i have been through every post under slot car bldg. and searched the internet.swampergene has also offered to help but have not heard from him. i know he may be busy. i need schematics on how to WIRE up the reed switches to the pc. is it as easy as connecting the two wires or is there anything else involved such as resistors or whatever. also any extra info would be helpful. thanks jeff

If you plan on using a parallel port and Laptimer software, I may be able to help. If something else, I can't help.

hey scaf, yes , i will be using the parallel port and laptimer software. i recently constructed a 15" straight with three types of photo detectors. 1 .was infrared detector lying vertical,with just the tip showing through 2. is infrared detector lying horizontally or parallel to the track with the entire length of the detector showing. 3. were plain old photo cells. used a 40 watt flood lamp for a light source. the old photo cells worked the best, no glitches. horizontally with infrared detectors were a close second and vertical infrared detectors were very irrattic.i used all rj-45 connectors for easy connect/disconnect, with a coupler to the parallel port cable. so now would like to experiment with reed switches. once i figure out a spot to build a table, than i will build a 4 lane tomy track. i am a stock kind of guy, so no thrills for me. i want to be able to change the track design often. will probably build a tub style table that will be hidden under a computer work center, roughly 4 x 10. thanks for the reply. jeff

i found this article. is this hookup correct? im not to sure about it.

i found this article. is this hookup correct? im not to sure about it. http://members.cox.net/jkemege/lapcounter.html

Laptimer 2000 uses pin 25 as a common ground, with pins 10,11,12,13 as lanes 1 thru 4 according to his site hope this helps. Don't think you'll need any resistors with your reeds per the other article?

No resistors just one side of each reed to pin 25 and the other to pins 10, 11, 12 & 13. With LT2000 you need to wire the lanes as the software specifies (look in the help menu) reeds wire up just like led's, with UR3.0 you designate which port the lanes are wired to.

thanks guys, jefff

If you have the Laptimer software, check the help as there are circuit diagrams inside there.

Cheers

Richard