Wanted: PC-based timekeeping software/system

Subject: Wanted: PC-based timekeeping software/system
From: Gary.Speechley@domain.elided
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 94 10:45:53 EST
Hi all,

Our car club has just completed a supersprint track day and we used a C64-based
timing system to keep track of cars as they lapped the circuit. This system used
a method whereby vehicle numbers were entered (through the keyboard) and placed
in an input queue. A timekeeping button was pressed, and the time at which each
press of the button occurred was assigned sequentially to each vehicle. The
computer then determined the elapsed lap time for each vehicle, or started
timing for a new vehicle. The timing for our hillclimb event had to be
performed manually.

(Just a background: our supersprint operates with 5 or 6 vehicles on the track
at a time, each spaced by about 15 seconds or 500 metres. Drivers are competing
against the clock, but they're not racing door handle to door handle. These are
their pride and joy street cars, after all :-)

I thought there might be an IBM pc-based application out there which performs
similar tasks, with me having to build a simple push-button switch assembly
which can be plugged into the game port. Additionally, this push-button
function could be extended to remote devices such as light beam interruption.

Times were recorded on timing sheets (having the added advantages that each
sheet was a backup document and each driver could go home from the event with
a hard-copy of their times - proved useful when wind storms blacked out the
circuit and local towns for most of the day :-(   We then entered the data
into an Excel spreadsheet on a laptop (batteries rule, OK!) computer for
sorting and printing results.

So, any ideas as to what might be available??

Many thanks...Gary


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#include <Std_Caveats.h>

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