Pit stops old vs. new

[DaveKennedy]

A thread about pit stops.

1. Control Unit (30352) and old Pit Stop (30346).
You can use fuel function with old Pit Stop. In this case fuel function is the same as with Black Box.
Car needs fuel and the light will begin to flash if refuel needed. If you drive in Pit the car will automatically refuel and will stop flashing light.
*Please note that only the base fuel function can be used (Fuel "On" mode). "Real" fuel mode is not possible and also fuel display on Driver Display has no function.

2. Control Unit (30352) and new Pit Stop (30356-complete pit stop or 30361-pit stop extention piece)
Control Unit detects automatically the new Pit Stop Adapter Unit. Refueling is shown by the Drivers Display.But you must pass Pit Stop Adapter Sensor (the LED sensor in the track section) to set the car in refuel mode. You can refuel the car by pressing and holding the lane change button at speedcontroller.

3. Black Box (30344) and new Pit Stop (30356-complete pit stop or 30361-pit stop extention piece)
Black Box can't detect new Pit Stop Adapter Unit and will ignore it but you have fuel functionality as old Pit Stop.

*corrected part number

[b.yingling]

Also worth noting a couple of differences, if the adapter track is present in a control unit system. The car's will no longer flash their lights before needing fuel. Once they begin to flash, you are already out of fuel, and the car will stutter. When you enter the pit, the lights will stop flashing immediately.

So a new pit adapter and control unit combination cry out for driver displays and/or working software. The old system gave you information through the flashing of the car's lights. The new one does not tell you nearly as much, unless you have DDs or software. If you do, it tells you far more than the old system, since you can check the fuel level at any time.

EDIT TO REPHRASE:

If you have no DDs, and no software hooked to the track, recommend you leave the PLA (pit lane adapter) out of the track. Then the cars will flash their lights when they are low on fuel. Giving you warning before they run out. If a PLA is present in the track, the cars will not flash until they are empty.

[DrumPhil]

Also note, if you run out of fuel when using the old system (BB and old pit), the car will stutter and slow down, but any laps you complete are still counted by the lap counter.

With the new pit and CU, if you run out of fuel, the car does not stutter as much, but any laps you complete are NOT counted by the CU until you refuel.

Not counting laps is a reasonable way to simulate a car being "dead on the course" while not actually leaving the car dead in the slot (to get run into), so it makes sense. It's just something to be aware of.

[Kilo60]

Another question:

What about using the new CU and both a new PL for fuel and the old PL for PC only on the same track layout?

I'm assuming this work together without issues but would the PC be able to only use the old PL and not enter the new PL?

[Petraeus]

Another question:

What about using the new CU and both a new PL for fuel and the old PL for PC only on the same track layout?

Possible - I'm doing it.

.. would the PC be able to only use the old PL and not enter the new PL?

Not possible - at least, not without serious modifications. But some did this mod.

[Iowa999]

What about using the new CU and both a new PL for fuel and the old PL for PC only on the same track layout?

As am I. The new pit is the actual pit. The old pit is the pace-car parking space.

[b.yingling]

Another question:

I'm assuming this work together without issues but would the PC be able to only use the old PL and not enter the new PL?

With a CU, you can control which pit it will enter by timing the press of the pace car button. It won't enter any pit until the button is pressed a second time. Which means you probably don't want to design your track such that the parking pit is immediately after the refueling pit. It would give you less margin of error on your button press.

With a BB, you could control this by a judicious placement of lane changers.

[Spraggih]

Quick question:

If you have the new CU and the old pit lane and the pit lane is parallel to the Start/Finish line-- is there anyway to count the lap that occurs when the car pits. Right now, if I pit, the lap is not counted.

To remedy, I could do one of the following:
1. Move the pit lane to after the sensor on the Start/Finish track.
2. Buy the pit lane adapter

But is there a way to make this work-- activating/ deactivating the Extended Pit Lane function as described in the CU manual does not do anything.

[ryk4racing]

You must have a pit adapter to count laps in the pit. It is what does the counting.

But- they're cheap (cheaper than a single pit lane piece without the electronics!- which makes no sense) and you get "real" fuel mode, a big improvement.

[Spraggih]

Ok. Thanks!. So was there a way to count laps with the BB? Seems like a big deal not to be able to count laps.

I also bought the lap adapter (IIRC, it's part# is 30361).

[ansley]

Yes, simply don't put the old style lap counter underneath the pit. (does that make sense?) Keep the lap counter "outside" the pitlane, if that makes more sense.

Ted

[Spraggih]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[dferrey]

This question may be intuitively obvious, but with the new pit lane,will it always count laps or can that be disabled? I don't plan on having the pit lane by the CU.

[Scootcar50]

This question may be intuitively obvious, but with the new pit lane,will it always count laps or can that be disabled? I don't plan on having the pit lane by the CU.

You can disable the count lap function – don’t have the book in front of me but its not that hard.

Cheers

[dferrey]

You can disable the count lap function – don’t have the book in front of me but its not that hard.

Cheers

Thanks for the info. In a way I was hoping it wasn't possible so I could save some $'s and get the old one .

I think the other upgrade on the new vs. old is the real fuel function.