Post by spereira on Feb 2, 2024 11:21:30 GMT -7
Good afternoon, folks!
You all know me from my first topic about being a newbie here with slot cars and drag racing. Now that I have my track running at 17'4" and awaiting expansion to 20'+, I've been having a blast running my (few) cars so far. The AW setup is quite fun with the starting lights and the finish line with the lane win indicator. The setup watches for jumping before the green light, and I've gotten numerous red lights along the way.
The thing I am missing is any sort of idea about how any of my cars is actually doing. I can race them all against each other and see how they perform, but other than "this one is faster than that one" and "this one is my fastest by far" I have no real indication about individual performance, or if I get into tweaking, how much better or worse doing the tweak did for the car.
I'm certain that I am surprising no one here with my story - I just wanted to set things up about where I am in this process.
So, I see the Dragon Timing System, and the video they have online shows the system working along with the AW Start and Finish gates. I tried to contact them at the indicated email address, but received no reply at all. When I asked about them in my other topic, someone said they thought Dragon may not be active any more. Too bad! Looks like it would have been a great setup. For a guy like me, it would probably equal the cost of everything I've spent so far on my setup.
I see the Drag-It-Anywhere system. Their $525 HO Simple Package does not require a PC, but unfortunately for me, the price is way too high.
I see the Viasue $250 system, and they seem willing to custom order to assist me with also using the AW Start & Finish gates, but I am a Macintosh person, and I would also have to purchase a PC laptop along with their system, and their setup for drag racing seems cumbersome.
I certainly get it that the companies offering these systems have a very small volume of sales, so their prices have to be high. I would have already purchased a Dragon stand alone system if they were available, but the other offerings are seemingly too pricy for me.
The other night, before drifting off to sleep, I thought about Arduino, and what might be achievable with a DIY approach. I've done some learning with Arduino in the past... Might this be a way to go?
Right now, I have a $100 Arduino Starter Kit, and the $25 Arduino Inventor's Guide (10 Projects, including some sort of race timer) on the way to me. If I can actually pull off creating a one lane timing system that works consistently, I'll be ecstatic. And, with this programmable and expandable setup, a two lane timing system seems quite possible.
I will post back here as I make progress. Hopefully, things will go well and I'll end up with something that works for me, and doesn't cost as much as a commercial system.
Thanks for listening! All thoughts, pointers, comments and concerns are welcome.
smp
You all know me from my first topic about being a newbie here with slot cars and drag racing. Now that I have my track running at 17'4" and awaiting expansion to 20'+, I've been having a blast running my (few) cars so far. The AW setup is quite fun with the starting lights and the finish line with the lane win indicator. The setup watches for jumping before the green light, and I've gotten numerous red lights along the way.
The thing I am missing is any sort of idea about how any of my cars is actually doing. I can race them all against each other and see how they perform, but other than "this one is faster than that one" and "this one is my fastest by far" I have no real indication about individual performance, or if I get into tweaking, how much better or worse doing the tweak did for the car.
I'm certain that I am surprising no one here with my story - I just wanted to set things up about where I am in this process.
So, I see the Dragon Timing System, and the video they have online shows the system working along with the AW Start and Finish gates. I tried to contact them at the indicated email address, but received no reply at all. When I asked about them in my other topic, someone said they thought Dragon may not be active any more. Too bad! Looks like it would have been a great setup. For a guy like me, it would probably equal the cost of everything I've spent so far on my setup.
I see the Drag-It-Anywhere system. Their $525 HO Simple Package does not require a PC, but unfortunately for me, the price is way too high.
I see the Viasue $250 system, and they seem willing to custom order to assist me with also using the AW Start & Finish gates, but I am a Macintosh person, and I would also have to purchase a PC laptop along with their system, and their setup for drag racing seems cumbersome.
I certainly get it that the companies offering these systems have a very small volume of sales, so their prices have to be high. I would have already purchased a Dragon stand alone system if they were available, but the other offerings are seemingly too pricy for me.
The other night, before drifting off to sleep, I thought about Arduino, and what might be achievable with a DIY approach. I've done some learning with Arduino in the past... Might this be a way to go?
Right now, I have a $100 Arduino Starter Kit, and the $25 Arduino Inventor's Guide (10 Projects, including some sort of race timer) on the way to me. If I can actually pull off creating a one lane timing system that works consistently, I'll be ecstatic. And, with this programmable and expandable setup, a two lane timing system seems quite possible.
I will post back here as I make progress. Hopefully, things will go well and I'll end up with something that works for me, and doesn't cost as much as a commercial system.
Thanks for listening! All thoughts, pointers, comments and concerns are welcome.
smp
. JW