I bet you were using the start and stop buttons on the keypad to generate times.
The TDC 8000 is a very powerful machine for all different sports. A multisport machine has to have options to allow it to follow different rules. The FIS/USSA rule for skiing says that we time to thousands, subtract at thousands, trucate to hundreths. The TDC 8000 always times and prints TOD information to the ten thousands
except when the time split is taken using the manual start or stop button on the keyboard. The times taken by pressing the keyboard only are presented to hundreths. This, and the zeros after the time are to flag the fact that the time was taken manually.
To Recap:
For Alpine Skiing, always select 100ths (hundreths) when asked Precision. This will follow the FIS/USSA rule. Pro style differential should be 1000ths.
You cannot alter the Precision of the race you are currently in. However you can shift to another race or reenter the existing one after the "sync" by pressing:
ALT Menu
Menu 25 ,Change race
Follow menus, and either reenter the existing race or create a new one.
Select 100ths Precision
Continue all the way through
Further Checks:
Check any time that appears on the tape with zeros in the 1000ths and 10000ths position. They could be manually produced. All splits generated by external sensors or buttons print to 10000ths. Use a banana plug wire plugged into the back or a button to simulate.
Check any time that is preceeded by a lower case i. These have been created using the manual input keys.
Check any time preceeded by a lower case c. These are cleared times.
Times preceeded by the ? are the result of pressing the Block key or they are times that are taken after the identified racer already came through. If a big gust of snow blew through the finish just prior to a racer finishing, the second time preceeded by the ? might by the legitimate time and the first one, the snow interference.
General Observations:
Alpine Skiing is quite straightforward. The tape should have an orderly listing of Starts, Finishes and Net times. Any disruption in the flow will show on the tape. Scanning the tape for odd looking print sequences will usually yield time periods to review with the TOD backup system.
The TDC 8000 will not "lose" times. They are merely "misplaced" NEVER shut the machine down before using the menues to find any misplaced times. It is very easy to assign them to the proper racer once the circumstances have been determined.
Originally posted 4 Feb 2001 by Fred Patton
