First Laps Timing Issues

So many are wondering why we had delays due to timing issues at the
first TSSCC event. First of all let me say that it was not due to
anyone doing anything incorrectly. Everyone who worked timing did a
fantastic job. All the new timing equipment and software had been
tested for several hours by me and John Foster before the event and
found to be functioning well, but as anyone in the computer industry
knows, Lab testing and real world testing are two different animals.

The problems started immediately, even before the event started. We
had lots of trouble getting the finish lights to line up due to the
uneven pavement on both sides of the finish line, plus having to get
the timing head and reflector as far apart as possible to avoid having
them run over didn't help.

Next enter the problems during registration. The Axware software would
reset many fields on the registration screen for no apparent reason
and registration did the best they could to deal with it but the
software had a mind of its own and was the cause of many people having
the wrong class or number or even being missing from the computer.

Finally the event started. We had our new computer running timing and
for the first time, we had an announcer computer. It was even hooked
up by wireless so the announcer was outside the timing van (which
actually made communuication in the van much easier). For the first
heat, we had many people who had missing registrations from the
computer, or wrong class (HS WRX STI? I dont think so) or number.
These needed to be fixed before letting those people run or bigger
problems would occur. A few times we had to stop the start to fix some
minor problems, plus the large delay due to Dave Debords problems with
the M3 made for a very long first heat. In addition, we found that the
software was creating some very bizzare printouts with the PAX'ed
classes spread out all over the place and many people just plain
missing from them. Also on each successive report, the best time
column on the right kept getting moved more an more right until it was
off the page.

Second heat had no one to work the computer mainly because so many
experienced people are running in Pro. I worked the first set of runs
and had to again fix numbers and classes and add people causing a few
more delays. Then I handed it over to my co-chief, John Foster so he
could get some experience before I had to take my runs. Things went
reasonably well for the first half of second heat, but about halfway
through, the serial adaptor we use to connect the USB port on the
computer to the serial port on the Timer just stopped working. We
tried for a good 10 minutes to get that stupid thing to work but to no
avail. We will have to come up with solution for the serial port
adaptor problem (port replicator or docking station) for the next
event. To keep the event running, John Foster actually manually
entered the times for everyone for half of the second runs and all of
the third runs for the second half of heat two. In the mean time, the
good news was that the Announcer computer was working well and not
having any problems. Rick Ruth even made positive comment about the
setup.

For heat three, there was no way we could possibly expect the computer
person to enter all the times manually, so since the announcer
computer has a functional serial port, we swapped the files to the
announcer computer and hooked it up as the main timing computer. This
got us automatic time entry back, but unfortunately it was setup for
printing through the network. Once the heat got started, things went
reasonably smoothly. A big thanks goes to Tracey Ramsey who ran the
computer 3rd heat, who even managed to get us caught up on audit
updates to the computer, since we had missed many of them during the
previous heat due to having to enter times manually for a while.
Everything went pretty well that heat except for a few minor problems.

Than came fourth heat. Things started off smoothly, but the first time
the computer operator went to print, the timing software crashed.
Turns out that even though we setup windows so it wouldn't put either
computer to sleep when plugged in, it still put computer to sleep that
was being now used as our network link to the printer (i.e the
computer that started the day as the Timing computer). For some reason
this causes Axware to crash. This caused a few entries to be lost but,
as always, we had the master timing log to work from. This is another
reason why we run this redundant setup, with the times recorded both
by hand by one person and by computer, (as well as the penalties by
hand by another person and computer). It took some time to get that
straightened out and everything running smoothly. When we tried to
print again, it crashed again so now we didn't want to chance another
crash to get printouts so we didn't do any posting during the 4th heat
due to this. Besides the results printouts where getting more and more
screwy anyway.

At the end of the event we fixed the problems that people had told us
about and as we started to audit the results, found that the software
was was screwing up and for anyone who had more than 1 time entered
manually, it was only showing times for up to the first manually
entered time. The staging log still shows all the runs, so none are
lost, but getting the software to associate the staging log runs as
recorded with the registration entry seems to only be possible with a
fix from Axware unless I can figure something else out. The problems
with the printouts have been fixed in the latest update but I have not
tried it out yet, but will be applied, along with the fixes for the
missing entries, before the next event.

So the fact that we all got 6 runs was due to the people who went
above and beyond the call of duty to manage to get recorded times for
everyone, despite a laundry list of problems. We also had several new
people in the van who did an fantastic job in a stressful environment.
Hopefully the next event will go smoother as we work the bugs out
more. Maybe I will even be able to sit down at the next event when I'm
not driving.

Tonight I am going to do all I can to get the results straightened
out. My wife (Mary-Lynette) who wasn't even at the event, Barbara
Parks and Dan Bosser have offered to audit it all and identify any
problems as well. So in other words, dont expect to see me at the
TSSCC meeting tonight.

John Moore
TSSCC Timing Co-Chief