3
There are also pay to download Windows ones, and some systems you can purchase which consist of both a hardware board or box, and a software package that controls it.
No one size fits all.
** The most commonly used packages
** Laptimer 2000 - Freeware http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/
** Ultimate Racer 3.0 - Donationware http://www.uracerweb.org/ (includes powerful track designer)
** Race Coordinator - Donationware - (designed to work with TRACKMATE hardware), very powerful and friendly, well supported. http://www.racecoordinator.net/
SCRaceTime, http://www.scracetime.de/ (German package, don't know anything about it)
SlotRaceManager http://www.cenobyte....lotracemanager/
SlotCarManager http://www.slotcarma...l_frames_e.html (Donationware, includes track designer)
** TRACKMATE http://www.trackmateracing.com/shop/
Slotmaster (www.slotmaster.com)
PCLapcounter http://pclapcounter.be/ hardware & Software package, fairly pricey
Startline http://www.startline.net.au/ (Australian made hardware and software package, unsure if still available or supported)
Most of these can be used with several types of sensing,
1) "dead-strip" which is a short section of track where one rail is isolated from the rest of the circuit (on each lane),
2) or with photo-transistor sensors that respond by turning on and off in response to the presence and removal of some kind of visible light, or infra-red light.
3) Micro-switches or magnetic switches.
In all these cases, the "sensor" is simply acting like an electrical light switch, ie, it completes the circuit as when you turn on a light, or "opens" it, as when you switch off a light.
The software is "looking at" the wires connected to these switches, and goes "oh yeah, it turned on for a moment, - or turned off for a moment, better add one more lap to that lane count, and oh yeah, it's been 4.65 seconds since it last turned on, so that's how long it took the car to do a lap." . . . really, it's that simple.....
Some packages such as Ultimate Racer can also be driven by a web camera attached to the PC, where a defined screen area of what the camera sees, gets triggered by the movement of a car. [sounds wierd, and I haven't tried it, but I've read a number of reports where people use it quite successfully. To me the downside is that between the car and the camera, hands can get in the way and falsely trigger it, and also, if the camera gets bumped, you lose the actual correct "triggering"]
Ultimate Racer can also be configured to work with outside hardware boards to do more sophisticated things. . . but that's another story.
Another update - I have been running a software patch with my own "Trackmate" system which causes most PCs and versions of windows operating system to recognise USB inputs as "com ports" where the software in use is able to use serial "com ports" for input, given that PCs with old fashioned DB25 cables are becoming rarer.
This is called the PL2303, and the patch for various systems can be downloaded from here http://www.prolific....loads.asp?id=31
LED and PHOTO-TRANSISTOR SYSTEM WIRING SETUP
You wire up Photo-transistors to the appropriate pins on a lead connected to a DB25 printer plug (the old standard printer plugs.)
This is a 4 lane sensor wired up. For a 3 lane one, I would simply omit the top and bottom pins at very left of the DB25 (parallel printer) plug (pins 13 and 25, which represent lane 4)
BEST SENSOR TO USE : The Dick Smith Z1951, Infra-red and visible light sensitive darlington photo-transistor. As Dick Smith are going out of raw components, you will only find them at shops which haven't had the new store upgrade, - so get in quick. Jaycar have a supposed equivelent, the ZD1950, but I have not found it as reliable myself.
In the picture,
the brown wire is connected to pin 10 for lane one of the sensor, and it's brown/white "partner" is connected underneath to Pin 22
the orange wire is connected to pin 11 for lane two of the sensor, and it's orange/white "partner" is connected underneath to Pin 23
the green wire is connected to pin 12 for lane three of the sensor, and it's green/white "partner" is connected underneath to Pin 24
the blue wire is connected to pin 13 for lane three of the sensor, and it's blue/white "partner" is connected underneath to Pin 25
If it were a 4 lane setup
the brown wire would have been connected to pin 13 for lane four of the sensor, and it's brown/white "partner" connected underneath to Pin 25
One quick note - Make sure you have the "legs" the right way around on the photo transistor, or it won't work.
You can do a "dry run" by leaving one leg of the sensor (photo-transistor) unsoldered, but make and break the circuit for each lane by just touching the two wires together, which should trigger the software! That forms an easy test of your parallel port, your wiring, and the settings of the software.
LIGHT SOURCE FOR Photo-sensors
To power these sensors, you can use a small flourescent tube or other light above the track, but the more reliable, - and discreet way is to mount some LEDs in a "bridge" or other scenic overpass sort of arrangement. The shot below is what I made for my track. I mounted the LEDs poking out the bottom, then added the 2nd sidewall, and painted and decorated it. The power wires for the LEDs came out one end and disappeared into the Superstructure of the track, where I connected them to a small DC power supply.
The image below shows a start finish banner at top, which has the infra-red LEDs built into it. Wiring hidden, very simple - not flash modelling, others will do it better than my ham-fists can acheive.
Here is a wiring diagram with some typical values and the very simple circuit outlined, and below is a link for an excel spreadsheet which will calculate the resistor value needed to wire in with the Infra-Red LEDs
To power the LEDs you need a small DC source. This only needs to be about 30ma output for each LED, so if you have a 2 or 3 lane track, an old cell phone charger of 100ma or so will be fine. You can adjust the value of resistors used, to work with anything from 3 to 12 volts or so. Wire the resistor in series to the positive, (long leg) of the LED.
