Timers
The reference for electronic finish lines: which models work, how detection works, what each state means, and the remote start gate. For the setup walkthrough, see Connecting a Hardware Timer.
Which timers work
| Timer | Found automatically? | How well tested |
|---|---|---|
| Micro Wizard K1 / K2 / K3 (FastTrack) | Yes | Checked against recordings of a real device |
| Derby Timer | Yes | Checked against recordings of a real device |
| PDT | Yes | Checked against recordings of a real device |
| Bert Drake | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| The Judge | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| "The Champ" (SmartLine / BestTrack) | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| "The Champ" (SRM) | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| JIT Racemaster | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| NewBold DT / TURBO / DerbyStick | No — pick it by hand | Protocol documentation only |
| Bill V's Derby Timer | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| Derby Magic (19200 baud) | Yes | Protocol documentation only |
| Derby Magic (9600 baud) | No — pick it by hand | Protocol documentation only |
| FastTrack P-series | No — pick it by hand | Protocol documentation only |
The Micro Wizard is the timer Trusty Track has been built against. Eleven of the rest are adapted from DerbyNet's definitions; Bill V's Derby Timer is its own protocol, transcribed from the manufacturer's own documentation.
None of these has run a real heat on real hardware yet — including the Micro Wizard. Recordings are the stronger evidence, but they are not a live run. Running the two-minute test and sending the report is the most useful contribution a timer owner can make. The timer check page shows each model's own evidence level in a yellow note.
Other models are not supported yet. Adding one is a matter of describing how the timer talks rather than writing code, so an issue naming the model — with its manual, if you have it — genuinely helps.
The four timer types
Chosen per track in Settings → Tracks, on the track's card under The timer:
| Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
| Fake Timer (Manual Control) | No hardware. Trusty Track makes up times. See the Fake Timer guide |
| Plugged into this machine | The timer's USB cable goes into the machine running Trusty Track. Prefer this when you have the choice — nothing depends on which laptop is open |
| Plugged into the laptop running the browser | The timer plugs into the computer you operate from, and the browser passes what it says along. Needs Chrome or Edge |
| No timer — I'll enter results by hand | There is no electronic timer at all. See Race and Track Settings |
How detection works
- With Serial Port left blank, Trusty Track checks each USB socket in turn, asks whatever is plugged in to identify itself, and connects to the one that answers.
- A port entered by hand is used exactly as typed — no searching. Only USB ports are searched automatically, so a timer on a built-in serial port needs its path entered.
- On the browser connection, the browser asks you to pick the port the first time; identification then works the same way. If nothing recognisable answers within about ten seconds, a Micro Wizard is assumed.
The Timer Model picker
Detect automatically works for ten of the thirteen models. Pick one yourself when:
- Yours is the NewBold family. It never announces itself and talks at a different speed from every other supported timer; picking it is what makes the connection use that speed.
- Yours is a Derby Magic set to 9600 baud. Its identification banner is identical to the 19200 baud model's, so nothing can tell the two apart by asking — picking the 9600 one is what tells Trusty Track which speed to use.
- Yours is a FastTrack P-series. It has no identification banner at all, so there is nothing for a search to ask it.
- You would rather it did not ask. Detection sends a short question to everything plugged in. Harmless as far as anyone knows, but picking a model skips the asking.
Picking a model does not say where the timer is plugged in. With the port blank, Trusty Track still searches — for that timer only.
One connection at a time
On the browser connection, whichever tab is connected is the timer. Opening Race Control on a second device, or reloading a tab before its old connection has closed, takes the timer over rather than sharing it: the newer connection wins, and the older one is disconnected with a message saying another connection took over. If a tab unexpectedly shows the timer as disconnected, check whether it is open somewhere else too.
