Scalextric Start Gate

By Jordan May

My Project : Scalextric Start Gate

The start gate is required for having a fair and quick start on your scalextric so your opponent doesn’t cheat and start before you say go and you lose because of it.

It is for people who want a more professional race and want to make it look more real. It is a good extra to have as it will make your track look more complex and interesting. It is for any age which play scalextric and whoever likes racing and having a more life like race track.

This product is intended to give you a more life like feeling and looking track. Gives you a more exciting race as you have to see who reacts the quickest to the green light and has a starting advantage. Also prevents you from having your opponent cheat against you so you can have a fair start.

It will be easy to remove from the track the track so you don’t have no trouble with it. The lights need to be the same time apart from turning on and also need to be quite quick so you don’t need to wait to start the fun. The lights will be bright so you can see when you need to start the race.

The customers will require it to give them a quick start to their race and to make it a more fair start so no one cheats. Also the product will be required to light up and the lights to be same time apart from lighting up apart from there will be a little bit more of a time relay when it goes to green to make more suspense and to make a more exciting race.

Scalextric Start Gate

Size: Usually over one meter. Around 2.5 meters.

Manufacturing: Acrylic material which clips onto each side of the track and the lights go above the track like a real life race. Will be made by using a laser cutter.

Cost: Range from 26 to £30.

Target Audience: It targets at anyone who likes to play Scalextric and likes racing. It will vary from young age to old age. It can only be for the bigger Scalextric not the micro one.

Buyer/Consumer:The buyer would be the parents or maybe grandparents buying it for the consumer which would be the children. It maybe for a Christmas present or birthday present as a part of a set of Scalextric.

Function: Its function is to countdown from 3 to 1 then go! It will have 4 lights, 3 red then 1 green.

Could it be metal?

Would that make it more

expensive?What metal would

it be? Would it rust?

Batteries?

Will it have a battery pack?

Will the battery pack be visible?

Scalextric Start Gate

Analysis Of A F1 Start Gate

• Aesthetics. Nice race black with different coloured locks.• Customer. The people that make the tracks and improve them will need to

purchase a start gate with some lights to make it more attractive.• Environment. It will be placed at the start of the race track and it will need

to be protected in case little stones fly up from the racers tires and smash the light. Also in case a car spins out of control and knocks down the pole which could break it.

• Size. It is big and thick so it can take all of the damage just in case a car crashes into it and so that everybody can see it and the racers know when to go.

• Function. To let the racers know when to start the race.• Materials. Glass and metal.

Investigating The Design Context

• A standard scalextric track has a width of 155.5 millimetres. So therefore the start gate would need to be around 175 millimetres as it will be able to clip onto the track.

• This track will be used for only inside so therefore it wouldn’t need to be waterproof. But it is suitable to take outside in the summer if you would like to use it in the garden.

• The start gate would have to have bright lights so you can play in the dark if you would like to.

Scalextric Start Gate Interview Questions

1. How old are you?2. How often do you play scalextric? Do you play it?3. Do you own a set of scalextric?4. Do you want it to be more like a formula 1 start gate?5. Which out of the three colours would you choose for it to be? Black Red Blue6. Would you like it to be attached to the track or de-attached?7. What would be the price you would pay for one?

Consumer Profile (First Person)

• I interviewed one possible customer and the customer was male. His answers were that he did play Scalextric and he plays it often. I asked him whether he would want it to be more like a formula 1 start gate and he said yes because it would make the Scalextric more realistic. I asked him to choose a colour out of red, blue or black and he chose black because they’re normally what you see on a formula 1 track. He said he would like it to be attached to the track so then you cant knock it over or lose it. The price he said he would pay for one is £20 to £25 maximum. My Interview sheet

Consumer Profile (Second Person)

I interviewed my second possible customer and the customer was also male. His answers were that he did play Scalextric but he only played it in the summer as he likes to put it in his garden. I asked him whether he would want it to be more like a formula 1 start gate and he said yes because it would make playing feel more like a real race. I asked him to choose a colour out of red, blue or black and he chose red because it is his favourite colour. Normally black is what you see on a formula 1 track but he’d like a change in colour. He said he would like it to be attached to the track so then you cant lose it. The price he said he would pay for one is £15 to £20 maximum. Here is my interview sheet.

