NINCO N-Tronic Electronic Controller Review by Shawn Smith

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April 23 2006 Review

NINCO N-Tronic

Electronic Controller Review
By Shawn Smith

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When you think about home slot car racing accessories what are some of the first things that spring to mind? I know for a lot of new racers trying to determine which track set to buy normally is the first step to slot racing happiness. Then, after some time spent growing and expanding their home layouts, many begin to develop an interest for things like replacement power supplies and upgraded controllers. Generally speaking thoughts of upgrading your slot car sets controllers meant becoming more familiar with some of the aftermarket suppliers in the industry as very few of the manufacturers have 'official' upgrade parts available for their track sets. NINCO is now in the market of taking care of that and thanks to MRC – Model Rectifier Corporation one of the new NINCO N-Tronic electronic hand controllers are here for testing.

Appearance:

Arriving in its own special box the new N-Tronic controller certainly looks to be very promissing. Reading the outside of the box the information claims this controller has twelve power levels, ten different braking positions, a 'turbo' function and a polarity selection.

Opening the box the controller comes surounded by a lot of thick foam padding. My initial impression was positive noticing how similar this new controller is to NINCO's more standard set offerings although some obvious upgrades can be seen in the forms of a small digital screen, two black buttons below the screen as well as rubberized inserts built in to the grip.

On the inside of the controllers cover NINCO has included some graphic examples of the various settings built in to the controller. The top three lines show all twelve of the available power settings and the bottom line shows three of the brake settings you can adjust.

Included with the controller the packaging also contains several different types of connectors for different types of track hook ups. A 6.35mm plug comes attached in the stock form, a smaller 3.5mm adaptor comes included and three 'banana' type jacks also come included. Sadly however there are no alligator clip connectors, a method that is very popular here in the US.

Also with this controller, something we'll refer to several times, NINCO has included a multi-lingual set of instructions to help explain the connectors and various seetings of the controller.

As expected the new N-Tronic controller is very similar to NINCO stock hand controllers having the same size and same shape as the standard units. Many should find this handle style pleasing as some aftermarket designs have been found to be too large for smaller hands.

Performance::

Time to do some testing so starting at the top of the instructions first determine which connection you need to use. As stated earlier the 6.35mm plug comes attached in stock form although I find that a bit odd considering this jack will not fit standard NINCO track connections.

In order to use this controller with the stock NINCO power supply track you'll need to plug the 6.35mm jack in to the back of the 3.5mm connector and only then can you hook the controller up to the track correctly.

Now with everything connected its time to learn what each of the controller features provide. The next section of the instructions shows the button functions and how you can adjust your N-Tronic controller. Each of these buttons serve a sort of dual role as we will explain.

First plugging in your controller you will be greated on the screen by the controllers 'default' settings. Power is displayed as a zero '0', the polarity arrow will be pointing to the left and the brake setting will be programmed at 100%. Taking a quick look at the zero power setting you think that the range of power would be somewhat limited. In this setting the controller does limit top speed potential however a full range of control is still maintained. Lower settings like the zero setting is perfect for newbies or children as it allows the controller to regulate the power available to the user much like turning down the voltage on a variable power supply would do.

Here at step one you can see how a limited amount of power is applied at the first pull on the trigger. As you pull harder on the trigger you can watch the power being used climb until finally it tops off at its limited top speed setting. Every two columns the power climbs until you get to the seventh column where columns seven, eight, nine and ten all remain constant. Watch the progression in the next four images.

Now, after letting off of the trigger, the controller will show a blank throttle level for a matter of a second or two at which time the unit will switch back to show you what setting you are on.

Pressing the 'function/selection' button on the left during 'run' mode allows you to now adjust the level of available power through the controller. Pressing funtion once changes the zero setting to a reading of one, pressing it again ups the power to level two then so on and so on until you work your way through levels three, four, five and all the way through eleven. Also note that button on the right functions as a 'turbo' option during 'run' mode. How this functions is that by pressing turbo you bypass the lower speed circuits and give the car a shot of full power for as long as you hold the button. This works surprisingly well when using lower settings on the controller however once you move higher in the power curve chances are you will already be using full power and at that point the 'turbo' button loses function.

