(SNIP):
Let's explore this idea.
What we've got now works, so why change?
I don't think it can be done.
Okay, "let's explore this idea". It's only hardware that we've gotta
find. Hardware that I betcha is already commonly on the market.
Whether I shop Radio Shack or Edmund Scientific or some other vendor I
don't know about -- I find it difficult to believe that there's no
possible system out there that could be used as a base for a relatively
simple timing system (and that's all we need -- relatively simple, only
two vehicles running at any one time (worst case), and those are on
separate courses).
Don't cop out by saying the electronics to receive and transmit the
data from an eye would be prohibitively expensive. Hey, we put color
tv cameras in remote-controlled model airplanes, fly those airplanes
from the ground, and watch the pictures from our homes (well, we've
done it in Marquette, so the rest of the world has probably done so,
too). It's not a big deal -- all we want to do here is hook up a
photocell sender and receiver package that'll provide a contact closure
("something, probably a race vehicle, just interrupted the beam") to a
small processor that'll refer to a clock signal that's kept accurate by
a real-time synch system linked to a central clock, and then send a
message "There was a contact transfer event at such-and-such a time
here at light XX" to a transmitter that'll send that packet of
information two or three miles to a central processor. The data
package doesn't have to arrive in any particular hurry -- so
atmospheric conditions that might slow the packet by a few milliseconds
won't be part of the issue. We're only sending the data a few miles,
so antenna height won't be a ridiculously-high requirement, nor will
power output of the transmitters.
Take the received data packets from light XX and YY and ZZ and so on,
run 'em into software that'll perform calculations, and accuracy well
beyond what we require will be available.
More to follow, in part three. Delete if this isn't of interest to you
or you think it can't be done and I'm just wasting bandwidth.
Jon Wennerberg
Seldom Seen Slim Land Speed Racing
Marquette, Michigan
(that's 'way up north)
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