The end is near: Big Upgrade
This would be day 10 since I started cutting wires and cables on the old Arduino controller and began to fabricate a new controller, fabricate a bracket to hold the start gate solenoid, fabricate the start gate lights, then code up whole shebang. I estimated 6 days but found I had a wire crossed, some variables crossed, and my eyes crossed at 2AM on several days. And many thanks to those who messaged me on help with the coding, you know who you are.
This is a brief video shot last night and since then I'm down to one last bug. So how this works is if I want to profile a car I would just use the green button and then I could run 2 laps or a 100 and the system keeps lap count and automatically averages the results. Very handy and then the red button clears all data and we're set for a new race or the next car to profile. The video is a bit shaky and no fancy graphics but I'm happy to have all the elements ready for racing.
In a week I'll announce the inaugural pick your car race - prize packs - etc.
Discussion
Just cleared the last coding bug now it's time for wiring clean up and final extended testing. Work work work.
Servo? Did you mean solenoid? I have a couple of solenoids I am toying with... Most of them short throw so will need a mechanical setup and use it as a trigger.
That is a pretty slick setup over all and good job on the programming and wiring! I see you threw in a couple of funky little code/device sections for fun!
- https://www.adafruit.com/product/3992 — AbbyNormal
- This is the solenoid I’m using that works pretty well in my Start gate. Although I am driving it with 12 V through a power transistor that can handle the two amp surge. — AbbyNormal
- I know my brain kept locking up and saying servo when I meant solenoid. Those two words must be stored right next to each other in my brain and I can either have one or the other, but not both. Getting old will do that to you. — AbbyNormal
- Exclusive Or'd yourself! lol no worries... thought I might be missing something there! lol nice job. — Stoopid_Fish_Racing
Awesom, cant wait to see it running...
- Thanks so much. I’m also hoping to do some racing on this thing soon. Looking forward in a week or two to starting a pick your car race with some interesting options. — AbbyNormal
Fantastic job sir! Great feeling when the plan comes together, eh?
- It was a long, strange, hard trip that did come together in the end. In my younger years, I would do this kind of stuff in my sleep. Definitely takes a little more work when you’ve reached geezer hood. — AbbyNormal
Looks good! I wish I was that tech savvy...