Yacht race timing software
The Real Andy
A while ago in this forum, some asked about software for timing races.
Being a starter and a race time keeper who is also a programmer I have
put a lot of thought into this over the last year. I think I have come
up with something that may work, and I am in the process of writing
it. I would like to hear other peoples opinions on what they think
would be usefull. I intend to write a couple of version that are very
simple but are more or less intended to see how people use it.
Andy Champ
It's alive. Just not very...
We do all our results with sailwave. It'd be great if they could be
linked in some way.
But the trouble with computers and results is that water and computers
don't make happy partners.
Andy
The Real Andy
wrote:
We also use Sailwave, so my intention was to work with it! Mames my
life easier. Actually, my long term goal is to integrate all the
functionality of sailwave into my program, but they will no doubt take
me years. A lot of time has gone into sailwave.
Agree on the water aspect, hence the reason I would always have pen
and paper as backup. We are lucky at SYC in that we have a big bathtub
(lifeboat) which came of a large ship and is relativley dry. Still
cop a wave now and then. I have looked at the possibilty of using
waterproof touch screen PC's, but they are not cheap. The other option
is to write the software to work on those $300 EeePC's. That way if
you do cop a wave its not going to be as expensive as a $1500 laptop.
jg
Our secretary and resident electronic eng'r wrote one which is now used
for all the starts, cycles through the sequences on a laptop.
It can also record finish times picked from lists on screen with the
mouse, then calculate elapsed times.
He was almost ready to put a touch screen with it (he seemed to think
cheap ones were available), but most users think it's too hard to find
boats on the screen and pick them off at the right time so we still
finish them manually.
I saw a system advertised which has a handheld button you push for every
finisher while the boat numbers are written down - match all those click
times with boats later.
Our whiz added that facility to our system, but either lack of faith or
something about the logic of it seems to have blighted its acceptance. I
thought it might because the whole committee were slow to grasp what is
a very simple concept when I explained it.
The Real Andy
>The Real Andy wrote:
>> This is a big test, seeing if this forum is still alive!
>>
>> A while ago in this forum, some asked about software for timing races.
>> Being a starter and a race time keeper who is also a programmer I have
>> put a lot of thought into this over the last year. I think I have come
>> up with something that may work, and I am in the process of writing
>> it. I would like to hear other peoples opinions on what they think
>> would be usefull. I intend to write a couple of version that are very
>> simple but are more or less intended to see how people use it.
>
>
>Our secretary and resident electronic eng'r wrote one which is now used
>for all the starts, cycles through the sequences on a laptop.
>
>It can also record finish times picked from lists on screen with the
>mouse, then calculate elapsed times.
>
>He was almost ready to put a touch screen with it (he seemed to think
>cheap ones were available), but most users think it's too hard to find
>boats on the screen and pick them off at the right time so we still
>finish them manually.
My idea was not to pick from a list, but rather type the sail number
in and click a button to finish. I could change it so that when you
type a number is starts suggesting which boat it may be.
>
>I saw a system advertised which has a handheld button you push for every
>finisher while the boat numbers are written down - match all those click
>times with boats later.
>
>Our whiz added that facility to our system, but either lack of faith or
>something about the logic of it seems to have blighted its acceptance. I
>thought it might because the whole committee were slow to grasp what is
>a very simple concept when I explained it.
>
I have a good working proto, maybe I should post it somewhere so you
can get an idea of how it works. I suggested the idea at a committee
meeting this week and no one really seemed that interested, or talked
it down due to laptop and electricity + water. Mind you, its always me
taking down the times, not them...
jg
> On Sat, 23 May 2009 06:28:03 GMT, jg <j...@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> The Real Andy wrote:
>>> This is a big test, seeing if this forum is still alive!
>>>
>>> A while ago in this forum, some asked about software for timing races.
>>> Being a starter and a race time keeper who is also a programmer I have
>>> put a lot of thought into this over the last year. I think I have come
>>> up with something that may work, and I am in the process of writing
>>> it. I would like to hear other peoples opinions on what they think
>>> would be usefull. I intend to write a couple of version that are very
>>> simple but are more or less intended to see how people use it.
>>
>> Our secretary and resident electronic eng'r wrote one which is now used
>> for all the starts, cycles through the sequences on a laptop.
>>
>> It can also record finish times picked from lists on screen with the
>> mouse, then calculate elapsed times.
>>
>> He was almost ready to put a touch screen with it (he seemed to think
>> cheap ones were available), but most users think it's too hard to find
>> boats on the screen and pick them off at the right time so we still
>> finish them manually.
>
> My idea was not to pick from a list, but rather type the sail number
> in and click a button to finish. I could change it so that when you
> type a number is starts suggesting which boat it may be.
>
With sail numbers up to 6 digits and many boats finishing almost
simultaneously, I think there will always need to be a lead and a lag
time while you try to predict finishing order then from memory confirm
or correct mistakes. There needs to be tolerance in any system for such
things as slow spotters, obscured sails, finish line incidents etc.
There are not always helpers, but does your system actually make good
use of them when they are available?
>> I saw a system advertised which has a handheld button you push for every
>> finisher while the boat numbers are written down - match all those click
>> times with boats later.
>>
>> Our whiz added that facility to our system, but either lack of faith or
>> something about the logic of it seems to have blighted its acceptance. I
>> thought it might because the whole committee were slow to grasp what is
>> a very simple concept when I explained it.
>>
>
> I have a good working proto, maybe I should post it somewhere so you
> can get an idea of how it works. I suggested the idea at a committee
> meeting this week and no one really seemed that interested, or talked
> it down due to laptop and electricity + water. Mind you, its always me
> taking down the times, not them...
People who don't do it or haven't for a long time, just don't visualise
themselves there and don't appreciate the challenges. They probably
don't know what problems you are trying to solve and don't feel
qualified to comment.
The Real Andy
Handle all that!
>
>There are not always helpers, but does your system actually make good
>use of them when they are available?
It could do. At this stage its a one man operation, but an external
numeric keypad could mean another person could key in sail numberrs as
the arrive.
>
>>> I saw a system advertised which has a handheld button you push for every
>>> finisher while the boat numbers are written down - match all those click
>>> times with boats later.
>>>
>>> Our whiz added that facility to our system, but either lack of faith or
>>> something about the logic of it seems to have blighted its acceptance. I
>>> thought it might because the whole committee were slow to grasp what is
>>> a very simple concept when I explained it.
>>>
>>
>> I have a good working proto, maybe I should post it somewhere so you
>> can get an idea of how it works. I suggested the idea at a committee
>> meeting this week and no one really seemed that interested, or talked
>> it down due to laptop and electricity + water. Mind you, its always me
>> taking down the times, not them...
>
>
>People who don't do it or haven't for a long time, just don't visualise
>themselves there and don't appreciate the challenges. They probably
>don't know what problems you are trying to solve and don't feel
>qualified to comment.
>
What I will do, is to create an installer next week and I will put it
up on our clubs website. Might let people have a play with it and see
what they think. It needs some work to the UI to make it look decent,
but for the best part its still functional.
Spray EasyTimer
discussing. Just click on the pictures of boats on the screen as they
cross the line.
Version 1 is currently available and is very simple to use.
Version 2 is currently nearing the end of development and allows you
to type in the last few digits of boats numbers in order to find
them. It also allows you to finish boats anonymously until such time
that you can specify who it was.
See http://SprayEasyTimer.webs.com for more information
The Real Andy
Still have not done this yet, work got the better of me. Also the
course calulator has taken over timing software!