There is a Mr. alan Pozner, (list member) who was working on a similar
system to this using a Tag-Hugher (sp?) external timer sending the run time
to the PC, and the PC handling the rest of the process.. (recording, cone
counts ect.)
alan you listining? tell us about it?
>From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
>Reply-To: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
>To: autox mailing list <autox@autox.team.net>
>Subject: Re: Autocross Timing/Scoring Software
>Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 10:16:43 -0400 (EDT)
>
>Howdy,
>
>On Thu, 30 SepT 1999, Steve Ashcraft wrote:
> > The
> > serious problem is the variation of the latency in the computer. This is
>a
> > factor of both the hardware (which is probably not a problem) and the
> > software that responds to the interrupt. I'd love to hear some opinions
> > about how DOS handles interrupts and if there is a problem there that is
> > unacceptable.
>
>Sitting out here in the cheap seats (its been quite some time since I
>played with DOS and any sorta realtime stuff), I can't see how what DOS
>does or doesn't do would really matter, since you're gonna go in and
>juggle around the interrupt mask and clock interrupt frequency anyway (or
>at least I would).
>
>In terms of the archetecture of a good system, I would think you could
>combine what everyone's been saying by creating a single board computer
>running a custom kernal (and DOS when its not?) with a few switches and
>leds. That box would be resposible for keeping accurate time and
>extremely basic functionality in terms of stand alone operation (one car
>at a time, show the time, whatever). Then have that box talk to a user
>interface computer running win32 stuff. Have that computer keep track of
>the data, deal with multiple cars on course, etc. etc. etc.
>
>Having said all that, I'm sure I could build a really kickass system for
>$10k (single board computer & misc crap for $2k, laptop for $2k, misc
>hardware, profit, etc.)... Which is probably 10x what people wanna pay for
>timers :-)
>
>I'd be interested to know what system architectures and designs folks out
>there really end up using for timing systems.
>
>Mark
>
>
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