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last night i set up a lap timer/counter i had purchased on ebay awhile ago.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4781&item=5929445370&rd=1
i was able to get it to work for HO scale, but it only worked on one lane at a time, and low profile cars (lexan bodies or bare chassis) would not trigger the sensor. a bit of double sided tape pointing up raised the profile of cars/chassis enough to trigger the sensor. previously i have just been using a stop watch and lap counter to calculate lap times. it was very cool to see each lap's time displayed immediately.
i learned my JLTO and Tjets were slow, and my magnet cars were fast. imagine that! i was a bit surprised that my trusty tomy turbo chassis (with hard bodies), while slower than more race oriented magnet cars (patriots, g plus, etc) were only about 15% slower than other magnet cars, and only 20% slower than my fastest lexan bodied modified tyco 440x2. i have some more radiacal magnet cars, but this track (4x8 routed track) wasnt really long enough for their legs to show.
i ran about 18 JLXTs, after using silicone sealer to secure the front tires. i was disappointed. only 4 ran well, and those were still about 25% slower than the tomy turbos. still, those 4 were fun, and i put the same body styles on them (nomads of varuous colors) to use for IROC style racing. several XTs simply did not run at all, and the others that did run did so poorly.
i also ran about 24 JLTOs. some ran well for about 2/3 of a lap, and then seemed to bind/chug for a bit, then ran well for a bit. have some tinkering to do. about 1/3 of the JLTOs ran well enough out of the box to be fun, with lap times about 40% slower than tomy turbos (all lap times where with cars with silicone rear tires, mostly weird jacks).
the lap counter needs to be reset ever 100 laps. i was surprised to realize i ran about 400 laps total. fun night.
i expect i will need a different timer for the routed track. the carrera lap timer might work well for the 1/43 layout i plan to build
mike
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4781&item=5929445370&rd=1
i was able to get it to work for HO scale, but it only worked on one lane at a time, and low profile cars (lexan bodies or bare chassis) would not trigger the sensor. a bit of double sided tape pointing up raised the profile of cars/chassis enough to trigger the sensor. previously i have just been using a stop watch and lap counter to calculate lap times. it was very cool to see each lap's time displayed immediately.
i learned my JLTO and Tjets were slow, and my magnet cars were fast. imagine that! i was a bit surprised that my trusty tomy turbo chassis (with hard bodies), while slower than more race oriented magnet cars (patriots, g plus, etc) were only about 15% slower than other magnet cars, and only 20% slower than my fastest lexan bodied modified tyco 440x2. i have some more radiacal magnet cars, but this track (4x8 routed track) wasnt really long enough for their legs to show.
i ran about 18 JLXTs, after using silicone sealer to secure the front tires. i was disappointed. only 4 ran well, and those were still about 25% slower than the tomy turbos. still, those 4 were fun, and i put the same body styles on them (nomads of varuous colors) to use for IROC style racing. several XTs simply did not run at all, and the others that did run did so poorly.
i also ran about 24 JLTOs. some ran well for about 2/3 of a lap, and then seemed to bind/chug for a bit, then ran well for a bit. have some tinkering to do. about 1/3 of the JLTOs ran well enough out of the box to be fun, with lap times about 40% slower than tomy turbos (all lap times where with cars with silicone rear tires, mostly weird jacks).
the lap counter needs to be reset ever 100 laps. i was surprised to realize i ran about 400 laps total. fun night.
i expect i will need a different timer for the routed track. the carrera lap timer might work well for the 1/43 layout i plan to build
mike