Timekeeping / Scoring Device

[McKee]

Just had a good idea I thought i'd share with the community.

Many games involve assigning points for flipping a flag / glowstick at a location, and assigning points for the team which holds that point. The problem with this is it is labor intensive for game control, and it forces you to take "score captures" along a certain time interval.

If you did a score capture every hour, a team can hold it for 59 minutes and lose it in the last minute and they lose all credit for the time they held the point.

My idea involves building a simple score clock that allows you to keep score of team ownership at a location to the nearest second.


How it Works:

Using two cheap analogue alarm clocks, you set each clock to 12:00. Remove the batteries and wrap wire around the positive and negative poles in the battery compartment, then hook both clocks up to a toggle switch and battery.

All of this would be contained within some sort of container (like an ammocan) just to protect the components, with the switch protruding from the container. You could even use something like a locked ammo can to prevent player tampering with the clocks.

This configuration would allow clock 1 to run when the switch is on position 1, and clock 2 to run when the switch is on position 2. Each switch position is for one team or the other. A player would throw the switch to his teams position to capture the control point and begin accumulating time on his team's clock.

Say for instance you ran an 8 hour game. If at the end of the game you see one clock shows 2:00, and the other shows 6:00, you know exactly how long each team held the location and can assign points based on that.

A single pole triple throw switch could also be used with a neutral position to stop both clocks (ie for a flag to be neutral at game start/end).

Parts Required:

2x Cheap Battery Powered Travel Clock (Analogue)
1x Container
1x Battery Holder
Electrical Wire
1x Single Pole Double Throw Toggle Switch (or SPTT)

Total cost < 10$

[L473ncy]

What about when power is lost to the clock? A lot of clocks will reset to 12:00 when repowered on after for example a blackout. Great idea though but it needs a bit more thought.

To build on that idea, you might be able to do something with a 555 timer or an AVR microcontroller for around the same price with the toggle switch switching the different "clocks" (doesn't have to be a clock in the traditional sense, maybe some sort of binary counter) to count up.

Just some quick preliminary thoughts but basically the counter/stopwatch will be set to "hold" the time when the switch is not in position (0) and when the switch is in position (1) it will count up. It should be more or less trivial to make up a Verilog program to describe how it would work.

[Cobrajr122]

Originally Posted by L473ncy

What about when power is lost to the clock? A lot of clocks will reset to 12:00 when repowered on after for example a blackout.

Originally Posted by McKee

2x Cheap Battery Powered Travel Clock (Analogue)

Que?

The whole point of this is to be absolutely shit simple, the instant you involve an IC you loose 90%+ of people because math and more work and parts than attaching a couple wires to a switch and battery.

[Kimbo]

We made microprocessor controlled battlefield objectives that time this way that we've been using for years. They are lighted poles that keep track of how long each team controls the objective. At the end of the game it shows who has controlled it for the longest. Makes for a fun and easy game.

[Jaelommiss]

Why not use chess clocks? Paint the buttons different colours so no one will mix them up, set them to a certain time (say two hours on each clock), place them at capture points. Every hour game control comes by, records how long each team was in control, and resets the clock. As long as nobody forgets to hit the clock then it should be fine.

They might be a tad more expensive (I think $20+), but it does exactly what you want and requires almost no time to set up.

[Zack The Ripper]

Yes to the chess clocks. This is the best method and ultimately is hardest to mess with in regards to one team trying to sabotage another teams time/score

[L473ncy]

Originally Posted by Cobrajr122

The whole point of this is to be absolutely shit simple, the instant you involve an IC you loose 90%+ of people because math and more work and parts than attaching a couple wires to a switch and battery.

Holy shit, I didn't even think of that and also glazed over at the word analogue I just saw clock and thought digital.

I'm used to digital everything (minus my Swatch, because classy) so that's the first thing I thought of when I read that. I'm also the kind of guy who thinks about excessively complicated solutions to problems.

[Cobrajr122]

Originally Posted by L473ncy

I'm also the kind of guy who thinks about excessively complicated solutions to problems.

Oh, you silly engineers, leave it up to the technologists :P

[Gato]

I like this idea, hope to see it used!

[L473ncy]

Originally Posted by Cobrajr122

Oh, you silly engineers, leave it up to the technologists :P

Hey now, at least I have some experience in a machine shop (if very basic) so it's not like I'm going to tell someone to drill a hole on a wheel in thin air, ask them to fillet the fuck out of everything (becuz razcar), or use earthquake tiedowns on ALL THE THINGS! (because fuck are those hard to install when you're retrofitting a house, I had to install 3 whole foundation plate all by myself Q_Q, but seriously those are hard as fuck to install when you have exiting load bearing walls).

[McKee]

Chess clocks / microprocessor controlled units are awesome. Originally a chess clock is what inspired the idea.

That said, I don't even know where you would buy a chess clock, and microprocessor controlled units are more expensive and complicated.

All of these items, save for perhaps an ammocan but tupperware would work, can be acquired at any dollar store.

[helljumper02]

McKee, brilliant idea, gonna rig up a few for out home field ... should make for some fun games
Thanks for the idea - Full credit will go to you (Inspired by McKee sticker on the container lol)