14
Understanding Bracket Mode
When the Mega 350/450 is in Bracket mode the Pro mode is turned off. However all of the settings for the Pro mode
are saved in memory for when you go back to Pro mode. Bracket mode has a main screen that displays the Dial-ins and the
Delays (you can access this screen by pressing the BRKT key at any time). While in bracket mode you can go through several
“set up” screens by pressing the Set Up key. These “set up” screens allow access to all of the additional features that Mega
350/450 has to offer. Some of these additional features are, the ability to tap either up or down, to take two hits at the tree,
enter a programmable starting line enhancer time, shift up to five times on either Time or RPM, and to select one or two push-
buttons to start the delay times. Some of the other features are common between both modes including the Replay Tach (Mega
450 only) and the Driver’s Reaction Tester.
Understanding the Dial-ins and Delays
The Bracket screen displays both of the Dial-in times and both of the Delay times. These four time settings are used to
control how long the Transbrake solenoid stays engaged after the push-button is released. The main feature here is the ability
to Crossover, to go off the opponent s top yellow light if you are the faster vehicle. The Mega 350/450 always does a
subtraction of Your Dial-in time from Their Dial-in time. If the result is greater then zero its added Delay 1. This new
combined time of Delay 1 plus the difference of the Dial-ins is called the Crossover time. When a push-button connected to
the P.B. 1 terminal is pressed the Transbrake will engage and the words “Transbrake On” will be displayed on the screen.
When the opponents top yellow light comes on the button is released the Crossover time starts counting down, when the
Crossover time reaches zero the Transbrake is released and the words “Transbrake On” are removed from the display. When it
is desirable to go off your top yellow, set the Dial-ins to the same number. When the Mega 350/450 does the subtraction of
Your Dial-in time from Their Dial-in time the difference will be zero. This result is then added to Delay 1 but because the
added value was zero only the Delay 1 time will be used as the delay amount for the Transbrake.
The Mega 350/450 also allows a second hit at the tree. This is where the Delay 2 time is used. Depending on the Push-
button mode, the second hit at the tree can be done with the same button connected to P.B. 1 or a second push-button
connected to P.B. 2., this is explained in Understanding the Push-button Modes. The Delay 2 time is usually set so that the
second hit at the tree is on your top yellow. The Delay 2 time can be used even if the main Crossover delay is not being used,
however this is not recommended.
For this example of two hits at the tree, two buttons are used and the Push-button mode is set to two. The vehicle would
be staged and both push-buttons would be pressed and held. This would engage the Transbrake and the words “Transbrake
On” would be displayed on the screen. When the opponent’s top yellow light comes on the button connected to P.B. 1 would
be released. This would start the countdown of the Crossover time. Then when your top yellow light comes on the push-
button connected to P.B.2 would be released. This would start the count down of the Delay 2 time. When either the Crossover
time or the Delay 2 time reaches zero the Transbrake is released and the words “Transbrake On” are removed from the display.
If the two times do not reach zero at the same time a new How Late time is generated and stored in memory. The How Late
time is displayed on line 2 of screen 2 and is explained in Understanding the How Late.
Note: The Mega 350/450 as with any other box made cannot tell which hit at the tree is better. Only which hit at the tree
reached zero first. This means that if the first release on the opponent’s top yellow was a perfect light and the second release
on your top yellow was red, you will red light.
Understanding the Tap Feature
The tap information displayed is made up of two parts separated by a blank space. The left most digit shows the Tap count
or the number of times the Tap push-button was pressed. The two right hand digits show the programmable time (0 to 99
thousandths of a second) to be subtracted from or added to the delay time every time the Tap push-button is pressed. For this
example the Mega 350/450 is in tap down mode with a Tap amount of .010 seconds and set in Push-button mode 1 with one
second of delay for Delay 1. If after the push-button connected to P.B. 1 is released and before the Transbrake releases, every
time the push-button connected to the Tap terminal is pressed and released .01 seconds will be subtracted from the Delay time.
Assuming the Tap push-button was pressed twice, the total amount of delay time the box would count down before releasing
the Transbrake would be shortened to .980 seconds. Then after the pass when viewing the Tap information the numbers 2 .10
would be displayed on the Tap line. With the left digit indicating the Tap push-button was pressed twice and the two right
digits showing the amount of time subtracted for each press of the button.
NOTE: When taking two hits at the tree the Tap will only affect the Delay that is started first.
Both the How Late and Tap information is stored in memory until either a new How Late or Tap count replaces the
old one or the Clear is pressed and released will the selection arrows are on line 2 of screen 2.
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