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Old 2007.02.16, 08:27 PM   #1
pinwc4
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Lap counter status

I received an exciting piece for our secondary lap counter today....



This module should make it so I can use various antenna lengths and be able to tune them without having to make a circuit for each. Hopefully I will have it running for the HFAY OLPS races we run next week. That way both tracks will have lap counters.
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Old 2007.02.16, 09:23 PM   #2
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So have you had better luck with getting your homemade lap counter working correctly?
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Old 2007.02.16, 10:47 PM   #3
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what is that? is that a RF reader? Or just a component for the antena?
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Old 2007.02.16, 10:50 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rharris
what is that? is that a RF reader? Or just a component for the antena?
That is just for the antenna. The RFID reader module I am using with it is the TI S6350.

Last edited by pinwc4; 2007.02.16 at 10:54 PM.
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Old 2007.02.16, 10:54 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GrfxDan
So have you had better luck with getting your homemade lap counter working correctly?
I will not know until the next race. It always worked much better at my house than in the fellowship hall. But with this module I should be able to get a better field strength than my existing antenna.

I will get it wired up this weekend and if I can get a read distance of around 2 feet at my house I expect it will work at the fellowship hall.
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Old 2007.02.16, 10:55 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinwc4
I will not know until the next race. It always worked much better at my house than in the fellowship hall. But with this module I should be able to get a better field strength than my existing antenna.

I will get it wired up this weekend and if I can get a read distance of around 2 feet at my house I expect it will work at the fellowship hall.
Good luck. I hope you get it working.
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Old 2007.02.17, 01:00 AM   #7
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Please elaborate. What 2 lap counters are you using? If you are using a TI S6350 are you also using home brew transponders, loop, and software?
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Old 2007.02.17, 08:32 AM   #8
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Quote:
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Please elaborate. What 2 lap counters are you using? If you are using a TI S6350 are you also using home brew transponders, loop, and software?
One of them is the Core lap counter and then the second is my home brew one. The home brew one is made so that the Core tags work with it but I can also use just generic RFID tags. The loop plugs into the module posted above, that is then linked to a TI S6350 RFID module, some other bits of other electronic glue and you have an USB RFID reader. As is though, I do not have enough read range to work in noisy RF environments, hence the tuning module I bought, and lap counting software to use with it needs a lot of work.

I have had this project sitting on my bench for a while and am dusting it off now to try and finish it enough for next weeks races.
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Old 2007.02.19, 09:34 PM   #9
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OK, my numbers must have been way off. I am getting a read range of about 9 inches on average out of the Core lap counter, not 2 feet like I thought. Anyway I tuned the new lap counter and am getting around the same 9 inch average.

As per before it works for me at my house. Now we will have to see if it works where we actually race. I can tune this easier now so hopefully if it needs tweaked I can do it at the track.
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Old 2007.02.19, 09:57 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinwc4
OK, my numbers must have been way off. I am getting a read range of about 9 inches on average out of the Core lap counter, not 2 feet like I thought. Anyway I tuned the new lap counter and am getting around the same 9 inch average.

As per before it works for me at my house. Now we will have to see if it works where we actually race. I can tune this easier now so hopefully if it needs tweaked I can do it at the track.
That's good news. I hope it works well. If so, maybe I'll have you build me one...
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Old 2007.02.19, 10:06 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinwc4
One of them is the Core lap counter and then the second is my home brew one. The home brew one is made so that the Core tags work with it but I can also use just generic RFID tags. The loop plugs into the module posted above, that is then linked to a TI S6350 RFID module
Does the core use the same TI reader? The TI web site says "not for new designes" I'm assuming they will discontinue it soon.

I have a core system. It would be cool to integrate a RFID reader with the open source lap counting software used by the Giro-Z IR system.

It would also be cool to use generic TI tags. The core tags are getting harder and harder to come by. They are just TI Tag-It cards, but core must be writing a code to them that the lap counter software looks for.
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Old 2007.02.20, 11:15 AM   #12
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That's good news. I hope it works well. If so, maybe I'll have you build me one...
You will want to wait for the next revision. The state it is currently in is very flexible for configuring different loop sizes but that flexibility added over 200$ to the cost. The next revision will have a fixed antenna loop which is much cheaper to produce when I come up with a reliable design.
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Old 2007.02.20, 11:37 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rharris
Does the core use the same TI reader? The TI web site says "not for new designes" I'm assuming they will discontinue it soon.

I have a core system. It would be cool to integrate a RFID reader with the open source lap counting software used by the Giro-Z IR system.

It would also be cool to use generic TI tags. The core tags are getting harder and harder to come by. They are just TI Tag-It cards, but core must be writing a code to them that the lap counter software looks for.
When I started this project TI did not have the newer IC's they are now recommending people design their projects around. I am going to stick with the S6350 while they are still being produced although a design around the TRF7961 could bring cost down quite a bit.

I spend some time trying to find a good open source lap counting system that I could extend for this use and did check out gzround and flaco that are used with the Giro-Z lap counting system. At this time I do not think it would be worth integrating into gzround but will definatly check out Flaco again after they release their next version. In our case we are writing software within Real Basic, which is somewhat like Visual Basic but allows us to be cross platform.

Core does also use the TI S6350 reader within their lap counter and in regards to the Core lap counter and generic tags you are right. Core locks out non Core tags using both a checksum of sorts in the tag and from within the software.
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Old 2007.03.19, 06:53 PM   #14
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Well, I got the next stage of this done. My custom PCB's have shown up. Using this takes the total build cost to less than 250$ now. I am still going to have to verify the board, solder everything together and tune the antenna.

Hopefully it will be together for this weekend but I have to finish the projector first.

Check it out...

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Old 2007.03.20, 12:04 AM   #15
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Thanks for the update. I am really looking forward to see how this progresses. RC Raceday used to have a software package but no hardware. Never got a chance to look at it closely though.
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