When racing remote control cars, more enthusiastic users will desire an automated lap timing system more akin to the "real world" - which is a great idea as it adds to the fun of racing. DuaneB agrees with this and is documenting the progress of his timing system built around an Arduino board. His system will record up to 500 laps, counted by infrared lap capturing and a transponder - and also allow review of previous lap times, average and best times etc. However it is looking very easy to construct, as the Arduino sketch and all details are provided. Here is an example of the work in progress:
So to get started and follow the project, head over to RC Car meets Arduino blog. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
As you can see from the video above, a 16x2 character LCD with five buttons was being used. You can save time and digital I/O pins by using our Freetronics LCD & Keypad shield - which contains a bright 16x2 character LCD and five buttons that can be read from only one analog input pin:
