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Hooray, msisleman and de04* (Craig and Dean) have fitted their BlinkStops. Craig's worked immediately, but Dean found he had to change his flasher relay from the CBS blue one to the red one (BlinkStop should only add approx 0.1 Ohm, but it seems this tipped him over an edge and stopped the flash working) : Dean has LED indicators all around, so I'm surprised it was OK before, but anyway, the red 30W 'LED' relay (electronic) has solved that problem (strangely the pins are apparently reversed too)... Craig has a voltage backfeed from his Hazard circuit during ignition off (separate Hazard and Flasher relays), but we can fix that one easily enough with the second pole of the hazard switch Road testing starts tomorrow! Meanwhile, the new PCB's have shipped from the factory and I've ordered a huge pile of components on the credit card... I also updated the fitting instructions based on feedback from here and Dean and Craig's experience: http://forum.wscc.co.uk/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=794

They do lots of these 'How Fast' events throughout the year, maybe we should have a Westfield shootout sometime for those not commiting themselves to a whole series. No MSA licence required either.

Well that was interesting. 4 sessions run throughout the day, I booked the first session, had a 15min briefing and then an hours open practice (basically an hour trackday session). Transponders were fitted to our number plates and we were timed throughout, giving us times from the practice session. Then we were called out by order of fastest practice run first, 3 cars at a time released half a lap apart, had one out lap followed by two flying laps, then a cool down lap and back in the pits. All done by 10.30am, about the equivalent or maybe even more track time than a typical sprint event. Transponders returned and away we go. Track was very damp, basically wet, from the start with a huge puddle on the apex of one of the corners. It was very slippy for the whole session although will dry up as the day goes (big thanks to Adam for his car control tuition, it was fully tested today! Had a car behind me come and chat back in the pits saying he saw the full side length of my car at one point - managed to hold onto it though!!). My time was a 1.29.177 (I think, can't remember the hundredths!) quick enough for third in the session and against some very track focused machinery too - several m5's, r26r's, clio's, Porsches, a supercharged lotus too. About 16 cars in total I think. Beaten by the 500bhp Yeti 4x4 that is famous on YouTube and a race specced r26r - but only by .05 of a second! And I know I should have gone quicker. But it's kinda opened my eyes to how outdated the timing and format at sprint events has become - if that much track time is available in 2 hours, why does a sprint event take all day for 4 minutes of racing? Sure the volume of cars was lower, but they will see over 100 cars through the 4 sessions. The transponder timing was ace too - so simple, no struts required and endless splits available with really accurate timing to .000's of a second. That has to be the way forward. Anyway an interesting and fun thing to do on a Saturday morning, home by 12pm and no brownie points lost with the missus. If only there was a series of it with trophies and such!

Worthy of further investigation perhaps

I'll have a kit please Mike.....Blinkstop that is

Anything without the Msa is a way forward

Looking forward to road testing tomorrow. The garage testing so far pleases me very much!

Quite right there, more than 10 corners and I'm lost

I'm in

crumbs, looks like I'm gonna be busy

And finished Here it is: Here's the spec: It can be used with traditional indicator bulbs or LED bulbs, and works alongside the existing flasher relay. It can be used with any ON/OFF/ON switch or can be used with momentary ON push buttons. It can be set for either 12 seconds of flash duration or 18 seconds. Indicator cancelling is disabled while brakes are pressed, and for 6 or 9 seconds afterwards so that the indicators can remain on in traffic or while waiting to turn. With an ON/OFF/ON switch, normal indicator function is returned by first switching to OFF, then to whichever direction is needed. With push buttons, the indicator can be toggled on and off with each push. If changing direction from Right to Left (or vice versa), push the opposite button once and the indicator will cancel and switch to the new required side, with a reset of the cancelling timer.

I don't have any winter upgrades planned, so I turned my attention back to this. I'm making a couple of controllers for some Essex members to test- they'll work with either the traditional Lucas style toggle switch or with momentary push buttons, have a dip switch selectable flash duration and a brake light inhibit so they don't cancel while sat waiting in traffic to turn. I'm hoping to get PCBs made so I could supply either a pre-assembled unit or a kit.