LapMonitor lap timing system

[mud4fun 1696]

A quick review/summary of the LapMonitor we bought last month.

Long before the postal racing appeared in here, we had our own garden track and my daughters and I would spend many hours racing each other in the garden. We were using a simple app on the phone that you pressed a button whenever somebody crossed the finish line and it recorded a lap. It worked to a degree but was often fraught with arguments and accusations of cheating when the person responsible for pressing the buttons forgot to do it and laps got missed or inaccurately timed. 

So I began to look for a system that used transponders that could automatically detect the cars passing the finish line and hoped to avoid any further arguments and hoped to improve accuracy. My first thought was the MyLaps system used by the BRCA at official race events. Sadly that would be £3000 so I quickly scrapped that idea! I stumbled across some youtube videos of some guys racing trucks around a field using a LapMonitor to record their laps, they reckoned it was accurate as it used transponders. I watched a couple of reviews of it and decided to buy one.

I ordered mine directly from the LapMonitor store in France here: https://lapmonitor.com/store/en/12-lap-timer

I bought the Training Kit (JR) which includes one transponder with a built in LED and I ordered an additional two transponders with the LED on a lead plus an extension cable. This would give me sufficient flexibility for installing them. I paid for approx £200 in total and got rapid postage and sure enough, 2 days later this arrived:

 

 

Each transponder is uniquely numbered and you need to add your driver names against those numbers when setting up a race on the app. We use the Android app (just search for LapMonitor). It is free, simple to use and even my youngest daughter managed to install it, bluetooth connect to the LapMonitor base unit (the black box on the tripod) and have a race setup within 5 minutes.

The biggest problem we had was installing the transponders. They plug into a spare slot in the receiver so we used the battery slots but mounting the transponder is tricky. The LED MUST FACE OUT OF THE CAR HORIZONTALLY so you need a flat horizontal surface, unobstructed by bodyshell or tyres etc.  On the flat carbon/frp decked cars this is easier as there is loads of flat space and in fact on both the Avante2001 and Vanquish the body is cut away at the rear exposing a nice flat bit of deck, pefect for mounting the transponder too. I just relocated the ESC and receiver further forward.

The thundershots had no suitable location inside the car so I used the LED on extension leads and cable tied the transponders horizontally along either the top of the shock tower or in youngest mudlets case, along her wing mount.

The Terra Scorcher shell covered most of the car so there was no suitable place to install one without cutting a hole in the shell - as the Terra Scorcher was brand new built and middle mudlets pride and joy she refused, so her Terra Scorcher laps are currently still being counted on the old app until we get some longer extension leads to fit the transponder to the very back of the car on a DIY bracket.

I use velcro to secure the transponders so they can be moved from car to car with ease.

 

 

The base unit needs to sit pointing out across the track, in such a position that it can't detect cars running on other areas of the track. We found it works best being placed in the inside of the main straight pointing across the finish lines although it is a little vulnerable so I may make a protective box for it. The system uses IR so I was expecting problems with cars passing each other and blocking line of sight etc but the system seems to work perfectly.

The base unit has a range of detection of approx 10 feet so there is no need for cars to drive right next to it!

 

 

REMEMBER that the transponders need to point towards the base unit so plan your installation to suit where the base unit will go on your track. 

We have run the system for about 4 weeks now, for about thirty 5 min postal races plus a handful of basher/family races. It works perfectly, we are not aware of it missing a single lap. Seems to be very accurate.

The app gives you a nice start sequence, shouts out the cars as they pass with the fastest laps etc although most phones are too quiet to hear so I would suggest using an external speaker.

The app will record loads of data that can be saved for later analysis but during the race it shows a nice simple display of driver names, lap counts, fastest lap and time remaining etc

 

 

So overall I would recommend this. It is great value for £200 compared to other more pro race systems. It does everything we need, is accurate, easy to use, reasonably rugged and very portable. 

The only problems we have had with it are it detecting cars on other parts of the circuit because it can detect over a long distance so careful placement is crucial. Also finding suitable places for transponders is not that easy in some vintage buggies so I recommend using the LED on lead options so they can be cable tied pretty much anywhere.

 

 

 

 

[Wooders28 4723]

Looks a neat set up @mud4fun! 

Thanks for the review.

So, the transponders are effectively little infrared TV remotes, one trying to turn to BBC all the time, one to ITV etc, and when the detector (TV) sees the signal, it logs it?

 

[mud4fun 1696]

46 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Looks a neat set up @mud4fun! 

Thanks for the review.

So, the transponders are effectively little infrared TV remotes, one trying to turn to BBC all the time, one to ITV etc, and when the detector (TV) sees the signal, it logs it?

