Lap timing problem

by **slothead** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 10:07 pm

I have a PC mouse wired to a dead strip on my road course. To time cars I start running a stopwatch program I downloaded and when a car crosses the dead strip it triggers a left click on the mouse. By leaving the mouse pointer over the 'split' time button the program generates a time stamp for the time since the stopwatch was started. A scrolling log keeps track of as many laps as I run, which I then cut and paste into an Excel spreadsheet to process. The system works great for my purposes, which is to record individual lap times to run simulated multi-car races.

Okay, but here's the current problem which only has to do with the dead switch - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it was working for the Carrera cars and the MRRC Chaparral but not the Fly GT40. The Carrera cars and the MRRC car all have dual braids on each side, that is, both the front and rear ends of the braid can make contact with the copper tape. Earlier this week it was working for all of these cars plus a Pioneer Mustang (single braid on each side).

Has anyone else debugged a dead strip problem like this? To have it work for some but not all cars is goofy.

Slothead

by **buspor63** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:06 pm

I run a similar setup on my analog track. The program is reward called PCSLOTMOUSE. An Englishman by the name of Richard wrote it, he probably still contributes on slot forum international, her's a link.

http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.p ... opic=44770

On my dead strip, I had best results with a one inch gap, a three inch strip and another one inch gap. Richards program uses the left click and the scroll down click.

by **slothead** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 6:33 pm

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I think I downloaded it a few years ago but never used it.

Worse yet, I bought a complete lap timer system from Professor Motor about 5 years ago - computer with software installed and cables, and never took it out of the box. It's sitting about 6' from me right now. I was going to use that on my oval, then wrote my own program that senses when the space bar is pressed to record lap times. I race with the controller in my right hand and left hand on the space bar - hitting it on each lap. For the longest time I didn't want to install a dead strip because the way my track is mounted to the base makes access from below is a problem. (BTW - the one I have now goes right over the original track tape, separated by strips of duck tape, so I didn't have to tamper with the track tape. This is how the PCMOUSE guy did it.)

I thought I might use the PM system on the road course till I saw the PCMOUSE setup and decided to try that because of how the dead strip was installed. When it works it's ideal, 'cause I'm not interested in fastest laps, just need a list of lap times. I didn't think lap timing programs saved lap data.

Slothead

by **slothead** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 9:34 pm

Ah the fickle finger of fate as someone used to say. Tonight the dead strip and PCMOUSE lap timing system worked without a hitch for every car I tried. Without touching a thing.

Go figure.

Slothead

by **RichD** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:36 am

Dead strips can be a problem with ordinary lap counters because they only work properly in one direction, the same issue could affect the system that you are using. You might take a look at this article: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzLR4 ... GJkSTVEMkE
A quick thing to try is to reverse the wires that go to the dead strip.

by **buspor63** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 7:30 am

RichD is right about polarity=direction. I have to swap my dead strip wires based on lap rotation.

Shotgun, the mouse based systems are set up to operate through USB ports free of charge. Most other software requires the purchase of a bedingle dangle dongle or have a computer with a serial port, both cut into car funds.

I had a tired laptop with with only USB ports so using a free mouse was a simple approach.

by **slothead** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 2:50 pm

For the PCMOUSE setup I was using a $2 thrift store mouse, then bought a wireless one for $12 at Walmart. My PC is on an IKEA workstation on wheels that I can move all over the room and still record laps and times.

This is data the stopwatch program generates:
Split 1: 00:00:03 (947)
Split 2: 00:00:15 (71)
Split 3: 00:00:25 (588)
Split 4: 00:00:36 (38)
Split 5: 00:00:46 (454)

Each line is a lap and once parsed the time can be determined by subtracting the previous time from the current time.

If I repeat this setup on the oval I can do lap times on 2 tracks on one computer placed anywhere in the room.

Slothead

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