Bug Report Area

[Brian Agee]

As many of you know, I (and my timing crews) use the system just about every weekend to time races. So it's obviously in my best interest to make the system as reliable and easy to use as possible. Of course I know you are counting on me to make the system as bug free as possible and that you have race directors and participants that are counting on you to provide professional services with accurate results in a timely fashion.

So I'm very careful about making the code as clean as possible and any time a bug is found I typically fix it and push out a patch immediately. Before pushing out a major update, I always use the new features at the local events that I time to make sure everything works as designed before I release it to everyone else.

Just like with any software program, the potential for bugs exists. If you find a bug in the software please post a reply to this post that clearly explains the bug, steps that I can take to replicate it, and any screen shots that might help me troubleshoot it.

[ActiveIndy Events]

Previously shared via e-mail - set up a Varsity XC race, uploaded the entries that were in Excel.  Copied that race to create the JV race (including the same entries since we don't require the teams to declare who is running in which race beforehand).  Everything worked great except the team assignments were not copied over to the JV race.

 

[PCRT Tech]

In the Edit Race window, when I type in that I would like the Overall Winners Depth to be 0 Runners, every time I print out the age division results, the genders are no longer associated on the top of the page (see picture). This bug occurs for both the male and female results by age division.

[Scovel Racing]

If you have a multiple race event, for this example lets say  HS Boys  and  HS Girls  races.

If you open up HS Boys but then switch to "Show Participants For All Of Today's Races" in the drop down window and then select a HS Girls athlete from the list, the header remains HS Boys. Originally this didn't seem like a big deal(I didn't even notice) but when I went to assign bibs for this particular HS Girls athlete it was assigning it with a HS Boys race ID (I only knew this because I wrote them all down). That would have made an automatic misread...

[PCRT Tech]

I usually make an age division of 0-1 so that any participants who do not reveal their age can be placed in such division. Yet, when I create my 2 - 9 (whatever number really), that age division gets placed after the one's digits age divisions (see attached pic for further clarification). Instead of being ordered in such way [I understand the programming, the 2 value comes after the 1 value], can you please structure the age divisions accordingly, where 10 comes after the value 9 please.

[Ohio Race Day]

If I need an extra age division as a "catch all" then I make it 95-100 or some such.  That puts it at the end.  We have a couple races with a "Stroller Division" that do not use ages.  I just put them there rather than use the Wheelchair designation.  This would be a workaround to what you are trying to do. If you later export the results to a Word document then you can rename that age division to anything you wish.  You can also search a Word document for all the 99 year olds to find these people in the overall results.

[Peak Performance Timing]

I know I have combined events before with success, but for some reason the feature doesn't work like it did before. When you combined events the times are not showing up on the reports once you have combined them.  I created a simple example to demonstrate. In the first document "Doc1.doc" you can see that all the participants in the events that were combined have times. When I ran the report (any report with time) you can see in "Doc2.doc" that the times do not show up in the reports. Why not? I used this feature in an earlier version exactly like I am now and it doesn't work now?

[Scovel Racing]

Weird Minor Bug: If you have a multiple event race and you edit an event, hit save, then switch to another event and edit, hit save, it will then automatically switch and reload the first event... you can edit any event from this moment on and it will always reload the first event you edited.

Extra Column when importing: Every time I import an xls it adds an extra column, I simply have to remove a column, but it appears to be a bug.

I changed the width of the columns to match so you can see there is an extra at the end.. I delete a column from the middle to make it match.

[Brian Agee]

This has now been fixed and the update is now available to download. The system will now automatically assign the copied athletes to the copied teams for the duplicated race. Thanks for letting me know of the problem so that I can fix it.

[Brian Agee]

This has now been fixed and the update is now available to download. The system will now sort the age divisions correctly. Thanks for letting me know of the problem so that I can fix it.

[Brian Agee]

This has now been fixed and the update is now available to download. The system will now show the Gender at the top of the Age Division Results even if you have 0's entered for all overall awards categories. Thanks for letting me know of the problem so that I can fix it.

[rtspt.usa]

when editing an athlete for a xc meet to switch them from one race to another (like JV to V) the kid's team automatically defaults to the first one on the list..

[Crystal McCullough]

When I choose 'Sync Online Registrants' in a race, it imports the field label "Are you a runner or a walker?" from RunSignUp into the Notes field in ART. Doesn't hurt anything, but it doesn't make sense, either.

[bryan]

You can also set-up your race as 10K Run, 10K Walk, instead asking if they plan to Run or Walk as a question.

[Brian Agee]

When you submit (or link) a race on RunSignUp the software will try to make sure you have a couple of things set up so that everything works smoothly. First it will ask you if it can create a "required custom question" that asks people if they will be a "Walker" or "Runner" and then it will ask you if it can create a "required giveaway" for all of the Tshirt sizes that the program can accept. 

Lets assume you're doing a typical 5K Run/Walk called Crystal's 5K Run/Walk.

With RunSignUp you can create a single event that has a 'required question' that asks the participant if they are signing up as a runner or walker, or you can create two events on their website (Crystal's 5K Run, and Crystal's 5K Walk) and people can register for whichever event they want. I recommend that you create a single event through the software by simply clicking on the "Create Website" button. This way you don't have to manage two races in the software and then use the "Combine Events" feature to merge it all together. If you have two events on the website then you might have someone register for both races by accident and when you "Sync" in the software you have to be careful not to have overlapping bib numbers.

