Newb questions: Building two 'timing' gates

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

Hi, I will be taking a course this summer that uses Arduino. I am looking forward to it.

I have two questions.

  1. Would I be able to build two gates that people run through, or the same gate twice and time them?

  2. Is there any site that has a variety of compatible sensors and accessories?

Thanks
Jamie :slight_smile:

2

Yes both options would be possible, however two gates would be more difficult depending on how far apart they were because you would either need to run a cable between them, or use a wireless system (complex and expensive).

One thing you could try using for a "trigger" would be an ambient light sensor and a simple laser diode. The laser would be pointed at the ambient light sensor causing the light sensor to have a high value. When someone breaks the laser by running through it, the light sensor value would be much lower.

I recently used this technique on a project and it worked fairly well.

I used the ambient light sensor from sparkfun electronics.

For the laser i just ripped apart a cheap laser pointer to get to the circuit board and diode, however im sure you can buy something similar.