I want to buy a lap timing system Trackmate or DirtChamp Design for my outdoor SCT track so my friends and i can do a little racing. Anybody had any first hand experience with either one of these systems?

We've been running the trackmate system for several years now with no issues. I would highly recommend it!

Local Club/Track recently got the TrackMate system and so far its been great. Only issue is that on some RTR bodies it has trouble reading, but lets be honest, who races with a RTR body...

ACtually my son does. He had a B4.1 RTR that has had every single thing replaced, except for the shock towers. Looks like a bit of a sleeper, and you can really only tell if you look closely by the slight gap in the front of the body due to the Worlds +8 chassis. I did pick up a Bulldog body when I got the +8, but we've been dragging our feet painting it. One of these weeks...

To eliminate any problems with the transponders we mount all of our's on the outside of the body instead of on the chassis. Right below the windshield is a great place. We've never had a damaged transponder in several years of racing now. I have 30 loaners for raceday and haven't had any issues.

You put them on the outside, not the inside of the body? No problems with direct sunlight reflecting on the overhead modules mounted on the bridge?

Yep, outside the body. I built my bridge like an upside down U so that the sensors were protected from direct sunlight.

We have no shade at my track so if anyone was going to have issues with sunlight it would be us!

Scroll down the home page for a pic of the track.

www.djorcraceway.webs.com

We've tried a bunch of different ideas for mounting the transponder under the body or on the chassis and nothing worked 100% of the time. Either the hole in the body wasn't big enough, the clear window got dirty, the led on the transponder got covered in dirt/excess wire, or whatever mode of failure you can think of happened....LOL. Now when trucks aren't counting it's either because the transponder was plugged in backwards or was never plugged in at all.

We ran the I-LAP system www.rclapcounter.com for almost 4 years,very similiar to trackmate.We went with the I-LAP over trackmate because at the time trackmate only had a limited amount of numbered transponders.I-Lap was infinite numbers like amb/mylaps pt's.Don't know what track mate does now.
We also found mounting the Pt on the outside of the body was the best way.It would take a lot for it to miss.
We now use a mylaps system ,but i still would recommend the I-LAP system for personal tracks as well as new bigger tracks just starting out.Like i always say no matter what system you have ,all it does is count laps not save the world.We could always go back to hand counting.

sac

We use a trackmate system at our local track and I have always mounted my transponder inside the truck. Only time I have ever had a problem with it not counting was when the transponder was too far foward. Since then I have always mounted it where I can see it when looking straight down at the windshield. Also the track did have some problems after a layout change and there were not enough eyes on the tower to cover the track after a layout change, but one more eye at the end fixed that.

Also does anybody know what all transponders will work with the trackmate system. I would like to get a few used extras.

The only transponder that works with the trackmate system is the trackmate transponder.