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RCHourglass DIY Lap Timing (AKA Cano revised)

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RCHourglass DIY Lap Timing (AKA Cano revised)

Old 05-23-2022, 06:26 AM
  #826  
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Originally Posted by mv4wd
Blue led without transponders means a lot of noise coming in the system falsely detected as transponder waveform. Maybe the MLA has too much gain, and it's overloading the input? can you check the signals with a scope?
No, unfortunately I don't own a scope :\

Tried the original RCHourglass amp and the PSOC behaves the same.

Shortening the loop to 3 x 0,4m, things do get a tiny bit better.
Noticed a "funny" thing. If I poke the transponder with the loop wire to get a good detection, around 90 hits. I can then drive the car over the loop and get 1-2 hits about 8 out of 10 times.

I keep getting this strange feeling that I've missed something obvious... again
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Old 05-23-2022, 07:40 AM
  #827  
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Hi,
there' should be a potentiometer where you can adjust gain for the MLA30, but you will have to open the housing. Marco is right, if the blue led is flickering even without a transponder nearby, it is picking up all kinds of noises -> gain is set too high.
It's also hard to tell if the transponder puts out a proper signal, if you don't have a scope. Do you have an original Mylaps transponder, an old RC3 transponder would be perfect, because the decoder can read it right away.

Andi
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Old 05-23-2022, 11:46 AM
  #828  
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Originally Posted by andreas78
Hi,
there' should be a potentiometer where you can adjust gain for the MLA30, but you will have to open the housing. Marco is right, if the blue led is flickering even without a transponder nearby, it is picking up all kinds of noises -> gain is set too high.
It's also hard to tell if the transponder puts out a proper signal, if you don't have a scope. Do you have an original Mylaps transponder, an old RC3 transponder would be perfect, because the decoder can read it right away.

Andi
No, don't own one of those. Might be able to borrow one though.
Will give the potentiometer some adjustment to see if things get better.

Moved the transponder around on the chassis, and when I got further away from the ESC (Hobbywing brushless) I got better detection. Went from 0-2 to 5-9 hits.

Thanks all for the tips, will investigate further.

Would one of those USB oscilloscopes around $50 suffice?

Also andreas78 mentioned to me that not all 5Mhz crystals are created equal, they require different capacitor values. I did not know about this, and it turns out that the ones I ordered states 18uF, not the 20uF (using andreas78's PCB) I was using.

Last edited by Styxxx; 05-23-2022 at 12:59 PM. Reason: More clues
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Old 05-24-2022, 03:49 AM
  #829  
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Would something like this do?


https://www.amazon.com/Hantek-Digital-Oszilloskop-Storage-Oscilloscope/dp/B0728HBNDV/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=pc+oscilloscope&qid=1653389021&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.com/Hantek-Digital-Oszilloskop-Storage-Oscilloscope/dp/B0728HBNDV/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?keywords=pc+oscilloscope&qid=1653389021&sr=8-5
[/ame]
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Old 05-24-2022, 11:27 AM
  #830  
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For people using the MLA30, do you use the long black cable that it came with to connect it to the decoder?

Sorry for "spamming".

Last edited by Styxxx; 05-24-2022 at 11:37 AM.
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Old 05-24-2022, 12:42 PM
  #831  
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One of the most popular scopes is the Rigol 1054Z. It is a good scope but the main reason being popular is that you can get a firmware to raise the specs
https://www.instructables.com/How-to...igital-Oscill/
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Old 05-24-2022, 01:31 PM
  #832  
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Originally Posted by Styxxx
For people using the MLA30, do you use the long black cable that it came with to connect it to the decoder?

Sorry for "spamming".
Yes, although our radio colleagues think, it's not the best cable.
Andreas
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Old 05-31-2022, 09:17 AM
  #833  
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Coaxial cable quality from Balun to Decoder is very important. I always recommend only high quality pure copper coaxial cables from known suppliers (Belden, Tasker).



P.S. Sorry for my English.
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Old 06-02-2022, 03:17 AM
  #834  
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Nevermind, found what I was looking for.

Last edited by Styxxx; 06-02-2022 at 09:35 AM.
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Old 08-26-2022, 03:20 PM
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Originally Posted by mv4wd
Seems like PSOC5 is a victim of global chip shortage. I have a couple of kits at home that I deveop with VERY carefully... maybe it has something to do with Cypress becoming part on Infineon. Anyway better ask on their forums. Porting to another platform is almost impossible without redesign
Hi, the PSOC5 is now dated to 2023 @mouser.de. It's terrible :-D.
I'm a Dev and would like to port to another "board", it's not easy but possible :-D.
I've not found the Sources for Decoder, is this not uploaded to GitHub?

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Old 08-29-2022, 04:11 AM
  #836  
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Default Porting to another platform

As previously mentioned in the thread, the decoder firmware is not open source. Still the term 'firmware' is misleading since part of the PSOC architecture strength is being able to render circuits like a FPGA. The basic circuit I've rendered is the original Cano Decoder circuit, optimized and tweaked to the PSOC structure. There's no single line of 'code' that does the signal decoding that can be 'ported' to another platform. The only C code is for basic task like reading and writing commands to the serial port. So porting to another platform is easier starting from the original circuit. Doing it 'in software' might be done but requires a tight timed processing of the input signal that I think might not be so easy to do.
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Old 10-12-2022, 03:13 AM
  #837  
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is there a component list available anywhere or does the cocaine have to be dug separately from the schematic
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Old 10-27-2022, 02:58 AM
  #838  
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Originally Posted by mroc
First version of the MX Transponder:


Hope it will be Ok
What is the difference for the MX Transponder?

Simon
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Old 10-27-2022, 05:49 AM
  #839  
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As far as I know commercial MX transpoders use a different frequency and encoding, so RCHourglass decoder does not detect them. I think the one you've quoted is a rugged version of the RCHourglass transponder
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Old 10-27-2022, 06:23 AM
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Hello!
Can you share the PCB designs so we can replicate your system?

Regards
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