Very concerning errors during race

[Paulo Medina]

This is going to be a tad complicated to explain, but i'll do my best.

We were timing our own race today with 3 distances, 10mi, 10k, and 5k. Total of 494 runners registered within all 3 distances. We used Runsignup as our registartion platform, then created the race on ART using the account feature. 

Our issues were the following:

1. As we were timing the race, some runners were not being picked up by the system, when we entered their bib number manually, the system on ART timing screen would add a whole list of red lines as shown in the pictures, and would not even add the person in question to the bottom of the finishers list, but when we looked up the person under quick results, their results would be there. 
2. As we were timing, we continued to push results to RSU, I was using an ipad to get results and do age group awards. From time to time we had people not showing on RSU, I figured we missed their time, so Id enter their time into the ART manually and got the added screen of red results, but then when I looked up the runner under quick results, the runners would have their actual time, not the delayed time added when they were asking for AG awards, but the time in fact they came in originally, but that created issue #3. 
3. This issue is along the lines of #2. During the AG awards we had a lady who in her phone was showing 1st place AG, but then another lady protested she had ran faster, but her time was not on ART, therefore not on RSU, but when we added her bib manually, it actually showed her original finished time, not the delayed time, but the actual time finished, and then when we pushed results, it would bump the lady who was originally shown first, to now second.... Again, this is without us updating her finished time. 

I understand that the above description is probably poorly explained, but I am hoping we can figure out why this is happening. 

Equipment used. 

Feibot mat 7 antennas 

1 Motorolla antenna on tripod

fx9500 Motorolla reader. 

Software Version 6.0

Link to video scrolling through the results showing all of the red line of finishers. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/2pQdzXh3tEEkqZBH7

[Paulo Medina]

Another issue, bib 1018 had to be entered manually, we entered it at 2:14:57hrs into the race, it gave the runner a time of 1:18hrs. We in fact know we entered manually at 2:14 as we know this runner personally, but the time shown on our results is 1:18...

[Steve Hudson]

Paulo, you may want to check the runner’s Chip Start on the Athlete’s list on the Clock Screen, whether or not you used the Chip Start feature, as occasionally - in more recent times -  I have had a chip start applied for no reason.

[Craig MacIntyre]

I have had this happen and it was due to a stuck key.  Essentially a hardware error that kept screwing up input.

[Paulo Medina]

@Steve, how would the chip start create this issue? We did do chip start, just wondering why would the chip start create this issue? 

[Paulo Medina]

@Craig, that was not our issue, no key was stuck. If a key was stuck, why would it only happen when it we entered a number, if stuck, it would happen all of the time, also, how does that explain the difference in time, or the fact than when a bib was entered, it showed their original finished time? There are so many layers to this issue. 

[Ted Finch]

Just a thought:

Could timing 3 races at the same time be a factor? 
Was there a need to select a race then add the bib number otherwise the bib may be allocated to the wrong race..

Were bibs duplicated across races?

Red line is a time with no runner. I don't use RSU but perhaps runner data was not being imported or updated?

( Graphic shows a red 0 at top left which suggests no reader currently connected.)

Ted

[Brian Agee]

I tried to respond two days ago but I mistakenly selected "respond back to author" instead of 'respond back to all". Since Craig was the last post on the thread at the time it send the message only to him. Here is what I wrote:

"Wow, I haven't heard of this happening before. As Craig said, I would expect something crazy happened with the spacebar (or the USB plunger if you have one of those) and it was somehow held down during that time and it captured a ton of unassigned times.

As Steve said, the only reason why printed results (or the quick results display) would show something different than what you see on the left side of the Clock screen is if there was a chip start time for bib #1018. You can test this by viewing the report and telling it to base the time on "gun" time instead of the default "chip" time.

I'm also curious what "file version" you're running, I know you said you're running 6.0, but if you click on the "Help" menu what does it have listed as the file version number? The newest update is 1.6.0.12."

I see now that you feel pretty confident that it was not a sticky key. I just double checked the code and when manually entering a bib # or pressing the spacebar, there isn't any part of the code that could get stuck in a repetitive loop and create a ton of unassigned times. So I'm at a loss as to what could have happened. Was the clock/program frozen at any time while you were timing the race?

[Paulo Medina]

This happened only when we entered a bib manually, every time. 

As Steve said, the only reason why printed results (or the quick results display) would show something different than what you see on the left side of the Clock screen is if there was a chip start time for bib #1018. You can test this by viewing the report and telling it to base the time on "gun" time instead of the default "chip" time.

• That doesnt seem to be the issue, I just looked at bib 1014, which is a friend of mine and  his time was off by 54min. The time shown on our screen is 54 min faster than he ran, he doesnt have a chip time, better explained, he has a 0.00 coefficient of chip time. We had to enter his bib manually. 

File version 1.6.0.11

[Tim Irvine]

I have a few thoughts on this. 

But first, you had 3 races going on? Did they all start at the same time? or did they have time offsets? (6am, 6:30am, 7am....) Or were there wave starts for the same race?

   I ask because, if you put the bib in the wrong start race or wave and manually enter the time, they would account for the wrong time showing. The software is calculating the start offset versus the running time and either adding or deleting time.  That is one possibility.

Also, if you had stepdown races running and put them into one of those clocks, that could also explain.

But I think the more likely issue is this, and you can check to confirm:

I think you had the same entry in 2 or more of the events (bib and information). Even if you had all clocks running, the software is fighting itself over where to assign the chip read between the 2 or more events. Likely it put the read in the wrong event. In this case ART sees it has already finished, so ignores it, so it doesn't also put it in the right race.

   I had this happen not long ago. It was my fault. I do not sync to registration sites, so I manually import from a spreadsheet every time. Therefore I made the mistake. To fix this I deleted the participant from the event they were not supposed to be in and ART automatically assigned the time to the same bib number in the right race.

   Not saying this is what happened, but this might be what happened. Best of luck!

[Paulo Medina]

Thank you for the input and brainstorming, but none of that applies in this case. Our 3 races had a lapsed time in between them, but the difference in time does not match the starting time, every race started 15 min apart, one runner example mentioned above has a 54 min difference..... this runner nor any of the other runners in question are registered in multiple events. 

I am still dissapointed nothing has come out of this. I was hoping there would be more interest to find a solution by now.