Digital conversion of Scalextric C2808 Range Rover Police car

This Scalextric Digital conversion is made more complicated than normal because of the working Police lights and siren. All the Scalextric Police cars can be converted to Digital using this process.
	This is the Scalextric C2808 Range Rover Police car as delivered by the customer. The car is new and unused. Now all it needs is a digital chip fitting…. However, this is a Police car with working lights and a siren. The electronics that power the lights and siren is not compatible with Scalextric Digital as the power feed needed is not provided by the Digital track or the Digital chip output to the Scalextric motor. As you’ll see later in this conversion we fit a special power adaptor to ensure the lights and siren all work correctly after the Digital conversion.
	Here the Range Rover has been opened up to reveal the contents. From left to right you can see the following; steel weight, rear axle, motor, electronic Printed Circuit Board (PCB) for the lights and siren, guide fixing screw, front axle and lastly another steel weight right at the front. In this arrangement the power from the track goes directly to the PCB and the wires for the motor also go to the PCB. There is a small piece of electronics between the track and motor to ensure the motor is always driven in the right direction. This electronics is known as a bridge rectifier and is used for the lights and siren too. Again, to ensure the correct polarity of Direct Current (DC) is fed to the electronics.
	In this picture you can see we have fitted the Scalextric Digital chip between the motor and the existing PCB. The Digital chip is secured in position with a small amount of superglue. We do this before we remove any components so we can be certain that all the parts will fit in position once the car is reassembled. We have used the Scalextric Digital C7005 In-Car Microprocessor.
	A close up of the Scalextric Digital C7005 In-Car Microprocessor in position with all the other components still in place.
	Now we have removed the electronic PCB to give the access need to complete the fitment of the Digital chip. We unsoldered the wires from the motor and the guide contacts. That’s four wires in total and two screws to remove the PCB from the chassis. All the wires from the PCB into the upper half of the body are untouched and remain connected.
	Here the Infra Red LED is fitted into the existing hole in the chassis just behind the guide blade. A tiny drop of superglue keeps the LED in position. The wires are also soldered to the motor in the same position as the original wires from the PCB. We’ve also added a piece of insulation tape on the top and side of the motor to ensure nothing can short out which would damage the Digital chip.
	In this picture the installation of the Digital chip is complete and the wiring tidied up This is now a fully working Scalextric Digital conversion but without the working lights and siren.
	The motor feed wires from the original PCB are trimmed off as they are no longer needed and could short out if left as they were. The original PCB is then refitted to the chassis with only two wires to connect. These were the feed wires that originally connected to the guide blade contact.
	As stated at the start of this article the feed wires for the siren and lights cannot be connected to the track connections or the motor connections directly. For the technical out there, the PCB needs analogue DC 6 Volts to 14 Volts. The Digital track provides AC and the drive to the motor from the Digital chip is a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) signal. Therefore, we use this unique power adaptor.
	The power adaptor is fitted at the very rear of the chassis behind the metal weight and secured with a drop of superglue. The power adaptor has four wires, 2 are the power feed in from the motor and two are the corrected power output to the PCB for the lights and siren. Red and black wires to the motor tags and green and black output wires to the PCB.
	Close up of the power adaptor in location. The power adaptor takes in the PWM signal from the Digital chip to the motor and creates stable analogue DC 6 Volts to 14 Volts just like the PCB needs.
	In this picture the power adaptor has been connected up to the car and all the conversion work inside the car is complete.
	Back together and there’s no way to know that this Scalextric C2808 Range Rover Police car has been converted to digital. Everything works just as it used to including the lights and siren on both the traditional analogue layout as well as on a digital track.
	The finished car from below. Just the LED to see from this view.
	A close up of the LED just behind the guide blade

Another great article from Scalectric Car Restorations