About Us
HI! I'm Ronald. I live in American Fork, Utah, and was in Cub Scouts for about 12 years. I started out as a Webelos leader and then was 'promoted' to Cubmaster. Having had so much fun in Boy Scouts myself, I enjoyed being the entertainer at Pack meetings.
I design electronic circuits for work and have put that knowledge into making a system that I don't think can be matched.
When I started in Cub Scouts I was given a fairly new Pinewood Derby track that the previous Cubmaster had built. Seeing that the quality of the track was not up to my own standards I proceeded to make a track of my own. Having only three weeks to make it I rushed to get my supplies of wood, stain and varnish. The track was built in very little time but I knew I had to make some sort of finish line that would keep parents (fathers in particular) from arguing over whose car crossed the finish line first. As a young boy I remember some of the Fathers doing just that and things turned into rather heated debates (arguments). I just wanted to race my car.
So, I made a little 'logic' circuit that used light bulbs from little Maglight bulbs and sensors to detect the cars. I have to admit that it was a rather crude circuit, being made of logic chips (the little black electronic 'bugs') with the pins straightened out and glued onto a piece of cardboard. Wires were soldered to each pin to make the circuit. Indicator lights were positioned above each lane to show which car had crossed the finish line first. All I had was a reset button near the starting gate so I could turn off the light. We had to do eliminations but it worked. No fights erupted. Success!
My next improvement was to use a micro-controller (mini computer chip) to detect the sensors and control the lights. I made a light turn on solid for first place, another blink for second place and third place had no light. This worked a little better but I still wanted something more 'fool proof'.
Next, I made a starting gate that would go up and down all by itself. Utilizing a stepper motor the gate goes down rapidly and then comes up smoothly, all by itself. I use a remote control, similar to a car entry remote, to control all of the functions of the track during the race. I made a 'computer' that would control the gate and talk to the finish line. At the same time, I acquired an LED sign that would display the top four positions. My computer would signal the finish line when a race was started and then would collect the times after the cars crossed the line. These times were sorted and displayed on the LED sign. I only had enough room for the 1ST, 2ND, 3RD & 4TH position indicators, car number and the times of the cars. I had to write the boy's names on a chalk board so everybody could keep track of whose car was in the lead.
Later, I acquired two more signs and made a keyboard entry circuit that would allow me to enter the boy's name into my system and display their name along with the car's time. This information is transmitted to my main controller, the one that controls the gate, wirelessly.
Lastly, I designed my own finish line that would display, in big numbers, 1, 2 or 3 above each lane along with the car's race time for that particular run. The finish line is constructed with sturdy 8020 aluminum extrusion that gives it a nice silver look.
A laser printer has been added so everybody can have a printout of the race results. Sort of 'bragging rights' for SOME of the Dads, I mean....
