# VIASUE RC vrs TRACKMATE



## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

Hi yall we wanted to post to a different thread about this topic but the thread had moved...??

Sooo we started a new thread and hope it clarifies some differences between Trackmate and Viasue..

First things First...actually the title should be viasue and race coordinator vrs trackmate.....RC and VIASUE have teamed up to provide THE ONLY 100% Plug and Play lap counter / timer system...for the slot car racing communities. For us P&P goes way beyond trackmates "Turn Key" offering and means the VIASUE / RC system works right out of the box, no MANUAL / No DIY tools needed, no MANUAL configurations/ no DIY software configuration , no MANUAL or DIY Windows driver or device manager settings....

VIASUE/RC's goal and achievement IS a TRUE 100% plug and play experience for all track owners....

Even our KITS are Plug and Play (what we call "P&P-Hybrid" because its P&P&DIY) Except for the fact the track owner needs to install the sensors into his or her own track type, plastic, routed, molded ....but thats the extent of the track owners DIY effort and ALL Track Types can use the VIASUE/RC system....TM and other oem software work with our old school Pport systems ...heck lots of folks use other peoples software on our hardware even Trackmate software...HOWEVER only VIASUE offers our %100P&P services....Ill even venture RC software is used on lots and lots of TM hardware....Hmmmmm...what does that tell ya about RC software !!

It is true RC OFFERS A FREE RMS and you can download it from many reliable sites :wink2:

HOWEVER the RC freeware software, that can be downloaded for free, Does Not Auto Set Up all that is needed or involved, leaving aspects of what can be a very difficult and otherwise complicated process from conception, construction including hardware and software applications....

The Plug and Play version of RC found only on The VIASUE / RC auto setup CD which Auto Configures for the kind of interface being connected to the PC. The free RMS installs the RC software BUT does not auto configure for any of the rich hardware options that RC and VIASUE systems offer.

Plug and Play means each RC Auto Set Up CD is pre programed for the purchase you make for the Viasue base or basic hardware it aslo auto configures for Viasue Add-On Features. The RC Auto Set Up / P&P CD will auto configure the race software and not just the race software but also configures the race software too the race hardware but also configures the race PC...AND Windows from XPsp3 upto Win10

The P&P version of RC auto configures Windows device manager settings, which can be very tricky DIY work and the Auto Set Up CD also installs the proper drivers needed for both the race hardware and race software, no driver downloads ! ....ALL done in a 100% plug and play fashion right out of the box.

In fact VIASUE sees the term that TrackMate uses "Turn Key" as a real estate term meaning all the house owner needs to do is "turn the key" to their new house and all else is ready to use ...While the true aspects of TrackMate is just about 100% DIY ...Sure the parts have been gathered for you, there are FAQ pages to support your DIY installation efforts, there are schematics for you to interpret correctly and implement without error....raw data and electrical wires to connect, power and or hand tools required...then hope that all your "Turn Key Efforts" have been 100% accurate and provide reliable results you can bank on....IF and only IF you turned the Key correctly.....Not with the Viasue/RC system ...you just plug the hardware upto the PC, run the Auto Configuration CD and Race Right Out Of The Box....

Did we mention unlike TM, our Zero Foot print Light Bridge requires no screws or tools to secure it...thats true ....all you do is place the light bridge tabs that face inwards , , Under your track....your track holds the tabs securely in place from twisting or moving and or holds in place without screws or tools...TOOLS are a bad word to Viasue & RC 

VIASUE uses only the best solid state hardware, our very special, very robust, very sensitive, very unique flat top sensors fill the sensor hole 100%.......they live just below flush to the track surface. All Other O.E.M. sensors live under the track directly below a hole that the Trackmate system owner drills into his own track...The track owner then has to keep those holes free and clear of signal blocking dust and signal interfering dust bunnies...this does not help and contributes to what can be hair pulling trouble shooting, trying to figure out why your results are questionable ...just because you dont constantly keep those sensor holes free of dust and crumbs etc etc as well cans of air are costly ...and or drag out your vacuum cleaner before every race...aaaarge.

Systems that work like the VIASUE/RC system works ...work with every kind of car every time!

