Drag racing practice light tree

Projects Programming
1

Hi All

I will start by letting you all no that i have never used or attempted anything like this before so to say I'm a little green with this stuff is an understatement so please excuse my stupidity.

I am a drag racer that wants to build a light tree to practice my hand eye coordination. after talking to my local electronics store he sold me the following products and advised me it wouldn't be to hard.......mmmm

  1. UNO r3
  2. 8 channel relay board
    3.240v / 12v adaptor supply
  3. assorted small wires to plug from UNO r3 to relay board

I am wanting to program it to do the following if possible so if anyone can give me some guidance or if anyone that reads this is from Sydney Australia and could help me out that would be even better.

I am wanting to program it to turn 3 lights on (and off) in the same order just with different time delays each cycle possibly as follows. (The lights would not be wired into button i would be releasing to practise they would just cycle through and then start at the 1st cycle again)

1ST CYCLE

LIGHT 1 ON

3- 5 SECOND DELAY (COULD VARY THIS EACH CYCLE AS WELL)

LIGHT 2 ON

1 second delay

LIGHT 3 ON

ALL ON FOR 3 SECONDS

ALL OFF FOR 5 SECONDS BEFORE NEXT CYCLE

2ND CYCLE

LIGHT 1 ON

3- 5 SECOND DELAY (COULD VARY THIS EACH CYCLE AS WELL)

LIGHT 2 ON

2.5 second delay

LIGHT 3 ON

ALL ON FOR 3 SECONDS

ALL OFF FOR 5 SECONDS BEFORE NEXT CYCLE

3RD CYLCLE

LIGHT 1 ON

3- 5 SECOND DELAY (COULD VARY THIS EACH CYCLE AS WELL)

LIGHT 2 ON

6 second delay

LIGHT 3 ON

ALL ON FOR 3 SECONDS

ALL OFF FOR 5 SECONDS BEFORE NEXT CYCLE

4TH CYCLE

LIGHT 1 ON

3- 5 SECOND DELAY (COULD VARY THIS EACH CYCLE AS WELL)

LIGHT 2 ON

2 second delay

LIGHT 3 ON

ALL ON FOR 3 SECONDS

ALL OFF FOR 5 SECONDS BEFORE NEXT CYCLE

5TH CYCLE

LIGHT 1 ON

3- 5 SECOND DELAY (COULD VARY THIS EACH CYCLE AS WELL)

LIGHT 2 ON

3 second delay

LIGHT 3 ON

ALL ON FOR 3 SECONDS

ALL OFF FOR 5 SECONDS BEFORE NEXT CYCLE

2

What you seek to do is quite possible but no doubt daunting for you.
Do you need to use mains powered lights or would LEDs do for practice ? If LEDs are OK then you don't need the relays.

As to the programming, install the Arduino IDE and look at the examples. They will show you how to turn an output on and off, whether it is an LED or a relay does not matter at this stage, and how to wait for a period of time. Look at the Blink example as a starting point.

3

You cheating :smiley: Your sequence of cycles should be random so you can not anticipate the duration from light 2 to 3 (your brain will eventually anticipate this).

Nice little project.

You can use LEDs (as mentioned), power the Arduino from the cigarette lighter (?) of the car, mount the board on the dash and you can practice 24/7 :slight_smile:

4

Thanks for the replies

If the cycles could be made random that would be even beater, i have a separate practice tree this is just something i want permanently in shed to practise in the car.

Was going to use mains power for relay / lights as i would prefer to use standard globes 2 x white lights and 1 x amber.

Think i am a little out of my depth and will have to find someone local to do programming and wire programmer to relays and i can do the mains power side of the wiring

5

I did something very, very similar to this for bmanthey over on the gigs and collaborations board.

See reply #10 on this thread: topic=355625.0.

Video at YouTube.

f anyone that reads this is from Sydney Australia

I'm in Canberra. Three hours. Probably less if you are driving a racecar.