Ok, so now let me answer you question about the notes field. :)

The software tries to do it's best to make sure you have the correct 'questions' and 'giveaways' entered to make sure everything sync's correctly, however it's possible that you set up your own question/answer that the software doesn't understand (especially those abroad) so I decided it would be best to at least show all of those questions/answers for each participant in the Notes field in case someone didn't get Synced correctly. At least you'll have the answers there and you can export the Athlete list to Excel and quickly fix the Runner/Walker status or you can manually fix each one.

The notes field is not used on any of the results of course, so you can just ignore it if it doesn't contain information that you care to see. :)

[Alan Bingham]

Did I do something wrong?

I set up a cross country race for this weekend on my desktop computer, imported athletes for each age group, in each race edited the teams short name to their mascot name, made a back up to a flash drive, took it over to my laptop computer and imported the database, and I got the events, but the athlete's teams were striped from them. no big deal, I deleted the athletes in each race, re-imported them, edited the team's short name for each race and was back to where I started within 30 minutes.

[Brian Agee]

You don't have to "import the database". All you have to do is copy the database on the primary computer (or from wherever you did the import) and paste it into a jump drive, plug the jump drive into the secondary computer(s) and replace their database with the one on the jump drive. Typically I put the database on the desktop to make it easy to overwrite the old databases on the backup computers. Of course go to "Options" and make sure the program is pointed to that database on the desktop.

Once you've overwritten the database, you can open the software and everything will be exactly the same as your primary computer. If you already have the software open you can click on the "Reload Races" item at the top when you click on 'Open Race'.

I put in the "Import Database" feature for those that may have multiple timers and they want to try and keep one centralized database. To be honest, I've never used that button.

[Alan Bingham]

Ok, I did find that when you import it doesn't import the teams.

so if the backup database is pointed to a thumb drive, I have to then copy that file over the top of the one on the C: drive or does it do it automatically?  is this a manual process of something that just happens when I plug in the jump drive?

[Ohio Race Day]

Step by step guide on updating the second computer after race day registration closes.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/agee-race-timing/-QkBdS4Bdac/q_QesvMqvXsJ

[PCRT Tech]

Disclaimer: I understand that there is a work around to this bug that I am about to pose.... but I really wish that it could be fixed.

On that note, Is it possible to allow your software to import excel files with the extension .xlsx vs. having to resave it as a .xsl file? I appreciate the fact that there exists a work around, but I feel that the software should understand different types of excel files.

[PCRT Tech]

3. The Results Kiosk "Search" button automatically changes to "Print" after the user clicks Search.

This is the third request integrated into the new update issued on Monday 10/27. Some of us would rather this be an option versus mandatory. In particular, the finishers at my events just use a bar code scanner to pull up their results; immediately, the next finisher only has to scan his/her shoe tag in order to view their results. Yet, with this update, because the Search button is automatically changed to the Print button, I receive this prompt when attempting to consecutively scan bar codes at the kiosk screen. 

Please allow this feature to be an option.... 

[Peak Performance Timing]

I agree with PCRT Tech.

[kristi.paetzel]

Hi Brian,

Was wondering if you could adjust the bib label printing feature to match the format of the Avery labels that are recommended.  I believe the software is printing 4 columns of 13 rows, but the labels are in 4 columns of 15 rows, so only the first row of labels match up correctly.  Not sure if this is an easy fix or not.  Thanks! 

[Todd Gould]

Not sure if this is settings or if it is a new bug that was introduced recenlty.  I printed labels for a race  on 9/11/2014 weeks ago and they printed perfectly.  Anyone else?

[Lamont Hayes]

I had the same issue trying to print labels around Oct 15th

[PCRT Tech]

Just to keep track of when the last updates have been issued: Oct. 03, Oct. 13, then Oct. 27. The dates given up above are conflicting. More individuals would have noticed the same "bug." I believe that it is not the fault of the AGEE software.

[mstompro]

I doubt that it's anyone's fault but it does appear to be an issue that is affecting some of the users. Would be nice to know how to fix it. Just like I would love to figure out why my 8.1 machine doesn't print correctly either and I know that same issue plagues other users as Brian was trying to figure out why.

[PCRT Tech]

Sorry, fault was the wrong word.

Let's take a poll: for those having the printing issue, which OS are you using?

[Brian Agee]

I was hoping to look into the label printing thing again last weekend but we had a death in the family unfortunately. With a report like this the margins between the cells has to be perfect or it will cause the labels on the bottom right of the page to be way off. This seems to be an issue that affects some people, and works perfect for others, so I'd be afraid to try and fix it for one and cause it to break for others that were not having issues before. Every few months I'll have someone email me and say that the report is off, however when I test it on my Dell laser printer it works perfectly. So this makes me wonder if the margins coming from SQL Reporting Services reports (the reporting tool used by the software) are not interpreted correctly by different versions of windows or different brands of printers. Since the last time I tested it I have purchased a laptop with Windows 8.1 and I have a Samsung printer. So I'll test printing this report with those and let you know what I find.

My hope is that I can tell you exactly what the margins should be set at for your printer or I can make it so that you can adjust the column spacing and margins between the cells yourself in the reports.

