I was mostly concerned with the radiated noise from the high-tension spark plug wire and the ignition coil, as these aren't usually shielded well on a kart.

!!!!!!!

Hi Howard: The guy who sells the all-in-one system at the moment is located in Germany.
He has his webpage: www.Speed-transponder.de
The systems are manufatured on demand, delivered with a variaty of transponder solutions. Some of them run from a goldcap and can run for several hours after a 5 minute charge. Others have bigger LiPO build in. This video is in german language, hopefully pictures say more than thousand words....

h ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1rIQJ3WF9o

Thanks for the link. Interestingly, I did not find any indication that the system has been tested for emissions.

I would seriously consider having that system shipped from Germany if the price was right, but I can't find any pricing info on his site. Maybe google translate is leaving something out?

I didn't see any pricing either.

The system would require FCC certification to be sold, or sold to someone, in the USA. Other countries have their own regulations, such as CE and VDE. Of course, a few items always manage to "fly under the radar".

Having been peripherally involved with a couple small-scale commercial electronics projects, I know FCC and CE testing is expensive and time consuming. I often wonder how much of the RC stuff that comes out of China REALLY gets certified, and how much just gets a sticker that says it has been. I just don't see how turnigy/hobbyking/orange/etc can afford to go through official testing for all their products with their razor thin margins.

In any case, I'd be willing to take my chances.

I agree, the majority of the China stuff that is not produced for the name brand NA market, probably is just a stamp, and no real approval has been obtained.

Now, food for though.....if a decoder/system was offered for sale in a kit form (unassembled), would the seller require the FCC/CE testing approval to be legally sell the kit? I have no idea, but I'm sure someone has looked into this.

I would think that there would be many clubs willing to assembly a kit, to have a working system for the fraction of the cost of the competition.

Generally, kits are exempt from FCC testing or certification, as long as someone assembles the kit for their own personal use. I believe club use would qualify as personal use.

It's not okay to purchase a kit, assemble it, and then sell it to someone else, or to simply charge for the assembly labor.

I wonder if a "90% kit" could be constructed to skirt the rules. Have most of the components (all of the SMT parts, obviously) pre-soldered and the chips pre-programmed, but leave a couple key through-hole components for the end user to solder to complete the kit. I know this has been done in the past with certain electronics kits of dubious legality. Technically, you're selling something that is totally non-functional. It's up to the end user to turn it into an actual working device - even if it's only by soldering in a resistor or two.

an update for the cano arduino personal decoder.....
it's time to make the PCB !
a picture of the cano shield.....

http://img.imagesia.com/fichiers/cg/...cgfk_large.jpg

Abstract for the personal decoder :
1 arduino leaonardo board
1 ethernet W5100 shield
1 cano decoder shield
1 TP link nano router
1 loop with jack terminal
1 battery (lipo 2S)

the decoder is wifi connected to a smart phone with android....

It looks like you are making excellent progress! Please keep posting updates.

Sweet!!

Hi
I have been looking into the possiblities of making an AMB type of timing system that does not use IR, has powered transponders with a loop in the ground, and allows for at least eight races per race.
The threads on this forum, have some members that have realy been doing great work on building there own type of systems, and I thank them for sharing this info with others.
I know that the systems that have been made work..... but is there one that works similar to an AMB, it transponders do not have to work with am AMB system.
I was really keen on buying a system from Speed Transponder, but this system's software is in German, which would not work for our english speaking club members.
I am therefore looking for info to buy or build a similar system to the Speed Transponder system..... any help would be appreciated.

You are not correct. There is transponders that work with amb. Howard's design with Payalneg firmware.

2 Howard - yes, you was right. Changing amplifier loop was successful. Our guy add some capacitors and switch to change them on fly. Now we able to tune amplifier to loop regardless of its length.
Next week we will have big indoor ivent, so I think we'll have big statistic about work our decoder with short loop and different chips - Howard, amb, may be mrt.