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CurlingZone : Powered by vBulletin> <smallfont><b><a href=CurlingZone > Chat Forums > Classifieds > Gear Zone/Classifieds > The Curling Stone Speedtrap

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Topic Review (Newest First)
TomyMMX So I am currently in the process of perfecting the prototype shown in the post above.

The device has three(five if you count the bike reflectors) parts. Set up takes 20 seconds at most and it produces accurate(1/100s) tee(or back) to hog line times.
For now it only shows the currently measured time.
If there would be enough users I also see the option to include bluetooth and develop an mobile app to store an manage training times.

The next step would be to make a small product run. This only makes sense if there is any interest.
Would anyone buy this thing if it costs 250 (likely less) ?

Regards.
TomyMMX Recently I developed an even cheaper system that can be built by anybody who know how to solder.
The arduino source is already opensource and if there is any demand I will try to draw out the circuit designs.

http://tomymmx.tumblr.com/post/8123...laser-stopwatch

Feedback is appreciated.
MCC_PE Yes, I emailed the three addresses listed on that website but the message was bounced back as "recipient rejected." Haven't tried calling since I don't have an international calling plan and would rather not pay Ma Bell $1.19/minute to be told that the number is no longer in service.
Beermaker Have you at least checked their website, or even a phone call at the number listed:

http://thespeedtrap.ca/
MCC_PE Are these units still being sold?
Unregistered Hughie:

How do the boxes send the info to the display box? Is it radio frequencies or infrared and have you had any interference issues?
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by Unregistered
If you want icemaker feed back, can always talk to me at Saville.

Dan


Dan...here's the link to YouTube, again...in case you haven't seen the prototype in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYgMlbmo_78

Also, it looks like I'm coming out to Edmonton to manage the delivery of a bunch of SpeedTraps early during the week of the 10th of Aug.

Rob has been good enough to allow me to use ice at your marvelous shop, The Saville, So I hope you might be available to watch and/or help with our further development of The SpeedTrap while I'm there.

Let me know if you're in...
Unregistered If you want icemaker feed back, can always talk to me at Saville.

Dan
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by Chris Sobkowicz
Yes.....Wendy is the Team Leader for Team Canada. I'm just off to Edmonton this afternoon for a Team Canada High Performance session at the Saville Centre. You can also reach me at csobkowicz@winnipeg.ca

Sounds like you have a real winner. I'd like to test your product. I think it will be perfect for my training needs.


Well...we're delivering a bunch of them to the Saville later this week for your use...so I'll look forward to getting your direct feedback on them.

Actually, it was CCA's Paul Webster that arranged for The SpeedTraps...but I know Wendy from the curling scene in this neighbourhood...and when I spoke with her a couple of weeks ago she indicated that she'd be in Edmonton this coming weekend...specifically to do with her work with your group.

I hope it goes well for you! (And I sure hope The SpeedTrap systems live up to your expectations!)
Chris Sobkowicz Yes.....Wendy is the Team Leader for Team Canada. I'm just off to Edmonton this afternoon for a Team Canada High Performance session at the Saville Centre. You can also reach me at csobkowicz@winnipeg.ca

Sounds like you have a real winner. I'd like to test your product. I think it will be perfect for my training needs.
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by Chris Sobkowicz
I have read all your information regarding the speed trap and would like to order. How do we contact you? This is a wonderful tool for wheelchair curlers.


Are you working with Wendy Morgan?
Wil you be in Edmonton later this week/month?
Chris Sobkowicz I have read all your information regarding the speed trap and would like to order. How do we contact you? This is a wonderful tool for wheelchair curlers.
hughmurf OK. It took me a while...but I have taken the video that we recorded back in March `09 and I've made a YouTube of it.

Please appreciate that what you're looking at in this YouTube is our prototype version 1. The decals are simply taped onto the unit...and they look pretty sad. The units that we've produced look rather better than these. Regardless, the system is wonderfully precise.

Have a look!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYgMlbmo_78

Questions, comments and concerns will be appreciated!
hughmurf If anyone has worked with one of the few other systems that have been designed to do a similar sort of thing to The SpeedTrap, could you explain the callibration isues and/or process that you've experienced?

