again LC + BRAKE + zero throttle.

Programming cars, two possibilities:

1. From Pc Lap Counter: in the race control menu select “Programming cars”  then place only the cars to program on the track and choice his new ID (need powerbase with firmware 1.09):

2. From the powerbase:
   1- Place car on the track
   2- Press/hold the ENTER button of the powerbase until green LED Flashes
   3- Push the BRAKE button of the hand controller (red & green LED flash)
   4- Press the START button of the powerbase to leave the Car ID setting procedure , depending of the race status the power OFF/ON LED lights up (this step is for Pc Lap Counter only).
    repeat step 1 to 3 for each car (standard way to set Car ID without the LCD display)

Requirement:

Pc Lap Counter for the C7042 powerbase has been tested on a P4 3Ghz computer with 1GB of ram and windows 7.

See Also:

• Fuel management for digital track
• Stop & Go management
• Pitstop by using Pit-Pro
• Pace car / yellow flag
• Pacer driver / Ghost cars