To the best of our knowledge only Viasue offers, by default, protection against sparking, static noise and electromagnetic electronic noise , which some call e.m.p.s VIA shielded cables, shielded couplers, and our exclusive, shielded usb prosessor box , which TM does not even provide for their usb processor board...it and their cables and connections are fully vulnerable and exposed...as well just handling a processor board incorrectly can and will damage it..do not touch the underside of their board you can short the board and kill it...handle it only by the edges !!

Those systems and at times those older cars are no longer being used in most cases because there are no more PC's being built with pre installed 15 pin game ports, nor 25 pin printer ports...and the older cars are so sparky they contribute to electromagnetic noise emp's ...nor do you find very often ,,PC that include 9 pin com ports BUT as I type they are being fazed out....leaving USB as the kingpin for future PC's and pc software interfaces....heck as is RC offers RC-Air = networked wifi functionality ....with more types of wifi and improved wifi features to come...the future looks good :>)...IF you are old school and nothing else will do....save those old pport boxes they will be impossible to find one day soon...and forgetabout PC with 15 pin game ports!...Thank USB technology for that as well !!

Dead Strips are again just like mentioned above out dated antiquated method, hard to set up, difficult to maintain, difficult to maintain the sensitivity and or difficult to correctly dial in and do not work on all car types...IF not dialed in properly your race results will be wide ranging as well and not what VIASUE considers Bankable Race Results...its true people do bet on race results and fastest times...Sad to say...Old and reliable,, just ends up old and outdated one day :>(

Trust VIASUE and RC we feel 100% sure our offerings, as presented here or elsewhere are not only current and solid state and last thousands of hours in bench testing we promise in the future we will always be truly "100% Plug & Play" " 100% Bankable " & 100%THE BEST investment you can make in a great hobby, that we at VIASUE&RC, want you to enjoy 100%,100% of the time, 100% Plug and Play = Compatible, Competitive, Robust, & Reliable racing results that you can Bank On!!

PLEASE contribute , PLEASE ask Questions ...we will be happy to follow this thread and reply directly or via messaging or via our domains::
VIASUE HOME
www viasue com
or
RC HOME
www racecoordinator net
or
NEW Customer Show Case
www viasue com/customer-show-case-2
or
*[PLEASE VISIT & COMPARE APP & HARDWARE FEATURES HEAD TO HEAD[/U]*
www viasue com/rc-viasue-app-features!

Paul and Sue of VIASUE
&
Dave of RC ( in abstentia )

THE FINAL SAY IS YOUR:: PLEASE VISIT VIASUEs DOMAIN AND VIEW OUR APP & HARDWARE LIST THAT BREAKS DOWN EVERY VIASUE AND RC FEATURE WHICH YOU CAN THEN EASILY COMPARE TRACKMATE VRS VIASUE/RC
:wink2:


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## Dushkwoneshe (Apr 27, 2012)

.
I'm not familiar with either the TrackMate or RaceCoordinator timing systems... Haven't used
either one...

But, I can say this:

I bought a timing system (LT2K) from Paul in 2011, to be used in my public Christmas slot display...

It was definitely *Plug'n'Play*... Only had one glitch and that wound up being a bad connection
on my computer...

Paul was more than helpful with the set-up and responded to emails very quickly...

The system ran 10*+* hours*/*day; 6 days*/*week from November 28th to
December 31st, without the slightest problem...

Paul's workmanship is top-notch... He'll *be there* to help with installation and if you ever
have a problem (which I truly doubt)...

*Vive la VIASUE !...
*
John

.


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

Thanks John for your reply and kind words....we still have your layout posted at our Customer Show Case Pages at our viasue com domain and our freewebs com/viasue website.....hope you and yours are well...!!

Paul & Sue of VIASUE


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

> Dead Strips are again just like mentioned above out dated antiquated method, hard to set up, difficult to maintain, difficult to maintain the sensitivity and or difficult to correctly dial in and do not work on all car types


Most of what you said sound good, but you hit my button with the above. I have used light bridges, dead sections. I will take a dead section any time vs a light bridge. They were easier to setup vs light systems, no worries abot a light getting whacked or a car flipping under a bridge triggering other lanes.