A few people have asked how hard it is to callibrate The SpeedTrap...because callibrating is apparently a pain in the butt with other systems. I don't properly understand what callibration these systems are forcing people to do. The SpeedTrap doesn`t make users do any callibrating.
hughmurf $250. That's the price.
(I know, I said in an earlier post that the price might be $200...but we just can't do that.)
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by Unregistered
how many and what type of drills do you see this product?


It strikes me that there are a set of very obvious drills that one should work on with this tool. Below is one. I'll offer a few others in subsequent notes. And, if you have ideas...please do offer them.

1. Work on Throwing the Same Speed (This is a natural.)
Use bio-feedback to improve your ability to throw the same speed time after time. Normally you might throw stone after stone and assess the consistency of your weight by seeing how far your stone travels. (A pretty important exercise, well grant you that.)

a. Prepare yourself in the hack to throw a stone as you normally would.

b. Deliver your stone paying particular attention to the feeling of the strength of your drive from the hack.

c. Release the stone -- as you always should -- before the hog-line.

d. Immediately review your stone's speed on the display.

e. Internalize the speed output from the display and associate it with the feeling of the strength of your drive from the hack.

f. Try to duplicate the same speed with subsequent deliveries.

As a part of this exercise (and others)Verbalize to Create a Contract with Yourself
You might find this odd, but verbalizing will almost certainly help you improve. When you are using the SpeedTrap, you should:
1. Always think of the speed that you want to throw
2. Verbalize (yes, aloud) the speed that you want to throw before you deliver
3. Deliver with the intention of sliding at the speed that is your objective... and then, immediately
4. Observe the actual result, i.e., the speed on the display
5. Verbalize (again aloud) the actual speed.
6. Assess the actual relative to the desired.
7. If your actual and desired speeds were:
-- the same (or almost the same), say, good control; a positive affirmation.
-- too slow relative to the desired speed, say, too slow, Ill drive a little harder
-- too fast, say, too fast, Ill drive a little slower.
These short, simple vocal affirmations are the completion of your contract with yourself. They are praise if you were successful and constructive criticism if you were not successful with your last shot. At the completion of this contract, you put it aside and move to the next shotKmuch like you must learn to do during a game.

Note:
Verbalizing/vocalizing both the objectives and the results during the exercise is a very constructive part of the learning process. It will almost certainly improve the results of your training. Training silently -- with your thoughts occurring only in your head -- will generally produce inferior results. Verbalizing does a number of things:

1. It forces you to concentrate more on your task at hand. This, in itself, will improve the quality of your training efforts.

2. It objectifies both your goal and your acceptance of the results. This makes you more accountable for what you intend to do and what you actually do. Essentially, when you state your goal overtly, you create a contract with yourself. Immediately after you throw, you assess the quality of your performance and you admit this assessment overtly. Then you decide what corrective action you will commit to in order to improve.
Unregistered When is the next manufacturing run and what kind of feedback are you getting from the people who bought the first run? (if any since not curling season)

how many and what type of drills do you see this product?
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by hughmurf


Ok... the answer is in. The C cells will allow the system to be left on for about 115 hours. So that's the life after which you'd need to replace the batteries.


Not that it's a big deal, but the prototypes were updated after a ton of testing. As a result, the updated SpeedTrap has a reduced power consumption. The battery life anticipated is thus extended from 115 hrs of continuous use to 153 hrs.

How's that for an Act of Green, George!
hughmurf Brandon...

Thanks for your note about the Accushot. Sounds like you've developed a good tool, too.

As GregW points out, however, the US$730 = CN$860 = more than most curlers will spend. It's a good deal less costly than Mark Brower's $1,800 system that I discussed earlier in this thread...but it's still too expensive for most individuals (or even teams.) At least that's our thinking.

Again, our objective with the SpeedTrap is to make a tool that is accessible and affordable but, above all, very functional. The SpeedTrap isn't about bells and whistles; we've stripped all of those away and we have focused only on two things:

1) Essential instantaneous biofeedback for the athlete

and

2) Precision of speed measurement for the icemaker.

