| About 5 year ago Triplette was selling a system + software which was supposed to connect/install on a PC to function as a (non-FIE) scoring machine (I never encountered an example of it, so I can't say how well it actually worked). It cost $295. Since then, several scoring machines have come out in the $300-400 range, and Triplette discontinued the system in favor of their own inexpensive scoring machine. While it's within the realm of possibility to handle the timing with proper software and a speedy enough computer (packages like LabView are used for industrial automation and control with standard microcomputers), the cost of the SW and necessary input adapters (you're having to look at actual resistance values for some elements of the logic, so it's not just simple binary states at the A-B-C lines that your concerned with) would probably come out the same as just getting an Eigertek or Favero. There's also an even more basic matter: It's an expected part of a scoring machine's life that it will, at some point, get knocked off of the scoring table or whacked with a weapon (any guesses as to what a sabre blade will do to your LCD display?). Unless you spend boku bucks for a ruggedized model, laptops won't take to kindly to that sort of treatment (and for the extra cost for a ruggedized laptop over a standard Dell, Gateway or Powerbook, you could buy 2 or 3 Eigerteks).
-Dave
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