Re: Digital Lap Counter

[Admin]

Don’t get me wrong, the idea of using those RF tags is great, the cost and time for the R&D is something I don’t want to think about particularly.

The technology to scan several different tags at once does exist, when I was searching earlier I stumbled across a south African site devoted to transponders, there’s a section on there about using custom, cheap transponders on supermarket items so that way you’d only have to ‘drive’ your trolley through a sensing area and it would automatically scan all the items in your basket and bring up a total in a couple of seconds, and it’s something they have achieved some years ago it seems. The site is http://rapidttp.com/transponder/

Also I did some searches on http://groups.google.com to see about cheap lap counting devices for radio controlled cars and a few years ago someone has tried infra-red and magnetic devices, but came to the conclusion that radio transponders are still the best solution. The thread is a very interesting read, see http://tinyurl.com/80l(tinyurl.com is a great redirection site to shorten long urls).

If someone were to go ahead and create RF tags for use with Bit Char-G’s, the biggest hurdle after actually making the system would be the licensing because each country has different licences to do with radio frequencies, you wouldn’t want a government department breathing down your neck, which is why infra-red could be a viable option, cheap and no worries about licensing (which is why the Digi Q can besold round the world whilst the Bit Char-Gis legally limited to two frequencies in the US and UK).