Once setup they are maintenance free an the sensitivity does not change.

if i was you, i would look at adding a dead section option so those that like them will buy you product.
Over the years, I have seen to many light system malfunctions

Note: I ran stock t-jets up to 6 mag unlimited cars with any issues.


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## SpeedyNH (Sep 13, 2014)

dead strips may still be polarity-sensitive so if you want to run the other way you have to flip those too.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

SpeedyNH said:


> dead strips may still be polarity-sensitive so if you want to run the other way you have to flip those too.


They should be isolated from the track so it should not matter if done right via computer system.
The pc should only detect a closed circuit.(I think??)

The only issue to this is trackmate that I know of, this may be due to his board???

I know I read about 1/32ns scale groups dong it


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

The direction that the cars will be going through dead strips is a real issue. When a car goes through the dead strip it is not just making a connection like you would have if you only jumped them with a piece of wire. The car's motor would be in the circuit and that is a problem. See this article for more details: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzLR42NthGeCaDZPSGJkSTVEMkE


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

thanks rich

just to note: in the past I have posts where some guys did use usb to parallel adapters for the lap counting.

I had a light system at 1 time, by itself it seem to work fine, but I also had a dead section next to it. So I ran both systems at the same time, and found that the light system would randomly miss 1 lap. I think that was based on the car body (lexan) it seemed


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

If you have links to posts where people have gotten printer to USB adapters to work please pass them along. Specific information on the make of the adapter would be helpful. One hitch with either type of adapter is that you need to install a software driver, which may not work with every computer. Some USB devices include a hardwired driver, that will automatically install the first time that you plug in the device. Thumb drives and cameras work that way.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

It has been a very long while on that subject.

Even the serial converters had issue back then. I used them to access various network equipment, and not all of them worked.

Even with physical parallel ports, not all of the worked. I went through 3 brands on my PC back in the day to find one that worked with my lap counting.


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

One of the guys in my club uses the serial to USB adapter that Radio Shack sells. I use the one that Trackmate sells. I do have Race Coordinator on my track computer and that works OK.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

RC is nice,
The key to RC and SlotMaster is a relay for each lane
It will help to max the features they offer.

When I ran SlotMaster, a friend made me a 4 relay board. 
So if I wanted to run crash & burn or fuel management, I could.

RC is a great deal for a pay for system, let alone free.


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

*Pport to USB Adapters*

VIASUE builds pport to usb adapters...they work great with RC !!...via pport to viasue's usb processor box...all we need to know is the wiring standard used...EX:: track mate pport uses pin 10 for lane one , pin 11=L2, pin 12 = L3, pin 13 = lane 4....grounded to pin 25, 24, 23, 22 etc etc there are other standards used which we can match & remap to the USB standard....viasue pport uses the track mate configuration so our pport system can be used with track mate software or any software that allows manual configuration as to pins used...

HOWEVER OUR PRINTER PORT TO USB ADAPTER CAN ONLY BE USED WITH RACE COORDINATOR RMS ....ITS POSSIBLE OTHER SOFTWARE LIKE TM WORKS WITH OUR ADAPTER, WHICH IS QUITE POSSIBLE, BUT NOT SUPPORTED NOR SOLD TO DO SO....WE ONLY SUPPORT USE WITH RC ONLY.....WHICH WORKS GREAT !!

So feel free to buy one and update your pport to usb for under 100$ / 75$ for a past VIASUE pport owner....this includes pport systems with call and master relay.

VIASUE
Please visit www viasue com


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

*Pport to USB Adapters*



Rich Dumas said:


> If you have links to posts where people have gotten printer to USB adapters to work please pass them along. Specific information on the make of the adapter would be helpful. One hitch with either type of adapter is that you need to install a software driver, which may not work with every computer. Some USB devices include a hardwired driver, that will automatically install the first time that you plug in the device. Thumb drives and cameras work that way.


