MOWOG IV Timing, & an apology

[jberman]

Hi everyone,

Today's event marked the first use of the club's new timing hardware, and despite the couple of problems (having the computer assign heats (which caused the delay in the driver's meeting while we did that manually), missing 20 registrations at the beginning of the day, and a few runaway timers (caused by putting cones where they could easily be knocked in front of the beams - good lesson for next time: keep the cones away from the lights)) I think it went very well.

If any of you have any constructive feedback to the timing process, please speak up! My take-away from today is that before the next MOWOG I'm going to make up some posters explaining the registration process - it went pretty smoothly for most of the time, but occassionally things got SNAFU'd. I'm thinking of something simple, like "Follow these steps: 1. Sign waver, get wristband. 2. Get number. 3. Get Tech'd. 4. Pay. 5. Walk course", along with signs saying "Step 1", "Step 2" etc... for each position. Hopefully that'll smooth out the flow and cut down on the amount of process explanation Paul & Co. have to do :-)

On the timing front, thanks are due to many: I believe it was Jeremy Engel who did the research into the timing software & hardware; to board for saying OK to buying it; and to Mike Davis & I for spending about 8 hours yesterday learning the in's & out's of the software, and building the nifty (if I do say so myself) timing light stands. Also, a HUGE thanks to Rex for dropping by Mike's place yesterday after I left in frustration due to the system breaking down, and figuring out what was causing the system to not work at all, so that we were able to use it today (hardware problem with one of the timing lights - which will be fixed soon... glad we bought a spare!)

Now for the apology: I apologize to anyone I may have offended or made uncomfortable this morning when I dropped just about every "bomb" I could think of (F-bomb, GD-bomb, maybe the S-bomb) while I was trying to make the heats work in the software. There's no excuse for that kind of behavior, and I'll do my best not to say those kind of things @ an autocross again.

Now all we have to get is a trailer :-)

- Josh B.

[Bob Fogt]

Don't worry about that, Josh. When I'm working in the studio and things go south, I'm very much "What do you want, can't you see I'm busy? Go away!" I did approach the timing table at one time today to see what was going on, saw myself in your place, and beat a hasty retreat. Been there, done that - who hasn't?

It was great to actually see the times posted with such promptness today, even though the display wasn't working. (Any chance this can be done in a Reader's Digest print size for the older folks with bifocals? Not me, you understand, I'm just asking for others!)

Thanks,
Bob

[Jon Kotek]

Josh,

Can you email me the final results in comma delimited form? I would like to setup either in excel or access to pump the data in. Then hopefully by next event we should be able to have the results up by monday/tuesday.

Email me at jkotek@madgenius.com


Thanks!

Jon

[SaturnRaycer]

I couldn't agree more with your assessment Josh. Things went very well. From the tech standpoint, we need to make sure people have their numbers before they come to us. You addressed that in your comments. It's an easy fix.

I sent a recommendation to the board this morning to authorize the purchase of a PCMIA card that will add a port to our computer for the display. This will give event participants a view of their run at the end of the run rather than waiting for the info from the course marshall.

A big Well-Done to everyone who pitched in yesterday - especially Bill Owen, Drew Baumbach, Jeremy Engel and the whole timing/registration crew. Thanks also to Tim Engel and Don Gettinger for shagging pylons during the "Driver Instructional Runs"

[ZETECF1]

I heard Dwight mention that our timing board won't work with the new software. Is this correct?

[jberman]

Mike Davis has had a couple of conversations with the guy who wrote the new timing software, who indicated he would be willing to write a driver to drive our display w/ his software. This will take some time to get working, but I would put the chances at better than 50% that we'll get the display working with the new system.

- Josh

[Peter Hsu]

Cool that was one of my questions.

(about the timing display)

[Jeremy Engel]

I also think that we need to talk to Vitek about getting the new box that has the display out built in.

I also have access to a Color Plotter. So if you want photo quality posters to help with the registration, type up what you want them to say and I can print them off in a very huge way...free...

Jeremy

[SaturnRaycer]

I asked the same question about getting the updated box from Vitek. According to Mike Davis, that box works only with the RaceAmerica Display. RaceAmerica displays are either $800 for a 4" high LED display or $1400 for a 6" display. Not exactly the way to go.

[Bob Fogt]

I wasn't at the last MAC meeting and wasn't privy to any of the discussion that lead up to the purchase of our new timing system (plus I don't understand how these things operate in the first place), so please be patient with a couple of ignorant questions.

Why was it decided to purchase a system that is incompatible with the display board that we already own? Does the system offer great features that make the display of secondary importance? Or is there hope that they can eventually be made to work together? If this incompatibility was discovered after the purchase, wouldn't the supplier be willing to provide a refund or exchange so that we can have compatible components?

Please understand that there is no criticism intended in these questions - I just don't know how all this stuff works and I'm curious how we arrived where we are, and where we hope to go from here. It really is great to see the results available on a printed page so soon after the runs, and also to see them in such a readable format on the website!

Thanks to all those who understand this mysterious stuff and are willing to put in the time and effort to make it work.

Bob