Drag racing timing program.

Hi guys.

One friend of mine come to me with a project. He want to have a timing system for his street drag racing fest. He found someone with a complete system. I will calling him John. But in the beggining of the year, the daghter of John had a big car accident in a drag race. So, John called my friend and told him that he will not be able to come for the drag fest and he don't want to rent his system. So my friend have no timing system for now.

He ask me if I could help him, knowing that I ever work with plc.

For now, I have too many project to finish before adding one more. But I would like to help him, so I think about you guys.

The project
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-2 identical lane
-Timing system based on bracket style

Each lane have :

Inputs:

All input are photoelectic sensor like Omron E3G-MR19-US.
Keep in mind that there is a photoelectric to the end of the track (660ft) so the current must be able to come to the plc. This is why I choose the MR19-US, correct me if I'm wrong.

-1 input for the pre-stage line
-1 input for the stage line (5" after the pre-stage line)
-1 input for the first 60' (intermediate line)
-1 input for the speed (30' before the finish line)
-1 input for the finish lane

I know that in real pro drag race, it have a line to measure the speed(something like an input near the finish line, calculate the time between each activatation...)

Outputs:

-1 output for the prestage light
-1 for the stage light
-3 for the 3 amber lights before the green light (delay of .5 sec between each)
-1 for the green light
-1 for the red light (for false start)
-1 for the light at the end of the track that will said who win.
maybe I forget some, but anyway... Maybe one of you ever made a program for that application... and this is why I'm posting here!

I got 3 GE Fanuc serie Versamax micro 28 I/O relay output in hand(IC200UDR005), I think I could use one of them, is it ok?

If it's possible, I would like to tranfert times on excel or something that could compile time for printing them.

I must say, I'm a newbie in programming PLC. I got 3 working PLC that I had program, but it has taken me 2 week to make one work so ... and the race will be at august 16th.

Thanx for your help guys!
(you can e-mail me at [email protected] if you want)

P.S. sorry if I'm making some bad sentenses, english is not my natural language.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, I would like to put dialin time easily.

Since no one had reply, I must tell that every time I write a program, it take me too much time to know where to start. This is why I need some help.

Where should I start???

Do you guyz have some kind of protocol??

One way of starting is to begin with the making of a flow chart. Putting in all the things you want to do with the system.
Start off at the beginning of a race. What comes first, and zo on.
When you start testing your programm it's a lot easier looking for a problem when you work like this.

After that you can start programming.

I think you have to keep in mind the cycle times when you want to calculate spedd and stuff like that.
Normally it is so that youre cyclic time is increasing with every function you programm. Especially calculations. And by the sound of it, I think you have to make a lot of calculations.

Calculations

The math here is not hard. After all, you will be timing a vehicle down a stretch of track 1/4 mile long or 1320 feet. You can use a retentive timer in your program and start the timer when the green light on the tree turns on and stop the timer when the vehicle crosses the 1/4 mile mark. The math is this:

(1320/Elapsed time) X .681818 = Miles/Hr.

The accuracy you need will determine how you do this math. I recommend a processor with floating point capability as integer math will only get you close, not dead on. As to the other things you have to do, they are only discrete ins and outs with a little timing thrown in. Not a complicated thing to do at all. So, have fun and keep 'em between the lanes!

Actually the math is a bit different, you don't want the average MPH over the entire 1/4 just the trap speed. You can get the formula from dividing 5280'/3600sec (1 mph) and get 1.46667 ft/sec then divide 30' by your time from the 30' mark and the Finish line. Speed=Distance/Time...you just have to convert from Ft/Sec to Miles/Hour or Kilometers/Hour

Thanx alot guyz!

make sure your photoelectric have a range of about 8' NO MORE so that cars in seporate lanes to do not trigger both sensors as they go down the track,

you don't want the average MPH over the entire 1/4 just the trap speed.

Click to expand...

I see, that's how a dragster can have a higher speed but still lose the race.

As my project is going forward, I choose the Omron E3F2 for all my photoelectric sensor need. It's an M18 cylindrical shape and less expensive than the E3G.

One question, can a personnal computer can act as a plc? If yes, what would be the best kit for my application? I already have a pentium 166 sleeping in my closet.

Thanx!

Just a little conclusion, maybe late but here I am, of this past project.

So as the thread is explained, I have made a drag racing system with a Micro PLC. It was a real challenge for me to get this system works as I want.

Here is the setup :

PLC : GE Fanuc Versamax Micro IC200UDR005 with an expension block
Sensors : Omron E3F2 for the tracks and a switch or two for the operator.
Operator Interface : Custom MS Excel reading/writing tags on my PLC through an OPC comm.
Results Compiler : Custom C++ software working with MYSQL

Here the pics of the first year setup.


The second year, everything was connected and wired by serial communication cables so it was "plug-&-play"

The project have run 2-3 years. The first year, nothing were compiles, just writing down on a sheet what we saw on the dataview of the PLC software. Winners was given manually, don't have to say that was a big pain in the a$$ with all those number (it was a dial-in drag race style). So I worked on the project to get the cpu gives me the winners automatically. Also, I was in needed to get those numbers print on a paper to give them to racers. Also, I wanted to be able to customized at will these time slips so MS Excel would be great. For that, I had learned that a communication protocol could do that, OPC. So I have read alot on that, give some call to learn that OPC isn't popular yet in the mass field so I have purchased some books on that, test some driver/server to saw that Matrikon were the best choice for my needs. So I bought the driver/server packages and build my Excel sheets to read and write on the PLC directly. This way, I can customize alot. Next was to be able to compile results in a database. As I wanted something really based on my needs, I found someone who have made me a software to work with everything.

The second drag race event came on so I saw my system wasn't really finetuned but does the job anyway.

After that last event, I told to guys that this system have reach a deadend, the system could not do more with this setup. Ok it would have be possible but hey, I told myself, who Am I to build a complete drag race timing system based on a Micro PLC??? This project was to covered a friend with his festival so my job was done by far! So they bought a real professionnal drag racing system.

Anyway, it was just to post a conclusion on that thread in case it could help someone else with the same need.

street drag racing fest.*******

Remember, Someone dies, you go to prison, They get caught and squeal on you, you go to prison.

How far is prison from your home?, Because thats how far the photoeyes will have to reach.

Don't worry about that man, they got everything covered, including insurance and responsability discharge. You must be mistaking with illegal street drag racing, that was not our case.

Street Drag Racing is Illegal in the US perhaps Canada is different in that respect.

I'm still thinking Dudley Dorights eyebrow may be slightly curled about this

Our street drag race was in a close field so this is why it was legal. It was a street that we and the city closed for this events. Police was there to ensure everything was secure and stuff.