Derby Talk

I just saw your post - sorry it took me so long - anyway, several years ago I wanted a start tree and I hate 110AC (it scares me) so I decided to make a DC one - I am attempting to attach my circuit diagrams - the light tree itself is made from hardboard, the LEDs are from SuperBrightLEDs.com and th...

I have looked extensively for something to help me with my district races - each year as we do more people expect more the next year. Last year we had four tracks running at the same time (one for each RANK) each had at a minimum electronic judges (not all were timers) so we calculated winners by po...

John I was thinking about trying something like that last year but decided to go with the things i knew - electronics - I would love to make a better system this year - please post the part numbers for the pressure switches and any design details / notes you think are relevant. THANKS !!!

Last year I built exactly what you are describing - laser pointers aiming at photo detectors - basically the standard parallel port timer you see on the forums but using laser pointers instead of IR LEDs. I had two problems with this approach: 1 - aiming - our course wasn't the flattest and although...

It's one of the links from the track building thread ...

http://www.pack80.net/space_derby/Track ... _plans.htm

Gentlemen, I have seen a couple of times in here parents or other interested parties complaining that having only one latch on the start gate (referencing the Pack 80 plans) doesn't provide a fair start - Yes I agree that's probably not the case - but I decided to try to solve the problem on the tra...

Not sure if a autowinder like that will work do to differences in the slot the round plastic piece that hold the rubberbands taunt. I have seen slots that barely hold the peg, we like to completly bury ours. I believe you think I am planning on winding from the back - I am planning on mounting it s...

Ok wierd question here guys - I am looking into building an autowinder that mounts to the start gate (so you place the rockets in the start gate - flip a switch and all rockets get wound the same number of times at once) - I am trying to build it out of hobby gears, sprockets, and chain that's only ...

We have several (8) design categories and the way we vote for the winner of each category is pretty close to something you've tried in the past with one slight modification. We ask every adult at the race to cast a ballot - we usually have them fill in their ballot during the break between the kids'...