I am working on a sailboat race timer. This device blows a car horn at set intervals to warn a sailboat fleet of an impending start. My primary use is for solo practice on vacation. The unit runs from an MSP430 processor and a small motorcycle battery. Currently I am hung up on a problem where the processor reboots each time the horn blows. It must be a ground bounce/current spike problem, but I have not been able to track it down. I even separated the power systems via an optocoupler and it still reboots.
Swapped the MSP430 for a PIC and things seem to be working much better. Now I can run the whole thing off the same 12V motorcycle battery without needing a separate power source for the electronics.
Next step is to start board layout.
- Design: %90
- Construction: %60
- Test: %20
Great to read that you have almost done with sailboat race timer work. Keep going…
I was able to finish the project this year. It came out very nice. The only issue was that the RF remote control stops working when the car horn goes of. This is due to the large amount of EMI generated by the horn. This makes some remote operations difficult at best.
Great work on your project sailboat race timer. Keep up the good work.