Software Installation

The TrakMate software ships ready to run on a single floppy disk, which means you do not need to install it to your hard drive or run any complicated setup programs. All the files are DOS executables that can be invoked by typing their name from a DOS prompt. We strongly recommend you run TrakMate from a native DOS environment. To do so, try one of the following:

* Insert a DOS boot disk into your floppy drive and power on the computer. (Creation of a DOS boot disk is beyond the scope of this document. Please consult your computer's manual.) At the "A:\>" prompt, insert the TrakMate disk. Type "INSTALL". Press enter.
* Under Windows 3.x, open Program Manager. Click File --> Exit --> OK. Wait for a black DOS prompt to appear. Type "A:" and press Enter. Type "INSTALL". Press enter.
* Under Windows 9x, click Start --> Shut Down --> Restart in MS-DOS Mode --> OK. Insert the TrakMate floppy. Type "A:". To place a shortcut on your desktop, type INSTALL and press Enter. Or, to run TrakMate directly, type "TRAKMATE" and press Enter

Hardware Installation


The sensor unit must be tested before installation:

1. Before testing, make sure the installation settings are correct. Enter the diagnostic mode by pressing the "D" key from the Main Menu.

2. Test the amount of light required. This will vary from PC to PC. Test if all the sensors are working. When running the diagnostic routine, only the triggered counter should increment when the sensor is covered. The not-triggered counter will tick when the sensor is exposed  light.

For best results, use a 60W light bulb a few feet above the track and sensors, or a smaller bulb elevated by only a few inches. The sensor unit will function best if drilled from underneath the track. Drill close to the power rails or between the slot and power rail. The key is to make sure the car will always completely cover the sensor as it passes over top, blocking out any light. Bend the sensor leads and run them with wires perpendicular to the power rails. To avoid lap counting glitches, do not leave any excess wire underneath the track. Keep the cable away from the track.

Installing Sensors 
Wire Color Lane number

If you want to run your cable beneath the table that the track is on, do not bend the leads of the sensors. Instead, run the wires straight down at least six inches and keep the cable at least six inches away from the track and power cables. This may mean that having the cable tacked to the underside of the table may not be a good idea. Use a glue gun or reusable adhesive to keep the sensors in place. Always supply a light source above the sensors.
Relay option

A relay is an electrically operated switch. TrakMate uses an optional relay system to cut power to your track after a race. This is useful if you're doing lane rotation with timed heats. It will turn power on at the start of heat and turn power off at end (see Lane Rotation.)

The relay currently shipping with TrakMate is rated at 30 amps. This relay has five connections. Connect the red and black wires to the relay coil (85, 86). Use 30 and 87a as your switch contacts. The 87 contact will not be used. If you have one single power supply for all lanes, use the contacts to switch the DC side on and off. If you have multiple power packs you can use the relay to control an AC power strip and plug your power packs into it.. Green and yellow wires are used for track calls with a remote switches. Use normally open momentary push button switches.  You can also purchase a really nice 'Jumbo Switch' from TrakMate.

The relay plugs into one of your PC's COM ports. The COM port is a serial port where you would normally connect a mouse or an external modem. It is usually a 9 or 25 pin male connector on the back of your PC. The relay option is shipped with a 25 pin connector. If you wish to plug it into a 9 pin serial port, you can use a 25 to 9 pin serial port adapter, which can be found at any PC dealer for a few dollars. Don't forget to set the relay option in the TrakMate installation settings. See 'Important Installation Settings.'

Relay option - Remote Cut Off Switch 
The Yellow and Green wires are for the remote switches. You may connect several push button switches in parallel. Use normally open momentary push button switches.  If the switch has three  connections on it use the ones labeled COM  & NO     NC will not be used

Main Menu 

TrakMate does not support a mouse. Make your selection by hitting the number or letter on your keyboard that corresponds with your chosen function. 

1. Start Starts race
2 . Race Format : Quick Race / Timed race /Timed race with rotation / Championship 
3 . Laps / time Change number of laps or time
4 . Rotation / Enter / View / Edit racers names
5. Relay comes on with Green Light / Relay comes on before green light / Formula One starts

6. Track Call Delay / Penalty Requires relay option with remote call buttons
7. Minimum Lap time Set this below your best possible lap time. If you set it at 3.000 seconds, you will not be able to retrigger the sensor for 3.000 seconds after the race begins. This feature prevents bogus lap counts when a car deslots and crosses the wrong sensor.
8 Display type: Text Characters / Large Character mode
9. Important Installation Settings See 'Important Installation Settings' below.
X. Exit to Dos Return to the operating system.

