I am a mechanical engineer who races opend road Time-Speed-Distance events. I have enough beckground in electronics to know what is possible, but not enough to do it. I have a Cygnal 8051 F124 kit that I am trying to use as a foundation for a timing system.

A little background:

A time speed distance race is about completeing a certain distance at a perfect moving average. I have an electronic speedometer that receives 5V pulses from a sender hooked to my driveshaft. Since the distance is known (90.000 miles), the number of pulses per mile is known (16124), and the target speed is known (180 mph, for example), I know I need to get 90 x 16124 pulses in 1800 seconds in order to cross the finish line on my perfect moving average. Since I start form a stand still, I will instantly be behind the closck as soon as the timer starts, requiring me to "catch up." The physical sender will start emitting pulses as I start to move, and at a rate equal to a factor of my actual speed.

What I want:

I want a continuously (~10Hz) updated display showing how far ahead or behind I am of the ideal count. In my mind, I would have one output that simply counted my ideal pace at a rate of 48384 cycles per minute (806.4Hz), a second counter that totaled the actual number of pulses actuall=y received from the sender, and a display that read the output of ideal - actual. I could than raise my speed past the ideal average to chip away at the deficit until I caught up to zero on my display.

Am I on the right track with this controller or am I totally missing the boat? I have NO programming experience, but I am wanting to learn.