Here at FIS World Cup in Lake Louise, we've been testing a new TAG Heuer timer prototype, the TAG Heuer HL540.
Since laptops are no longer made with serial ports, serial comms have become a dead end, and USB has proven a poor solution for mission-critical timing applications.
After unsuccessfully and repeatedly beating various timing equipment manufacturers over the head for over a decade to add a TCP/IP interface, I was somewhat stunned to find out that TAG Heuer has finally responded with the HL540.
A tip of my hat and a big thumbs-up to Jean Campiche and the design team at TAG Heuer. This prototype will be in production shortly.
Commercial releases of the various flavors of Skunkware already support timer comms via TCP/IP, so full support for the HL540 will precede the product's release to the public.
Even if I still use a couple of laptops with serial ports the new CP 540 with TCP/IP interface is welcome. We received our CP 540 timer a week ago and it feels great. The software we use in Sweden (SSF Timing) does not support the new interface yet but the latest from Vola does so we can use Ski Pro if we want to. I have never liked to use USB adapters for timing as they feels to unreliable.
The latest version of SSF Timing (2007 update 2)used in Sweden supports the CP540, used it this weekend. It works with laptop, HL960 display together with 2 USB / COM interfaces.
I will be using the 540 over Ethernet for my first race tomorrow. Set-up was easy once I dealt with an IP conflict. With SST if you are set to LAN but don't have a timer connected, you will get a cascading error message from a network timeout.
Now if I can only get my guys to use it. Had 3 computers running SST at same time off one 540 with eithernet splitter. Timming room starting to look like starship control center.
You don't need a 540 to do that. You can manually split any serial data with a serial splitter which is easy to build (or buy) or buy a Serial Device Server (I am hooked) from a company like Quatech or Moxa, though broadcasting serial data across a network is not always possible with all software as SST needs a virtual com port and doesn't like to share the way Skunkware does. Jenna
Trying to run at least 2 computers off one timer in case we lose computer a. Agree that USB and serial spliters can do it to. Love ease of Ethernet. Only trouble I've had is when my Ethernet plug came apart from motherboard. had to finish up using serial connection. Q for you is it legal to do so in middle of run? Timer and software are still the same? Thanks in advance for info. N.
You can change the computer attached to a timer whenever you like. It has nothing to do with the times. I would print the net times off the timer and verify every time was correct for that run in whatever software you were using to do data processing to make sure I didn't miss any times. This is a good process you don't see commonly happen anymore.
emember, there is no rule you must even have 1 computer connected to the timers, let alone 2 or 3. I only run one computer connected to a timer in general and haven't lost a computer in the middle of the race in a few years though I have heard it happens occasionally. No big deal if it does, restart, and keep going, no need to even stop the race. Just add the few net times that weren't sent to the software while the computer was down, or if your timer doesn't calculate net times, just calcualte them or add the TODs to the software (in SST's case)or to whatever software you are running and let it calculate the net times.