Clubs may find your $860 a reasonable cost, however. Especially if you build software that will help them map the stones and match them.

We've been taking a more simple approach to using the device in stone matching. In matching stones with the SpeedTrap, users will have to set up a series of the SpeedTraps eyes much as JohnMinnaar sugested in the icemakers' thread and log speeds manually. These will then have to be input again manually into a spreadsheet that is designed to make the deceleration calculations for the rock matching process.

The long and short... The SpeedTrap's process is certainly not as elegant as the Accushot's promise of automatic stone matching! So, I suspect you'll still find demand for your more sophisticated product...even at more than three times the price of the SpeedTrap.

Murf.
AccuShot HI everyone,

Check out my post called "Rock Timer." We have developed a product with the capabilities of the speed trap plus a few extra features. Its an alternative option if you want to be able to do more. Let me know what you think!

Brandon Corbett (Inventor of "AccuShot Rock Timer")
hughmurf We're currently producing Curling Stone Speedtraps! (Very exciting for us.) We built them ourselves after receiving feedback from a group of people that tested the version 1 systems pictured above. Building them ourselves, we have found, isn't really cost effective, so we're speaking with some firms that may be able to put larger scale production of these together.

We have completyed a small production run of 50 version 2 systems. Most of the 50 version 2 systems are spoken for...but we're retaining a number of these as trial units.

Let us know if you'd like to trial or order one.

murf.
Unregistered Hey there,

Is there any chance of getting one of these for the $200.00 you spoke of or are you still in the testing phase? I am working with some High Performance athletes and run a bunch of clinics and know that this system would be incredibly helpful with the features you have mentioned.

My e-mail address is kenedmac at shaw.ca if you want to let me know the status of your product.

Thanks

Ken
hughmurf
quote:
Originally posted by DougSuerich
I ran the trig myself, and got the same answer as your brother. So suffice it to say the difference is negligible.


Well...bully for the two of you.
(I'll leave the arithmetic alone from here on.)
I'm pleased to have it double checked and confirmed...in any case...Thx!
DougSuerich
quote:
Originally posted by hughmurf
"Leave the engineering to me, dude. The extra distance the stone has to travel between the two beams is actually 90.65 thousandths of a millimeter (aka 91 micrometers). This amounts to an increase in length of 0.113%."


I ran the trig myself, and got the same answer as your brother. So suffice it to say the difference is negligible.
hughmurf I spoke out of school...

I conferred with my engineer/brother...and he laughed at my use of Pythagorean calculations. He offered a trigonometric estimation instead:

"Leave the engineering to me, dude. The extra distance the stone has to travel between the two beams is actually 90.65 thousandths of a millimeter (aka 91 micrometers). This amounts to an increase in length of 0.113%. Essentially, if the guy's speed reading would have been 1.435 m/s it would have clocked at about 1.434 m/s. Considering we're really only aiming for + or - 0.01 m/s, it doesn't really factor in."

I might pick this back up with him...but for now, I'll leave the arithmetic to him. I'll report back if I can beat him down on this matter.
This thread has more than 25 replies. Click here to review the whole thread.

Curling Scores

M: World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship
Ostersund, SWE
Teams | Scores | Standings | Playoffs
Draw: CF -- Sat, Apr 27 -- 2:00pm CET
Estonia 4  Final
Sweden 8  (8)
Norway 6  Final
Switzerland 5  (8)
M: Mexican Mixed Doubles Championship
Vancouver, CAN
Teams | Scores | Standings | Playoffs
Draw: 6 -- Sun, Apr 28 -- 9:30am PT
Pere/Cohe 2  Final
Quin/Abre 8  (7)
M: USA Curling Under-5 National Championship
Chaska, MN
Teams | Scores | Standings | Playoffs
Draw: CF -- Sun, Apr 28 -- 1:00pm CT
Mellin 11  8th
Meyer 3   Watch Live Curling!
Rose 2  Final
Bliven 8  (6) Watch Live Curling!
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