 

Thank you

Yes something like that but it seems to work even if two cars go over the finish line side by side, although in our case there was still a foot or more gap between them. I think it is more sensitive than a TV remote because with our TV, I constantly have to ask the kids to move out of the way so I can change channels etc.

At the end of the day it is never going to be 100% reliable as the MyLaps system but then it doesn't cost £3K so I decided we could live with the odd issue but in all honesty we haven't had any. Certainly for doing practise sessions and timing cars for this postal race challenge where only one car is running at a time it is perfect, not a single missed lap and a significant reduction in claims of cheating or arguments over not pressing buttons on time etc.

I'm thinking of getting a cheap large Android tablet and mounting that on my camera tripod with a speaker attached. That way the drivers can all see the screen easily and hear the race commentary whilst driving. 

 

[Wooders28 4723]

Sounds like just the job, for a back garden track, or even a small club setting out. 

A new mylaps system will only work with the new mylaps transponders too, and they're £100 a pop! Looking at the prices of the old system, that would allow the use of MRT transponders (less than half the price), they are more than the new version!! 

I know we've said this before, but Facebook is watching 👀

This just popped up ........

https://www.nemoracing.com/collections/lap-monitor?fbclid=IwAR2egCrTylWMk3n4VgNeEGfcrHv7pL86xfroMXWJzZUEWZOqabBq_S1WsHk

[mud4fun 1696]

55 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

I know we've said this before, but Facebook is watching 👀

This just popped up ........

https://www.nemoracing.com/collections/lap-monitor?fbclid=IwAR2egCrTylWMk3n4VgNeEGfcrHv7pL86xfroMXWJzZUEWZOqabBq_S1WsHk

LOL

They are only listing the transponder with the built in LED. The one on the extension lead is our preferred because it makes it easier to find a mounting spot outside the bodyshell such as across the rear shock tower. I guess that is because NEMO Racing are a 1/8th nitro specialist so tons of space in a 1/8th to fit the transponders.

I have been watching NEMO on youtube, they built a brand new track this year, looks awesome but it is only 1/8th I think?

2 hour drive from us too but I'm tempted to go and spectate with the kids once lockdowns are lifted.

[RcFranck 1]

A good to solution for transponder with separated LED is to use silicon/pvc tube, LED instert is provided with the transponder 

 

You can use a second tube inside (that is cut along) to block the wire as on the picture below:

Like described in this video:

 

[IoWBasher 170]

Great write up 

As for detecting cars on other parts of the circuit, I found sticking my backpack behind the LapMonitor solved this. So presumably sticking it in a box so it can only "look" where you want it to will work also.

I'm also wondering if an "optical extension" for the transponder would be possible using some fibre optic cable ?

https://makezine.com/projects/how-to-connect-optical-fibers-to-leds-and-sensors/

[EvilSpike 294]

I could write a good side of A4 or two saying quite derogatory things about MyLaps whilst being utterly accurate and truthful from my experience in club level motorbike racing.

Years ago they sold you a transponder for £300 and that was all you needed. The club paid for the registration software and used the circuits inbuilt timing loop. Transponders would get lost or damaged in crashes so MyLaps would have a small but steady income stream. Used transponders would sell for about half the price of a new one between club members.

Then one day, MyLaps got greedy and decided to sell transponders for slightly cheaper than before, but make them subscription only. So not only did you have to pay for the unit, but you needed to pay almost a third again each year to enable the transponder to work. The result was that the non-subscription transponders rose stratospherically in price, and everyone thought that MyLaps were a bunch of *insert your choice of bad word(s) here*.

I believe the change came about when the company was sold on to a bunch of people with investment capital in mind.

One of the unintended consequences was that people who had crashed their motorbike would instead of jumping clear and getting to a point of safety behind a barrier were now more concerned about combing through the gravel traps trying to make sure that their transponder was found. 

[mud4fun 1696]

Since buying the lap monitor we've done approx 6000 laps across half a dozen cars in both postal racing and family racing. I honestly can't fault it. The only issue we've had was in very bright sunlight with a low winter sun where we needed to relocate the base station to allow it to detect the cars. Other than that it has worked perfectly.

We actually bought a cheap android tablet to use as our race control as it has larger screen so we can more easily see the race data at distance and has louder volume than the mobiles so can be heard clearer at distance. 

My main problem is that I need to buy more transponders now because we love the system so much that having to manually count laps for cars without transponders is now a serious chore!! Swapping transponders between cars is tedious so after Xmas I'm planning to order a few more to equip all our cars.