In this work we construct a timer system consisting of both hardware and software to be used in introductory-level laboratory physics courses. The Parallax P8X32A propeller based-microcontroller hardware consist of a board that registers the times of events triggered when IR photogates are blocked and unblocked. The software allows the user to configure the system in four different timing modes, namely, gate, pulse, pendulum, and gate pulse. Both the programming code for the microcontroller and the software that commands the hardware are provided to make the system easy to implement at low cost.
