I need some help. You'll quickly find I'm not an electrical engineer by any stretch of the imagination. I am a fairly technical guy having been a network engineer for 15 years. My expertise just doesn't lend itself to this particular project.
On weekends I manage a dragstrip (think Pinks). We run two classes of cars, one which allows delay electronics and one that doesn't. The problem we're having is that we believe there are several racers who are cheating in the "no electronics" class by hiding illegal delay devices.
This is the best way I can think of to test the car's transbrake circuit to determine if there is an illegal delay present.
I need to have some sort of stop-watch type circuit accurate to 1/1000 of a second. It needs to be able to start the timer when 12 volts is applied to one pole, and stop the timer when 12 volts is applied to a second pole.
I used Visio to draw a rudimentary wiring diagram of how the timer would be connected to the car.
Blue representing the car's wiring. Red the connections attached to the timer.
**broken link removed**
So essentially, the timer would have three wires with aligator clips. One would get grounded to the car to complete the circuit. The second wire would connect to the transbrake switch. The third would connect to the transbrake solenoid.
My hope is that when the transbrake switch is closed, the immediate connection to the "start" pole would start the timer. Then, the delayed circuit in the car's electronics would trip the "stop" pole. The timer would then show the amount of delay in that circuit. Any delay over .003 seconds is illegal.
I've searched all over the net for stopwatch circuits. I've found a couple, but nothing accurate to 1/1000 seconds. I also wouldn't know how to start and stop the timer with 12 volts.
Someone please help?!
Thanks in advance.
On weekends I manage a dragstrip (think Pinks). We run two classes of cars, one which allows delay electronics and one that doesn't. The problem we're having is that we believe there are several racers who are cheating in the "no electronics" class by hiding illegal delay devices.
This is the best way I can think of to test the car's transbrake circuit to determine if there is an illegal delay present.
I need to have some sort of stop-watch type circuit accurate to 1/1000 of a second. It needs to be able to start the timer when 12 volts is applied to one pole, and stop the timer when 12 volts is applied to a second pole.
I used Visio to draw a rudimentary wiring diagram of how the timer would be connected to the car.
Blue representing the car's wiring. Red the connections attached to the timer.
**broken link removed**
So essentially, the timer would have three wires with aligator clips. One would get grounded to the car to complete the circuit. The second wire would connect to the transbrake switch. The third would connect to the transbrake solenoid.
My hope is that when the transbrake switch is closed, the immediate connection to the "start" pole would start the timer. Then, the delayed circuit in the car's electronics would trip the "stop" pole. The timer would then show the amount of delay in that circuit. Any delay over .003 seconds is illegal.
I've searched all over the net for stopwatch circuits. I've found a couple, but nothing accurate to 1/1000 seconds. I also wouldn't know how to start and stop the timer with 12 volts.
Someone please help?!
Thanks in advance.