agility timer

Hi,
I am fairly novice on building electronic goods but want to construct a dog agility timer which has to be battery powered, preferably 9 volt.

As I see it I need to have a curtain of light beams at the start which would be broken by a dog passing through them and this would start a digital timer. There would then be another curtain which when broken would stop the timer.

This would then need a reset button and also be capable to measure down to 1/100th of a second.

I want this for my own use but am astonished at the cost of these units.

Can anybody help or direct me in the right direction..

Roger

Welcome to ETO, roger rabbit!

The current light curtain technology is cumbersome and expensive.

You might consider either:
1. IR detection - these can be "throttled" to only include fairly precise distances and area (https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=28386046&znt_campaign=Category_CMS&znt_source=CAT&znt_medium=RSCOM&znt_content=CT2032230 )
2. Doppler Radar - also very inexpensive detectors (**broken link removed**)

Simple timers can be triggered by both.

How large do imagine the start and end "gates"?

ken

KMoffett said:

How large do imagine the start and end "gates"?

ken

Click to expand...

Doesn't really matter. You'd adjust the sensors' "field of interest" to accommodate the space required.

Generally speaking, the sensors would be placed above the gate.

It does matter if you're asking for help.

Ken

You could also make a Proximity Detector.

KMoffett said:

It does matter if you're asking for help.

Ken

Click to expand...

chemelec said:

You could also make a Proximity Detector.

Click to expand...

I did not mean to sound glib.

The two alternate sensor concepts I suggested (both proximity sensors) don't require separate sender/reciever setups (which would define the "gate" area).

Their sphere of detection (essentially a cone) can be adjusted (range, shape and depth) to a wide range of volumes, as defined by the needs of the particular start/stop zone(s).

To accommodate ALL size dogs (whatever) passing through the zone(s), and exclude side interferences, would require the sensor be placed above the area of interest. A minor alteration of the norm and an easier implementation of the overall concept.

If you do it up/down and adjust the gate width then a simple beam break is all you need.

Mike.

I would assume the dogs are considered to start running as a starting gate opens?
So the opening of this gate would start the timer.

Than just one proximity detector is needed to stop the timer.

But having a proximity detector at both the start and finish is also quite easy to do.
I have a proximity detector on my website that works quite good.

Would a proximity detector resolve 1/100 second as cowboybob stated in the first post? A beam break "curtain" like this commercial one shouldn't be too hard to reproduce: https://farmtek.net/agility_events.htm

Ken

KMoffett said:

Would a proximity detector resolve 1/100 second as cowboybob stated in the first post? A beam break "curtain" like this commercial one shouldn't be too hard to reproduce: https://farmtek.net/agility_events.htm

Ken

Click to expand...

Wow, those are expensive. Anyone know the principle? I'd guess multi break beams controlled by a micro.

Mike.

Another approach: **broken link removed**

Ken

Pretty cool app Ken. I admit I never had a clue what a dog agility timer was. Never gave dog agility much thought and have always had dogs. Just never used the words dog and agility in the same sentence. My sister had a border collie that was amazing. How they can corner at full speed is something else. One of our dogs was Bear at the time and Bear was a large mixed golden that peaked around 130 lbs. Bear and my sister's dog would run and play and her dog would get Bear to chase her. The dog would head for a hedge row and go low into a turn. All 130 lbs of Bear would run head first into the hedge row. No agility there.

As to this thread, once a sensor that will work is settled upon it becomes a matter of building a timer to measure elapsed time, call it an elapsed time meter, a chrono meter, or whatever. It can be built using discreet components or a micro-controller. Each having good and bad points.

Ron

Hi roger rabbitt, I am at present building a wireless timer for our agility club. I purchased 2 sets of security beams that I have had to adapt. The purchased beams have 6 beams in them but to trigger the beam, 2 beams have to be broken ( beams are 200mm apart, so effectively beam 1 & 2 need to be broken together making the distance 400mm). This would work for large dogs but is useless for small and medium dogs. I stripped down the beams and looped all the beams together so that they work independently. Another issue that i have to address is that the beams need to a minimum of 5m apart and the jump width is 1.2m. Unfortunately that means that the start and finish beams need to be connected with a single wire. Connected to the start and finish beam is a wireless transmitter and at the time keepers table are 2 receivers connected to a stopwatch. Stage 1 is complete, synchronizing the beams so that they can read each other. Stage 2 sending the signal to the stopwatch is on my desk under assembly as I write. I might add that I had no idea what I was doing, it was an idea conceived at the club bar but with the help of a security alarm installer we are almost up and running and I hope to do on field tests within the next couple of days. The whole system ( beams, transmitters, receivers, rechargeable batteries, stopwatch etc) has cost R5400.00 ($500)

Wow, now thats what I call a response and I apologise for not replying earlier but work has a habit of getting in the way.

Gate height is around 1m and is triggered by the beams being broken by the dog passing through it, it has to be a curtain as a Jack Russell may think its big but its not as big as a Alsation and also the first gate is normally a fence of some sort....

Let me know how it goes Angus as it seams the right idea..

Roger

I complete novice at this sorry but did any one manage to solve the dog agility timing equipment? We are looking for a wireless system for our very SMALL agility dog shows all the systems we have managed to find so far are in the States or stupidly expensive...

Welcome to ETO, samk9s!

The original poster (roger rabbit) disappeared into the ether without letting us know what he ended up using.

For my part, I still hold to my recommendation (overhead, adjusted cone shaped IR detection). I have built such a system that can detect something as small as 2yo child (and dogs, unfortunately ) from an overhead distance of >10' and a ground cone diameter of ≈4'. Drop the OH height and the ground cone size drops dramatically. Cone shape is very adjustable.

As to the 1/100 sec timing, I don't know about that, but similar detectors at the start and finish will trigger alike (at the head, mid-body, whatever). The interval time accuracy will depend on the timer accuracy, not the triggering system. It's only one dog at a time, right?

Now, admittedly, if the trigger must always be, for instance, only the dog's nose, then my system won't work. But on a "per-dog" triggering body point, I'm confident it would serve the purpose.

Hi thanks for your reply, the system needs to work for one dog at a time. Normally a dog would jump over a 'jump' like in horse jumping only a lot smaller! to break a sensor 'beam' to start a timer then the same thing needs to happen at the finish to stop a timer with the result being recorded. Most systems seem to use two poles approximately a metre high with the sensors all they way up the pole from just above ground level as although the dogs run at a same height per class there are several different height classes and the same systems needs to be able to work for all. Shame Mr Rabbit didn't post how he achieved his goal! Thanks again!

Here is the circuit which will help you to build the timer..**broken link removed** of giving supply directly to the circuit use a sensor that helps your application..When the supply is stopped obviously the timer will be stopped..

Welcome to ETO, cleo23!

Any chance the site you provided has an English version??