Touching on polarity the N-Tronic comes with the arrow pointing to the left indication the factory programmed polarity setting of the controller. In order to change this setting you must press and hold the 'program' button for two seconds then pressing the same button a second time you can use the left selection button to change the direction of polarity. As easy as that sounds its not the most clear thing to figure out during the initial programming and yes it does make a difference which direction setting you have the NINCO power base set to. Using the normal NINCO controllers you can flip the track direction switch and simply turn you cars around. With the N-Tronic, if you flip the track direction switch you also need to flip the polarity or else a pull on the trigger will send your cars off on a two or three second high speed burst that you can not stop by letting off of the trigger.

Also keep in mind that each time you press the 'program' button to do something like adjust the braking levels the direction arrow defaults back to pointing to the left as shown above in the green arrow. If you are running the car with the arrow pointing right you need to be aware to again change the polarity or once again your car will rocket off on a high speed uncontrolled burst down the track.

So... adjusting the brakes requires you to press and hold 'program' for two seconds. Once in program mode a the small word 'run' in the upper right of the display screen will turn to read 'prog'. Once 'prog' is displayed pressing the 'function' button take the 100% braking and make it 0% from which you can then press it up to nine more times to work your way through the entire range of settings.

Here at 50% or less I found that I liked the braking level of many of my heavier magnet cars and high torque geared cars. For cars with less magnet, or low torque gearing, having the brake setting set at 100% did make a big difference and I like the range of adjustment this controller allows.

So we've played with all of the N-Tronics functions, racing for the evening is over and now its time to the track off and race more tomorrow. When racing resumes be aware that the N-Tronic does not store the last seetings used. The instructions clearly inform you that after being unplugged for twenty minutes the controller will default back to the factory programmed settings so if you had power set at eleven, braking at 50% and the polarity changed from the factory direction you're going to need reprogram the controller to your preferred settings all over again before you resume racing.

The Final Verdict:

We have now hooked everything up, played with the functions and given a few dozen cars the chance to run with the N-Tronic controller. Things that I really like is the ability to plug the controller in, hand it to my six year old son, and have the confidence that his top speed is limited, as is his potential for crashing. So long as he doesn't start pressing the buttons to change the power or engage the turbo feature everything should be fine. For this I would have liked a switch built in that locks the settings in place however since there isn't one I'll continue to tell my youngster to stop pressing the buttons.

I also like the comfort and size of the controller as the normal aftermarket units I've been using are much larger in size and slightly heavier in weight. I also love the polarity and braking adustments built in to a unit that retails for under $80.00. I've paid more than $80.00 for aftermarket units that provide trigger sensitivity without providing braking adjustments and polarity options so to get all of that at a decent price I think the N-Tronic is a reasonable option.

If there has to be one thing I don't care for its the connection methods that come available for track hook up. While needing to use two jacks to run on the stock NINCO power track section isn't a huge deal the connections provided fail to provide alligator clip options for those using 'post type' track hook ups like a large percentage of US based commercial tracks and converted home tracks use today. It would also be nice for there to be an easier way to switch bewteen the wiring options as once you desolder the connections on the stock 6.35mm plug and connect the wires to the banana jacks or alligator clips you can't easily take the controller and plug it back in to a stock NINCO power base. I would love to try this controller on my local commercial tracks but once I do I can't easily go back to use it on my stock home NINCO track. I could always buy additional controllers, and have two for home use and one I take with me to the raceway, however having one that could more easily adapt to a variety of needs would be far more appealing than covering the cost of additional controllers.

All said and done the new NINCO N-Tronic controller is a nice alternative solution for NINCO track users looking to upgrade the components of their stock home tracks. With the variety of power selections, adjustement of braking controls and an ability to change to polarity conditions the N-Tronic packs most of the options that racers enjoy in to a small and comfortable hand throttle that's reasonably easy to use. If you think you'd enjoy the adjustability the N-Tronic offers then this would be the controller for you!

Thanks go to the folks at MRC – Model Rectifier Corp for providing the new NINCO N-Tronic Electronic Controller for review. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions and I will be happy to answer anything that I can. Happy Slotting!

Shawn Smith
SJSlots@hotmail.com

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