SCX Digital disappointment out of the box (lane change not working, headlights wont'

[saganesque]

Well, I got my GT Pit Box set for my son's birthday, but 2 cars don't work properly out of the box. One is a complete lemon: it seems to have a broken guide pin and won't change lanes (the UPS car, whichever that is). That car also has a split screw housing, which isn't a big deal, but the headlights also don't work and now the copper pin on the case has broken loose after many attempts to get it to seat properly to turn the headlights on.

The Chevrolet runs okay, but won't change lanes. The guide pin seems fine, it does depress when I click the lane change button (I can see this in an open car test), but the power seems to cut just a bit as it rolls over a crossover track. I've flattened the brushes on the bottom too, but it just won't change. Only the BMW works flawlessly.

Per the SCX tech support videos I opened the box and maintenanced all of these cars in advance of my son's birthday Saturday, but to no avail. The track and pit stop themselves seem to be working okay, but 2/3 cars are malfunctioning. I've been reaching out to SCX tech support, but haven't heard back yet.

Any suggestions/advice? I want this birthday of his to be a success and this was the feature gift for him for the birthday. Wondering if I should have gotten a Carrera 1/43 set instead, or a Scaley 1/32 start set.

Thanks in advance,

S

[waldeck]

Where are you located? It might be there could be some racers in your area to provide assistance before your son's birthday in order to make it a grand day for him.

[Scaleracing]

Speak with Kidvoltqge

Try contacting Kidvoltage, he is in your area and an expert on Digital especially SCXD.

[kidvoltage]

PM sent.

[saganesque]

Kidvoltage dropped by today and gave me the lowdown on, well, everything. I want to make sure to get the word out first that this was a very friendly and generous volunteer gesture on his part and I'm deeply grateful. On account of his assistance, we are set to race a new Pit Box set on my son's birthday.

As to the problems with the cars, one thing that became apparent, as I have it, is that my cellophane wrapped boxed set had come with analog cars re-chipped to run on a digital track. This is why the "lights" button the pit control did nothing for my cars and they always run with lights on when they are in motion. This admittedly is disappointing, but not a deal-kill for racing fun to come.

So thanks again to Kidvoltage and everyone else here who have been so friendly and helpful. Race on!

-S

[LDFan]

As to the problems with the cars, one thing that became apparent, as I have it, is that my cellophane wrapped boxed set had come with analog cars re-chipped to run on a digital track.

Just to be clear, all cars that work on SCX-Digital are predominately analog in nature. I wanted to clarify that since it makes no difference if a car starts off as being analog and then gets chipped later. They all run the same and should make no difference. Thus, what you said doesn't come off as making a lot of sense.

This is why the "lights" button the pit control did nothing for my cars and they always run with lights on when they are in motion. This admittedly is disappointing, but not a deal-kill for racing fun to come.

What you're saying is not a defect with the set or car but a minor problem with where the copper tabs for the lights are hitting on the digital chip.

Please note this picture in respect that there are separate tabs for the "motor" and the "lights".



Now, open the car(s) in question and peek inside to see where the copper light tabs are hitting on the chip. There is a very good chance that one or both of these tabs are bent too far back and hitting the "motor" pad instead of the "light" pad. So the obvious solution is to bend the tabs a tad forward (not a lot and do it very gently) to ensure it hits the light pad from now on.

Hope this was helpful.

Dave

[saganesque]

To be absolutely certain, is it possible to solder those tabs with wire to the light-specific pad? I haven't had much luck bending those tabs around.

[LDFan]

You can solder them if you like but I prefer to not do that since it would make it cumbersome when you wanted to do maintainance on the car.

As for bending them, I'm not sure what difficulty you are having? Is it the aim? If so, just have the body hover above the chassis a slight bit and see where the legs would land on the chip. If it seems off to the front/back or left/right, you simply bend in the direction it needs and it will fall into place. In addition, take note that they are somewhat "sprung" in that they do extend lower than the chassis so that they will glide into the light pads.