Hot keys

Space Bar Stops the timer and cuts power if a relay is installed.
S Changes to Large Character Display. Hit 'S' again to go back to normal display 
0 to clear best lap times
1-8 to clear best lap time by lane 

Important Installation Settings

Most of these settings are self explanatory. Use the number on the left to select your choice, or hit repeatedly to cycle through all the choices.
1. Sensors connected to
Always set this to LPT1 unless you have more then one printer port. If you ordered an I/O card, plug TrakMate into the I/O card and set this setting to 278.

2. Sensor Type

Make sure you have this set to Infrared sensors unless you have a Dead Strip version of TrakMate.

2. Number of Lanes, 2 to 8
3. Interface type: Set this to A if you have a 2-4 lane. B for 6-8 Lane
4 Number of Lanes
5. Set Color of Lanes

Colors are Black, Blue, Green, Light Blue , Red, Purple, Brown, Gray.

6. Name Lanes

You can name them 1, 2, 3, 4, or by their color. The name entered here will appear during a race under 'Lane.' This is useful if you don't have a color screen and for printing results.

S. MPH Scale Factor - Multiplies actual MPH by x amount 
7. Track Length

8. Relay connected to

This will be COM1 or COM2, depending on where you plugged in the relay. If you are unsure, there is no harm in trying both till the relay works. If you don't have a relay, change this setting to NONE.

9. Relay type

If relay is on when it should be off then change this setting. If you don't have a relay, ignore.




Why do only the dark/triggered counters count when I run the diagnostic test?

There's insufficient light, do not rely on fluorescent light . Try again with a regular 60W bulb mounted a few feet above the track sensors. Test on a different computer.  The TrakMate infrared kit should have 3 to 5 inch range.

Laps are not counted at all. What can I do?

Check 'Important Installation Settings.' Make sure 'Sensor Type' is set correctly. Setting for 'Sensors connected to' is usually LPT1. 'Number of Lanes' should also be correct. A six lane TrakMate set to 4 lanes or lower will not work. Interface type should be 'A' , and 'B' for 6 to 8 lane systems

Only few lanes are working what could be wrong? 

This is usually a compatibility problem with the printer port. Purchasing a TrakMate I/O card is highly recommended.  

TrakMate seems to count only every second lap, why?
Make sure the minimum lap time is set BELOW your best possible lap time.

TrakMate seems to miss a lap once in a while?
A)See above .

B).Is the car blocking the light properly.  If the sensor was installed just on the outside of the rail, some cars may have difficulty blocking the light.  For example 1:32 scale G0-Karts (mostly with yellow ones) and formula one cars.  Try reducing the light intensity.   Cars with red chassis may also let infrared light through even though they appear to be completely opaque.   

C) If you are running  on a  computer that's about 10 years old and in large character mode with quick lap times (2 second lap times for example)  then it may take a while for the screend to be updated.  With four cars or more running the situation is worst and the car may make it back to the sensor BEFORE the lap count is updated causing a lost of a lap.  This can happen on 286 and slow 386 computers.   Get a faster computer or run TrakMate in text character  mode selectable from the main menu.

I installed the TrakMate I/O card and the sensors still don't work
In installation settings set   'sensors connected to '  : 0x278   
Its also possible the the card was not properly seated into the slot.   

Try pluging the I/O card in a different slot

Adding a Second Printer Port

You may wish to add a second printer port to your computer so you can print results. Otherwise you will have to unplug TrakMate and plug in the printer to print or use an A/B switch box. Adding a second printer port costs about the same as an A/B box and is far more practical. Adding a printer port card involves opening your PC and plugging in the card in an available slot. You will also have to set the jumpers on the card so there will be no conflict. Selecting an I/O address of 278 is usually safe. Most computer dealers will install it for you.

