Does anyone have a wiring schamatic or supplies to build infared sensor that will sense the first amber to release transbrake the same every time
the fist amber on christmas tree that comes down
No still no idea what you are talking about. Can you explain in more detail.
Looking to make a sensor that will release your car's transbrake so you get a good launch from the light tree? Sounds like cheating to me lol
What if the amber is a LED?
It won't emit much IR at all.
Hi,Dave
Welcome to the forum.
Please read the first post in any forum entitled how to use this forum.
I gather you want to minimise the reaction time in a drag car on a drag strip.
Although I thought in some timing cases, human reaction time is relevant to overall time.
Tom... 
Yes, it also needs to be able to work with LEDs also. The main reason is to show some people the technology does exists to make this a reality.
also need to know what supplies to use & schematic.
dave74:
The main reason is to show some people the technology does exists to make this a reality.
Does it?
An IR sensor is not going to work. I assume that you want this to be mounted in your car. The only way I can see that working is to use a video camera, and while this might sound simple in theory, in practice it is not.
is there any kind of sensor that would work with LEDs & mount on car. Thanks!
It would have to be a photodiode sensitive to the wavelength of the exact light in question.
Otherwise you're looking at a camera system running OpenCV which is beyond an Arduino project and beyond your capabilities if you came off the line thinking an IR sensor was the ticket.
Things would be much easier if you had access to the tree and could tamper with it. An IR sensor could work only if there's IR being displayed. Like if the light also lit up an IR LED simultaneously.
So no one needs convincing such a thing is possible, people know the technology is there, your job is really just getting people to understand why you think there's any point to it.
Who is the target user? Who's responsible if the system fails?
It's like you want to build a machine that will always be able to kick a field goal. No one needs convincing that such a thing is possible. You would need to explain the point of such a machine far beyond simply 'oh it's just a tech demo', because surely you're not expecting an NFL team to wheel it out on field goal attempts.
How much time are you allowed to aim it at the amber light(s) ?
just during a few minutes
I think the fundamental problem here is that dave74 thinks that an IR sensor will detect heat from an incandescent lamp, it won't. The wavelength that silicon IR sensors work at is near infra red, that is very close to visible light. Where as heat detection is a much longer wavelength, the sort of wavelengths where glass lenses are opaque and you have to use germanium lenses to focus an image and use a pyro sensor. So we are in the thousands of dollars price range.
The only way I could see it working is with a Raspberry Pi showing a camera image on a touch screen display. You point the camera, then touch on the light you want to detect. Then you monitor those few pixels until you get a change. There is no need for OpenCV, that just has too much overhead and doesn't work properly.
In a way it is similar to a project I did for this book:-
The Glitter Jazz project, see it here:-
Would you have touch camera screen every time you use after initial setting & adjusting.
Only once.... if your car starts off in basically the same spot every single time. Switch lanes and obviously you're no longer facing the tree with the camera.
True if stay in same lane it would stay the same. Can who give me a wiring schematic for raspberry pi system to make this a reality
dave74:
Can who give me a wiring schematic for raspberry pi system to make this a reality
The guys over at the Raspberry Pi forum, I imagine.
dave74:
Can who give me a wiring schematic for raspberry pi system to make this a reality
A web cam plugged into the USB port, and a touch screen monitor. All plug and play, nothing to wire up.
dave74:
True if stay in same lane it would stay the same.
Well only if you had exactly the same position. Can you do that, I don't think you can.