My descent into Die Cast Racing continues
Well moments ago I finally got my prototype track timer working. Two IR beam sensors, a few LEDs, and a motion sensor. I should have the display on Monday of next week. This mainly for being able to time my cars before and after modding. The motion sensor is to reset the timer for another run. Sort of a touch less restart. Still need to adjust the final time format and I want to calculate the speed in 1/64 scale as well.
Next up is packaging all this up neatly.
Discussion
Sweet! Making it look "pretty" is half the battle! lol
My eyes might glass over at seeing breadboards and this many wires, but still I'm wishing you success!
And I'm struggling with editing a video on YouTube.......I would go berserk trying to accomplish this!
- Dutch I got a Program to do that, I do believe there are free editing programs. I use Movavi. — Bent_Rod_Racing
- I use the same editor. Its pretty easy to use after a few videos. The Youtube one is pretty difficult. — LRL_The_Lords_Racing_League
- Thanks guys....I'll check it out. Today was my 1st attempt at any kind of video stuff. — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
- YouTube is overly complicated IMHO — AbbyNormal
I would be interested in one of these for our continous track. We need something to track times as the cars keep going. It's pretty hard to keep resetting between laps. Message me if this may be possible. Great idea and can't wait to see how it does for ya!
- You should be able to set it up in the code to just display the lap time without stopping the timer between laps and have it either finish once it's triggered after so many cars passing it or after a time amount, so if you know a race takes 3mins continuous, then after 3mins it'll stop the next time the finish line sensor is tripped — Chaos_Canyon
- Thanks Chaos for the info! I'll be looking into it. — LRL_The_Lords_Racing_League
I love designing start and timer systems with arduino's now. Was very daunting to begin with, but once you get to understand why/how certain things work, it makes it much easier to understand.
To cut down on my wires, my Echo City setup runs two arduinos - one for the start gate and one for the timer - I now have it all down to one arduino and the timer resets when the start button is pressed again to save needing another sensor input. I used two arduinos originally cause I ran out of inputs with the start lights, screen, servo, buttons etc. Now it's a much more efficient setup and all testing worked great.
- Keeping this pretty simple as it’s just for me to get lap times for cars after modding. Each of the trip sensors will be on 8ft of multi conductor for flexibility. Also plan to use a quick disconnect so I can break it down and pack it away as needed. We are limited in space so my test track will need to fit on a 4ft x 2ft piece of plywoood. — AbbyNormal
What did I get myself into? I see agreen light, that's a good sign. Good luck.
Well at this point everything looks to be working. Now comes a bunch of soldering and some profanity as I connect long cables to the sensors and package parts of it into a plastic enclosure. Then to obtain and setup a small track. Like many projecs in the past, I've moved on from visions of elegance and beauty to just making the damn thing work.
Yes there was profanity and some minor tool tossing but everything is mostly worked out. The unit is packaged in a box and the display is working. Final step is connecting the sensors via 8ft cables. I still need to rig up some sort of mount for each gate.
- You know its time for a break when you start telling whatever it is you are working on - Don’t piss me off! — AbbyNormal
Well sometimes it all works out in the end no matter how many 'surprises' there were in the project. I was able to repurpose a cigar box into my new portable timing system. The End.
- Nice work!!! — Dutch_Clutch_Racing
- My wife said - Becareful where you open that because it looks like a bomb — AbbyNormal
- very nice — dr_dodge
Wow bro', ....another genius!