Digital Race Start Unit THE HUTCHINGS "TRex" VARIANT

Click on headings below for diagrams and picture of TRex (Press BACK after viewing to return to this page) Plunger design Block Diagram Circuits used TRex (picture)

John Hutchings in Canada has refined the original concept by adding a battery saving timer circuit and an easier engineering job of the Push to Start switch using micro-switches. He offers his diagrams and a picture of his TRex (Editors' naming of his unit because with 15 watts he says it certainly sounds like one!) John would most likely respond to queries - email John His unit does away with the auto 60 second sequence Boats to the Water to Countdown, and with the "Pause" function in favour of a timing circuit that disconnects the 15 watt audio amplifier (which draws around 200 MAmps on standby) a few seconds after each countdown. On standby his unit draws only 30 MAmps! - experience has shown that OODs constantly store away the units without switching them off at the end of a day's sailing! His audio amplifier is an unbelievably low-cost (US$10.00) 15 watt bridge circuit kit from "Quality Kits" http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/fk607 and they handle ISD kits as well. With speakers from his local Wall-Mart for US$29.00, John says that at near full volume and with great fidelity, the trees around their sailing waters threaten to come into an early leaf fall! The AMYA countdown sequence is installed but he does have another chip with the CMYC audio - "Go on, I dare you. Use it John!" (STB)