35 replies to this topic

[Rhett]

I remember seeing a system in Corpus Christi, TX, as a kid that used calculators and a stick that the car hit to activate the calculator, but I don't remember exactly how it worked. Does anyone have any suggestions, a buddy of mine is building a 4 lane Hillclimb in his garage and is trying to come up with a lap counting system. Thanks....

[Mike Patterson]

Rhett,

Every track I have ever raced on has used a variation of the "dead strip". Except back then, instead of triggering a computer, it triggered an electro-mechanical counter, very similar to what was used in pinball machines of the time to keep score.

[TSR]

You guys are way too young! We had AMRC and Revell lap counters mounted on towers with rotary dials actuated by solenoids and going 'clack-clack' at every lap, sometimes missing one with a burp!

[MG Brown]

IMHO the PC based counter systems are cheaper and more reliable.

[TSR]

No kidding.

[Phil Nyland]

The top half of a pinball machine. Very noisy and no free replay.

[macman]

If you saw a lap counter in Corpus Christi that used calculators and wooden dowels, it was the brainchild of Dwayne Harris, who still operates Corpus Cristi raceway with tracks he builds himself... John Ford can elaborate more on these contraptions, I believe he still uses something like this... only now it is triggered by a light bar, but still involves calculators...

Dwayne is a master cabinet maker, who has been building and operating slot car tracks since the '60s. SARN did a two-page feature on him a few years ago. He is probably one of the oldest raceway owner in the country.

You would be better served using a PC and software to count laps... there are lots of old PCs out there that aren't much good as home computers, but are great dedicated devices... John Ford used to have a lap counting system based on the Commodore 64...

[Dan Myers]

When I first raced HO's on a club track in Boardman, OH, about 25 years ago, they had a pinball machine for a counter, and the biggest HO track I have ever seen. Wish I could find that track to either race on again or purchase to setup so it can be raced on again. It was so fun.

[munter]

Back in 1966 when I was thirteen my uncle and father built our first routed track.
Uncle Sid was very clever and created a dead strip activated relay system that would turn a hand on a twenty lap clock face.
That was after he created our pistol grip throttle triggers out of wood, brass, and some kind of heater element as a resistor.
The ohms were about right for the Mabuchi motors of the time.

That was a formative time for me.

Regards,

[Champion 507]

When I started racing in early 1965, our track had the usual dead strips on the track. However, the counters were made up of four two-lane Aurora HO lap counters mounted in a homemade wooden box that hung on the wall. The counters registered from 0 to 99 laps, then started over at zero. This was never a problem during our weekly races as we mostly ran heats of five laps crash and burn over the eight lanes... no big deal.

However, when we had 12 hour endurance races, two ladies sat by the counters and had to mark down on paper each time a counter went back to zero to score another 100 laps for that team. At that time, the track record for one lap was 7.5 seconds on a 115 foot track. Can you imagine if they had to do that with today's speeds?

[MG Brown]

Doug brings up a good point - in the pinball, industrial counter, etc., days, part of the race director's job was to write the segment results on a sheet and keep the running total laps added up.

Forgetting to do a "reset" of the mechanical counter resulted in having to subtract the previous segment total for that lane to get to the right number.

I can speak from experience that it was a PITA and something that I am glad the PC-based systems do for us... even printing out nicely-formatted segment and final total results!

I remember darkroom timers being used to "time" the length of segments. The timer shut off during track calls.

[One_Track_Mind]

Take a look at this...

Greg Braun

Scroll down left side, Electronics, and look for LAP Timer.

I've used this program for HO with great results.

[MrWeiler]

You guys are way too young! We had AMRC and Revell lap counters mounted on towers with rotary dials actuated by solenoids and going 'clack-clack' at every lap, sometimes missing one with a burp!

Two local SoCal raceways had those as late as the end of the 1970s. The racers called them Ouiji board counters 'cause you needed a ouiji board to figure out how many laps were really on the counter...

[JimR]

How did we count laps in the old days?

I, II, III, IV, V....

[Marty Stanley]

Jim,

Nice!

Now, the 'dead strip' that we use today was around back in the olde days. The same type of idea worked then as it almost works now. The car provides a short across the 'dead strip' that can or cannot be very dependable. The accuracy of it depends on the cleanliess of the power on the track, if it is separated from the track's power, and a lot of other variables.

Many of the tracks in the northeast used a set of counters that were purchased from scrap counters that were in use at many of the telephone switching centers. They used a mechanical reset and then each lap was counted when the car caused a short across the 'dead strip'.

Nothing fancy, but it worked with the motors and speeds of the day.

[Hworth08]

Someone can provide better info. Weird Jack, whose website I couldn't locate, has the instructions to convert a calculator into a lap counter. I did a couple that never missed a lap.

We used this system for three seasons of HO racing without a single problem. It's the closest timing system I've seen to SRT and free.

Slot Race Manager

[Ramcatlarry]

I will concur that the common 'dead strip' has been alive and well since the beginning. Many industrial electric counters are 24 volt dc units. 12 -14 volts would not trip them consistently, but adding a 9 volt battery to the track base voltage is enough to make them fire until the battery got weak. A darkroom timer can be used to time race heats.

The clackity clack counters are indeed pin ball technology, I got my old Miniature Grand Prix console tuned up at the pinball repair shop. I may use it on the restoration of Steve Pages' American Royal 95' track, at least hook it up to hear it CLACK. I also have a unit that has emmitting tubes that are arranged like a clock face - one tube per clock number...have had a hard time locating replacemwnt tubes for it, though.

Most of the pre-computor counters like these had to rely on the race director to start and stop the race - automatic timing did not happen, but decade counting (10 or 100 laps) could stop a heat. IT did not make for equal racing like modern timed heats can now.

I remember using thumb counters to count model airplane and tether car races with a stop watch, same as big car races then.

[Zippity]

One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four
five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes more........................

What's wrong with using your fingers?

That's how we used to do it when we were kids

[Rusty Pinion]

.......why out loud of course !!

[Rick]

definitive answer, one at a time..........................

[68Caddy]

No offense did they not use abacus?
Don't forget Jeff E?

Nesta

[One27ray]

Here is and old Lap Counter , Vintage Eldon 1960 ? The only surviving peace left



could stand a cleaning



the mechanical method of operation cars ran under nether hitting clicker. laps record. simple

[


i-ray

[Kevin Juliot]

Another good PC lap counting system that I've been using for years on my HO track with a dead strip is http://www.trackmateracing.com

[markdshark]

Professor Motor offers a four lane system, for about $120.

[Victor Poulin]

The trackmate system is awesome !! Thats what we have for our track. It will run the whole race program for you. Its very easy to wire up, and all you need is a computer with windows 98 or better. Give Dan a call and talk with him about it. He,s a great guy, and stands behind what he sells.
Heres the link to his website


http://www.trackmateracing.com/