RFID/NFC ESK8 Timing System

Yow guys,

In the winter I organize esk8 karting rides. We rent an entire circuit for 4-6 hours.

Now I am looking for a timing system. So that every person who drives knows his lap time.

I was thinking of an NFC system, where I gave every man a sticker that he had to put on his helmet, set an antenna + reader at the start / finish. And let it upload those results directly to a cheap website.

Any tips? Any guys with experience?

I saw this setup: https://www.webscorer.com/blog/post/2015/09/25/RECOMMENDED-CHIP-TIMING-SETUP-FOR-A-BIKE-RACE

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Ive used infrared in pinewood derby in the past, it was pretty flawless for those little cars.

https://derbymagic.com/timers/

That setup looks pretty legit. The most important part to me is the antennas. You need to make sure that the area where the reader can detect tags is very narrow and centered at the finish line. This will give you the most accurate times.

Doesn’t the NF in NFC mean near field? I’m no expert but my very narrow Google Pay experience tells me NFC probably isn’t going to work that far away

" This standard limited the read range to a few inches in order to prevent eavesdropping on tag-to-reader communication. More recently, NFC has incorporated the ISO 15693 standard, which offers a maximum read range of about 3 feet." (Pulled straight from google after searching “nfc max distance”)

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Yeah correct! It is a RFID setup. I just written it wrong.

At Lancaster, the organizer gave us transceivers. I wonder what they use for that. @MoeStooge

They have a computer with a loop. The loop recognizes the individual transponder code as it travels across the loop then sorts the times and positions.

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The board is probably a better place to put the tag for consistency. First board to cross the line vs first helmet. Maybe right in front of the front truck vs the very tip?

We use this system for rc car racing and it works perfect. Very inexpensive also. People use this system for go karts and drone racing also. Let me know if you have any questions. I have used this for over 10 years.

http://www.rclapcounter.com/page1/page1.html

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Price is not the biggest problem, I want something stable and very usefull for many years

I have been looking in to timing system for the track as well. I find that it very quickly gets complicated or expensive. The antenna solution you are referring to would work. Do you have the funds for it? The advantage with that system is that you would have it to use other places than on the track. But the antenna needs to stand close or you have to have a lot of them.
You cant use the tracks own system?

By the way. Let me know when you will be at the track. I might join.

I am the man behind esk8eu, we organize rides in the summer and go-kart rides in the winter. We usually have +40 guys at the carting events, and many of them are willing to pay + 20 euros or more (one-off) for the job system.

The system I referred to has 4 antenna + a 4-port receiver. Normally a receiver would work with one port and one antenna. The antenna that I was looking for is 60 cm wide.
So a narrow passage of 80 cm on the circuit works, the height between helmet and antenna can be max + - 50-60 cm.

The costs for that system would be around +1200 euros.

The problem with their own system is that not every track allows us to remove the system from the karts + we cannot use it for everyone because we are with to much guys. Wouldn’t it be great if you could see what your best times were at the end of the 6 hour go-kart track?

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This looks interesting

Thats cool. Here in Denmark the scene just isn’t big enough. Let year we were 6 on the track for an evening on the best karting track ever. Anyway I have it all for my self once a week.

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6? Wow that is not much :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

And one a week? Wow it is awesome to learn extra skills. Do you take your lap time?

This is a photo from such a day.

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https://www.raceresult.com/en-us/solutions/road_race.php

Or do you want to DIY?

I use the lap tracker app. Only works if you are one on the track. But then it works ok and are less than cheap.

DIY or BUY, is me both the same, the thing is just that MYLAPS is to expensive and raceresult is also 5k

Yeah cool! Possible I saw that video before on fb?