Timing equipment
John Gilmour wrote: "BTW the laptop based timing system used looked really cool, and it looked like the cables and tapeswitches were the source of the problems, not the operators of the timing system or the software itself."
The problems of the timing equipment came from three different sources:
a) The cables being accidentally cut, or their contacts smashed (by ramps, skaters, or people walking). (Water running on both sides didn't seem to help either.) We had many extra tapeswitches, but only one extra extension cable.
b) The USB/Serial port converters just couldn't handle the intense use. We were forced to use these because our lap tops didn't have two serial ports (one for each course) and we were told we could not be sure to have stable electricity and use stationary PC's, as we had planned.
c) Windows XP couldn't handle the heavy use of the USB/Serial port converters, so we had to switch to Windows 2000. Probably once again the fault of the drivers of the USB/Serial port converters.
The operators did an excellent job. Once again thank's to Dan Gesmer and Patrick Bontemps for being on their positions for the whole day.
The timing system was the first of its kind with the following features:
- entirely PC based
- 4 beep start triggering both clocks
- electronic detection of false start
- automatic logging of all times
I think it is promising to have a system with electronic detection of false starts. We know gates works, but people don't necessarily like them, and they are cumbersome to build and bring around. This system promises to be so much cheaper and easier. But more testing needs to be done with the USB/serial converters to get the right brand. Thank's to Marcus Seyffarth at
http://www.EttSexEtt.com for the programming and problem-solving on site.
Marcus will be pleased to present the system, and answer questions in the timing system forum.