As for the reports shrunk down with Windows 8.1, I tried to fix on one of my timers computers while we were on the way to a race and I didn't have any luck. I'm going to their house tonight for a meeting and I'm going to check and see if there is any SQL Server service packs or anything else in Windows Updates that I can install and see if that fixes the issue. I'll let you know what I find.

[Lamont Hayes]

Not sure if it helps but I am using windows 7 professional on a lenovo thinkpad. My printer is a hp laserjet 1102

[PCRT Tech]

Is it possible to describe more thoroughly your situation; I am getting all confused with the pronouns? Do you mean you name the title of an event with the same exact name of an event already created in the database?

[Brian Agee]

The extra column is thrown in there for your convenience in case you need a 'placeholder' for some piece of information that was not included in your excel document. Any columns that are outside of the 17 columns shown in the template are ignored. So if you have some data that you don't need you can either drag it to the end or you can left click on the column and select "Remove".

On Sunday, October 12, 2014 1:26:53 PM UTC-5, Scovel Racing wrote:

Weird Minor Bug: If you have a multiple event race and you edit an event, hit save, then switch to another event and edit, hit save, it will then automatically switch and reload the first event... you can edit any event from this moment on and it will always reload the first event you edited.

Extra Column when importing: Every time I import an xls it adds an extra column, I simply have to remove a column, but it appears to be a bug.

I changed the width of the columns to match so you can see there is an extra at the end.. I delete a column from the middle to make it match.

[Brian Agee]

Yes, it can import from .xlsx or .xls. 

If it doesn't import .xlsx files from your computer (maybe you don't have Office 2010 installed) then you may have to install one of the two things offered by Microsoft that I listed here: 

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/agee-race-timing/z33BHrHfn70/uIqM8N-z3jkJ

[Brian Agee]

I'll test this with my scanner whenever I get a chance (not sure if my scanner is at my head timers house), however I just pushed out an update that may fix this problem. I didn't know anyone was using a barcode scanner with the results kiosk, so I didn't test it with that, however when a number was pressed on the screen it would change the button from "Print" to "Search". This way if you wanted to use it for just searching results then you can without any problems, however with a barcode scanner it blindly throws the text (plus a carriage return) and I'm assuming that is why this error appeared. I've made it so that any time the text changes it will automatically change the button to "Search", so hopefully that fixes the issue. Let me know what you find if you test it before I do.

[Brian Agee]

I worked on this for many hours last night and I've got it working perfectly on my Samsung and Dell printers. On my printers they printed pretty good, however I did find that I could move things around a little to make them fit better. So try getting the update and try printing again and let me know how it looks. I'm a little concerned about those that have HP printers because I've done similar reports at my office job over the years and HP printers seem to be the worst and interpreting/applying margins to reports. If it doesn't work for someone, please let me know what Make/Model printer you have.

[Brian Agee]

I just tested this and it worked perfectly. When you created the second race (with 10 year increments) did you move the athletes from the 'old' race to that new race? If not, then when you export the athlete list it will show the age divisions for whatever race they're currently assigned to. If you test this and still see the problem please email me your database and I'll look at your set up and test it using the same data you're using.

On Tuesday, November 4, 2014 11:25:57 PM UTC-6, Peak Performance Timing wrote:

OK, with regard to my post on exporting participant/results.......It happens if you add a race to a database that has entrants in it from another race already......So If you have a race with 5 year age divisions and then you add another race and make the age divisions 10 years in the new race, when you export the participant/finisher files to Excel, you get 5 year age groups......But if you start a new database and then create a new race, you will get the correct age divisions when you export the data to excel.......Why does it grab the age divisions from another race? It is nice to have the participants in the database from other races so you can enter them quickly.......isn't that the idea of the Master Search Results window?

[Brian Agee]

I'm still working on the report printing with some Windows 8 computers. I expect there is some hotfix that is available to download because I went through every option on my timers computer and the only way I could get the report to print at the correct size was to export the report to PDF (use the Export button or right click on the report and select Export) and then print the PDF document. I'll keep digging and let you know when I have an answer.

On Tuesday, November 4, 2014 2:43:37 PM UTC-6, mstompro wrote:

[rtspt.usa]

Brian,

ART does not break team scores ties correctly.

there are basically 2 tie breaking rules out there.

1) HS. uses the 6th person's place to break the tie.

2) Collegiate: Ties in team scoring shall be broken by comparing the place finish of the five scoring members of the tied teams. The team with the majority of winning places shall be awarded the higher place

[Peak Performance Timing]

I originally posted this in the feature request, but maybe this is a better place?

I noticed during an event where I had a marathon and half marathon starting 1 hour and 30 minutes apart, that the chip start times are not limited to the race being started even when the all the  tags for both races are programmed race specific.To further explain......... ALL the Chips were programmed to be SPECIFIC races. We used the same bib number Ranges, but in different colors for the races. The marathon started at 7:30, the half started at 9:00. Now when I captured the chip start for the marathon someone with a half marathon bib was at the start of the marathon, they never left the start while I was collecting chip starts for the marathon, so the person who was running the marathon with the same number as the half marathon runner hanging out, got a HUGE advantage because the last seen time for that number was collected when I stopped the chip start for the marathon. 

