Practice lap timing- Any clever ideas?

Maxbashing · #1 22-07-2014

Hi all,

Anyone got any clever suggestions for lap timing when I'm practicing on my own at the track. I have convinced my Mrs to come down once with a stop watch but understandably she thought this was VERY dull.

So I'm wondering has anyone ever found a solution to lap timing on your own? I've found a Stopwatch app which is voice activated which i'm going to try but having read the reviews I don't hold out much hope.

Anyone found a solution to this?

bigred5765 · #2 22-07-2014

most of the new radios have stop watch and timing built in set it up on a button

sosidge · #3 22-07-2014

Team Orion Pro LCS/Alex Racing Hakarunjer.

Personal lap counting system. Infra-red based. Second hand only. Don't come up very often. Would solve your problem though...

Maxbashing · #4 22-07-2014

I have a DX4s which has an "up timer" function which is fine for a single lap but won't allow me to do several laps and review the times afterwards. I don't want to do loads of laps but the ability to do a few in a row would be really nice.

mark christopher · #5 22-07-2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by sosidge

Team Orion Pro LCS/Alex Racing Hakarunjer.

Personal lap counting system. Infra-red based. Second hand only. Don't come up very often. Would solve your problem though...

Got the Orion, works well,but don't use min much.

RCAshers · #6 22-07-2014

Hi Mark I have got one of these Lapboys you can use to record your laps. I will have to find it in all my gear, Google, kyosho lapboy. Ashley

Maxbashing · #7 22-07-2014

Seems odd that people used to make these things but not anymore, the Orion one seems pretty rare, the only kyosho ones I found were on vintage sites, it looks like Spektrum made a system for a while and people have the receiver in stock but not the sender units! I did find a system that uses a web cam and a laptop but I'm not sure I fancy dragging my laptop and setting all that up for a quick practice session.

I've found some stop watches on line that store laps, i'm wondering if I can bode some sort of remote trigger for one of those that I can attach to my transmitter..

The search continues!

mark christopher · #8 23-07-2014

Could all ways open it up and use a remote foot pedal wired to the right function button

Joe_K · #9 23-07-2014

This got me thinking....how about a Raspberry Pi and camera module with a LED & battery on the car?

Have the Pi filter all colours from the image except the LED colour and then run a motion detection loop waiting for the LED to appear in the image. Each instance of the LED appearing in the image equals a positive lap count, set this against a timer loop and you have lap timing.

If you then had an Android app to download the stored lap times via Bluetooth, you'd have your lap times. Or maybe the Pi could serve a webpage?

sosidge · #10 23-07-2014

Funnily enough I was wondering whether you would think of some R-Pi related solution Joe!

Joe_K · #11 23-07-2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by sosidge

Funnily enough I was wondering whether you would think of some R-Pi related solution Joe!

Of course! Any opportunity

Looking at costs and portability, it would be best to use a LCD display, some buttons and build the Pi, camera, and display into one box, along with the batteries to power it.

Although it doesn't use the Pi, a guy has already done something similar using an Arduino Uno.

http://rcarduino.blogspot.co.uk/p/project-index.html

Cardnim · #12 23-07-2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark christopher

Could all ways open it up and use a remote foot pedal wired to the right function button

Foot pedal is a great idea and Ive been planning the best way to do this adaptation on the lap timer in my old KO Esprit II.

Meanwhile, here is a solution which seems to work well (especially if you only have one car!!)
https://sites.google.com/site/easylapcounter/

beale · #13 23-07-2014

Can't believe you've all missed the easy solution!
Shoe and sock of 1 foot and any smart phone has a lap timer in it!

Maxbashing · #14 23-07-2014

So against my better judgement I downloaded the voice activated stop watch and it's rubbish! It counts a lap with every gust of wind, you can reduce the voice sensitivity (apparently) but even with this set to the lowest setting it was just no good.

I like the foot trigger idea..

BazzerH · #15 23-07-2014

How about just video the run with a phone and then review it while car is cooling?

MatJohnson · #16 24-07-2014

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe_K

If you then had an Android app to download the stored lap times via Bluetooth, you'd have your lap times. Or maybe the Pi could serve a webpage?

Bounce it over WiFi using an electric imp? You can throw it straight to Xivley then and see what it does even with a graph!

mattr · #17 24-07-2014

Or just set a countdown timer at your target time, see how far you can get behind (or in front of it) over some set distance, 10 laps for instance.

My radio will do this, buzzes every xx seconds.
If I get too far behind (never in front!) I just stop at the line until the next buzz, or adjust the target lap time.

Maxbashing · #18 25-07-2014

So here is a possible solution

This is my iPhone, a Belkin headphone extension and a spare front rubber grip for my transmitter. Here's a better picture of the extension cable. It's designed so you can use normal headphones on your phone, it has a built in mic but more importantly volume controls.

I have fitted the volume control into my spare rubber grip.

The clever bit is an app called Eyefree stopwatch that allows you to use the volume controls to start, stop and lap the stopwatch..

At the moment it's just held in with tape need to work on the location of the switch and give it a test. If it works out I'll find a better way of fixing it all together