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As an owner of the now hard to find DTS-1 timing system, I've been pondering how to make it a little more useful. It has it's drawbacks. One, it's too small (short). Two, the controls are on the tree itself! Three, it has no displayed ET.
Well I broke out my trusty soldering iron, hadn't soldered electronics in 25 years. Threw it in the trash, and bought a Weller
My first order of business was moving the "set" button out of the unit and to a remote connected with a 20 ft cable. A phone cable worked perfect, right gauge and wire count. This will at least make it so that the tree operator doesn't have to walk up between the racers and press the stupid button.
It's pretty crude, the button is hot glued to the wood, and wires clamped with a bit of poly to keep them from getting yanked (glued the wires to the board at the other end as well to also prevent yanking/breaking).
Next up I will add a timer. I found this little guy that should work perfect https://quasarelectronics.co.uk/Item/3148t2-4-digit-stopwatch-timer-board-with-pause
I will have to check some stuff to see what signals are getting sent out from the lasers and lights. My initial thought is it would be easy enough to use the lights to signal the ET of the winner if using the green to trigger the start, and the "winner" lights to trigger the timer pause(any of the yellow lights will work since those start flashing immediately for the winner, and there's no issue with the yellow lights sending pause signals before the timer has started). Have to use the pause rather than stop because if it's flashing and sending repeated stop signals, that toggles the timer precision. That of course is going to include the reaction times. I don't know yet if there's a way to have a timer in each lane since nothing lights up in the loser lane, and the trap beam signal is coming in through radio signal, I'll have to look at the circuit board again to see if there's anything to tap in to there, but I suspect not. It may be possible to start the timer using the staging beams, but I am pretty sure the signal is sent when the beam is broken, rather than not. I'll test with my multimeter to see what's what on that end. If that can work, then it'll be a little closer to the real time, though I think still slightly off because the beam is probably not going to pass until the car is fully past it.
The reset timer can be done with the current set button, or add another button on my little wood panel if that is better.
Once I get the timer working, I might build a new light pole and move the lights from the circuit board, but that's a pretty big task.
Well I broke out my trusty soldering iron, hadn't soldered electronics in 25 years. Threw it in the trash, and bought a Weller
My first order of business was moving the "set" button out of the unit and to a remote connected with a 20 ft cable. A phone cable worked perfect, right gauge and wire count. This will at least make it so that the tree operator doesn't have to walk up between the racers and press the stupid button.
It's pretty crude, the button is hot glued to the wood, and wires clamped with a bit of poly to keep them from getting yanked (glued the wires to the board at the other end as well to also prevent yanking/breaking).
Next up I will add a timer. I found this little guy that should work perfect https://quasarelectronics.co.uk/Item/3148t2-4-digit-stopwatch-timer-board-with-pause
I will have to check some stuff to see what signals are getting sent out from the lasers and lights. My initial thought is it would be easy enough to use the lights to signal the ET of the winner if using the green to trigger the start, and the "winner" lights to trigger the timer pause(any of the yellow lights will work since those start flashing immediately for the winner, and there's no issue with the yellow lights sending pause signals before the timer has started). Have to use the pause rather than stop because if it's flashing and sending repeated stop signals, that toggles the timer precision. That of course is going to include the reaction times. I don't know yet if there's a way to have a timer in each lane since nothing lights up in the loser lane, and the trap beam signal is coming in through radio signal, I'll have to look at the circuit board again to see if there's anything to tap in to there, but I suspect not. It may be possible to start the timer using the staging beams, but I am pretty sure the signal is sent when the beam is broken, rather than not. I'll test with my multimeter to see what's what on that end. If that can work, then it'll be a little closer to the real time, though I think still slightly off because the beam is probably not going to pass until the car is fully past it.
The reset timer can be done with the current set button, or add another button on my little wood panel if that is better.
Once I get the timer working, I might build a new light pole and move the lights from the circuit board, but that's a pretty big task.