When I started the half marathon, the person who had been lingering at the marathon start, again got a chip start (this time the correct one for them), but the marathon runner was not given the correct chip correction because this runner was hanging out at the marathon start. This was not an isolated incident. I thought I would be OK, since the tags were programmed to be race specific.

Can you make it so the chip start times are ignored for tags that are not programmed to the specific race(s) being started?

[Alan Bingham]

Our team scoring allows a team of 3 athletes so we have a modified high school rule, what we choose to do was use the first 3rd place, in the case of a high school team, using the first 5th place instead of the first 6th place allows for teams to have only 5 athletes, where using the 6th displacer runner can cause trouble if a team doesn't have a 6th or 7th runner.

There should be a tie breaking feature that allows the timer to "Judge" the tie and break it. (Hy-Tek Meet Manager has this feature in the track mode, but I don't think so in the XC/RR Mode).

This is our youth program's rule:

Ties involving teams

a. The aggregate score of the first three finishers for each team shall constitute their team’s score. Ties for the championship, runner-up and third places will be handled in accordance with playoff procedures as written below:

b. If only three competitors of tying teams finish, the tie shall be resolved by the team with the first 3rd place runner crossing the finish line.

[Brian Agee]

I just pushed an update out that has the following fixes:

1. If you select "Chip Time" on the TV tab, the quick-print function keys will now tell the reports to show Chip time instead of defaulting to Gun.

2. The "Import Times From Remote Read Points" feature was assuming that your remote read point was only capturing one split time. It will now copy over whatever split descriptions you set up on that computer and pull over all of the splits for each athlete.

3. When timing a multi-split race where you captured the Chip Start, the split times displayed were based on the Gun start time of the race. Now the split times will show based on if you select Chip or Gun on the report.

As usual, to get the update just run the installer provided by the Free Trial link on my website.

[Brian Agee]

When using the Course Mapping tools the web browser control would display a message at the top that said something like "This is an obsolete browser...". The course mapping tools were somewhat functional, but the website selected was not being displayed correctly. The update I just pushed out fixes this issue.

[Peak Performance Timing]

OK, this is what I think is a bug.  I will try and make this simple ( I am good at complicating things for myself :/ ) 

When you time a race that has split points and someone is missed at a split point, the time for that person's split following the missed split is moved up one split. I think it should just ignore the missed split and leave the splits that are captured where they should be.

Example: Let's say we are doing timing a marathon. John runs through the half marathon split and his  chip is not read, he then finishes the marathon and gets a finish split. When you merge the split points (from different computers) his marathon finish time is now seen as his half split and when you print results he will not show up, because it is still thinking he needs a finish time. If you look on the time race screen, it now shows his marathon finish time as his half marathon split. 

Is it possible to make the make the system ignore missed reads for a split when split times are merged. Or you could make it merge a 00:00:00 for runners without the intermediate splits that have a later split?

Has anyone else noticed this?

[blueridgetiming]

Peak,

I did some testing on this and found the following.

- if splits are inported and a chip was missed (say because you are using the thinkify reader), on my tests it was ignored and the time at the finish was not moved u0.

However, if running a lapped race and a split was missed then of course all splits would be off by one lap.

[Peak Performance Timing]

I am curious to know how you set up the race then....because mine was not set up as a lap race. I guess I still don't get the proper way to set up splits and merge them together from different computers. I have the very latest update Brian has put out. ???

[Peak Performance Timing]

I hand one computer capture half split, and another the finish......when I merged, I merge the later database into the earlier database (finish merged into the half) I do it this way because the splits are in the correct order of occurrance. And it moves the finish times up to the half split for the people who were missed at the half.

[Peak Performance Timing]

I am not sure that it would matter, but I also imported chip times too.

[Peak Performance Timing]

Ok Blueridge, 

I will agree that if you import the splits from the split computer to the finish computer you will still get the finish time for both runners, but show the split times and they will be labeled backwards? 

Help Brian, I am driving myself crazy...... 

[Brian Agee]

:)  Since it's nearly 1:00am right now I don't have the time or brain power to really dig into this, but I wanted to offer some input before calling it a night. Here is how it's designed to work:

1. Split times should be imported into the finish line computer, not the other way around. Notice that the labels says "Import Times From Remote Read Points".

2. The system can import times from another database or (if you have an Impinj reader) from the raw data output that can be sent directly to a jump drive (which means no laptop has to be connected to the reader).

3. If you're importing from text files (the raw data from Impinj readers) then the system will ask you how many split times per person that reader should have picked up.

If you're importing from the database file (which nearly all of you will) then the systems finds loads the matching race from the database on the jump drive and looks at the number of "Laps" you said it can capture. It then checks to see what is the greatest number of laps completed for all athletes. This way if you tell it to capture up to 10 split times but the greatest number of split times captured was only 5, the system will only incriment the number of laps in the Live database by 5 and not add 5 extra dummy splits for each person.

For the next part, lets assume you captured 10 splits out on the course for some athletes, but some others finished the race but were missed a few times at the remote read point. 

4. When you import the split times, the first thing the system does is import the "Split Descriptions" you have set up on the remote read computer. So in this example lets say that you set it to capture up to 10 splits out on the course, and you named splits "1 Mile Split", "2 Mile Split", "3 Mile Split", and so on. 