VIASUE builds pport to usb adapters...they work great with RC !!...via pport to viasue's usb processor box...all we need to know is the wiring standard used...EX:: track mate pport uses pin 10 for lane one , pin 11=L2, pin 12 = L3, pin 13 = lane 4....grounded to pin 25, 24, 23, 22 etc etc there are other standards used which we can match & remap to the USB standard....viasue pport uses the track mate configuration so our pport system can be used with track mate software or any software that allows manual configuration as to pins used...

HOWEVER OUR PRINTER PORT TO USB ADAPTER CAN ONLY BE USED WITH RACE COORDINATOR RMS ....ITS POSSIBLE OTHER SOFTWARE LIKE TM WORKS WITH OUR ADAPTER, WHICH IS QUITE POSSIBLE, BUT NOT SUPPORTED NOR SOLD TO DO SO....WE ONLY SUPPORT USE WITH RC ONLY.....WHICH WORKS GREAT !!

So feel free to buy one and update your pport to usb for under 100$ / 75$ for a past VIASUE pport owner....this includes pport systems with call and master relay.

VIASUE
Please visit www viasue com


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

Viasue - RC is now offering a 100% safe version of Dead Strip lap counting timer reliably accurate to 1000th of a second. Here are the high points.

Our DS system has "Auto Polarity" - direction of car travel does not adversely effect the Dead Strip and there are NO manual efforts to trip per lane polarity switches Like With other DS Systems. ("TM" etc)

Our DS offers 100% protection of your PC Port and PC Motherboard - upto 30vdc @ upto 30amps is reduced to a low DC voltage UNLIKE OTHER Dead Strips ("TM" etc) IF OUR CIRCUIT FAILS (which is very unlikely) any and all voltage is isolated Optically (>) | (<) leaving ZERO CHANCE and NO DIRECT CONNECTION for power of any level or kind to reach your port or PC Motherboard ! Track power levels can not cross an optical gap.

As mentioned in previous post there is no light bridge with a dead-strip system BUT you can combine both systems into a track.

However the previous post was not accurate about the VIASUE photo sensor system concerning false laps due to the wrong car crossing or crashing across another lanes sensors....

RC has a setting where you can tell it to ignore any trigger that is within the setting you can set.
EX fastest lap ever for your track has been 2.5 seconds the setting can be set to the level you set 1.5 or 2 or 2.25 seconds this way any trigger that is that fast or faster is ignored....WITHOUT loosing track of the true lap time when crossed at 2.5 or higher..... RC is Awesome !!

The same is true IF a car deslots into your Dead Strip lane and crosses your Dead Strip section RC will ignore premature crossings based on the related setting within RC... RC IS AWESOME !!

No System is 100% infallible but ours are as close to infallible as technically possible!!
http://www.viasue.com



Over 60 yrs ago a very wise man said "For every grain of sand on every beach, world wide,there is a Star and Planet for each grain" ...in comparison our problems seem quite small,, so lets solve them together? http://www.viasue.com


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

www.viasue.com sells USB adapters for printer port 25 pin connectors. However standard store bought printer port to usb adapters do not work because they are wired for printers and not for lap timer systems...Our adapter works with Our pport systems and TM pport systems....

Then you can add on any or all of our USB SYSTEM add on devices that cant work with pports!

From the www.viasue.com pit crew


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

WWW.VIASUE.COM has always supported upto 8 per lane call buttons and 8 per lane relays used for crash and burn... crash and learn racing !! In fact with Viasue/RC can even support 16 lanes of crash and burn configuration.

This is true for our USB platform and our Dead Strip platform!!


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

Contact www.viasue.com for the proper adapter from pport to usb !!


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## VIASUE (Oct 20, 2016)

*printer port to usb adapter*



rich dumas said:


> if you have links to posts where people have gotten printer to usb adapters to work please pass them along. Specific information on the make of the adapter would be helpful. One hitch with either type of adapter is that you need to install a software driver, which may not work with every computer. Some usb devices include a hardwired driver, that will automatically install the first time that you plug in the device. Thumb drives and cameras work that way.


here is your link www.viasue.com !!


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## Rich Dumas (Sep 3, 2008)

Thank you, I have made a note of that link and I will pass the information along if the issue comes up again.


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