PC Based Slot Car Lap Counter & Timer

Introduction

Have you ever wished you could time your slot car races with more accuracy than your wristwatch allows? Or that you and your friends could participate in organized, computer controlled races with full lane rotation and track calls? With TrakMate, you can, at a fraction of the cost of competing commercial products.

TrakMate is an integrated hardware/software solution that runs on most x86 compatible IBM PCs. It provides for the timing of races to an incredible degree of precision: right down to the millisecond a car passes the sensor. With its simple, easy to use computer interface, racers can track statistics, lap times and ranking.

System Requirements

*  386, 486, Pentium or better machine, 
* One of:
* DOS 3.3 or later
* Windows 3.x or 95/98 (for Windows 9x, real-mode DOS available)
* Floppy Drive (31/2" or 51/4", High or Low Density)
* Standard Parallel Printer Port
* VGA Monitor (for optional large character mode)
* No hard drive required

TrakMate has no special memory or hard disk requirements. For ease of installation, the software runs off a single floppy disk. However, because of the sensitive nature of race timing, it is important that TrakMate be allowed full control of the computer. The best way to accomplish this is to use a clean DOS machine, or issue the "Restart to DOS Mode" command under Windows 9x. For best results, do not run TrakMate directly from Windows.

Due to different parallel printer port designs, the amount of light required for the sensors may vary. In rare cases, a computer's printer port just won't work with TrakMate. This is easily remedied by adding another printer port card, which can be purchased  through myself for $12.

The TrakMate software is compatible with all IBM PC compatible computers. This includes ancient PC/XT systems based on the 8088 or 8086 CPU. You can expect to have this type of system donated by businesses looking to throw away old hardware. You can even find complete  486 and pentium machines with color monitors at garage sales for anywhere from $20 to $100.


Features

* Set number of laps per race
* Lap number
* Lap times
* Best lap time
* Average lap time

Advance Features:

* Color!
* Lane rotation 
* Computer controlled track power on/off
* Remote on/off power switch (works with relay)
* Send results to printer
* Large character display (requires EGA/VGA video card)

Lane Rotation

You have probably noticed that racing on a certain lane will give you an unfair advantage. Lane rotation solves the problem by having every racer race an equal amount of time in each lane. For example:

You have a 4 lane track and you have 7 racers. (TrakMate supports up to 12 racers). To enable lane rotation, enter all 7 names, then set the time you wish to race in each lane ("Heat Time"). Each racer will race four times, once in each lane. Each race in a lane is called a heat. TrakMate will display the names in their appropriate lane before each heat begins, so racers will know which lane to be in. TrakMate will also accumulate lap counts from previous heats. When the heat time expires the relay will automatically cut off the power to the track. You will now have the option of printing results, viewing lap times, aborting the race or continuing to the next heat. If you decide to continue, TrakMate will again display who should be in which lane. Racers will move their cars over to the appropriate lane. This time they will not move it to the start line but rather where their car stopped at the end of there last heat. When racers are ready a key is hit and a few seconds later the relay will enable track power. After seven heats every racer will have raced in every lane an equal amount of time. TrakMate will display the results for all seven racers on the screen sorted by position. 

If you are doing lane rotation you should really be doing it with timed heats using a relay. When time is up the power will cut off automatically. Cars would move over to the next lane holding their position. This has proven to be the best possible way as all racers will race an equal amount of time in each lane and no partial laps are lost.

Doing 'lap' heats with rotation is not recommended and without a relay, not very good. I was reluctant to even include that mode in the program but it was requested. All the commercial tracks I've seen use Timed Heats. 

Relay option is required
Set "relay comes on with green light"
Select time per heat.
Start race
On first heat all cars start After the sensor.
First time over sensor will be lap 1
When time runs out relay shuts off power to the track.
Note where car came to a stop.
Hit the c key to continue to next heat

Move car to next lane as indicated on screen but maintain track position.
If car stopped over sensor in previous heat place car just after the sensor in new lane.
Hit any key when ready to start race
First time over sensor will be Lap 1 and will not effect best lap times and minimum lap time will not be enforced.

Repeat for remaining heats.

If there are more racers then lanes (round robin).
If it's the racers first heat then start before sensor.
If it's not the racers first heat start where car stopped in his last heat.

This allows everyone to run equal time in each lane. Partially completed laps are not lost. I think this is the fairest mode of racing.