The finish line computer knows who finished the race and it knows that after importing split times those finishers should still be listed as finishers even if their time was not captured out on the course for some reason. So when you import the split times for an athlete that was missed out on the course the system will add in dummy splits that have a split Date/Time that matches the finishing time (so on the report this is displayed as 00:00:00.000 for the split time). It'll add a dummy split for each missing split time.

There might be some tweaking I can do to get the split descriptions in order if they are not showing up correctly, but you should be able to edit the race, select the top row and move that split descrption to the bottom (use the blue arrows) if the first split is labeled "Finishing Time" or somethign like that. 

[Tim Irvine]

Brian, since I do have an Imping Reader and see the USB Host plug, I had a questions about remotely capturing splits to a USB Drive and importing them into the finish computer. How do you sync the Imping time to the finish computer/set the time on the reader? This could be my best bet for doing tris and marathon splits. 

[Brian Agee]

It's been a while since I've written that code, but believe it or not there is no syncing involved. The times I receive are in UTC format, EPOCH format, or something like that. The vendor I built that feature for (www.libramation.com) had a customer that was going to use it for triathlon timing I believe an they wanted to set up a UPS, reader, and antennas at different stations along the course. Since I didn't have an Impinj reader at the time I relied on them testing it for me. After a couple of months of development we got it working and they told me it worked great, but I'm not sure how to set the reader up so that it pushes that data out to the jump drive. I'd image it would be easy to find that setting though.

[Tim Irvine]

I will test it ASAP and let you know. This of course gives me another option for my triathlon splits and will likely impact the next reader purchases. I had planned to go with Moto FX9500, but if they can't do this, I already know what to expect from Imping

[Brian Agee]

I hate to say I'm not sure if Motorola can do this or not, I would expect it to be able to though. I'll see if I can look into that some this weekend.

[Lamont Hayes]

I am still having the same problem when I try to print labels. I have a HP LaserJet P1102w. The top row is fine but everything else is fine.

[Brian Agee]

Hate to ask, but you did get the update after released it on November 5th? If so, you may want to look at the margins and other settings for your printer in Control Panel. It seems to be working perfectly on other users printers and it prints perfectly on my Samsung and Dell with the default settings for the printer.

[Lamont Hayes]

I have the latest release. I will play with the margins next week.

[Peak Performance Timing]

Brian,

Is there a problem with the Runsignup feature? I was going to try and sync a video up with results. I can't seem to get the "create a website" to work. I am getting an error 221 : race partner id not valid. What am I doing wrong. I have used the create a website button in the past with success.

[Peak Performance Timing]

When importing a split from a remote read point the "Split Times (by chip time)" are the same information as the "Split Times" after the remote split has been imported into the finish line computer. You can see in the attached jpg named split time before import that the two times are different as a result of a chip start time. But when the chip times are imported into the finish line computer and the remote read point split is imported into the finish line computer, the the times in the "Split Time" column and the "Split Time (by chip time)" the contain the same information. (See attached jpg split times after import). The columns in the final export with the remote read point and the chip start times imported contain the correct differential time between the columns "Finish Time" and " Chip Time" So I know the chip time differentials are imported.

Any Ideas?

[Peak Performance Timing]

Create a website function still not working? Bryan from RunSignUp emailed me and we were still unable to get it to work, am I the only one having this problem?

[Peak Performance Timing]

Thanks Brian for fixing this function.

[SR Aaron]

Little Bug..

In View Reports - "Race Roster" report does not show additional participants that are imported after the initial import, to display them I have you have to sort by bib# and hit refresh, then they will appear.

I tested this on multiple races, refreshed the database, restarted software, computer.. same issue.

[alangstein]

Yesterday I had a 5K/10K and had set the report printer to a specific printer.  When I went to print the 5K results report it errored out and I realized I had sent it to the wrong printer.  Unfortunately while race open/timing in progress the options section of the main ART window would not respond to mouse clicks.  I imagine that that window is unaccessable while race timing in progress.  I was still tiiming the 10K and I didn't want to close out the race/timing windows because there was a previous bug with losing connection to the RFID reader and I didn't want to chance that.  Can you please make it possible to switch printers while timing is going on.

Thanks

AGS

[Brian Agee]

Yeah, I think that is a good idea too. There have been a couple of times where I was using one of my timers laptops, but one of my printers, and it didn't hit me until I needed to print that I hadn't reset the Report Printer. This should be simple to add of course and I'll let you know when it's available.

When I realized that the correct printer was not selected I just minized the clock, clicked on "View Reports", and when you print from there you can select any printer you want. This takes more time of course than just pressing a single button, but this does not disconnect the reader because it does not close down the Clock screen.

[Peak Performance Timing]

I have noticed if you change the results kiosk from Gun Time to Chip time, it prints out the appropriate time on the label side, but it shows the gun time on the results side of the Kiosk. Is there a way to make the results on the left side of the page show Chip Time?  

[Brian Agee]

A new update is available now on the website that has the following changes:

1. I've made it so that those outside of the USA can use the RunSignUp interface.

2. I've made it so that you can change the RunSignUp credentials stored for a race. This way if you change the password to your RunSignUp account you can update the credentials for the race in the software. Pull up the Edit Race screen (click on the name of the race at the top when you open a race) for any event linked to RunSignUp and you'll see a new icon at the top right corner of the box that contains the event website.

3. The RunSignUp interface handles multi-event races (a race that is having a 5K and 10K for example) better than it used to. I'm still not finished working on it, but when you import (or submit) multiple events the system will ask you if those events are linked.

