Testing with "The Champ" Timer
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:35 am
I was running my full software and hardware system test last night in prep for our race this weekend. Wanted to be sure everything was working OK.
Half way through my mock race, I started having trouble with the timer (a champ timer from best track).
After rebooting the PC, restarting the software, re-powering the timer, I just could not get the "problem" to go away.
I finally figured it out. When testing with the timer not attached to the track, the little optical transmitters/receivers that sit on the foam pads can sometimes get out of alignment with each other (especially after sitting in a box for 1 year since the last use).
When this happens, the timer will display a "C" on its display for the lane in which optical connectivity is lost. I simply nudged the foam block to put the two back in alignment, and everything started working again.
Gave me a real worry for a while there. Thought I would share in case anybody else stumbles across this sometime down the road.
thanks,
birddog
Half way through my mock race, I started having trouble with the timer (a champ timer from best track).
After rebooting the PC, restarting the software, re-powering the timer, I just could not get the "problem" to go away.
I finally figured it out. When testing with the timer not attached to the track, the little optical transmitters/receivers that sit on the foam pads can sometimes get out of alignment with each other (especially after sitting in a box for 1 year since the last use).
When this happens, the timer will display a "C" on its display for the lane in which optical connectivity is lost. I simply nudged the foam block to put the two back in alignment, and everything started working again.
Gave me a real worry for a while there. Thought I would share in case anybody else stumbles across this sometime down the road.
thanks,
birddog