Supported decoder

RCHourGlass Decoder

A beloved DIY community decoder — fully supported in LapBeeps.

🔧 DIY build 🤝 Community project ❤️ Charityware for kids' charities

What it is

The decoder the community built.

RCHourGlass is a DIY automatic timing system for RC racing, born on the RCTech.net forums out of Howard Cano's work — the original CANO decoder, revised and kept alive by the community ever since.

It's a build-it-yourself decoder: the schematics, firmware, and software are all published. Etch the board, flash the firmware, wire up a loop, and you've got capable timing hardware for a fraction of the cost of a commercial system.

It reads RCHourGlass, AMB, MRT, CANO and RC3 transponders out of the box, and RC4 after a quick registration. LapBeeps adds first-class support for it — if you've already got one on your bench, plug it in and race.

What you need

Cheap to build — and it does some good.

RCHourGlass is charityware: the suggested donations for personal use go to children's charities. Here's the whole shopping list.

≈ €30

The decoder board

Build it from the published schematics and firmware, or get one from the community. The suggested donation for personal use goes to children's charities.

a few €

A loop & antenna

A wire loop under the track, wired into the decoder. Standard stuff — nothing exotic to source.

≈ €5 each

Transponders

RCHourGlass transponders are cheap to build — or reuse the AMB, MRT, CANO and RC3 transponders you already own (RC4 after a quick registration).

A computer you own

LapBeeps runs on any laptop. Connect the decoder over USB/serial and you're scoring — no extra software in between.

Already have AMB or MRT transponders? Build the decoder, wire the loop, and you're racing.

How it works

From the loop to the leaderboard.

Transponders broadcast

Each car carries a transponder — RCHourGlass, AMB, MRT, CANO or RC3 (RC4 too, after a quick registration in the decoder's memory).

The decoder detects

Your DIY RCHourGlass board picks up every crossing at the loop and timestamps it — the proven hardware racers have trusted for years.

It speaks a protocol LapBeeps knows

RCHourGlass streams crossings over serial in its native, CANO, or AmbRc modes — and LapBeeps understands it out of the box.

LapBeeps scores

LapBeeps reads the stream and scores, ranks, and announces — live. No bridge, no plugin, no extra configuration.

RCHourGlass + LapBeeps

Plug it in and race.

✓ Native support in LapBeeps — plug it in and race, no setup
✓ A proven, well-loved decoder from the RC community
✓ Reads RCHourGlass, AMB, MRT, CANO & RC3 transponders (RC4 after registration)
✓ Fully open: schematics, firmware, and software all published
✓ Charityware — building one supports children's charities
✓ Inexpensive to build, with cheap transponders to match

Open & community-built

Where to find it.

mv4wd/RCHourglass

Firmware, schematics, and decoder software — everything you need to build your own. Step-by-step build guides live in the project Wiki.

View repo

RCTech.net forum thread

The community home base — build help, the CANO backstory, and racers who run it at the track every weekend.

Open thread