4. I've made it so that if you're using more than one RFID system at the starting line to capture the Chip Start time it will now warn you if it thinks the System Clock (otherwise known as Windows Clock) is not in sync with the main timing laptop and the system will confirm with you that it is ok for it to adjust those times for you automatically. The only time you would not want it do that for you is if you (for some reason) did not start the clock on both computers at the same time (when the gun went off).

5. I've made it so that the Results Kiosk now has a secret pass code that allows you to show or hide the window frame that has the Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons. This way you will not have to worry about someone closing that screen by accident. Enter "0000" and click "Search" to show or hide the frame.

6. I've made it so that the Results Kiosk will only check for updates every 2 minutes instead of constantly checking for updates.

7. I've made it so that the Results Kiosk does a better job of updating itself, especially when using a wireless router. If you have a wireless router to network together your results kiosk machine(s) and the main RFID timing laptop then here is the recommended setup:

1. On the main RFID computer set the "Database Backup Path" (in the Options screen) to the shared folder on the main computer that the Results Kiosk(s) can see.

2. On the Results Kiosk(s), point the "Database Path" to a local copy of the database on the computer (probably on the desktop) and then set the "Database Backup Path" to the same shared 'database backup path' on the main RFID laptop. 

With this update the software will now check to see if the database on the main RFID computer has been updated, and if so it will pull over a copy of it and replace the one it has locally. This means that your main RFID Computer doesn't have to worry about sending a file across the network while it's trying to time a race and it also means that your Results Kiosk computer(s) do not have to run queries on a database located across the network. So everything should run very smooth with this setup. If you do not have a wireless router, you can still use a Jump Drive to update it manually like you were able to do before this update.

8. I fixed the bug where the Results Kiosk was showing the Gun Time on the screen even though you select "Chip Time".

9. I added a "Settings" option on the Guide tab (F8) on the Clock screen that will allow you to open the "Options" screen without having to close the clock screen out first. This is primarily there so that you can easily swap which printer is used for the quick print (function keys) reports on the clock screen.

[Peak Performance Timing]

Thank you Brian, especially for #s 5 and 8.... I am excited to use the wireless kiosk feature with the new update ability.

[Kenneth Peters]

Any chance of a video on getting the wireless kiosk working.  Been trying and can't get it to talk.

[Alan Bingham]

What I would do is

A) on the kieosk computer I would create a shared folder to put the database into.

B) point the Agee race timing software to look for the database in that folder

C) on the timing computer I would map a drive to look at that shared folder on the Kieosk computer.

D) on the timing computer I would set the backup database setting to the mapped drive

E) every time you press the F key it will write the backup file over the network to the shared drive and tell you if the backup was seccussful

[Nick Preston]

Would this work? I'm considering getting one of these, connecting it to the main computer and the kiosk computer through wifi, but I'm interested to hear if someone has used one or has an opinion about a device like this. Thanks!
SanDisk 32GB Wifi USB drive: SDWS2-032G-E57

[Kenneth Peters]

I got it to work, this is awesome!

[Alan Bingham]

When you say you got it to work, are you talking about getting the Kieosk to get the database from the timing computer via wifi?

I looked at the 32 GB wifi thumb drive, it does not work in wireless mode when it's pluged into the computer.

It looks nice to transfer files from a phone to the thumb drive and then be able to plug it into the computer, but I simply just use my onedrive to move files between my phone and computer.

[Ohio Race Day]

When a database is shared to other computers (ie registration computer), the Option settings for "Your Companies Name" defaults back to www.ageeracetiming.com.  I think I've seen the printer change to an earlier setting.  Not sure.  The printer did not change this morning but the name setting did.  And ... spelling error ... it should be "Your Company's Name" or just "Company Name" in Options.  Feel free to point out my spelling errors.  LOL.

[Kenneth Peters]

I got the Kiosk to work.  I have notice it stops working at times, but i think that is junk computers we use.  

[Alan Bingham]

I must have downloaded an old "Race Director's Mail in" import file, I found that the first and last name files are in the wrong order so it imported the athletes first names into the last name columns and last names into first names, I caught that and fixed it before packet pickup, but I totalled missed that when you don't add the State into the state column everybody is from Arkansas. Darn Arkies they will get you every time!

[Tim Irvine]

I know Alan, the Arkansas thing burned me too, but Brian told me until the system leans the zip codes everybody is from Arkansas.  LOL

[fred]

Not that hard to have a look-up file/database for zipcodes. ;-)

[Brian Agee]

Hmm, I'll look and see if the program requires a state for some reason, and if so, why it doesn't default to the State that is selected when you setup the race. As for the look-up/database for zip codes - I looked into that years ago and decided it was best to simply have the system learn as it goes. Basically you only have to enter a full City, State, and Zip once and from then on it will automatically fill out the City and State for you when you enter a zip code. I can't remember all of the reasons why I chose this path, but off the top of my head I'm assuming it was because I wanted to keep the size of my installer down as much as possible, I didn't want to worry about keeping it updated all the time, and I didn't want to use an online lookup that would require you to have internet access to work.

