Agee Race Timing, LLC

DIY RFID chip timing system for road and cross country races.
www.AgeeRaceTiming.com
This is the first video I made after getting the system up and running. It has become very popular over the last couple of years, so check out the newest videos to see how the system has evolved.

[@benbarker2569]

Is there ever an issue with the width of detection for side mount antennae? Most seem to have an advertised beam angle of ~65 degrees, which makes it sound like it could detect runners some way before they actually cross the line...?

[@AgeeRaceTiming]

Correct, the read zone of the antenna is 'cone' shaped, so the further away from the antenna you get the more likely the tag will get picked up early. The higher the "dBi" (aka Gain) the narrower the cone, but for the first few years I used a fairly low gain (fat read zone) and didn't have any problems. The only time this is an issue is when people walk very slowly up to the finish (and those individuals typically are not worried about their time being 1 second faster than it really was). In fact, UHF RFID is not designed to provide laser precision, so it should not be used (for example) in short sprinting events. It works great for long distance events where times within 1/4 or 1/2 second accuracy is expected. UHF RFID is more about capturing a large number of participants over an extended period of time - but of course it's accurate enough to place people in the correct finishing order (most of the time anyway) when a large group of runners are flooding through the finish.
I always tell people not to make their finish line unnecessarily wide. The closer the tag(s) pass by the antenna the more power the tag receive and the less likely that the tags will get picked up too early. I also encourage people to place the antennas about 6 inches behind the finish line to account for the beam. I probably have quiet a few videos where I explain this, but here is the first one that came to mind: ua-cam.com/video/OlIx-AAuXR4/v-deo.html

[@rotorguru9702]

HI brian, Can we chat offline about RFID systems? I have some questions and would appreciate talking to you. You seem very knowledgable and might be able to help me out!

[@AgeeRaceTiming]

Yes, you can email me here if you haven't already: [e-mail]
I've been tied up buying equipment for the 2015 race timing season and preparing for taxes over the last few weeks. So if you have already emailed and have not received a response yet, I will try to get caught up by the end of the week.