Derby Talk

If you use more line tension, you must use more base weight to compensate. My website shows the use of an 8" solid cement block, which weighs over 50 pounds. but that is probably overdoing it. Regarding some lanes showing .0001, that would seem impossible, since there is a common clock. If some...

A time of .0001 for all lanes is transmitted by the Judge if it did not receive the start signal. Make sure your magnet is being pulled away from the switch to a separation of at least 1.5". When the Judge gets that signal, it responds by a steady green light lasting 1.0 seconds. You say the tr...

The job I did was one of a kind. The electronics were installed in a small box. The sensor and receiver pairs were looking over the top of the gutters at eachother. The boats' sails eclipsed the infrared light beams, and a LED at the end of the gutter showed the results to the audience. Simulataneou...

I did one once.

hmmm. It seems like it would have been less work to throw away the tower, and just mount the Judge with 4 screws provided. No painting needed. But as long as you are happy, hey, you are happy customer number 4485, owner of the least expensive Judge ever sold.

I have some short pieces of the SuperTimer track here, and think it is really a great running surface. But the pictures of the support structure look like 1" PVC pipe. How stable is the track when it is set up?

One of my good customers, Gary Woodward, sent me a link to this Pinewood video he just created. Gary's mastery of video editing is quite apparent.


https://youtu.be/2e-Grr1uf9M

Am I reading the datasheet on that right? 100mA? That does not sound right, but there is a lot of errors in data specs That could be the max current at a low duty cycle pulse. Remember catalog writers are not engineers. They don't have an idea of what specs mean. I use 10 ma of current into my emit...

Your photosensor has peak response at 870 nm, so it helps if the emitter is also putting out that light wavelength. For example using Digikey's HSDL-4250-ND should help immensely. Also, only that portion of the light cone that actually hits the sensor does any good. So go for narrow beam focus. The ...

http://www.newdirections.ws/images/GPI.jpg This interface will trigger all of my start gate mechanisms with a mouse click from within the GrandPrix Race Manager application program, and provides an alternate solution to starting a race. Check out the start gates for various tracks at http://www.new...

If using John's start gate with a MW timer, then John does need to make a modification to it, so it will not auto reset the gate before the heat is over. I offer a device for MicroWizard or other timers that do not tolerate the re-closing of the start switch prior to cars finishing. You can see it ...

My mailing address is on all pages of my web site www.newdirections.ws You will be much happier with infrared detection, nothing touches the cars. Along with center line separation, give me the width of the track deck.

Send me the distance between lane center lines and $20 and I will send you a Judge made from left over parts of early years. I don't mean to spoil your fun, and I do like the skill of the woodworking.

Randy: At this price, you can't consider this commercial.

We are now offering a start gate latch that fits most all plywood tracks. Stop by and see it at http://www.newdirections.ws/PTG.htm All of our start gates are designed with our Light Tree in mind. However, they can also be activated with a mouse click while using GrandPrix Race Manager.

I have a quantity of programmed microprocessors that are the heart of my light tree http://www.newdirections.ws/lighttree.htm available at $5 plus $5 S&H. This is an 8 pin chip with an internally programmed oscillator. Just add 5 volts and the pins provide a low-going voltage exactly as the anim...