[Brian Agee]

Yeah, now that I've used it successfully at a couple of races I'll try to create a video on how to set it all up. The last two weekend we've had some pretty large events. After this weekend I'll have a small break before I have to start preparing for a race that my wife is the race director of and the following weekend we're timing the HogEye Marathon, Half Marathon, 5K, and Marathon Relay that typically has around 1,500 in it (probably 1,800 this year).

Sorry for the wait, it's been a busy month on the timing services side. :)

First thing to do is make sure you have the newest update to the software since I've changed how the results kiosk will work (see #7 above or by clicking here).

1. Connect to the wireless router and make sure both computers are on the same homegroup or workgroup.

2. Create a shared folder on the main timing laptop. Right click on a folder, click on "Properties" and use the "Advanced Sharing" button on the Sharing tab.

3. On the main RFID computer, set the "Backup Database Path" in the Options menu to the shared folder.

4. On the results kiosk computer(s) the 'Database Path' should be set to a local file on the computer (probably a RaceTiming.sdf file on the desktop) and point the 'Backup Database Path' to the shared folder on the main computer.

Doing it this way means that there will not be any delay or networking issues on the main RFID laptop since it's simply copying the file to a local folder. When the results kiosk sees that this file is updated, it pulls it over and replacing the current file it's using (which is probably located on the desktop) and then reloads the results. This ensures that the results kiosk loads information as quickly as possible since it's now loading from a local copy of the database instead of trying to pull all of that data across the network.

Press F7 any time you want to update the results kiosk. I've made it so that it will only check for updates every 60 seconds or so, and it will only update the results every 2 minutes (something like that anyways). This way it's not constantly updating itself.

After this has been tested more, I will add an option for the software to automatically send a copy of the database to the backup path (if it's accessible of course) so that you don't have to remember to press F7 every time you want to update the results kiosk. Of course you will be able to turn that on or off from within the Clock screen.

[Alan Bingham]

Now that I know, its not so much a bug, I had the event set to CA but didn't notice the problem until after importing, I just need to know I need to put the State in the Race directors import file. (I've added a bib column to mine also, because I assign the bibs prior to importing - We had a 5K / 10K and the race director wanted the BIBs to be in last name order regardless of which event they were in...so I put the bib number in to a master excel spreadsheet, then I sorted by event, and then I created the import files for each event we were timing that day. 

All in all   I like this software, its very easy to figure out, the pull down windows allow me to switch events while an event is open, and switching athletes from one event to another on the fly is real great too! Great job, when those athletes sign up for the 10K and then show up and then while running decide to not take the fork in the route and only do that 5K. simple little pull up the person and switch the event in that little pull down window.

Thanks for thinking of us. (I'm sure it happened to you and that's why that little pull down is there.) 

[Alan Bingham]

It's an Arkie thing, My in-laws need I say anything more...great bunch of people but I think once an Arkie, always an Arkie, I've been accepted as an honorary Arkie so I am good to go!

[Brian Agee]

Your welcome! 

I'm sure it can be tweaked a little more, but it worked very well at the last two races I timed. The only issue that I was aware of is when you tell the results to display Chip Time instead of Gun Time. For some reason it just would not print a couple of people's labels when Chip Time was selected. I could switch it to Gun and print their time with no problem, but for some reason it would not print their chip time.  Out of ~400 people it only did this for two individuals. Of course when I got home I could print their label with Gun and Chip without any issues. So I'm still not sure why that happened. As soon as I figure it out I'll push another update out and let everyone know it's available.

Oh, and I also found that people sometimes were not aware that their label had already printed as they walked up to the kiosk. So they were standing there waving their tags around wondering why it wasn't working without realizing that their label was already on the printer waiting for them to pick it up. I wish the printout came out face up instead of face down but there is nothing I can do about that.

This week I'm going to look at adding a "Tag Check" feature that will allow us to set up a laptop with a TR200/TR265 and have a station at packet pickup/registration for athletes to check their information. I want athletes be able to scan their tags and view their Name, Gender, Age Division, Athlete Type, and Team (if the race has teams) to confirm it is correct. This would be an easy addition, it would give us a more professional appearance, and of course it give the athletes the ability (and some responsibility) to make sure their information is correct before the race. At the race we timed last weekend we had 7 males that registered as females. That races sells out within 10 minutes, so I'm assuming that in their rush they didn't select the correct gender. I will have this in, and well tested, before our next big race on March 28th.

[SR Aaron]

I noticed this bug a while back and thought I had mentioned it already, but maybe it slipped through the cracks. The Meters to Miles calculation is incorrect when "Creating a Race" or editing a race. If a race is setup using Meters (for example 10,000 for a 10k), the results will be incorrect as the race distance will not be correct.

Until this is fixed, make sure to only use Miles when creating a race. If you accidentally used Meters, you can always edit the race distance and reprint the results.

[Ohio Race Day]

While playing with a triathlon set up, I created a five lap race on the "Edit Race" screen.  After timing my fake race, I noticed when I returned to the "Edit Race" screen, I had lost 4 of the laps from the "Split Descriptions" area.  There was no importing of times from a remote read point.  The triathlon was set up as a five lap race (Swim, T1, Bike, T2, Run) on one computer. Here is a screen shot of what I saw when I returned to the screen.

[Brian Agee]

I'm finally getting a chance to look into this. You're right, when I added that code in I must have assumed that 1 mile equals 1,600 meters since that's what I've always heard at the track in college. Turns out a mile is actually 1,609.34 meters. I researched it and changed how it was calculating the Miles and Meters, so I'm sure it's correct now. Thanks for pointing this out so that I can fix it. I just pushed out an update that has this fix in it. 