Click the link below to get a spreadsheet which will help you calculate the resistor value required to use in a circuit with your choice of LED and power supply.
LED Powering Formula
Choose an old phone charger or similar wall-plug DC supply, input its nominal voltage output, the rating of the LED - usually about 1.2V and the normal driving current - usually 20 or 30 ma.
Then choose a resistor near as, but slightly greater value than the big blue figure the sheets kicks out at you.
Or, for short
4.5 volts use 160 ohm resistors
6 volts use 240 or 270 ohm resistors
7.5 volts use 300 ohm resistors
9 volts use 360 or 390 ohm resistors
12 volts use 510 or 560 ohm resistors
These resistors values at the stated voltages will give you a current through each LED of about 20ma.
This is the most common rated drive current for LEDs, but in practice, I have driven some myself at up to 3 times that for short periods, and on my own track drive them at around 25ma for the past 3 years, and none have failed – and we never miss laps!
DEAD STRIP SETUP
------------------------------
The idea of a dead strip is that you have a short strip of the "track" where one side of the copper tape/braid or rails of a plastic track is actually separated from the power. So, as the car passes over the "isolated" section of track which may be 5 to 10cm long (depending on things like typical car speed for your track and the location of the dead-strip), the pick-ups of the car close/complete that small length of circuit from the left to the right side, and you run a wire from each side of that small piece of track back to your timing software to the computer, where it is connected via a printer cable as if it had the photo-transistor type of sensor.
So in effect, the pickups of the car become the "switch".
This USED TO BE the default system for counting laps, and in practice is very reliable if you set it up with the right sort of length of "dead-strip".
If it is too short, and the cars go over it too quickly, it may not 'trigger", and if you out it somewhere where cars may have just de-slotted, you can miss laps, or get a car straying from another lane to create a false count as it's pick-ups brush across the dead strip. Too long, and the car slows more than is desirable during the dead strip - or even stops ...... but done right, they are just fine, and have the advantage of there being nothing needed above the track surface, and never needing maintenance or alignment.
Dead strips are polarity sensitive due to the “back EMF” created by motors. Wired one way, the EMF helps the switching, wired the other way, it tries to prevent it. If you connect a dead strip backwards they will only count properly with very low powered or if the car is moving very slowly. Many people that encounter that problem think that the dead strips need to be longer, but if the polarity is correct dead strips as short as 1.5 inches will work perfectly. You may have to experiment with them wired each way.
I am not experienced in these but many resources state that you should have a 10k resistor between the wire from each rail to pins 10, 11, 12 and 13 and a resistor from the other side that is tied together to common pins 18 - 25.
others say 320 ohms, and the one pictures below says 800 ohms.
There are two reasons for the variation so far as I understand it
a ) Not all DB25 ports are created equally sensitive to reading the 5 volt trigger a closed circuit represents, and
b ) Tolerance to outside voltage supplied eg the back EMF from a motor, may vary, and some people are more cautious than others.
Sorry, that's all I know.........
Also, you absolutely have to keep track voltage away from the dead strips. This can be done by either having “guard strips” which are basically a short dead strip either side of the dead strip….. long enough to ensure that car braids cannot simultaneously short out the dead strip while being on live track, or, have a section say 25mm where there is no braid/tape at all.
The diagram below is for three lanes but you get the idea.
Reversing switches are not shown.
You may need to set the parallel port to 'SPP' mode in the pc's BIOS, depending upon how many lanes you have, and whether you want to use the software to do tasks other than counting laps.
eg, Ultimate racer is capable of running a bunch of different add-on facilities, and Race Coordinator can work with at least 8 lanes, thus requiring use of some pins usually configured for uses in the Bi-directional modes of printer ports.
You can then use pins 10-17 for triggers.
These three lanes are wired to pins 11/12/13 with a common ground to 25
Make sure you get the port address (ie 0x378) from there and enter it in the settings of Ultimate Racer if you are using that package.
For use of Dead Strips with Trackmate, the correct protection module supplied by Trackmate is strongly recommended.
Also, Trackmate uses specific pins for input.
Lane 1 = Pin 10
Lane 2 = Pin 11
Lane 3 = Pin 12
Lane 4 = Pin 13
Lane 5 = Pin 6
Lane 6 = Pin 7
Lane 7 = Pin 8
Lane 8 = Pin 9
These are all tied back to the same common rail of pins 18 - 25
OTHER TYPES OF SWITCH
There are also a couple more sensors that can be used. One type has the lever arm of a micro-switch down in the slot. Micro-switches work well once you adjust them properly. HO tracks mostly use magnetic reed switches, those would work in 1/32nd scale if you always ran with traction magnets, but motor magnets alone are not likely to trip them. SOME reed-switches are also polarity sensitive, so you should check that point out if you plan to use these.
Edited by SlotsNZ, 29 January 2012 - 05:03 AM.
is having a look at it but we need the circuit diagram to see how it all works. I tried to find the website but it appears to have dissapeared so I can only assume that the program is no longer available. 
