A looonnng Pinewood Derby Story and thanks

[ericbecky]

I thought I would share my pinewood derby timer story. (I also posted this on the PinewoodTimer yahoo group.)

But before I share my story I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this forum and many others. I swear I have read every site there is about derby timers and software. Everyone made my foray into this project a reality and has helped us take our Pack’s Derbies to the next level!

First you may wonder my reasons for wanting a timer in the first place. Some reasons included
- allowing the boys more racing opportunities
- getting the boys more involved in the race
- making the races as fair as possible
- taking away as much “human error” in judging the race as possible

We thought about purchasing a timer for a while now, but it wasn’t until my employer, Meriter Hospital in Madison, provided a $150 grant, that we were we able to purchase a timer.

I built a four lane track sensor using the “Simplified Pinewood Derby Timing Sensor System” as outlined by David Shugarts.
http://pinewood.newtownbsa.org/document ... atic01.pdf
It is a variation on other parallel port timers that uses infrared sensors.

I went to several Radio Shacks to acquire all the items on the list. Everything was available except the 12 position mini blocks, but there are other terminal blocks available. There were also a few optional pieces I ended up returning since I did not use them (the d-Sub Hood, and the Molex connectors). Luckily some items were on sale, and to save costs I got the AC adapter from the local St Vincent DePaul store.

This was my first time ever doing any circuit board soldering and reading schematics. After a few hours of soldering and a few burned fingers I bench tested the timer. After figuring out I had inverted the positive and negative leads on the emitters, I rewired it and everything turned out fine. My father-in-law built a very nice housing that contains the circuit board and sensors.

All told the hardware cost about $80. We then bought Grand Prix Race Management Software for $60 more. Labor and the wood material for the housing was all donated. Overall it cost less than $150 for everything. Pretty good considering we were getting quotes for ~$330 plus tax for something comparable.

We did a test run the week before the derby and everything went fine using my bulky home computer, a borrowed computer projector, and borrowed collapsible screen.

Race day came and we were going to use a laptop from another dad. Unfortunately we realized about 45 minutes before the race that he did not have a parallel port on his laptop!!! I quickly ran home to get my bulky computer and things were o.k.

There were only a few other slowdowns in the Derby and they were mostly due to human error.
1) Prior to the race we had turned off the switch sensor in the software and forgot to turn it back on at race time. It took us a little bit to remember this, so the crowd had to wait until we figured out our error. (Lots of sweat and tension for me!)
2) We had to rerun one race. But in the heat of the moment we weren’t sure how to handle it. We made it *much* more complicated than it needed to be. I think we spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what should have been a 10 second solution! Duh! Next year we’ll know better and it will be no problem.
3) It took longer than expected to print the awards via our software program so there was a bit of a delay in the derby. Next year we won’t use the ones in the program and instead pre-print them and hand write in the names.

One other overall problem was that we everything we did was up on the big screen for the audience. We did not have an additional “private” screen for us to view the program. If we would have had a computer that allowed us to “hot swap” between the big screen and a private screen, this would be resolved.

Why was this a problem? Well, when we had “technical difficulties” everything we were doing was broadcast up on the big screen. This added a lot of extra tension for me. Also when we went to fill in the names of the “Best design” certificates, if people paid attention to the screen they could see the results before we actually announced them. I got around this by aiming the projector at a few strategically placed pieces of paper in lieu of a small screen. It worked o.k. but probably looked a little funny to the audience.


Again, I want to thank everyone for your help. Although I didn’t post, I read many of the threads on this message board as well as viewing the diagrams and pictures.

I hope I can return the favor and assistance for others in the future.

Thanks again.
Pack 373
Sauk City/Prairie du Sac, WI

[gpraceman]

1) Prior to the race we had turned off the switch sensor in the software and forgot to turn it back on at race time. It took us a little bit to remember this, so the crowd had to wait until we figured out our error. (Lots of sweat and tension for me!)

I'm not quite sure what you are referring to on this.

2) We had to rerun one race. But in the heat of the moment we weren’t sure how to handle it. We made it *much* more complicated than it needed to be. I think we spent 10 minutes trying to figure out what should have been a 10 second solution! Duh! Next year we’ll know better and it will be no problem.