Consumer Profile (Third Person)

• The third and final person I interviewed was male. His answers were that he didn’t really play Scalextric so therefore he didn’t play it often. He said he would rather it be more like a formula 1 start gate because it would then make him want to play it more as he like watch formula 1 on the TV. I asked him to choose what colour he would like it to be out of red, blue or black and he had said that he would like it black because its more of a race type colour than blue or red is. He would also like it to be attached to the track as it will look better and it will feel better when you’re racing and also because you wont lose it. The price he said he would pay for the start gate would be £15 to £17 maximum. My interview sheet.

Results Table Of The Answers

Person Colour

Customer 1 Black

Customer 2 Black

Customer 3 Red

Customer 4 Black

Customer 5 Blue

Results Conclusion

• In conclusion my results show that my customer would like the product to be between £15 to £25. They would also like the start gate to be realistic like a formula 1 gate. Also the customers would like it to be black. Also they play it often.

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Colours

SMART Targets

Specific• I will make the product suitable for all ages above 3 years old.• I am going to make the product light up from red(stop) to green(go)• I will make the product suitable for in the dark so therefore the lights will

show up more.

Initial Ideas

Input Process Output

Push to make switch. PIC. LED sets to red.

Push to make switch. Darlington Pair. A buzzer sounds.

Push to make switch. 555 Microcontroller. Seven Segment Display.

Push to make switch PIC LED’s Set to

red

I could use a push to make switch because I don’t want a switch that will be constantly on. I will use it because the input is just sending a short current round the circuit to reset the lights to red.

I could use a pic microcontroller because it is the easiest quickest option and it will allow the LED’s to change at the same time with a set time in-between to give it a more race-like experience.

The output is that the LED’s will set to red which will show that you can restart the race and will indicate that you can start again.

Push to make switch

DarlingtonDriver

Buzzer Sounds

I could use a push to make switch because I don’t want a switch that will be constantly on. I will use it because the input is just sending a short current round the circuit to sound the buzzer.

I could use a Darlington driver that comes in an IC 18 pin DIL package. There are 8 drivers in the IC, each driving up to 500mA. I’m using a Darlington driver because two or more drivers can be connected directly in parallel to produce more current so therefore it will process quicker and the buzzer will sound louder.

I could use a buzzer to indicate me that the car can leave the gate and the timer has started.

Electronics Design

In this section there will be an:Idea 1Idea2And an Idea 3 (Final Idea)

Ideas 1

I will use a pic microcontroller because it is the easiest quickest option and it will allow the LED’s to change at

the same time with a set time in-between.

The output is that the lights will restart which will show that you can restart the race and will indicate that you can start again.

Input

Push to make switch

Process Output

PIC Five LED’s

I use it because the input is just sending a short current round the circuit to sound the buzzer and I can control when to do it.

FINAL IDEA

Development

• Here’s My Circuit Diagram

Here’s my flowchart

• Here’s my PCB layout that went wrong but then on the right is where I fixed it. I did this by moving some of the components around and making the connections work.

How I got where I am

• This Is where I need to print it off onto some tracing paper and then put it onto a PCB. This picture is the artwork of the PCB.

Circuit Analysis

1) This is the start of the circuit where the SPST switch and the push to make switch goes. It is where the current starts flowing from which is 9v.

2) This is the genie chip which is a microcontroller that is programmed to choose which LED’s to put on and when.

3) These are the resistors which are used to slow down the rate of the voltage that will be travelling through to the LED’S.

4) These are the 4 LED’s that signal to start the race and these are not full voltage because of the resistors slowing down the current.

My Casing Design

My casing design is a black acrylic which is a tall arch shape which will go over the track so the cars can go under it when the race starts. The reason why I have chosen acrylic it is a cheap material that is strong and can come in many colours to suit your needs.