Capture Button Question

We experienced this several years ago and it was a "shorting" out cable in the capture button. We had it repaired and it has worked fine ever since. I suspect that to be your issue.

Of course you can change back to keyboard capture under file > options > setting, which would likely have been what I did tonight. Disadvantage is that you can't evaluate while capture is enabled.

Also if you don't have auto-capture I think you will find it the best investment you have made in Lynx. Contact me if you would like to buy a copy of it and I will get you set with it. That basically makes the capture button something you only use in a rare circumstance.

They usually go bad right where they go into the capture button sleeve or barrel for lack of a different way to describe it. People tend to rest them on a table stressing the end of the cable or crimp them when rolling them for storage. We are careful to leave all of our cables "relaxed" when storing them without any sharp bends and it seems to extend their life.

Good luck.

We have had a couple of capture button cables go bad over using them since 1992. The button itself has never been the issue. It has been in the molded cable.

Cheap to buy a spare.

OK...We took your advice and used the Auto Capture Mode today for the first time and I have to admit, I liked it. It worked flawlessly.

Does anyone have any sort of Advanced Auto Capture Manual? Since this is our first time to use the AC, I would like to know if there are features of this method that we are not aware of.

Tnanks

Wait, you had auto-capture and weren't using it? Silly boy!

Bet you now wish you had that going earlier. When I sell a camera I try very hard to ALWAYS convince them to add it as a feature because it is that good. It makes running a camera look like the difference between driving a manual transmission truck in heavy downtown traffic and driving an automatic transmission sedan on a deserted toll road.

The main things to understand are these:
1. under capture check manual AND automatic so that you can use the capture button if you wish (suddenly changed light conditions ... manual capture to be safe until you can change exposure). Also click button over-ride when setting the com port of your capture button.

2. there is a threshold set to ten by default -- this senses the percentage in change in the image and if there is a change starts saving the image -- in low light or challenging conditions you can change this to a lower number like 5 and this will increase sensitivity, so if you have poor lighting and miss the start of kids, turn that down (you will see "half captures at that point"). As you get better you anticipate this and increase gain, turn your light filter on the front of the camera (if you have one) to low light, open up the aperture (suffering focus sometimes) and turn down the threshold. You can also increase the lead and trail (how much before and after the change it also saves). Sometimes with long shadows (they look cool but elongate the image to be evaluated) you can turn down the trail for example.

If you are capturing leaves blowing or minor changes due to wind "flexing" your [well anchored hopefully] camera, try turning it up.

Seriously anybody not owning auto-capture contact me. I'd love to fit you with your own copy and you won't regret it ... it eliminates all of the dead space between athletes, you can evaluate distance runners as they are passing you instead of after they all finish. Same for in lane races. Your evaluation speed will drop to 50% or less of the time you are currently using in that process and the meet will really pick up speed on your end. It won't be 120 minutes of stress and you can throw away your red flag and just let them shoot.

Convinced?

Anyway I hope that the above gives you what you need in terms of a simple primer.

--
Don
http://michianatiming.com
616-821-3156
FinishLynx Operators and Dealers
Hytek Certified Independent Timing Contractors
Chip Timers

Don,

Thanks a bunch for the info and suggestions. We don't really why we had not used the AC before other than we really didn't know we even had the Add-On until the Capture Button thing last week. We use a local high schools finishlynx system and didn't realize they had that option purchased.

We aren't really concerned about trying to read the pictures during the race as we use two computers all the time and sometimes use three computers to Capture, Read, and Hy-Tek. If we just use two, we capture on one computer and read and Hy-Tek on the other(normal setup).

Seems that I have heard or read somewhere that you can set the FinishLynx to start capturing at a certain time after the start. Can you enlighten me on this?

Thanks for all your help.

yes, you can enter a "start time" with the ACM module:

quote:

Timed/ACM
With this setup, the operator should select the camera listing in the Information Zone,
click on the blue Camera Information icon, and set the capture method to manual in the
Capture tab of the Camera Information dialog.
The software will automatically advance the Capture function to the next Split Location at
a predetermined time after the gun. To set the times when capture is possible follow the
steps below.
• Click on the Results line in the desired Split Location. Two fields are available:
Start and Duration.
• In the Start field, enter the time after gun when you want capture to be available
and then press the Tab key.
• If the duration field is left blank then capture will be possible in this Split Location
up and until capture is advanced to the next Split Location. If a value is entered in
the Duration field, then capture will be available for this period of time, or until
capture is advanced.
Note: Capture always moves to the latest Split Location if two are configured to
be active at the same time.
Capture will take place whenever there is sufficient activity at the finish line to satisfy the
requirements of the ACM settings.

quote:

We aren't really concerned about trying to read the pictures during the race as we use two computers all the time and sometimes use three computers to Capture, Read, and Hy-Tek. If we just use two, we capture on one computer and read and Hy-Tek on the other(normal setup).

I guess I'd still evaluate during the event. The other computer can pick it up a soon as you save it and finish the job, but results output should increase.

How much is Auto-Capture? Please don't ask me to contact you for a quote, just post the price.

5LACM Virtual PhotoEye Unit & Auto Capture plug-in for FinishLynx

Allows any EtherLynx camera to act as a photo eye and send pause & stop signals to running clocks. Also allows automatic capture of any object moving across the finish line.

Another advantage if you run a scoreboard ... it will send a pause or stop signal.

$695

you can see a complete list of plugins here:
http://www.vsathletics.com/sto...oftware-Plugins.html

Be sure you include your school/organizations name when buying, Lynx must have it to issue a serial #.