Advice Being Sought From those using SportIdent to time your events.

[Gord Hunter]

Sorry to impose on your time but we, in Florida, have a fairly large number of teams – JROTC teams – spread across Florida that, through grants, have been able to purchase the SportIdent training kits that give them a number of SI stations, and accessories including timing sticks so they can introduce SI to their practices.

But what WE really need in this large and far-flung state is more complete SI set ups so these schools, perhaps with two or three getting together can start staging full scale orienteering competitions on their own, perhaps only with some advice from the orienteering clubs.

Besides experience – we can train them up with that - and besides the map which Suncoast Orienteering can also provide what do you think these groups will need to stage their own events? The funny thing about orienteering competitions, whether we are staging an event for 30 people or 300, the equipment needs and work input are about the same.

What are those needs? What did you have for your first SI timed events.

Can you share a checklist of what you do- SI related- before, during and after an event.

What other things do you need to do?

I will start. SOAR (Suncoast Orienteering) started with

·         30 used flags and stands, scrounged from a club in Canada.

·         An SI package of 30 stations plus Clear/ SI Master, Check, Start, Finish stations ( Thanks to a donation of part of the cost from a generous friend who also handled our incorporation costs)

·         A used laptop computer then loaded with SI config, etc and a free timing program from Ireland called Or

·         A spool printer, aka receipt printer, from Epson

·         A SportIdent BSF 7 station to take downloaded information from timing stick to computer and printer

·         A set of the purple SI keys including the well-used Service Off and the all-important iron bar and a spare.

·         A large number of finger sticks/ timings sticks/ SI cards/ Dibblers for sale and rent.

Soon added an external monitor for results display (purchased from Goodwill)

We have since added software for live results upload to the web (designed by Blaik Mathews of FLO), software to track and display routes live through Livelox, an incredibly popular feature at our events.

Would you include anything else in a starter event package?

How often would you recommend syncing the SI timing stations?

Is there anything else you would add now? Have you ever compared Or to MeOS or another timings system. Which do you favor? Why?

Thank you for any advice you have as we try to move some of the 50+ orienteering teams spread from Miami to Jacksonville, Tallahassee and beyond participating in our events to growing our sport in their own areas.

Best regards and thank you for your time

Gord Hunter

Suncoast Orienteering

[Joseph Huberman]

It looks like a pretty complete list.

We use SI-Droid for download and event results.  It is super easy to use. Here is a complete description on how to set up an event including printing and real time wi-fi results.

Joseph

================================
Joseph Huberman
904 Dorothea Drive
Raleigh, NC 27603

m. (919)610-1788

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[Ing Uhlin]

Hello,

The list looks complete to me (but maybe I missed something).

We use SportSoftware. 

We synchronize the control SI units before each event, usually on Wednesday before a Saturday or Sunday event. We would not synchronize the control SI's from one day to the next if we have back-to-back events (but we would usually use different sets anyway). We synchronize the Start, Finish, Clear, and Check units the same day of every event, this is the most important. 

Ing Uhlin

Cascade OC

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[Jay Hann]

Hi Gord-

Here is my experience…

Control quantity:

Rex Winterbottom is able to set courses Yellow to Red with only 24 controls.  I have not seen anyone else able to do that, certainly not me.

Back in the day BAOC 7 course events used about 57 controls.

Over the years that number has increased to 72 controls.  This is a good trend as more controls means more fun.

We now keep 80 controls in one of our sets.

Stands:

I like the stands from o-store.ca that have the backup punch on them.  That way the bags don’t get tangled with their own backup punches.  Currently $22.50 CAD.

Bags:

I like the SportIdent brand bags. All the other non-blue stripe bags have faded within five years. The blue-stipe bags give support to color-blind runners.

Laptops:

If there is no day-of-meet registration then one laptop is grand. Most software dedicates one reader to one function, either download or registration. I use a dedicated database server for the MySQL database used by MeOS, but that sounds like more than your scope.

Printer:

I use the Epson TM-T88 printers.  I started with the model five (V, 300 mm/sec) and now use the model six(VI, 350 mm/sec).  People are impressed with the print speed—I say that O runners are important so deserve the performance.  Epson now as a model seven (VII) that does 500 mm/sec.  I notice a time lag using the OE softwares (maybe the windows drivers?) but MeOS gives about a quarter second response from the download beep to the beginning of print.

Time Syncing Controls:

Do this for every event.  Not so much to correct the clock drift, but to spot any non-performing controls (like dead battery, etc.)  The special time master control makes this job a lot easier.  Make sure to use the “Extended master” mode and sync your arena controls (clear/check/start/finish) at the same time.  Also sync the controls you don’t plan to use, so if you have to use one as a replacement in the field, it’s ready.

Good luck with your program.  It sounds really exciting!

-Jay

[maver...@gmail.com]

I will leave advice on SI and related equipment to others with more experience in that area, but I will offer some comments on timing software, as requested.

