HO Slot Car 4 Lane Lap Counter

thingiverse

This design is for a two or four lane HO electronic lap counter. The OpenSCAD file actually can also produce a two lane lap counter. This uses phototransistors to detect passing of slot cars. The circuitry is intended to be connected to a Raspberry Pi via a ribbon cable. The Raspberry Pi will have an application that uses the GPIO capabilities of the Raspberry Pi. These bands are designed to hold one or two 2-lane track sections together tightly. HO slot car tracks are each 37.5mm wide and 6mm high. The width of the sidewalls of newer track brands is 1mm. The parts consist of: 1. A base for connecting to track and cicuitry for phototransistors and resistors 2. Two side supports with paths for wires to beam 3. Top beam that holds illumination LEDs and resistor 4. Cover for top beam Software and circuit documentation is stored on DropBox at https://www.dropbox.com/s/ghpnk3cirz2iqgq/Lap%20Counter%20Design.pdf?dl=0 An improved software release will be provided in the future on DropBox, but a temporary version is at https://www.dropbox.com/s/q4f2r3es27q4k1w/Laps.py?dl=0 Note that there is now a version of this design that supports two lanes. This design will support a wide variety brands of HO slot car track (Aurora, AutoWorld, TOMY). Even though different brands of HO slot car track may use different connectors, they share common width and height dimensions. However, if Tyco track is used, the spacing between the lanes is different (1 ½ inches, where lanes are farther apart) than what is used by other brands ( 1 3/8 inches between slots). For this reason, the 3D design is different for the Tyco base, so use the Tyco base file.