Hello PCLC/Arduino community
I've spend a couple of days to develop an Arduino HW interface for PCLC - the main driver was SRC Fastlane's (Everdingen, The Netherlands) new wooden 6 laner track and their familiarity with PCLC.
The Arduino MEGA2560 conveniently offers six external interrupts which can be wired to the start/finish sensors.
See the code and the breadboard schema on GitHub https://github.com/gabe2001/PCLapCounterWithArduino/
You're free to use it and I welcome any suggestions/comments/ideas.
On my list already:
use Serial2 and Serial3 (cannot use Serial1 as these pins are used for the external interrupts) to interface extra modules to drive stand-alone displays like the towers we can see at NASCAR races for example, etc.
Or hookup a bluetooth module and allow allow racers to subscribe to messages and display them on their smartphones, etc.