Dave

[Josh1850]

Saganesque, Welcome to SCX-D. Think you will find, there are allot of people out here willing / able to help with tech issues - I've called on them many-many times. It is a good community of talent, many willing to assist !

The learning curve on car care, tweaks, maintenance of SCX isn't too steep, and once you get the basics down, the sets are a blast to run. Just understand, car care & maintenance is the key to long-time race enjoyment - it's not a 1-time tweak / maintenance hobby - we usually do complete maintenance on the cars every couple of months, more often with more frequent racing. Peak performance often requires maintenance before each race - but we're not that obsessed... obsessed, yes, but not "that" obsessed....

Hope the b.day racing goes great !

[JWEBDRD]

Was the cellophane over-wrap yellowed ?

is that my cellophane wrapped
-S

I didn't know cellophane still existed. Dad worked at an American Viscose plant briefly in the 60's. They made cellophane. Popular packaging product, all kinds of stuff, including food. They were bought out and eventually all the plants closed.

Maybe cellophane is one of those words that has become a common name for all sorts of wrap. Fun seeing cellophane pop up.

Glad your problem was resolved. But as far as scx, one black eye for quality. A lot of us overlooked that, two year warranty and excellent service from the USA service guy. From what I have read here and my own experience, service is no longer a factor, as it is non existent.

A warranty is only as good as the company backing it. No service, no sale. Another black eye for scx.

A product that does not work out of the box should be replaced. It's brand new. You should not have to fix it yourself, or rely on the very good graces of the loyal scx users.

I don't know whether scx told the service rep to quit giving away product, or he just gave up from lack of parts.

[Josh1850]

JWEBDRD,

We had (2) immediate responses from Bryan last couple of weeks. Won't argue future service probability, but he's still with us to an extent... His hands still tied with current developments ?

We also had defective unit out of box 6-years ago - replacement + parts immediately offered & delivered. Working good since. If I recall (old SCXWW site), quality control (China mfg) was / has been a long-issue. No excuse, just clarifying.

We want cheap $$$ prices, consistent quality often sacrificed. SCX has had it's share, agreed.

[saganesque]

I have a response from Bryan saying he's out of the office for some days, which is no problem. I'll be fine to wait it out a few days.

However, Kidvoltage seemed to indicate that they may have been re-chipped from analog to digital. I'm glad to try and do the tab alignment to try and get those tabs to land squarely on the light pads, but I don't want to muck around with it if indeed these have been re-chipped. Is there any way to check that without fooling around with them too much? I notice that popping them open and closed is kind of touchy with respect to getting the headlights to turn on at all.

[kidvoltage]

It wouldn't matter either way. I don't think we opened those cars and looked inside so the tabs could be miss-aligned. It just seemed odd to me that you would get a set with different generation chips/cars in it. But it's hard to say what they were assembling at the end of these sets. I recall sufficient squabbling over the condition of some of the sets one of the large retailers was pushing. But a set with both red and black guides seems confusing to me. Of course my wife tells me that a lot of things seem confusing to me.

Bring 'em by, I'll be happy to take a look.

[JWEBDRD]

apples and oranges

It just seemed odd to me that you would get a set with different generation chips/cars in it. But it's hard to say what they were assembling at the end of these sets.

Remember they were marketing gt sets where scx picked the cars at random from their stock? You didn't even know what cars were in the box? Maybe that would explain it. Still, seems like they would at least pack cars with the same chip.

[LDFan]

It just seemed odd to me that you would get a set with different generation chips/cars in it. But it's hard to say what they were assembling at the end.

Actually that's not odd at all.

Prior to SCX going with the "random" cars sets, they released one GT Pit Box set that had the Chevy Corvette C6R (don't remember what livery but it was blue & yellow in color), a Porsche 911 GT3 (UPS), and Aston Martin DBR9 (Gulf). Obviously, the Porsche was a V2 design and the other two were V1 (none of which would make a difference in car performance since V1 and V2 are electronically the same).

This sounds like the set that Saganesque has but he mentioned a BMW so it's hard to say.

Dave