Timing display

[CU ZCar]

I got a display unit from Mike C today (I believe this is the one Luke provided). What timing software does CSCC use, AXWare? Let me know what it is and I'll see if I can test with a demo copy or if I need access to the timing laptop.

I hope to work on the display this week and find out if it has the hardware to interface with a computer, and whether or not the software we use can be set up to spit out the timing info to a generic peripheral.

[RHennin]

(01-17-2010 04:49 PM)CU ZCar Wrote:  I got a display unit from Mike C today (I believe this is the one Luke provided). What timing software does CSCC use, AXWare? Let me know what it is and I'll see if I can test with a demo copy or if I need access to the timing laptop.

I hope to work on the display this week and find out if it has the hardware to interface with a computer, and whether or not the software we use can be set up to spit out the timing info to a generic peripheral.

SWEET! I'm not 100% sure what type of software it is unfortunately. Zach is the most likely to remember. I'm thinking for some reason though that it's a program that Jeff and Mike actual made themselves, but again I'm a little out of the loop on that. Keegan and Stefan have the timing equipment currently and we can bring it to the meeting this week if you can make it then.

[zps2004]

WE do use axware

[straight four]

Glad to hear you guys are working on it. I wish we had been able to tell when I got it as back then I probably could have gotten any other hardware required donated. Alas I no longer am a coop. (we lost autox I think the week after I got it so there was no point on working on it.)

Honestly thought mike had chucked it until he mentioned it the other day.




Looking again it looks like it was just cut loose so... who knows. Hope it doesnt need a PLC to run right.
Letters are 4inches and should be visible for 1000ft I think it was text capable as well as number.

[CU ZCar]

Sadly I don't think I'll have it ready for this weekend.

That series of Red Lion displays has options that can give it RS232 serial communication ability (which is what we would need) but this one's "brain box" is a simple pulse counter and can't be expanded. Parts to add RS232 (new brain box + serial card) would be $300+ at retail prices, and even then I'm not sure it can read what the timing software spits out.

I have another idea that might still make use of this display as-is with minimal investment, but it's going to involve some free time and I doubt it will happen before the end of the month. I will keep thinking about it though and may need to do some testing with the timing system. Basically, the pulse counter can count really fast (up to 38kHz), so perhaps an intermediate controller can parse the timer output and simply "count up" so the desired digits appear on the display. We will see.

[straight four]

sorry to hear Shaun. baby steps as always.

[CU ZCar]

FWIW, a friend of mine working on his own microcontroller-based project wanted to see if we could do what I wanted with the display quickly. On Friday we were able to power up the display (didn't even know it worked until then!), configure it, add a drive transistor to the breadboard and write a simple program to count to an arbitrary number. I likely won't be using the same type of controller he is (PIC) and I don't know what the output of the timing system is yet so we didn't make any effort to look at the interface part of the program. What we did see was the display being able to count up to 10000 in about a second*. It would be interpreted by us as "1:00.00" or "100.00" depending on whether we want it to show "min:sec.00", or just "sec.00". Causing the display to show a decimal point will be possible but there's no colon, so maybe we'll have to get fancy with some stickers or something.

I'll try to contact someone this week about getting the timing system for a short bit to get a copy of its output. This won't be ready for the event on Jan 30, but I feel better now that it's easily achievable for pretty cheap.

* it should be possible to count to that number up to 3x faster, but on the other hand it's kinda fun to watch the display whiz up to your run time.

[boxer4charles]

Any updates about this?

[straight four]

(01-24-2010 11:31 PM)CU ZCar Wrote:  FWIW, a friend of mine working on his own microcontroller-based project wanted to see if we could do what I wanted with the display quickly. On Friday we were able to power up the display (didn't even know it worked until then!), configure it, add a drive transistor to the breadboard and write a simple program to count to an arbitrary number. I likely won't be using the same type of controller he is (PIC) and I don't know what the output of the timing system is yet so we didn't make any effort to look at the interface part of the program. What we did see was the display being able to count up to 10000 in about a second*. It would be interpreted by us as "1:00.00" or "100.00" depending on whether we want it to show "min:sec.00", or just "sec.00". Causing the display to show a decimal point will be possible but there's no colon, so maybe we'll have to get fancy with some stickers or something.

I'll try to contact someone this week about getting the timing system for a short bit to get a copy of its output. This won't be ready for the event on Jan 30, but I feel better now that it's easily achievable for pretty cheap.

* it should be possible to count to that number up to 3x faster, but on the other hand it's kinda fun to watch the display whiz up to your run time.

dude, I missed this reply. Freaking Awesome. Glad to know that the club could potentially get something out of it.

thanks for the hard work.

[CU ZCar]

No real update, I've been slack in this department. I have many of the parts I should need, at least for getting a test board going. I need to build the programming cable, get a power supply together, and then start assembling a test circuit.

[straight four]

dooooooood