I've just been turn on to arduino boards and think they could help out in our dilema. We utilize a simple IR/photo sensor circuit to run our cubscout/boyscout pinewood derby races (look up "cheapest pinewood derby timer" for a schematic). it's a simple 4-6 sensor system with a switch tied to the gate to start the timer.
the current form of software only supports parrallel port input (status pin) but since it is open source we are looking to build a board that will mimic the same inputs and then put the information into the program with USB drivers and hooks that a software engineer I know is going to put into the program.
my question is... where would I start? There seem to be so many options available how does one know if the arduino will work and how to get it going.
That'd be a great project. The same sensors should work. But I might be tempted to do more than mimic the current setup, for instance, let the Arduino do the timing and feed the results to the PC. It could also drive a scoreboard showing time and place for each lane. I'd have the Arduino control the starting gate. When a button is pushed, it could drive a solenoid to drop the gate and simultaneously start timing. Another approach would be to have a second set of optical sensors at the top of the track to trap each car's start time individually. The physical construction of the gate could result in variations between the lanes, and so contribute to certain lanes being "faster" than others. This approach could mitigate that effect. With sophisticated enough software on the PC to do the bracketing or whatever, there could be virtually nothing to do but press the start button for each race once the cars (as specified by the software) are in place.
Top & bottom terminals drive 4 common anode 7 segment displays with 12V source. Make your own display from LED strip ligts, with 3/6/9 LEDs per segment.
Right hand 6 terminals are 5v, Gnd, 4 pins that can be used for start switch, and stop information from 3 lanes, displaying the winning time, and sending the times via RS232 (add an external RS232 to USB cable to the PC)
goodman 1887 has the boards & parts, we can help you program it. Crystal driven so can have microsecond accurate times. I imagine xx.xx seconds would be enough?
Can build it without the SD socket, 3.3V regular, and level converter chip.