Not to rub it in, but reunning a heat is documented in the Quick Start Tutorial and the software's help file.

3) It took longer than expected to print the awards via our software program so there was a bit of a delay in the derby. Next year we won’t use the ones in the program and instead pre-print them and hand write in the names.

Well, that will be limited to the speed your printer will print at. Printing them ahead of time is a good idea.

One other overall problem was that we everything we did was up on the big screen for the audience. We did not have an additional “private” screen for us to view the program. If we would have had a computer that allowed us to “hot swap” between the big screen and a private screen, this would be resolved.

You could have turned off the projector or put it in standby mode or just unplugged it from the computer. With a laptop, you can use one the of the function keys to toggle which screens (laptop and/or projector) that the display will show up on.

[ericbecky]

1) in the Hardware setup somone had inadvertently (?) marked Pin 15 as "unused". This was our Start switch. Since it was marked as "unused" we couldn't run any races until we correctly identified it as "Start". It took a little while to figure out this was our problem. (How embarrasing!)
2) Exactly! I knew there was an easy way to do it because I read the excellent Help section well before the race. I just drew a blank at during the race.
3) Yeah. Not sure what the deal was with the printer.

As far as the projector goes, we did not have any other monitor hooked up other than the projector. If we turned off the projector we wouldn't have had a way to see anything!

[gpraceman]

1) in the Hardware setup somone had inadvertently (?) marked Pin 15 as "unused". This was our Start switch. Since it was marked as "unused" we couldn't run any races until we correctly identified it as "Start". It took a little while to figure out this was our problem. (How embarrasing!)

I'll have to check the program. It should give you a warning about a configuration error. If it doesn't, I'll add it in.

As far as the projector goes, we did not have any other monitor hooked up other than the projector. If we turned off the projector we wouldn't have had a way to see anything!

Well, there is not much you could have done about it then. There is no way that GPRM could really hide anything from the audience's view.

[ericbecky]

I'll have to check the program. It should give you a warning about a configuration error. If it doesn't, I'll add it in.

No need to check the program. The program was very helpful because it did give us an error as soon as we tried to run the race. That's how we knew there was a problem.

Basically it said the start gate was not ready. Which, of course, was correct.

The real problem was figuring out why it was not ready. Was it because there was a break in the wire. Did the switch go bad? etc. Like I said, it was human error and we figured it out.

Again, you need to realize, I was new to the committee this year and I was the one who implemented the change to an electronic timer. I had a lot riding on this for things to go smoothly. there were some naysayers who were averse to changing things.

Here's how things went those first few minutes. There were bleachers full of people. I announce that we are using a new timing system and how great it is going to be. I have the racers get their cars to the top of the track. They go to the end to wait for their cars. I go to start the race and.... I can't reset the timer. Seconds seem like hours as the audience watches us check all the wires and hardware settings. Each time we go to check it, the software correctly tells us things are not as they should be. After a few minutes (now it seems like days!!) I figure out the human error and I can breath a sigh of relief.

Well, there is not much you could have done about it then. There is no way that GPRM could really hide anything from the audience's view.

I didn't mean to imply that the software could help us with our projector/monitor problem. That again was a part of human error. We did our practice run with a different computer than the one we planned on using race day. Big mistake. If he would have had his computer there for the practice, we would have realized that he did not have the correct connections much earlier. Then we would have had plenty of time to plan for an alternate monitor. We should have had everything there at the practice day. No substitions!

Live and learn!

[gpraceman]

No need to check the program. The program was very helpful because it did give us an error as soon as we tried to run the race. That's how we knew there was a problem.

Basically it said the start gate was not ready. Which, of course, was correct.

The real problem was figuring out why it was not ready. Was it because there was a break in the wire. Did the switch go bad? etc. Like I said, it was human error and we figured it out.

Well, I will at least change the error so that is says

Timer is not ready. Check that the timer is setup properly in the Hardware Setup screen, hooked up to the computer, the start gate is reset, and lane sensors are not blocked

This will hopefully serve as a reminder to double check the setup in the hardware screen.

[ericbecky]

Well, I will at least change the error so that is says

Quote:
Timer is not ready. Check that the timer is setup properly in the Hardware Setup screen, hooked up to the computer, the start gate is reset, and lane sensors are not blocked

I like that idea.