optical timing system

L

liquidoblivion

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Feb 21, 2003
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I want to build a timing system for my local sports car club for use in our autocrosses. Our current timing system is starting to show its age and the software it came with is just plan horriable. This system is a simple 12v optical sensor kinda like you would have at the bottom of you garage door to detect if someone is walking through it when its closing, just a light and sensor that you aim at a reflector. When the beam is broken it triggers the serial port on a computer and the software starts timing, when its broken again it stops. I know it would be much more accurate for the timing system to do the timing and send the time to the computer, but cost and simplicity is a big factor here. Just want to see what your ideas might be, whatever we do for hardware I plan on writings some new software in Visual Basic.
 
There's lots of ways to go about it... Everythign from using discreet logic to microprocessor based stuff. If you have/can procure the necessary development tools, i.e. a programmer, a PIC would be great for the application. You could use a photo-gate system set to trigger timing interrupts on the PIC, have it calculate times, and send it to a PC. Allyou'd need is the interface hardware for the sensor system, and an extra RS232-level shifter IC (which are cheap and readily available) and the only software you'd really need on the PC would be hyperterminal or some equivalent-- many PICs come with hadware serial ports for just this purpose.

But anyhow, that's just one suggestion. Good luck eh.
 
well, I don't know too much about PICs but im kinda thinking the neither me or the club has the money to buy all the nessary materials. Im kinda thinking our best bet will be to stick to the setup we have now with the light sensor that triggers the serial port, we can get a new light sensor for like $100. I will just write new software that does the timing and keeps track of the scores and such.
 
That's probably gonna be your best bet. If you put a $10/hr price tage on your time, it doensn't take long to make dropping a c-note worth it
 
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