Controller Choices
by Steve Medanic

Parma resistor based controller. The old standard.  There not dead yet but take a lot of work to be competitive at a regional or national level.  Plan on several handles and a full resistor box with brake/coast, dial down and sensitivity adjustment if you want to use a Parma seriously at the national level.  Besides who wants to drop as much money as a DR into a Parma when you could have a DR or something else just a nice.  These critters are still required sometimes as the electronic controllers won't work without the track being wired for brakes.

Omni/Trinity - Diode voltage dropping controller.  Many discrete steps.  Does the job but is falling out of favor.  Red wire not required (I think).  Not as much adjustability in the power/sensitivity area as either the tricked out Parma or the following electronic controllers.  Should be available in left or right handed versions.

Theisen and MSC controllers - Electronic wiper-less design.  Definitely the coming thing because of the smoothness and lack of steps.  The Theisen controller is on the street (right handed version only) for $300 and change.  The main pot sticks out of the handle and gets in the way if you're left handed.  The MSC controller is not yet ready.  I have tried one of his older prototypes and it was very promising.  Haven't seen his new stuff but my opinion is that it's going to be worth a look at when it finally comes out.  Should be available in left or right handed versions.

Ruddock DR - Electronic step design.  The current defacto standard. Seven discrete steps in the band plus full power for a total of eight steps.  Have to get used to driving the DR as (in my opinion) you go faster by adjusting the sensitivity dial rather than pushing the trigger down further.  The advantage to this is that once you get into a groove you can really put the laps together.  The disadvantage is that you have to get used to the revised driving style.

His new design is less expensive than the old one but has some weak areas.  First, the polarity switch on the heat sink is weak.  It needs a guard to ensure that it isn't tripped accidentally when changing lanes.  Per my phone discussion with Dan at the Western States this switch is going to be changed to a more rugged type.  Second, the heat sink is electrically live and hangs down just a few inches from the controller handle.  The heat sink needs to be totally insulated (heat shrink tubing or electrical tape) if you don't want to blow 3A fuses by accident.  All you need do is to touch another controller or one of the track posts.  Sounds hard to blow a fuse but the new DR used by a veteran racer blew many a fuse at the Western States until the heat sink was totally encapsulated in tape.  Then it behaved itself.  The fact that the controller blew so many fuses and didn't fail proves the ruggedness of the DR design.  Otherwise the new controller works just like his older design.  Apparently his older design is still available (just have to talk to Dan himself about that).  Available in left or right handed versions.

The choice is yours.


Steve "Maddman" Medanic