Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway - Renovation (Page 8 of 8)

After only 4 months of work, it is done! Let there be racing!

Looks great, but...  That little white shoebox hasn't moved in any of the pictures.  Get some trigger time on it!!!!

Thanks Doc, I really appreciate it!

You're absolutely right! I'll make that swap!

"Decorated"?.................for Christmas????

Now that I can't argue with!

Well you going have anymore testing on the track Bill??? I have a few 1/32 with some higher rpm motors in them, I wonder what kind of times they would get....  track looks great by the way....needs a good old race day on it to break it in

sound good, still up to my neck with the remodel. so it will have to wait till sometime after the new year. thanks for the offer

Looks great Bill. Looking forward to racing again.

I made a visit to Bill’s this afternoon to try out the new layout and have to give it a thumbs up. In my opinion it has a better flow than it did previously. Thanks Bill for the laps.

Rico

As a track owner/race promoter there is one thing I hate worse than anything else. It's when there is some sort of operational problem with my track. Especially on a race day! I have attended races where there have been track issues and I'll say the issues bother track owners even more than racers!

So the other day I went out to the shop to fire up the track for a practice session. Much to my dismay the computer would not boot up. After spending most of the day trying to get the computer to work, along with help from John Gill, we finally gave up on it. That evening I took the computer over to our son Greg for his expertise in solving its issues.

Since the current lap counting / timing system is DOS based, and the computer in use is old, I made the decision to put backup equipment into place. I decided I wanted to be able to override the computer controlled race system and be able to turn the track on manually. In addition I want the ability to easily switch from one computer system to another in case of a computer problem.

Today I started work on the project and here is what I came up with. I built and installed a switch panel with four, single pole double throw toggle switches. The three position switches will give me three options for track operation. With the switches in the up or on position the track lanes are powered manually. Each lane can be manually activated individually, all together, or whatever combination is required. With the switches in the down or off position the track can be operated on a computer system that utilizes a single relay to activate track power. I plan to use my Trackmate timing/counting system for this setting. Since it is Windows based I will use a second, much newer computer to run it. The middle position of the switches will be used for the current SRT DOS track system running on the old computer (Greg called and said the computer's hard drive checked out fine, and he thinks he can get it running again).

So once I figure out where I put the Trackmate hardware from my old track in Fairview and get it installed, Inslot' Checkered Flag Raceway will have a second computer and operating system as a backup to the original SRT system and old computer. With a flip of four switches I will be able to switch over to a different computer, which will give me the option of three different operating systems, SRT, Trackmate, or Race Coordinator (SRT will still be the primary system). In addition I have the option of turning on one or more lanes manually.

Here's the switch panel:

Here it is installed:

Thanks Rico!

Thanks Stan! It's pretty easy to make it look good when SRT does such a nice job on their "board" for the relays and all the electrical connections.

Last night I found the Trackmate components off of my old track in Fairview. I will try to get it installed and running this week.