> Hi Giles -
>
> I've looked into this for another club that I'm in. The JACircuits timer
> does have a data port (or at least an option to have a data port
> installed), and there is software available to capture the output from the
> timer and take care of timing and scoring.
Is the club as large as SFR? I think a system Giles and we are dreaming
about would work fine for an event drawing 60-120 cars, plenty of time
to get all the stuff in.
>
> However, there are two significant issues to automating timing and
> scoring. One is the data entry problem. All of the T&S software that I
> looked at require driver information (at a minimum, class and #) to be
> entered before that car can do a run.
Minimum info for posting on the side of the motorhome should include
class, car # and times. But for complete results, check out the rulebook
page 71...these are to be included "…driver's name (first and last),
hometown, car number, car make, model, year, class, tire manufacturer,
region affiliation, …trophy winners, corrected time for each run (if
any). (Event organizers are encourage to …include the competitor's
sponsors' name.)
Ooops, we don't do all that. !! Don't even have a place on the entry
card for tire info, or region affiliation.
That above covers Tours, Divisionals and Nationals, but regions should
come as close as they can to the same standards. Thus, 10 seconds isn't
quite enough time. Believe me, it takes more than 42 minutes to input
the data after the events, as it would for pre-entry events.
If that takes 10 seconds per driver,
> that means that we will need to spend around 42 minutes entering data for
> our typical 250 driver event. If we eliminated onsite registration and
> went to pre-registration only, we can get all the data into the computer
> before the event. Of course, that means that some poor soul gets stuck
> spending their time entering all the data...but the end result is pretty
> good, as shown by how well it all works at the Divisional.
If folks remember to pre-enter…and we don't change the site/date of the
event!
>
> Also, we need to train a bunch of people to set up and put away
> the computer, too, along with some people who can troubleshoot whatever
> problems may occur.
Care and feeding of the equipment is a BIG problem for us. Heck, we
can't even remember to charge the radios.... We need to keep everything
as simple as possible.
>
> Now, there are ways around the data entry problem. I read on team.net that
> some other region/club is putting together a networked T&S system, so they
> can have multiple data entry stations to speed up registration.
I wonder how many entered at the event? If it's 250, even with multiple
input sites, or even the competitors keying in their own
info...registration could be very slow. :-) But at least we could read
it! (Unlike Sunday's event with few if any entry cards.)
But then again, pre-reg would cut down on the entry numbers, wouldn't
it? :-)
--Pat Kelly
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