Thursday, February 12, 2009

DS Test Bench and new controller

DS is coming out with a revolutionary controller. It's based on the new MRRC controller and is quite a surprising thing that DS has done. The features are listed in the photo but something that struck me was that it's probably the next step in this hobby being a solid sport. You can adjust the sensitivity, braking, everything that you've come to expect in a high end controller for serious competition. But most importantly...telemetry, it keeps a record of all the settings on the controller and the braking and throttle position for each lap. So if you're someone that either needs a starting point to know where to start to set up your controller (the system and software provided with the controller give you that info) or whether you're fine tuning your lap times and need to see exactly where you might be able to pick up a bit of time on the track. Is this information needed for slot racing? Strictly speaking, no. But, if you're serious about racing, this controller can give you that extra bit of information that could make a difference. It's a progression, an evolution.

The controller is connected to a laptop via a wifi connection that connects to both a PC and MAC (thank goodness for a MAC too!) via a USB antenna. The controller will connect to the USB antenna and the antenna will support many controllers so a club (or individual) will only have to buy 1 antenna to support use of up to 20 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) controllers.

The DS Testing Bench does just about everything that you could want it to do to help you set up a car for racing. Magnetic downforce, rpm testing, a bench for setting up your car. A prototype was on display at the toyfair in Nurnberg and hopefully soon we'll see this unique bench for sale.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting...thanks for your reports, Dave.