Timing apparatus

Details Timing apparatus Timing apparatus

1991-02-08

1992-02-25

Miska, Vit W.

Horology: time measuring systems or devices

Controlled by a disparate device

Vehicle or vehicle part

368 9, 368 10, 340323R, G04F 800, G04B 4700

Patent

active

050918958

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a timing apparatus and more particularly to a timing apparatus for calculating the times at which vehicles pass over a line. The invention has particular utility in recording individual lap counts and calculating lap times where a number of vehicles circulate around a closed circuit or track such as in a motor car or motorcycle race.
Motor races have traditionally been timed by manual means, employing considerable numbers of people using stopwatches with resultant, inevitable inaccuracies. Accurate results for individual vehicles have been attainable by various electronic means, including the use of light or laser beams and these are commonly used for time trials to establish grid positions. Another method has been to employ individual transmitters installed in each vehicle with multiple receivers connected to a single antenna line placed across the track. However, the electronic methods attempted so far have failed to resolve the problem created when two or more vehicles pass the timing point simultaneously. When this occurs, individual identity is lost and so a number of spotters are employed to ensure the integrity of the timing record.
Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide an improved timing apparatus which avoids or overcomes the disadvantages of known methods and apparatus.
One broad form of the invention thus provides electronic timing apparatus for determining the time at which specific vehicles pass over a timing line, said apparatus including an electronic transmitter for attachment to each vehicle to be monitored, each transmitter being adapted, in use, to emit a unique identifying signal, a series of separate loop antennas arranged in closely adjacent relationship one to another across the width of a road or track at said timing line to receive a signal from a said transmitter passing thereover, each loop being disposed in a substantially horizontal plane, the width of each loop, that is, the dimension thereof in a direction across said road or track, relative to the width of the vehicles to be monitored, being such that only one said transmitter can pass over a particular loop at the one time whereby the respective signals of a plurality of transmitters passing over said line simultaneously are received in different said loops.
In order that the invention may be more readily understood one particular embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a motor race track showing schematically timing apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a receiving antenna array and a four module receiver unit according to the embodiment of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 schematically represents the relationship between width of vehicles being monitored and width of loops in the antenna array of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a graph of signal strength versus time for a transmitter passing over a receiving loop of the antenna array;
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an electronic transmitter module according to the embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a modified form of transmitter module in which the feature providing facility to readily change the transmitter code number, has been deleted, and;
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a four loop receiver module according to the embodiment.
The motor race track 20 of FIG. 1 shows the position of 4 antenna arrays A1-A4 with respective receiver modules R1-R4 connected thereto for receiving signals from various loops of the respective antenna array and providing information relevant to the signal to a RS485 data bus 21 which also joins a manual input module 22, real time clock 23, and supervisory and data collection computer (SDCC) 24. The antenna array A1 detects vehicles crossing a start/finish line which co-incides therewith, and antenna array A2 is used to provide data for the calculation of average speed between A1 and A2, in the home straight. The antenna arrays A3 and A4 detect cars entering and leaving a pit area via a pit lane 25 and addi

REFERENCES:
patent: 3829869 (1974-08-01), Balko et al.
patent: 3846704 (1974-11-01), Bessette
patent: 4074117 (1978-02-01), De Lorean et al.
patent: 4551725 (1985-01-01), Schaffer
patent: 4643585 (1987-02-01), Hillesland

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