New Loop
 

Hi all

Just a quick update, I managed to get the new loop installed this afternoon: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-w...0922172702.jpg

Hura.....is it still on the corner though?

Looks like it is just before the corner. But this loop does have the much needed new loop box and also a resistor to boost signal in the middle of it.

Should see the end of missed laps hopefully :thumbsup:

Yes, agree Mark it's not in the optimal location necessarily. But it's in the same position as the temporary loop we put in at the regional. And it performed faultless since installation.

Ideally the loop should be just before the down ramp on the pit lane, but that shortens the straight too much and means the last rows of the grid will be on the bank which isn't practical.

It's laid at an angle so the cars pass over it perpendicular as well.

The old loop was further round the corner and had degraded badly hence the miss counts.

Could we just not move the on ramp thingy? :p

Look forward to testing this weather permitting :)

Yes we could but it'll still make the straight to short

Once the last corner/bank is remodelled then I think we can then push the loop back further down the straight. :)

Sound like you are all doing good things and good things planed,i dont see it a problem in qualy the loop being in that place as you are racing your self,but in the finals if 2 cars are fighting close for position,you could have travelled further down the straight but still come 2nd,if its straight across the straight you have alot more track to fight back without both trying to be on the inside to catch the loop,

The chance this will be a problem is slim,but with the luck you chaps have had,probably better to do it once and forget about it,

If it helps the loop at Stotfoldmcc is in the middle of the straight, if you run into problems again.

out of interest how do you lay the grid for finals with the loop in the middle?

They lay the grid in the normal way, with having cars one side of the loop and the other, you will need to speak to swiss on here. he knows the system better than me..

This would also depend on where your transponder is mounted compared to your competitor as well. And also how much a of a signal it is putting out.

The thing with the loop is you probably actually trigger it before you have crossed it. The field it generates is not directly between the two wires, it spreads out. I am not an electrician but I would imagine that field is not consistant along the length of the wire either. At bridgford the loop normally doesn't cross the full width of the straight but it will pick you up anywhere on the width of the straight. and sometimes if we are not careful it can pick up cars that are not on the straight but in the infield of the track.

The way the loop is set up currently it is not 45 degrees diagonally across the track, it's probable less than five degrees. I would say the finishing times it gives will be pretty accurate. Maybe not to the millionth but we only go down to thousands of a second anways. Signal strength was awesome to so I am pretty sure we won't have any missed laps from now on.

With stotfolds loop position I imagine that they will not have the computer setup to ignore the first line pass, instead it uses the minimum lap setup to not put the people who start behind the loop a lap up after the start. I personally think that ignore first line pass contributed to a few people being a lap down if they started on pole at the regional as they were already over the loop at the start of the final. Then when they came around to complete their first lap it ignored there first lap, as it was set up to do, and only started counting them on the second lap. Maybe that is something you can look at Chris?

The computers set to ignore first pass, but it does count the cars as "in" for want of a better phrase. So the cars don't get the first lap until they have gone over the loop twice (If that makes sense!) assuming the loop is in front of the grid.

If the loop is behind the grid then it is set to count first pass.

advice
 

if you put the loop in 2" plastic pvc pipe it will not degrade and refit one in minutes as just pull it thru and do not need to disturb the track surface and will stop wire being destroyed by constant trampling. will not affect operation at all.