 

Our club, NEOOC, used a relatively simple setup from the time that I joined (early 2019) through later in 2021.  This early approach used a BSF7 control connected to SI’s battery-powered thermal printer to download competitors’ card data and print their splits after they finished.  Following the competition, someone would need to export the contents of the BSF7 into a computer and then analyze using a combination of other programs and Excel.  In late 2021, we started looking at scoring software to ease the analytical effort and allow results to be available in real time at the event.  We tried Or for a couple of events, and settled on MeOS.

 

We found Or easier to learn, but had concerns about it’s performance in score/rogaine events – specifically inability to include an out-of-the-box sub-sort on time for competitors who are tied on points – which occupy a significant part of NEOOC’s event schedule each season.  We also had an issue with a participant’s punch data failing to be read into the program at one of the events where we were evaluating Or.  The competitor’s punch data was present in the BSF7, though, and so we were able to recover from that problem.  After that event, we moved to MeOS, and haven’t looked back.

 

Things that we like about MeOS…

• Score/rogaine events handled with ease
• Highly flexible – can even have events where linear and score controls can be combined within the same course
• Runners’ and club database available
• Spreadsheet-like view of many data tables (participants/controls/etc.) which allow data entry/manipulation using copy/paste from Excel
• Windows-like GUI
• Free/open source software
• Active development team putting out revisions with bug fixes and feature adds on a regular basis
• Can use on a network using MySQL allowing multiple computers to be working on the same event simultaneously
• One aspect that may be interesting for the future is that MeOS has an API into Eventor which, for use in the countries whose national federations are using Eventor, allows for direct download/upload of registered participants, event results, etc.  With OUSA’s current initiative to bring a new (Sport80) database on line, combined with the MeOS software being open-source, I can envision the real possibility of an API being developed to allow MeOS to interact directly with that database somewhere down the line

 

For your needs to help clubs in the SOAR/FLO universe, I would probably recommend Or because of the technical support that will be readily available.  For other clubs looking to add electronic timing and enhanced capabilities to their event timing/scoring approach, I would recommend looking closely at MeOS.

 

Mike Avery

NEOOC

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[Mike Minium]

I can typically set white through red (6 courses) with 25 to 40 controls, largely depending on how many controls the white course needs.  Brown and Green are usually a sub-set of red, although I often try to mix up the order enough for it to be interesting if a red runner wants to go back and run brown or green for extra practice.  

Mike

On Jan 31, 2025, at 12:20 PM, Ing Uhlin <ing....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Michael Avery]

A large number of finger sticks/ timings sticks/ SI cards/ Dibblers for sale and rent.

Any club leaders here who are looking to upgrade their club card inventory to SI-10s and air cards?  Perhaps you could offer your older cards to any of these schools at a good price to ease the financial burden of that move.

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[Jens Christiansen]

On Jan 29, 2025, at 10:45 AM, Gord Hunter <gor...@rogers.com> wrote:

Soon added an external monitor for results display (purchased from Goodwill)

We’ve broken three results monitors thus far.  I’m switching this spring to trying another laptop as an extended display so it will have a built in form of self defense against haphazard travel in a variety of random vehicles.  

Else I recommend something robust to transport them, if you’d like to keep the screen intact.  Or keep buying old monitors for $25 a piece and replace as needed.

[Jeff Lanam]

To add to what Jay and Mike have said, MeOS is BAOC's software of choice. When Jay isn't handling the epunch at our events, I and a few other members take care of it. We have two laptops, linked  by a simple network hub. One laptop is for day-of entres and the other is for downloads. It's possible to use only one, but you have to switch back and forth. I recently upgraded the network hub to a WiFi router, and have used MeOS's Information Server to provide instant results to anyone's phone in the immediate area. I don't want to haul around a monitor so I also have developed a MeOS list format for results that will print on the Epson printer.

If I were buying a receipt printer today, I would get one with Bluetooth capability. That way it could be used with the Android event software. 

We use a deep cycle marine battery for power; Jay usually has a generator. I would like to get a power station like a Jackery, but it would need to have enough capacity for our purpose.

Jeff

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[ian.b.shields]

We have just upgraded our original and now fairly slow tablet to a new Lenovo tab M9 which has a USB c port rather than a micro USB port. With the addition of a small duck for about $10 this allows the tablet to be  charged and also operate as a download station at the same time.

I will be updating the article that Joseph referenced in the next week or two as time permits. 

Ian Shields

Sent by carrier pigeon from somewhere in this Galaxy.

Ian Shields

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[Joseph Huberman]

Regarding Ian's comment about charging while connected to the download box, after a full day of use it was still at 85% charge. 

Joseph Huberman
Raleigh NC
919-610-1788

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[Gale Teschendorf]

Jay recommends"SportIdent brand bags."
These bags cost more than twice as much as some color-blind-friendly bags.
Since Gord is from another sunny state so, his experience may be similar to Jay's.
Those farther north and/or in more wooded areas may see longer life spans than controls used in California.
CAOC loses about one control per meet, so most controls will last long enough to fade too much.

Best regards,

Gale Teschendorf

GoOrienteering.com
1920 Schiller Ave
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-701-4253

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