Thoughts on a busted hot lap timer system?
12-08-2003 | 03:19 PM
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From: Manhattan
Thoughts on a busted hot lap timer system?
Ok, I bought a used Hot Lap timer that now is malfunctioning (purchased from a rennlist guy, so I'm going to trust that it wasn't a known or pre-existing issue I'm describing here). It is the standard one with the battery in the display unit, not the compact one with the battery in the receiver. I don't have a transmitter. The unit seems to have gone through some iterations, so FWIW, mine has a red piece of plexigas or plastic or whatever bolted on the outside, with a bulbous spot in the middle for the eye. The bulbous part doesn't seem to be red.
It worked perfectly for 1 track day, then sat for about a month (turned off), and then when reinstalled started doing 2 things:
1) Reacting to ambient light, especially brighter like a flashlight or a garage light or whatever
2) Registering the above light at mostly about 5 second intervals. Plus or minus, sometimes not at all (going to the 5 min max...I guess Hot lap wouldn't have worked at the old Nurburgring).
So net net is at the track, instead of ten 2 min laps or whatever, I'd end up with about sixty 5 second laps. Now while a 5 second lap anywhere would permanently ban me from any hopes of being a turtle
, I really would like to get the sucker working right.
Some more symptoms:
The timer only clicks when there really is light. If I cover the receiver, it times out at 5 min.
Calibration even comes on when shown a bright light, but off when pointed in the shadows.
Here is what I tried thus far:
1) Replacing the battery (no effect, and the old battery still zaps my tongue pretty good, so it still seems fine).
2) Twisting the cable in all sorts of manners to make sure there wasn't a short there somewhere
3) I bought a new receiver circuit board which had 2 issues:
A) It was slightly smaller and different looking than the one I had (but not the compact unit, as there was no power source on it)
B) It exhibited the same symptoms
4) I did plug my timer into someone else's receiver briefly, and it did not exhibit the same sensitivity to light, but it was a pretty short test and since the problem is somewhat intermittent, I can't be sure on that one.
Some possibilities:
1) Wrong receiver board
2) Wasn't the receiver board but was a problem on the display unit board
3) Is there supposed to be some sort of red film between the outer bulbous eye and the inside actual receiver? Someone at Laguna yesterday mentioned that at least the older units had a thin strip of red film there. It is possible that in my tinkering for mounting if that does indeed exist, I lost it somewhere, but I'm wondering if the red plastic on the outside of mine was a design revision on that issue, thus negating the need for the little red strip of film.
Net net...I don't want to plunk down $150 -$200 to replace something I used once...thoughts? Anyone? Help?
It worked perfectly for 1 track day, then sat for about a month (turned off), and then when reinstalled started doing 2 things:
1) Reacting to ambient light, especially brighter like a flashlight or a garage light or whatever
2) Registering the above light at mostly about 5 second intervals. Plus or minus, sometimes not at all (going to the 5 min max...I guess Hot lap wouldn't have worked at the old Nurburgring).
So net net is at the track, instead of ten 2 min laps or whatever, I'd end up with about sixty 5 second laps. Now while a 5 second lap anywhere would permanently ban me from any hopes of being a turtle
, I really would like to get the sucker working right.Some more symptoms:
The timer only clicks when there really is light. If I cover the receiver, it times out at 5 min.
Calibration even comes on when shown a bright light, but off when pointed in the shadows.
Here is what I tried thus far:
1) Replacing the battery (no effect, and the old battery still zaps my tongue pretty good, so it still seems fine).
2) Twisting the cable in all sorts of manners to make sure there wasn't a short there somewhere
3) I bought a new receiver circuit board which had 2 issues:
A) It was slightly smaller and different looking than the one I had (but not the compact unit, as there was no power source on it)
B) It exhibited the same symptoms
4) I did plug my timer into someone else's receiver briefly, and it did not exhibit the same sensitivity to light, but it was a pretty short test and since the problem is somewhat intermittent, I can't be sure on that one.
Some possibilities:
1) Wrong receiver board
2) Wasn't the receiver board but was a problem on the display unit board
3) Is there supposed to be some sort of red film between the outer bulbous eye and the inside actual receiver? Someone at Laguna yesterday mentioned that at least the older units had a thin strip of red film there. It is possible that in my tinkering for mounting if that does indeed exist, I lost it somewhere, but I'm wondering if the red plastic on the outside of mine was a design revision on that issue, thus negating the need for the little red strip of film.
Net net...I don't want to plunk down $150 -$200 to replace something I used once...thoughts? Anyone? Help?
