Club 500 model boat racing.

[the old fart]

Hi Guys,

Our model boat club is about to expand to Club 500 boat racing

h**p://w*w.club500slipway.com/about.php

Initially were looking for a way of timing up to 6 boats at the same time.
Would also need penalty input.

Has anyone made / used such a system?

My thoughts are:

use a 40x2 to do everything, but not sure of timing accuracy.

six 08m2, feeding back to 20x2 then output to 20x4 oled display.

master GO input
individual lap counter push button.
individual penalty points push button.
individual finish push button.

maybe jump start indicator

the six 08m2, or larger, I thought because of timing across the finish line.


My brain needs a jump start, so any thoughts please guys.

TOF

 

[hippy]

My thoughts are a 20X2 doing button matrix handling, churning button pushed indications out via HSEROUT.

A 28X2 with resonator using background HSERIN to take those button pushes, do the timing and updating status, sending status updates out via HSEROUT.

A 20X2/28X2 using background HSERIN to grab status changes and drive the LCD.

 

[Circuit]

Having been a race officer at many yachting regattas, I would say the problem is almost always with the button-pushers rather than the buttons pressed! Why would you want to have a "master GO input"? What about a "master GO OUTPUT"? Why not have your timer do the start sequence for you, signalling in the conventional way with hooters/guns/flags? It is very easy to sound a warning hooter and then a start hooter with a PICAXE. Flags can be operated with servos - another thing that PICAXE excels at. That way, your timing and start are precise; it is then up to the competitors to get it right.

For full size yacht races we use a PIC-based gas cannon; it has a barrel made from steel tubing about 100mm in diameter and a metre long. At the closed end there is a small servo-valve connected to a cylinder of butane. There is also a car spark plug that is triggered from a PIC-based timer. The PIC opens the valve for a short period to fill the barrel with butane, closes it and then fires the spark plug. The bang carries very nicely for a very substantial distance over water! This has now replaced the shotgun blanks that we used to use and we no longer need a firearms licence to run it. Developing a miniature version could be interesting - and hazardous of course if you are out of your depth with the mechanics. (Cue the YouTube video of the start-line flame-thrower incinerating all the boats when the valve fails to close...)

With small high speed model boats there is an obvious application for a laser start/finish line. A simple laser illuminating an optical sensor of your choice would do the trick nicely. Also, you may wish to think about a small video camera across the finish line for photo-finishes. Almost any compact camera seems to do a decent job of 1080p video these days. As far as timers are concerned, this little trick from Goeytex, http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?27730-Tap-Tempo-on-M2&p=286366&viewfull=1#post286366, rather set me thinking. It is for rather short durations, but...hmm, I'm thinking...

 

[the old fart]

My thoughts are a 20X2 doing button matrix handling, churning button pushed indications out via HSEROUT.

A 28X2 with resonator using background HSERIN to take those button pushes, do the timing and updating status, sending status updates out via HSEROUT.

A 20X2/28X2 using background HSERIN to grab status changes and drive the LCD.

Thanks for the suggestions, food for thought.

TOF