Hey everybody,
This isn't completely related to Axtime, but we've been doing a lot of work here to get our autocross trailer upgraded so we don't keep having our Timing Chiefs burn out. Because timing was so difficult before, it would take us over and hour to setup timing in the morning, using two people. And as we tried to add more features, it would get even worse, Live Timing was especially frustrating since our internet would go up and down throughout the day and require the Timing Chief to touch things again. And there were so many points of failure for that, plus the timing system itself would crash. (A timing system that Shall Not Be Named.)
Anyhow, so the Equipment Chief and I decided to make this better. Anyhow, here's what we fixed:
First we installed a battery, so we don't have to setup the generator first thing. The timing trailer has all the networking equipment in it, so it needed to be turned on and running first thing for our Check in table. This also allowed us to run internal lights.
Battery Installation
Now, the battery lets us run nearly everything without the generator, but how to keep it charged? 100W of solar panel should do the trick on most days, but we'll still need the backup generator to keep everything humming.
New 100W Solar Panel
Now that we've got those basics, we installed a few things:
Lights:
Before lights
Lights On
Wifi:
High Range Wifi Antenna
Here's the main switch panel:
Main Solar and Accessory Switch Panel
If I were to do this again, I'd just buy a combination switch and fuse panel. I didn't know they existed when I started this project.
We also have a clever networking closet:
Network Closet On
I've got a whole album over at imgur that I'm keeping updated. I forgot to take a picture of the Inverter! I'll have to do that sometime soon. Here's the album: http://imgur.com/a/rLWQR