NINCO N-Digital Porsche 911 w/ Lights

I recently acquired the Ninco Porsche 911 SC Martini rally car to run on a home N-Digital track. IMHO, all the cars in this particular series look great and, as I have learned, handle and run very well.

Converting most Ninco cars to N-Digital is very easy and this was no exception. The current N-Digital decoder chip comes with push-on terminals so installation was little more than removing the stock motor/guide leads (also push-on which was a pleasant surprise), pushing the chip's motor lead connectors onto the motor terminals and pressing the chip's guide lead eyelets into the guide. So, this particular N-Digital conversion is really not a hot conversation topic. What is interesting about this conversion is the light kit that I decided to install at the same time.

There is a new light kit available from a third party supplier made specifically for N-Digital. The kit itself is very simple and would probably be relatively easy to make for anyone with average electronics knowledge and soldering skill. However, it is priced very reasonably to the point where obtaining the correct LED's, resistors, plugs and spending the time to put everything together may not be more economical. The light kit is made to connect to the light terminals of the N-Digital decoder chip and comes with a detachable connector specifically for this purpose. The N-Digital chip's light terminals provide a constant regulated 12-13 VDC regardless of the position of the throttle. This precludes the need for a light circuit PCB, hence, the simplicity of the kit. Also, when a car's lights are connected to the chip they (all cars as a group) can be turned on and off from the N-Digital power base.

Picture 1

Picture 2 below shows the installed N-Digital decoder chip sitting in the chassis. The light kit is installed in the body and plugged into the female connector, which is connected to the N-Digital chip terminals at the upper right of the red protective case.

Picture 2

The 911 SC Martini has headlight lenses that attach to the body with clear plastic mounting posts that are inserted into relatively large holes in the body's headlight housings. This allows significant light to shine through from the back of the lenses. Therefore, it was not necessary to drill holes or modify the body in any other way for the headlight installation. The LED's were simply placed up against the lens mounting posts and hot glued in place. Light leak from the headlights was minimized by applying electrical tape over the headlight areas. This also helped secure the light kit's wires. See Picture 3 below.

Picture 3

Another aspect of this car's appearance that was intriguing (to me anyway) was the taillight panel. I decided that it would be cool to try to illuminate the entire panel instead of just two points of light. This was accomplished by removing the red panel lens (with the "PORSCHE" name) and then cutting away the rear section of the body that was behind it. The cut-away section was then replaced with a small rectangular sheet of white diffusion material that just covered the opening (see the red arrow in Picture 4 below). The red panel lens was then glued back in place over the opening. The taillight LED's were then positioned as shown, about six mm away from the diffusion material and hot glued in place. This produced the effect shown in Picture 7, below.

Picture 4

Picture 5

Picture 6

Picture 7

I don't know if the taillight panel of the real Porsche 911 SC looks like this. But I don't care. I think that this looks cool -- even though my point-and-shoot camera and limited photographic skill don't do it justice.

So if you're an N-Digital user and you would like to add lights to any of your cars, this is a good way to go. It's simple, economical and takes advantage of the lights management/protection capability that is built into the N-Digial system without adding unnecessary electronics to the car.

by Michael Ashton