I was also informed of another bug over the last couple of days. If you DQ and athlete it will show them with a line through when you view or print the results, however if you export the results to PDF the Strikethrough font is not shown (so there is no way to know they were disqualified). Turns out it's a bug in SQL Server Reporting Services. This is documented here: https://orangerhino.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/6/.  I found one less than ideal workaround that I'll test out and it works well I'll push another update out and let everyone know that it's available.

[Brian Agee]

I just got done testing this with a couple of races and everything I tried worked perfectly. Is there any way you can replicate the issue and then write out a step-by-step guide on how I can replicate the issue?  Thanks!

[Brian Agee]

Ok, I've looked into this some more and I found that if State is not supplied that it does default it to "AR". I have changed this so that it will default it to whichever State you have selected when you create the race. This update is available on the website now. :)

[Kenneth Peters]

Dumb question, did the update change the version number.  I have been updating when you push them, but the version number has never changed.  I ask because I am have some issues with my results kiosk not working exactly like it is suppose to and I want to make sure I do have the most updated version.  Thanks for you help!

[Brian Agee]

The Company Name is stored in the database, so that should not change for any reason if you're just copying the same database from one computer to another. In fact, when I receive databases from customers and print results it always shows their company name instead of mine.

The printer that the program will use is stored in the Registry.config file that is on each computer. So you can copy the database a different computer and the software will know to use whatever printer is hooked up to that computer. When you open the Settings screen it searches your computer and loads a list of printers and it automatically selects whatever you have set as your Default printer. So as you change computers it may select a different printer - but once you set it for that computer it should not change even if you swap databases.

Oh, and I fixed the misspelling with the last update I pushed out. :)

[Ohio Race Day]

Here is a minor issue.  When on the Clock Screen ... The F8 key pops up the Options window.  All good.  But when a setting is changed and saved, the window does not close automatically after clicking "Save"

[Ohio Race Day]

I'm having trouble today syncing with RunSignUp and sending emails.  I got an error message when trying to import a race from RSU.  I had to do it the old way by importing participant info by Excel spreadsheet.  I then got an error message when trying to send myself a test email.  Then the email itself did not go through.  hmmm?  See the attached screen shots.

[Anders]

About "Tag Check", it would be nice if you can fix a report with the ones that has got there tags checked. Then it would be useful at Open Water swim races as the mandatory Safety list of swimmers who has entered in to the start gate. Even better would a "count down" function from this list be, then we can have a Safety station at the finish that automatically reports that all swimmers are back from the Water.

[Ohio Race Day]

We bought a Motorola 8 port FX9500 reader.  The system recognizes it as the 4 port reader even though the two names are distinctly different and both host names were typed in correctly and the 4 port reader is not hooked up.

[Alan Bingham]

I suggest that you assign each reader a fixed IP address and use that instead of the host name

[SR Aaron]

I agree, use a static IP's plus in the software you could disable the other readers and see if it works. I only enable the readers being used at the current time.

[SR Aaron]

Few Bugs I noticed from yesterdays race.

1) When deleting an unassigned bib # while in "Time Race" it will NOT delete unless you highlight the race in the upper left corner of the screen that the bib# belongs to.

2) On the "Open Race" screen if you sort by Finish Times, it sorts by a weird numerical value instead of sorting by time, example it puts runners who finished over 1:39:47.000 before say 22:05.000, 33:59.000, ect when sorting shortest to longest...

3) When doing chip start, and after you're done with the race, if you close the program down and then load it back up, all of the chip start times are changed to weird times (in the milliseconds) I'll take a screen shot if you need.

----------------
FYI to truss people.. Wind will blow your truss right over with just a clock catching the wind (USE sandbags or bricks)

Best Regards,
Aaron

[Brian Agee]

Here is one thing that is important to understand:

The software tries to do everything it can to find and connect to the reader(s). For example if you added the reader to the system using only the HostName , then the software will first try to connect to it by HostName and if it fails it will then try to connect using the Default IP address for Motorola readers. Even if you entered an IP address for the reader and a HostName. The software will first try the IP address you entered, then it will try the HostName you entered, and if both of those fale it then tries the Default IP address for the reader.

Since the 4-port reader was left as "Enabled", the software of course tried to connect to it. It would have tried to connect by HostName first (or by whatever IP address you entered for the 4 port reader), but after failing to connect with whatever you entered it would have tried connecting by the Default IP address - which was probably successful.

The software doesn't know or care if it's a 4-port or 8-port reader. It works with it exactly the same. :)

If you want to test and see if the software can see the reader by HostName or IP Address then you can open Command Prompt (press WINDOWS+R and enter "cmd") and type ping FX9500C87F32 (or whatever your Hostname is of course) or you can try the ipaddress ping 169.254.1.1

If you get a bunch of "Reply From ..." messages then you're good to go.  As long as the computer can see the reader, my software can connect to it.

If you connect both readers to a router, and the router into the laptop you should be able to connect to both readers at the same time using just the HostName. Like others have said, you can log into the reader (enter the hostname or ip in an internet brower window, use 'admin' and 'change' as the username and password) and use Static IP addresses for the reader but I've never needed to do this.