Basic Instructions

1.  Turn on the Backline Unit.  

There is a short welcome screen that displays the MAC Address of the unit.

2. Test IR Sensor.

 On the back side of the backline unit is an Infrared Sender/Receiver pair.  This is used to arm the timer in preparation for a measurement.  Following the welcome message is a five second period for testing this IR sensor.  A “1” is displayed until your hand is near the sensor, then it changes to a “0.”  

3. Set the Number of Hogline Sensors (1 or 2).

At the end of the 5 second test period, remove your hand for 1 sensor.  Keep your hand behind the sensor showing a “0” if you want 2 hogline sensors.  A message will tell you what is set.

4. Set up Laser Beams and Hogline sensors

Be sure the second green LED correctly indicates a laser beam make and break into the light sensor.

5. Arm the system and throw.  

Repeat for each throw

Detailed Instructions

Set up the HogLine Sensors...

When plugged  in or turned on, one light on the laser phototransistor sensor will illuminate on top of the hog line assembly.  Line up the laser beam to hit the sensor.  It doesn't have to be perfect, because light goes through the plastic case into the sensor.  When the laser hits the light sensor on the front of the unit, the second led light will turn on.  Check to make sure that breaking the laser beam turns off this second led.  Bright lighting in the rink can cause this to turn on/off from just ambient lighting.  If this happens, adjust the sensitivity of the sensor with the small potentiometer (that little blue thing with a screw head) on the top of the sensor so it is on with the laser light, off when the laser beam is broke.

Arming the Timer:  When ready to use the timer, it must first be "armed" by passing something close in front of the IR sensor on the back of the device before each throw.   Light from the IR Led reflects into the IR phototransistor to prepare the timer for the next throw.

 This can be your hand, shoe, broom head, etc.  Note that a black leather glove with absorb the IR light and not reflect it.  Your bare hand, on the other hand :-) works great.  While the device is waiting to be armed, the previous timing readings will be displayed (obviously, the initial setup with have a meaningless reading).  After the system is armed, it waits for the back line beam to be broken,

When the back line beam is broken, the led turns off and "TIMING" is displayed.  The clock is running and waiting for the message from the Hog line to stop the timing.

When the hog line beam is broken and then remade as the stone passes through the sensor, a ESP Now message is sent to the back line "receiver" to stop the timing.  The message includes the make and break time at the hog line.  So the interval time from beam to beam is displayed, as well as the time (speed) though the hog line beam.   This speed assumes a 11 inch rock and is in ft per sec. The precision of the speed is about +/- 1 inch per second because the timer only has millisecond precision.  Note that if your brush or other object delays the "make after break" as you slide through the hog line, the speed will not be correct; although the interval time will still be accurate.

Instructions for using with a phone or tablet

A ONE PAGE Instruction Sheet might be all you need.

Turn on the Backline and Hogline units.  Align the lasers onto the photodiodes.  LarryRockTimer2.0 works by sending the data via a wired serial connection to a second ESP32DevKit1 30 pin microcontroller.  These controllers are very robust at serving up a webpage which is used to control the system and display the data.  The backline unit creates an access point.   Go to your device's wifi settings and connect to the LarryRockTimer network using the password:  12345678 

After connecting to the LarryRockTimer network, open a blank webpage and go to IP Address 192.168.4.1

This will display the welcome screen for LarryRockTimer.  You can use this to choose the number of hog line sensors that are being used.  This can still be set up with the IR sensor during the startup routine of the backline unit like in the original version

After choosing the sensor setup.  Arm the system with the green button.  The system can also be armed with the IR sensor just like in LarryRockTimer1.0.   After the system is armed, throw the stone.

After the stone has been thrown, the results are displayed on the wireless device.  Results are also displayed on the OLED screen on the backline unit.   A two hogline system will display both results on the same page as shown in the second image.

Continue arming and throwing stones.  Use either the built in IR sensor or the green button on mobile devices for arming.  When done with your practice session you can create a new practice session--perhaps you want to change the number of hog line beams--with the bottom grey button "New Practice Session"

If you want a CSV file that has saved your time and speed data, the red "End Session & Export Data" will do just that.  

Open this .csv file with your favorite spreadsheet program to review and analyze your session results.

SetUp and adjustments Video

A FEW BUGS THAT MIGHT SHOW UP

If you are using the two beam system, sometimes the second beam break does not get registered.  I think the system is good now with the Xiao ESP32-C3 chips with the external antenna.  But sometimes a laser gets misaligned or the second signal mysteriously disappears into the ether.   If the second signal is not received, simply break the beam on the near hog line system a second time.  Of course, only the first interval time will be relavent in that case.

Sometimes the Speed is displayed as "inf" and even I can't throw a stone that hard.  I think it has something to do with the ice rink lighting and the sensitivity of the light sensor on the HogLine units.  Adjust the little blue potentiometer to reduce the light sensitivity and the correct speed should be displayed.  This is still a slight mystery.

Another issue that sometimes happens is the hog line units do not send the data to the back line unit.  If the correct MAC Address is in the hogline controller, this is resolved by power cycling the hogline sensors.  Have the backline unit on, turn the hogline units on/off.  When people have contacted me about this problem, the power cyling has always fixed it.  :-)