Most clubs in New Zealand have a set of Farmtek electronic timers in the shed. There are two models commonly used here. The older “wand” style has a small timing wand which is mounted on a separate pole and must be moved up and down to match the height of the jumps. With the newer “curtain” style, the is only one pole which has multiple laser beams at different heights. Curtain timers are much nicer to use because they don’t have to be adjusted every time the jump height changes.
Inserting the Batteries
The timers run on AA batteries, which should be replaced before the start of each show. To access the battery compartment, unscrew the black cap at the bottom of the wand or curtain.
The batteries are held in triangular cartridges which can easily be slid in and out of the timer. Each cartridge has a green dot to indicate how it should be placed. The green dot goes towards the business end of the timer (i.e. away from the screw cap). There are contact points inside the pole, which should match the contact points on the other two corners of the cartridge. Occasionally the green dot will fall off, but you should still be able to see a shiny round patch on one end to guide you.
The on-off switch for the timer is a large black band (see photo below) which is helpfully labelled “on” and “off” at each end. Slide the pointy bit to the “on” position, and you should see a solid red light shining from the LED at the top of the unit.
Attaching the Feet
Each timer has a three-pointed metal base. These have a small screw which is used to hold the pole into the base.
If you are setting up curtain timers, be very gentle with these screws. Overly tightened screws can damage the timers and it is not easy to find an engineer who will fix them! The screw meets the pole at about the same place as the battery plate. If you screw in too hard you can actually bend this, making it hard to get the cartridges in and out, and ultimately causing a power failure.
One of my club’s curtain timers has a nasty habit of absorbing water, which I suspect was also caused by damage to the plastic casing by overly tight screws. We are now very careful with our screws – they need to be just tight enough to stop the pole falling out of the base when you pick it up, but no tighter!
Attaching the Wands
The wands are secured to the poles with a velcro strap. There is a groove on the support pole, which should line up with the middle of the part that the velcro is attached to. If it is aligned properly, it should be possible to slide the wand smoothly up and down the pole, without having to undo the velcro.
Placing the Timers
At the top of each unit there is a coloured cap, which will be either red or black. Each red unit should always be paired with a black unit – you’ll need a red and a black at the start, and a red and a black at the end.
The red units contain sensors, which detect laser beams emitted by the black units. It is possible for a red unit to pick up a beam from the “wrong” black unit, so the red unit should be set up facing towards the edge of the ring, away from the other set of timers.
Place the timers just in front of the first jump, or just after the last jump. Turn them both on, and adjust the alignment as needed until you can see a solid red LED on one timer and a solid green one on the other. The green LED will turn red when you pass your hand through it. A common rookie mistake is trying to check for the green LED while you are standing in the beam – this will trigger it to turn red, so make sure all body parts are out of the way first
Flashing LEDs indicate a power issue, usually because the batteries need to be replaced. This should be dealt with before the class starts.
