Slot Car Dragon Timing Systems

[spereira]

Hello - I'm brand new here.

I'm in the process of setting up my first HO scale drag strip in my cellar to accomplish a childhood dream - finally at age 71.

I've started with an AW Snake vs Mongoose set with the start & finish displays. I've seen the Dragon site and I've tried to purchase their drag race system many times, but PayPal always says there's something wrong and I cannot place my order. I've sent in a few e-mail messages to [e-mail], but I've received no response. Are these folks out of business?

Thanks for listening!

smp

[Racin' Rob]

I heard that they were selling under someone else now. I had issues over a year ago when I tried to purchase the system. There are other ways to go. Viper, MaxTrax, ViaSue. Or if you can do basic soldering, you can build a Drag Race Coordinator system for $50 to $100.

[skillet]

The price has went up to build it your self... the lights are more now. Can't even get them at home depot now. They got replaced by led at home depot...

Probably closer to 120 - 170 to order the parts. Wire sensors, win lights , lights, ... you can find cheaper lights but I stick with everything GTS told me in Dynomike and Skillets excellent timing adventure thread and its worked so I stay with it...

Drag race coordinator gives you tons of options once you have the basic system going...

[Deleted]

Drag Racing Coordinator ( DRC ) is a very flexible DIY system. You can go simple with a start and finish line or go big with prestage , stage, start , 60', 330',660', 1000', speed trap and finish line. Skillet ( Sam ) mentioned that the lights that trip the sensors are hard to find. True however they are not required. It all depends on the type of track sensors you use! If you are one who tears down an HO slot car and rebuild it then I believe you can get along with DRC.
Although I have worked in the electronics industry for many years ( retired for some time ) I wanted to make my installation of the DRC easier. I designed a PCB that plugs into the Arduino and also sensor boards. The connection between the two is done with standard RJ45 internet cables. The sensors mounted in the track need to be soldered to a small 2 wire cable which plugs into the sensor board. Almost a plug and play setup. My prototype boards are working well and I am waiting for the final PCBs to arrive so I can build them up and install them for final testing. I have chamged the user interface display to match how the NHRA displays for TV. As I progress along I will post more info. It really is a very nice system.

[dynomike]

Looking forward to see your finished product. Sam and I started our DRC adventure about the same time and there is a thread on here somewhere documenting our progress. While Sam uses photo transistors I think, I opted to use LDR's. They do not require a particular type of lighting and have worked well for me, plus they are really inexpensive. If you go to Alleyratz on facebook and type in timing systems, I attempted to describe the differnt systems available at the time. My knowledge of each system is some what limited, but I used the info I had at the time.

[Deleted]

Hello Dynomike - I followed Sams and you postings from a while back. Some good information there. Not planning on marketing anything. If it all works out I will make the PCBs available who would like to roll their own or perhaps make up a few for some cars!
I tried using the same photo transistors Sam used and connected them just like he said and never got them to work. I had to add a pull up resistor to every pin on the Arduino to get it to function. Sam said he did not use pull up resistors. Tried the little sensor boards you can buy that have the IR emitter and detector side by side and although they worked they would not detect a dark body car! So I ended up designing my own detector board which has four sensors on it. The prototype works fine. Waiting now for the PCB boards to arrive so I can build and test out the entire system. I will see if I can post a 3D of the sensor board and the board that plugs into the Arduino Mega.
Alan

[Deleted]

Dynomike - Here is what the boards look like.

3D Viewer 1_14_2024 6_02_32 PM by Alan Lautenslager, on Flickr

3D Viewer 1_14_2024 6_01_21 PM by Alan Lautenslager, on Flickr

[skillet]

Yha my sensors get soldered to wire and run back to arduino, one side ground one side pin number... if it don't work switch ground and pin number wire. Other than that. I've got 4 timmers out now and building another now.

[Deleted]

Sam - the only thing I can figure out on the sensors you used and also I tried is the value of the internal pull in the Arduino. According to Arduino they can be from 10k to 20k. If on the high side of 20k or more then they will not draw that much current. Other than that who knows. Very glad its working for you!
Alan

[skillet]

I'm using a mega arduino, wonder if thats why

[Deleted]

Sam - I am using Arduino MEGAs also. My Megas are genuine from Arduino. If you are using clones that could be the reason why.
Alan

[JW]

Jan 13, 2024 11:34:15 GMT -7 spereira said:

Hello - I'm brand new here.

I'm in the process of setting up my first HO scale drag strip in my cellar to accomplish a childhood dream - finally at age 71.

I've started with an AW Snake vs Mongoose set with the start & finish displays. I've seen the Dragon site and I've tried to purchase their drag race system many times, but PayPal always says there's something wrong and I cannot place my order. I've sent in a few e-mail messages to [e-mail], but I've received no response. Are these folks out of business?

Thanks for listening!

smp

I'm using an old SD2 but would not recommend Slot Dragon. Little pricier but you might check out dragitanywhere.com easish install or so it seems.

[Deleted]

JW - have you seen the price of DRAGITANYWHERE? I beleive it is based off of DRC/MEGA ARDUINO. It does not require a PC . What about a display? I could be wrong.

[skillet]

No I pay more for the original ones...
The clones hate DRC

[Racin' Rob]

Jan 15, 2024 19:48:24 GMT -7 skillet said:

No I pay more for the original ones...
The clones hate DRC

I spent hours trying to get a clone to work. Gave up and got an authentic Mega. DRC worked perfectly after that.