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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:55 pm
by Lynchy
The wheels and tyres fit well by the way.


They didn't need to mobile Dave!

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:21 pm
by David Leikvold
But if they're going to be portable toilets...

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:21 am
by DON NOBLE
Yes we had our meeting on Sunday , around 20 turned up for a good meeting . Plenty of discussion on our progressing towards an event . Stanthorpe airstrip is what we are trying to get at present . The Southern Downs Regional Council is who we are dealing with , and we are getting all positive feedback so far . A group of 3 or so have decided to design and build our timing equip . Other venues were also dicussed including Casino and Glen Innes airstrips . So until we can find a huge drylake or claypan somewhere , the airstrips are the best option .
We had our usual sausage sizzle and raffle ( big bottle of plonk courtesy of Chris Hanlon ).
We even had a few nice vehicles in the driveway , couple of hot rods and Paul s falcoon GS , and of course Cedric was there wearing a lovely pink sombrero ( true ) .
Thanks to all those that attended and helped out .
Next meeting date will be set shortly

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:20 pm
by Greg Watters
Have you thought about GPS for recording top speed, several cheaper units could be brought and shared , i don't think there accurate down to .xxx but good within a mph or 2...
I have a very cheap Garmin Etrex that seems to do well if velcro'd onto the dash (check my speedos on bikes and cars with it)

miles of wire

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:04 pm
by David Leikvold
Yes Greg, we have considered using GPS and probably will to start with, but as you said, it isn't perfectly accurate. That won't initially matter but later on if we can get regular use of a particular airstrip, whether that be Stanthorpe or somewhere else, reliable speed recording would start to matter.
If we can develop a good timing system that doesn't need miles of wire there's no reason why we couldn't use it anywhere, including Lake G, if only as a backup system until it is proven accurate. That's all still a long way off, but we can't ignore the opportunity to improve and expand.

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:03 am
by Lynchy
Dave

I can't see it being used at Lake G as it would not be that sophisticated. It could maybe be used on the test track as a speed trap! Not that anyone exceeds the 80kph limit on the test track that is :shock:

Lynchy

think big

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:23 pm
by David Leikvold
I prefer to think big. If our guys are smart enough to build a simple two beam timer then they've got the basics to build a bigger and better system later on. The more electronics guys that see the first attempt and offer suggestions or get involved, the better the second will be and so on. Then we get into wireless data transmission and recording and before you know it that 5 mile roll of wire is at Simsmetal. It's not like we're breaking new ground here, even go karts have timing systems now. And every car at any CAMS race meeting uses a car-mounted Dorian timer.
Maybe we should be talking to the guys at Chronologic in the USA, they're the guys that time events over there and also run the Hayabusa-powered Rice-Vigeant lakester. I don't see why we couldn't spend some money on this project, when it is ready it would certainly save a lot of messing around to set up and pull down wherever it is used.

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:31 pm
by Lynchy
Dave

Geeez settle down. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. There's a couple of Aussie guys that supply timing equipment that suits out of the box. The difference between Lake G and an airstrip is - at Lake G they time 3 different miles + a 1/4 mile. At an airstrip it would be nice to see a trap speed.

The difficulty with wireless systems is that they tend to connect the timing gear to one of the wireless transponders located at one of the beams. Not good when you don't want to get too close.

Research is underway for a simple system that won't break the non-existant bank that is out of the box and supportable.

Lynchy

$$$

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:10 am
by David Leikvold
I just started looking and found a mob that sells TAG Heuer stuff. It all looked very professional but they sure don't miss you. A kit for something that consisted of what to me looked like a 4 pack of AA batteries moulded and wired together and a mobile phone charger was going for more than $600. $50 tops at Dick Smith!
You're right of course, all we need is a single trap speed recorder and it would be easy enough to make the expensive bits safe there, just run a wire about 50m off the strip to the wireless transmitter. Anyway, I'm sure they'll work it out for themselves.

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:10 pm
by Greg Watters
We used the guy from Bendigo at Casino,(Timetronics or similar i think)
trouble was the system didn't like longer than 1/8 and the signal from the sensors wasn't strong enough to trigger the controller.. otherwise a nice system ,came with everything including an intergrated printer that spits out time slips,and i'm sure Ian will fix the faults,not all that expensive either.
police radar didn't work that well they either missed top speed or couldn't get an accurate reading.
GPS had to be mounted with a sky view to be consistant.but otherwise just like having a transponder .

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:06 pm
by Lynchy
After looking at a few systems I'd say that timing beams are the best bet and most accurate. I've seen that there are different strengths though. Some are only good for 25m which is just about how wide an airstrip is. Interesting that radar is not too good, makes you wonder how the cops can issue tickets for a few ks over with them... :D

Lynchy

Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:23 am
by REAL Stan
[/quote]makes you wonder how the cops can issue tickets for a few ks over with them...


BECAUSE THAT CAN LYNCHY :roll:

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:35 pm
by momec
Funny that, stood behind the guy using the pit speed radar at a southern round, he got about one in three right.
Chris