SEN 97-23 - 30 Oct 1997

News and Reports - 1997 Issue 97-23

SCAT Electronic News 30 October 1997

To : groupscat
More correspondence and thoughts on the electronic timekeeper idea ..

From Roger Morrell ..

It seems that the biggest problems is that this relies on getting the model
back.
If the model flies away no time would be recorded. Do we need
to a have a digital radio transmitter too ? That
would send the time and a model code ?

Roger Morrell


Fron Ken Bauer ..

Roger & Bob,

I like it. Besides being more fair & accurate, it would make the contest
day much more enjoyable as we would all be relieved of timing duty and
be
able to spend more time with models and friends, or resting out of the sun.

First thing that pops into my mind is accelerometers. There are now
extremely small devices which are integrated right onto a chip. If you
sensed acceleration in all 3 axis, I believe there would always be some
output in at least one of them while the model is flying. So all you have
to do is have a microcontroller which starts a clock, moniters the 3
accelerations, and stops the clock when they all return to zero.

One slight problem is that a flight might get a few extra seconds as the
model may take some time to fully come to rest on the ground, or if it is
very windy the model could tumble and the system would think it is flying.
Also a challenge would be how to start the system, especially in F1A, but
I'm sure we could find a way.

Ken
Ken Bauer
Airtek Engineering
RF Circuit & System Design
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
PHONE: 909-393-9889


From Roger and Norm Furutani.

How about tieing it into the tracker transmitter. Change the frequency of
the beep when each milestone [engine run, end of flight or max was
reached] With undoubtably a special 'tune' to indicate an overrun ! I know
that with a Bauer Tx it would not be too hard to change the frequency of
the beep.

Roger and Norm..



New WEB Site
============

The following web site has some FF and some C/L material
but the most serious is F2C. For the Team race buff it has great historical
stuff. Maybe someday we will collect that kind of material on FAI FF.

http://home1.gte.net/muaero/


Rubber Report
============

Reports on the October 97 are positive, but not many people have it as
John Clapp has been out of his office since the Livotto contest. If the
message on his machine is correct John should have been back in his
office a couple of days and be shipping that stuff out .




Roger Morrell