What each state means
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ready | The timer answered and is waiting for a heat. This is what you want. |
| Not connected | Trusty Track cannot see a timer. Check the cable, then search again — or, for a browser-connected timer, press Connect Hardware Timer. |
| Port open, waiting for the timer to answer | Something is plugged in but has not said what it is. Trusty Track keeps asking. If this never clears, whatever is plugged in is probably not the timer. |
| Armed | Lanes are set and the timer is waiting for the start gate. |
| Staged | The start gate is closed with cars behind it. |
| Racing | The gate opened and the timer is counting. |
| Results overdue | The race started but no finish was reported — usually a car that never reached the finish line. Force Results makes the timer report what it has. |
| Fault | The connection failed, or a heat's results could not be saved. The reason is shown on the page. If a heat just finished, its times are still shown — read them off the screen and enter them with Override. |
The serial log
Beneath each timer on the check page, and on the race screen, is the
conversation between Trusty Track and the device. You never need to read it
— it exists so a problem can be sent rather than described. Lines marked
→ are Trusty Track talking; ← is the timer answering. Arrows going out
with nothing coming back means the cable or the port is wrong. Annotated
examples of a healthy conversation are in the
design notes.
Test runs
Start a test run on the timer check page arms every lane with no heat behind it: the same commands as a real heat, and nothing recorded anywhere — no heat, no results, no log entry. It is refused while a real heat is armed, so a bench test cannot disarm race day.
Download the report packages the timer's model, settings, and the full serial conversation into a file. It contains nothing about your pack or your racers, and it is exactly what a fix is built from.
The remote start gate
Some tracks have a solenoid on the start gate, wired to the timer. A Release Start Gate button appears on the race screen when both of these hold:
- The track has the hardware — the setting This track has a remote start gate on the track's card. The timer cannot report whether the release is fitted; on a Micro Wizard it is a separately-sold accessory, and without it the command is accepted and quietly ignored.
- The timer model has a command for it. The Micro Wizard, the PDT and both Derby Magic profiles do; the other nine do not.
The button only appears while a heat is armed. Releasing the gate with no heat armed would send cars down a track nothing is timing, and those runs cannot be recovered.
This has not been tested against hardware. It is the only feature here that moves something physical — try it with an empty track first.
Reverse lane numbering
A finish-line timer is wired to its lanes in whatever order the installer happened to plug it in. If that order runs opposite to the way the track itself is numbered on the wall, every result lands on the wrong car — lane 1's time is reported for the car in lane 4, and so on.
Tick The timer's cable is wired backwards on the track's card, under The timer, instead of rewiring the timer or renumbering the track. It flips every result the timer reports for that track, so lane 1 on the wall matches lane 1 on the results the moment it is turned on — no need to re-run anything already recorded correctly. Off by default; existing tracks are unaffected until you turn it on.
This is Trusty Track's own arithmetic, not something the timer reports, so it applies the same way to every model above.
Other capabilities
Some timer datasheets describe more than a start-and-finish sensor. The timer check page lists what the connected model claims under This model claims, once it has identified itself:
| Model | Indicates timing started | Countdown clock | Photo-finish trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro Wizard K1 / K2 / K3 (FastTrack) | Yes | Yes | No |
| "The Champ" (SmartLine / BestTrack) | No | No | Yes (double-sided units only) |
| Derby Timer, PDT, Bert Drake, The Judge, JIT Racemaster, NewBold, Bill V's Derby Timer, Derby Magic (either baud rate), FastTrack P-series, "The Champ" (SRM) | No | No | No |
Indicates timing started means the timer says, on its own, the instant a run begins — the same signal Trusty Track uses to move a heat from Staged to Racing — rather than that being worked out from a polled gate reading. Countdown clock means the timer drives a countdown display of its own before release; nothing on this page controls it; it is the timer's own hardware doing what it already does. Photo-finish trigger means the timer can fire an external camera at the line — a discrete signal outside the USB/serial cable, not something Trusty Track reads or acts on. There is nothing on the receiving end of that signal yet.
These three are claims about the model, the same caveat as the "how well tested" column above: most have never been checked against a real device. The Micro Wizard's two are documented by the manufacturer for the K2F, K3F, Q1 and Q2 variants specifically — Trusty Track cannot tell those apart from a plain K1/K2/K3 over the wire, so the claim is shown for the whole family.