RFID race timing solutions

BLE would be a neat way to augment photocell. I guess antenna tech is still a way behind to provide accuracy on it's own. I've not seen the BLE location solution in action yet, but from other AoA based systems (in similar frequency range), they tended to home in on the position, i.e. from the first set of readings, they knew the approximate position, then from the next reading it got a bit more accurate, and eventually it would locate the beacon-type device to within a patch of a couple of feet diameter, which was still really impressive. I guess it was averaging the location from multiple readings, because of the need to get a good result from many of the antennas in the array. BLE may be much better hopefully, since it is a more recent implementation.

Also for such sports type stuff, since the area that the measurement is required in is very defined, that could make it easier, since the array doesn't need to locate over a very large space! The timing resolution that was needed was 1/100th of a sec at a minimum (that was what the existing photocell system supported) and they would have liked to go to 1msec. These short times may be difficult, I don't know how fast the BLE solutions could provide measurements.

A lower cost interim solution might be to consider using a pneumatic 'road tube' type sensors, similar to the type used for counting traffic on highways or for ringing bells on forecourts, coupled with a GPS receiver module.

That would automatically log the times when a bicycle wheel passed over the start and stop lines, helping to automate the process. It would offer quite flexible installation, be quick to set up, be weatherproof and be compact to transport.

Never even crossed my mind even though I have used these in the past. I'll start googling now. I know the traffic counters are expensive, but the maybe smaller solutions. In fact we could even get away with infra red beam at present for what we are doing. Thanks for this.

Perhaps try something like this ?

DIY Traffic Counter - Road Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1HM3IvExJE

Add a GPS module to give you your real time clock reference.

This is a great discussion on RFID race timing solutions! It's exciting to see more attention on DIY and affordable alternatives for race management, especially for small to mid-sized events where commercial systems can be cost-prohibitive.

If you're exploring ways to build or improve your own race timing setup, I highly recommend this guide: DIY Race Timing: Save Money & Manage Results. It walks through the essentials of setting up your own system while keeping costs low and results accurate—perfect for community events, charity runs, and more.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing knowledge and experiences—this kind of open collaboration is what helps innovation thrive!

Link possibly broken?

daveob1 Works here.