Manual Splitsecond the Slot Track Timer Version 7 11 Jan. 1999 This program is written in Quickbasic 4.5, and is freeware The program uses the following files : Second7.exe : The main executable Second7.Bas : the source code Secmod1.Bas : Source code module Second7.mak : file needed to compile Fast2.txt : 2 Drivers save file,Every Race is recorded in this file and can be listed by using the menu fast3.txt : 3 Drivers save races file fast4.txt : 4 Drivers save races file Fasttest.txt : This file used to record the fastest lap ever for the track. It can be reset via the menu Second.ini : This file records the Race settings name driver 1 (default CAR1) car type driver1 name driver 2 (default CAR2) car type driver 2 amount of laps for the race Second1.ini : Records race setting for 3 drivers Second2.ini : Records race setting for 4 drivers Firstsec.ini : This file keeps the program settings Parallel port address in decimal decimal number when both cars pass over the sensors decimal number when car1 passes over the sensor decimal number when car2 passes over the sensor time fastest possible laptime - 0.3 sec. decimal number for holdoff loop decimal number for loop that waits for start of cars lenght of your track in cm, needed for the speed calc. high.dat : Random Access file that keeps the hall of fame These files are all in the Second7.zip archive. When you start the program it displays the main Setup screen. It asks you if you how many drivers want to race two/three or four drivers. Then it displays the settings from the last race on the screen and asked you if you want to use the previous race settings (these are kept from the last race in the secondX.ini files). If you say yes you will go to the main race screen. If you say "no" it will go on and ask you the driver names car types and amount of laps for each heat. You will notice in the right top off the screen there is a text which says "press F1 for menu" if you press F1 you will go to the main menu screen. When you don't press F1 you can press any key to start the competition. "Press any key to start the race" During the rest of the race you will be able to enter the MENU via the F1 key. If you now press any key the starting lights will display and go off one by one. When the last one goes off the race starts. If you start before the last start light goes off the program will detect a false start and give you a penalty of 1 lap !! The program also detects who is the fastest starter. The times are displayed. The driver with the best start receives 2 points. If you start false your start time will be set to 99.999 ! So you can never get the fastest start time by cheating ! The main race screen then displays the following information : Fastest lap today (will be updated after current race ends) Last lap time, including current lap number Fastest lap time, including which lap it was. The times of the last 9 laps with lap numbers. The speed in Km/H of the last lap. The total race time. This is displayed for both drivers. During the Heats it is possible to press "F10" to pause the race this will display a pause screen, when you press any key the race will resume with a restart of the lap you where in when the race was paused. After the race ends the results screen is displayed. This screen will give you all relevant results for the heat. Average laptime Fasttest laptime number of laps winner with the amount of laps point ranking of the drivers It also saves al the heat information to the save files : fast2.txt for 2 drivers fast3.txt for 3 drivers fast4.txt for 4 drivers and updates the Hall of Fame. You can show the results through the menu or in dos open the files in a text editor. They are in plain ascii format. Pressing any key will start the next heat, except when you are on the last heat then it will ask you if you want to race another competition. answer yes and the preogram will restart, no will get you to DOS. THE MENU : The menu of this program contains of the following : 1. Restart the Program 2. List content of saved Races on screen 3. Exit to DOS 4. Continue the Program 5. Enter the first time init sequence 6. Run program to test Parallel port setting and sensors 7. Practice Session 8. Reset Fastest Ever Laptime/Reset hall of Fame 9. Empty the saved races File/Display hall of fame 10. Delete 1 entry from the hall of fame 1. Restarts the program, begin from scratch 2. Prints the content of the fastx.txt file on the screen you can print this by using the printscreen key. the listing stops by page. 3. Exits the program and returns to DOS 4. Returns to the program where it left when the F1 key was pressed. 5. This is an IMPORTANT one. Not every PC has its parallel ports on these same addresses. the first question that it asks is to give the parallel port addres where the hardware is connected to this is a decimal number.Try to find out what the address of the the parallel port is by usinf for instance the program MSD or any other diagnostic util that displays these settings. You will get the hexadecimal number, calculate the decimal number from that one and ADD 1 to it. the second question is to give the decimal number that the parallel port gives when both sensors are blocked. (use option 6 to test out what that number is. next two question are the decimal number when car1 is over the sensor and the decimal number when car2 is over the sensor. (These number can also be found using option 6 from the menu, offcourse it requires the parallel port addres to be correct.) All these questions have defaults when you not enter anything. Then it asks you to give the fastest lap of your track -0.3 seconds. This is used to filter out any super lap times which are caused by two cars on the same slot are some other error. The lap is counted but the time is not counted as the fastest lap if its faster then this time. There is a variable called holdoff. here you give a number for a loop. During this loop the program will not react to the sensors. Its used after the start to make sure that if you start slow it will not count extra laps by accident. The next variable is the time that the start sequence can max be. You give in a number for a loop, experiment with this, the faster your computer the higher the number. ON a 386DX40 700 should be oke, on a pentium 75, 1100, well just try. Within this time both cars should have passed the start. This info is put in the Firstsec.ini and only has to be put in once. OPTION 6 in the menu. I already mentioned it above. its to test the parallel port setting and the to get the decimal number when sensors are covered by cars. It speaks for itself when you run it. When the decimal number on the screen does no change when you block the sensors you will most probably have the wrong parallel port address or the hardware is not properly working. 7. Practice Session, this displays the same things as the Race screen, but it doesn't have a limit to the amount of laps. There are to keys that you can use during practice F2 that will exit practice and go to the RACE screen, F3 will restart the practice. 8. two choices here : resets the fastest ever time and reset the Hall of fame file high.dat, this will init the hall of fame with default value's. 9. two choices here too : empty's the saved races file (Fastx.txt). ps. it empty's all fastx.txt files !!! and here you can Display the Hall of fame file high.dat, this file is sorted on fastest laptime. This file keeps the following fields : Name lane fasttest lap average lap cartype 10. This option lets you delete 1 entry from the hall of fame Use this when there is a faulty entry in it. ENJOY Alex de Kloet I would also like to thank Rik Wagner, for putting up with me programming and debugging while we should have been racing !! Any Questions mail me Alex.deKloet@GlobalOne.net. This file comes from http://web.inter.nl.net/users/dekloet