http://pinewood.hmpg.net/ Electronics...

[tlz_allen]

Hi there everyone!

My church is currently looking into building our own track and I'm trying to get some additional information on the specifics of gthe software that runs the timers for the equipment found at http://pinewood.hmpg.net/.

Have any of you used this software?

Basically, we used to use a track from a local cub scout pack, and they had a sweet package that would annouce the winner, with lane time and which lane. We'd like something like that, if we can find it and can afford it.

Just curious. Thanks

[Barga Racing]

Last year I observed my nephew's packs race. They had a new supertimer II system with software. It announced the winner as well as the times. This may be what you are looking for. However, when our pack checked into upgrading to it it was about $320 for timer and software. I did use a modified version of the electronics you are talking about on our old supertimer system. It used to have spring steel switches that the car pushed down to close. Sometimes the heavily rear weighted cars would go airborn after hitting the switches. Now with the photodiodes nothing touches the car and it works sweet. On th site you are talking about, isn't there a link to download their software? Also I believe they give a description of how it works. Good Luck

[Darin McGrew]

It used to have spring steel switches that the car pushed down to close. Sometimes the heavily rear weighted cars would go airborn after hitting the switches. Now with the photodiodes nothing touches the car and it works sweet.

Another advantage of the photodiode-based finish gates is that they measure the car's finish at the same point where the starting gate contacts the car. If the starting gate contacts the car's nose and the finish gate contacts the car's front wheel, then cars with a long nose are at a slight disadvantage.

I have seen mechanical gates that did this right. Basically, a hinged plate stood vertically, and the car's nose collided with it and knocked it down. It was a nice design, but if you're already using electronics to evaluate the finish results, it makes more sense to me to use electronics (photodiodes) to generate those finish results.

[gpraceman]

Personally, I advise against any type of mechanical sensor or switch. They are more prone to failure and you may not be able to keep them all in line. With SuperTimer's flexible flag sensors that the car's nose hits, they can get slightly bent, so they will not all line up. That gives the advantage to the lane that has the sensor bent less away from it than the others do. With photo sensors, you can more accurately ensure the beams are all in line with each other. There are also issues with the mechanical switches as Wooden Wonder pointed out. It is better not having anything touch the cars at the finish, except photons.

[Barga Racing]

I have seen mechanical gates that did this right. Basically, a hinged plate stood vertically, and the car's nose collided with it and knocked it down. It was a nice design, but if you're already using electronics to evaluate the finish results, it makes more sense to me to use electronics (photodiodes) to generate those finish results.

The hinged plates was what ours came from supertimer with. Actually they were small cabinet hinges. They worked OK but somone always had to be at the finish line to reset them after every race. The cubmaster did not like that so he took off the hinges and wrapped paper clip metal around the screw that held the hinge down. They were bent away from the car so that the weight of the car would bend them down to touch the washer that the hinge used to touch. They did contact the front of the car and not the wheels. But as you can imagine it was like a ramp and if the car was not heavy enough in the front end it would lift the front wheels therefore it would sometimes jump them off the track. Last year between our pack race and districts we ran 249 heats with 3 cars at a time and not one single car jumped.
I also have seen the plastic flag switches on the new supertimer II. They appear very flimsy and I don't think would cause the car to jump but I am still opposed to anything physically touching the car.

[SteveJahr]

Hi there everyone!

My church is currently looking into building our own track and I'm trying to get some additional information on the specifics of gthe software that runs the timers for the equipment found at http://pinewood.hmpg.net/.

Have any of you used this software?

While this is perhaps old...

You mean the "World's most inexpensive Pinewood Derby Timer"? I have and am using this software/solution for my PWD. On one hand it is very basic, as you might expect for the price (FREE!). On the other it provides the critical functionality required.

You tell it how many lanes and how many cars and it schedules cars into lanes. Each car is run in each lane and an average/total time is used to determine winner. This evens out lane differences for fairness and provides an equal number of races for each car. It does mean that car 1 races the very first and last two heats and so forth. That is a bit awkward with large groups but can be worked around by filling in dummy cars for car 1 to number of lanes - 1.

Each heat displays placing results although the overall winner is not known until all cars have been run. This way it is harder to visually compare and question car finishes versus the computer results. I believe it is also easier for boys to accept not winning after the fact.

It provides an "open race" mode which is useful for testing and car development. In particular the times can be compared from run to run.

Downsides? Well it is not graphical/windows based so no point and click. This also means using an older computer so you have MS-DOS. In my case I use an old laptop and it is perfect.

You also do not have any names or renumbering in the software.

All in all I think it is an incredible value in functionality versus price. You can spend more, you can get fancy immediate results displays, but these really are not necessary to have a fun event.

[brownboy]

the same site has a yahoo group where a free windows based software package is available for download. I use it as well as a timer I built from the schematics on the site, and we have been very happy with the results. The windows based software is easy to use allthough a little akward for our purposes as we still prefer double elimination head to head racing, with the timer just being for verification of finish and for fun.