Derby Talk

My question is: how do you protect the IR receiver? What type of track do you have? For a BestTrack track and I'm assuming most metal tracks the method shown on the PDT construction page should work pretty well (scroll down to the emitters/detectors section): http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/pg_pdt_info1...

If anyone is interested it is possible I could "deliver" the track to the following areas in late December when I travel to visit family: - western/southern Wisconsin - north-eastern Iowa - northern/central Illinois - central/southern Indiana By "deliver" I mean will bring the tr...

SOLD My son has moved on to Boy Scouts so it is time to sell our test track: BestTrack #235 - 2 lane 35' track NO timer/electronics included. Asking $290 Located in southern suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul - local pickup preferred, see next post for some delivery options. EDIT: updated pickup / del...

Hello all, With local Radio Shacks getting fewer and farther between for most people I've been getting questions regarding alternate emitter/detector components for building the timer. If anyone has built the timer using non-Radio Shack components for the lane emitters/detectors can you please reply...

Is there an easy implementation for a single 7-digit display per lane? For my purposes, I don't really need the times displayed. I don't know of any single digit 7-segment LEDs pre-made with the controller board like the Adafruit displays. Depending on how many lanes you have it would be pretty sim...

If I am understanding things correctly, these displays are supposed to daisy chain off of each other. So, I am trying to think how to easily connect these together without a bunch of wire splicing. Yes they can be daisy chained together or since the displays are close to one another you could utili...

Is your setup with the Arduino able to count down a Christmas tree then trigger the gate solenoid? I"m using GPRM 13. Hi Ken - I thought I had replied to this shortly after it was posted but when I came by tonight I noticed I hadn't. Really sorry for the delay. This may be too late to help you...

Maybe the Xbee's will be more dependable. However, there should be a way to prompt the timer to resend the heat results, if there was a problem getting them the first time around. Definitely. I've already added an option to resend the data. I see the "Retrieve Data" message in GPRM's seri...

Wireless PDT I'm testing with Xbee modules to see if the timer can have a wireless connection to the PC and not be tethered by a USB cable (with a 5m maximum length). So far, so good. Setup is almost non-existent (using the Series 1 Xbees), wiring on the timer side is minimal using an adapter board ...

You might want to consider going to the finished state and sending the results upon a gate reset when in the racing state. That can be quite convenient when you have a car not finishing and are using the computer to read results. Otherwise, you have to go to the computer to force the end the race. ...

Good questions. The timer has 3 distinct states: READY - the start gate is closed and the timer has been initialized for a new race RACING - the start gate has opened FINISHED - all unmasked lanes have had a car cross the finish or the race was forced to end, time/place data is displayed and sent to...

I've just updated the website with a new version of the timer code (sketch) - highlights are: - Fix: Racing state loop, finish detection routines optimized - New: Timer precision increased to 4 decimal places (0.0001) - New: Option added where timer can be reset by closing start gate - New: Timer an...

MadMikeSS wrote:Indy thank you for this easy to build project. Love the new board. Ordered one and working on building the timer for my son's scout troop.

Thanks - glad you like it. Let me know how your build goes.

I had some custom PCB shields fabricated:



more info: http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/pg_pdt_pcb1.html

Trying to reference part numbers and I came across Jameco part number 1919191 that doesn't come up on jameco's site only 24vdc solenoid I can see is a SOLENOID, 24VDC, 60 OHMS,PULL 1 INCH STROKE Does this sound close to what is on the drawing ? I've got an email out to someone who I believe bought ...