Chronocone 2004 technical details
Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2004 11:56 pm
Chronocone 2004 is compatible with Trackmate wiring, but it probably won't work to simultaneously connect both systems to the same wires and tape switches. (Might be a good experiment to try).
The flow is like this:
1) Tape switch
2) Telephone wire
3) Goes to custom circuit board for noise immunity and pulse stretching
4) Goes to disected game controller to buttons 1,2,3,4
5) USB port of game controller to PC or laptop. (Items 2, 3, 4 are in one box -- Chronocone 2004 Hardware)
6) Chronocone 2004 software on laptop polls the game controller for tape switch activity. Software accepts user input for tones (# and style), cone penalties, racer names, false-start thresholds, DQ, etc.
7) Each time a racer runs, the raw time, cone count, reaction time, DQ status, resulting time, and DATE/TIME (clock setting) is output to a file.
8. At any time MS Excel can be invoked from within Chronocone 2004 to view the data.
9) At the end of the race, MS Excel is used to import the data, sort the results, generate the list of racers for the next heat, etc.
The hardware consists of a box with Chronocone 2004 custom circuit board and the useful portions of a disected USB game controller.
The software is written in Visual Basic. It runs on any PC with MS Windows 2000, NT, or XP. The PC requires a USB port.
The software uses DirectX to rapidly poll the game port. Older MS Operating systems may have to update DirectX. Very old systems cannot run DirectX (Windows 95).
The output file format is written to be imported into MS Excel. Other spreadsheet programs might also be able to use this file format (text, comma-separated values).
The PC's sound card generates the tones. The output of the sound card should be run to amplified speakers at a big race, so the racers and fans can hear the tones.
The flow is like this:
1) Tape switch
2) Telephone wire
3) Goes to custom circuit board for noise immunity and pulse stretching
4) Goes to disected game controller to buttons 1,2,3,4
5) USB port of game controller to PC or laptop. (Items 2, 3, 4 are in one box -- Chronocone 2004 Hardware)
6) Chronocone 2004 software on laptop polls the game controller for tape switch activity. Software accepts user input for tones (# and style), cone penalties, racer names, false-start thresholds, DQ, etc.
7) Each time a racer runs, the raw time, cone count, reaction time, DQ status, resulting time, and DATE/TIME (clock setting) is output to a file.
8. At any time MS Excel can be invoked from within Chronocone 2004 to view the data.
9) At the end of the race, MS Excel is used to import the data, sort the results, generate the list of racers for the next heat, etc.
The hardware consists of a box with Chronocone 2004 custom circuit board and the useful portions of a disected USB game controller.
The software is written in Visual Basic. It runs on any PC with MS Windows 2000, NT, or XP. The PC requires a USB port.
The software uses DirectX to rapidly poll the game port. Older MS Operating systems may have to update DirectX. Very old systems cannot run DirectX (Windows 95).
The output file format is written to be imported into MS Excel. Other spreadsheet programs might also be able to use this file format (text, comma-separated values).
The PC's sound card generates the tones. The output of the sound card should be run to amplified speakers at a big race, so the racers and fans can hear the tones.