Derby Talk

Does anyone have any suggestions to help with finish line judging ? Does anyone make an electronic device to determine the winners like what is available for the pinewood derby tracks ? Thanks.

There is a SmartLine timer for Space Derby.

http://www.etekgadget.com/SpaceDerbyOverview.htm

You can also easily use the NewBold DTx000 timers but you have to figure out how to mount the sensors.

http://www.pinewood-derby-timer.com/home.html

I made a parallel timing device like one for the PWD - if you are using the standard track, you just build a rack that hangs over the finish line (like the one used to start the race, just without the ability to swing), you mount the emitter and sensors to pieces of 1x2 that mounts to the rack and wire it up like a PWD timer - it was pretty simple. The rockets are going so fast by the finish line that the elctronics had a hard time picking them up, so I put a small piece of plastic (the plastic from the rocket kit for the fins) on a small hinge; I put a small piece of velcro on the plastic and then put the matching velcro on the 1x2 with the emitter on it - that way when the rocket comes by, the bracket that it hangs on swings the plastic over the emitter.

The kids loved it - the big downer of the space derby for us was the winding - we'll tackle that this year.

Pictures and schematic

http://home.comcast.net/~randyunderwood/space-timer.htm