Inventing the wheel There are a variety of devices that can sense light. Low-cost devices include LDRs (Light Dependent Resistor) and Photo Diodes. Of these two, LDRs are in general rather slow in their response (a few milliseconds up to 50 ms), and hence do not seem to be appropriate for a Beam Breaker device… Read More »
In a standard situation, light spreads through the space in a diverging manner: every single part of the beam moves further away from the other parts of the beam. Some light sources (such as lasers) have an (almost) non-diverging light beam by nature: the entire beam has the same width independent of the distance from… Read More »
The main idea of a beam breaker system is that a light source sends electromagnetic energy (photons) to a detector. If something is between source and detector, that something will block the electromagnetic energy. The detector then does not detect the light. A subsequent system then uses the output of the detector ("I see light"… Read More »
Recently I have been asked to develop a timing registration system for the IUF Slalom (a discipline) in the Dutch Unicycling Championships (nkeenwieleren.nl). After searching the internet, the main thing I found is that there is a lack of information about such a system, or even individual components. There are suppliers of complete race timing… Read More »