hey guys, i want to build a scoring tower (car# laps et.) for my infield.
i want the numbers to be "backlit" so you can see them in the dark. i tried to find small stencils (no go). ooh ooh.... i actually just had a flash!!!! i can print it on clear sticker medium with a black background and white letters. that may work. well still any ideas??? any one have pix of scoring towers on their tracks?? much appreciated. mj

heres the info area........now i need some tower detail ideas. its going to be a free standing triangular tower. (or two sided if i can't muster to skills to make it look good.) lit from the inside with leds. mj

i believe there are plenty of premade electronic scoring devices,afx made one,but they are pricey on the bay...

I have wanted to do this for a while after seeing this example on SCI: :cool:

Are the current electronic ones actually tied into the race management system?

i believe there are plenty of premade electronic scoring devices,afx made one,but they are pricey on the bay...

thanks newbie, i have the afx/tomy electronic lap counter (from Australia)
for actual lap count/time. this one is for detailing in my infield. the one AFX posted is what i'm thinking of.....gives me some good ideas. there is another on another site but i can't find it as yet. thanks guys.

Keep us posted on the lights MJ. I made one from the same scraps that I used on the First Aid bldg. It has no lights, but the top does revolve. I used an old motor attached to the bottom of my track. I took a dowel rod, slid it onto the motor shaft, then cut a hole in top of the fence cap so the rod will stick out. The top is a piece of 3/4 MDF with a hole to slide on top of the dowel rod. The sides are scrap plastic glued in place. Add your favorite stickers. While not lighted is neat to see it revolve. This one runs on 2 D flashlight batteries...I'm sure Walthers' has some type of train display motor you could use. Added lights would make it come alive!!! RM

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc196/kwikdeals/DSC02202.jpg

Here' a pic of the motor. It came off an old display sign in a convinence store. The silver tube holds the batteries. Just flip it in place and it revolves. You could it hook it up with a voltage adapter...RM

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc196/kwikdeals/DSC04085.jpg

AFX only made scoring towers that showed lap count or lap time in 2 decimal positions. Way back I took the guts out of 2 Ultra 5 towers and converted the displays into one 4 lane display.

http://planetofspeed.net/slots/AFX-Ultra-5-lap-counters.jpg
http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/About_Vargo_Speedway/oldtimer.jpg

If you really wanted to build a functioning tower it I'll bet someone could but it would only display 4-6 drivers/lanes on the tower. You'd need the tower built with a logic circuit and LED segment counters that worked with custom software that you could program. Since real towers displays the driver's number, you'd have to program that into the race management program in combination with lanes to refer to who is leading. Current software will show the race leaders in consecutive order on a screen so theoretically that could be programmed to display that in a cascading display on the tower in real time.

I wanted to approach Daniel Groulix from Trakmate on this years ago since he was so good at converting his Trakmate output to my LED starting tower.

thanks hilltop, great job! more good ideas. this should work if i can be patient.slow down and not try to finish it in an hour. any more pix/ideas guys?? i have it largely sussed out. mj

If you really wanted to build a functioning tower it I'll bet someone could

yeah i bet someone could too......... but not me!! i'll be pushing the envelope as it is!! lol but thanks. mj

Cool tower Hilltop! :cool: