Jenna,
No disrespect meant. Just frustrated that in 2009 we are still hooked to a wire. The FIS wireless 2002 protocall says "ANY". That is a very broad word. Finish eyes would still be hard wired to TOD Homologated Timers with printers. All Start TOD's would be checked and all finish TOD's would be checked. I would be glad to present this option to the North American timing group for review, interpretation, and approval. Let me know.
N.
OK, so if System A and System B are connected via hardwire to the photocells. What is Timer 5 for?
Jenna,
Need Timer 5 for unofficial results hooked to the TED and SST Lap top/scoreboard sitting in the regular heated timing office. Other 4 timers would not be wired to computer. This gives orginizers option to run the race when regular wired Start and wired finish cannot be used.
N.
Need Timer 5 for unofficial results hooked to the TED and SST Lap top/scoreboard sitting in the regular heated timing office. Other 4 timers would not be wired to computer. This gives orginizers option to run the race when regular wired Start and wired finish cannot be used.
N.
Hmmmmm..... now your intentions are quite evident, and unfortunately deeply wrong.
I personally think that your proposal is -please apologize me for being quite strong- really ill conceived even before being FIS-unacceptable.
You are trying to drive scoreboards, info, pc, actually alle the timing with a timer that actually has nothing to do with the competition itself, being a system outside the rules.
The official timing will be left alone in shoe boxes near the finish line. Oh my.
While I have no idea about the problems you may encounter to run some cables in your finish area, I believe that FIS did a good thing by deciding to set up strong rules for timing.
Rules that mostly help avoiding possible issues. Issues that are surely coming with such an installation.
You have here the opportunity to get help from highly experienced people like the ones who wrote before me. My suggestion is to follow exactly the diagrams and leave away the rest.
If the someone (the resort?) decided to host an USSA or FIS event, and the rules require wired connections, then wired connections should be available. No exceptions.
I personally think that your proposal is -please apologize me for being quite strong- really ill conceived even before being FIS-unacceptable.
You are trying to drive scoreboards, info, pc, actually alle the timing with a timer that actually has nothing to do with the competition itself, being a system outside the rules.
The official timing will be left alone in shoe boxes near the finish line. Oh my.
While I have no idea about the problems you may encounter to run some cables in your finish area, I believe that FIS did a good thing by deciding to set up strong rules for timing.
Rules that mostly help avoiding possible issues. Issues that are surely coming with such an installation.
You have here the opportunity to get help from highly experienced people like the ones who wrote before me. My suggestion is to follow exactly the diagrams and leave away the rest.
If the someone (the resort?) decided to host an USSA or FIS event, and the rules require wired connections, then wired connections should be available. No exceptions.
fdariz,
Amen,
Jenna
Amen,
Jenna
Read the FIS Wireless Timing System Precisions from Nov 2002. Clearly it states "ANY additional wireless solution from ANY manufacturer may be used." after the 4 timers are in place at the start and finish. Diagram needs to be ammended to match the Precision.
So after the athletes arrive at the site and plan on racing. We have to send them home because we can't finish where we have wires? I have had this unfortunate experience once too often. Best intrest of the athlete and sport is my intention.
So after the athletes arrive at the site and plan on racing. We have to send them home because we can't finish where we have wires? I have had this unfortunate experience once too often. Best intrest of the athlete and sport is my intention.
I won't try any longer to explain what may be wrong or what may be right, because it is beyond my personal knowledge, beyound the purposes of an user forum. Moreover there is people supposed to do that far better than me.
If you have further doubts, ask USSA or FIS for a written statement. That's all.
Let me just ask you a couple of questions.
1) How will you deal with all the problems related to matching the official TODs later on?
There is a good chance that you may get ties that "were" not ties, just because of a .001 drift between the official timing and what you sent to the scoreboard, to the pc, to the announcer.....
You may have also inversions in the results, and even a new winner.... eventually half an hour later...
What will you say? Will you tell 'em that "the official timing in the shoe boxes at the finish shows new evidence"?
If I were you I won't be wearing a windjacket that day. I would choose a bulletproof protection!
2) Nobody hads doubt about your intentions towards the athletes. But rules are rules, and you already do the best for the athletes by simply following them. "Best intentions" cannot help. NO WAY.
3) Sometimes there are so many easy solutions to get through....
-a cable reel..even half a mile would be not that heavy and cost just some bucks;
-a radio modem from BlackBox or Xstream may send you the daytimes to the heated timing hut:
http://www.blackbox.com/Store/...ess/n-4294966713/p-0
http://www.digi.com/technology...00_2400solutions.jsp
-finally, if there are wires from the start to the finish (you didn't mention this possibility) you can connect the timers by wire and then use your TED to send the serial output from the finish to the timing hut.
If you have further doubts, ask USSA or FIS for a written statement. That's all.
Let me just ask you a couple of questions.
1) How will you deal with all the problems related to matching the official TODs later on?
There is a good chance that you may get ties that "were" not ties, just because of a .001 drift between the official timing and what you sent to the scoreboard, to the pc, to the announcer.....
You may have also inversions in the results, and even a new winner.... eventually half an hour later...
What will you say? Will you tell 'em that "the official timing in the shoe boxes at the finish shows new evidence"?
If I were you I won't be wearing a windjacket that day. I would choose a bulletproof protection!
2) Nobody hads doubt about your intentions towards the athletes. But rules are rules, and you already do the best for the athletes by simply following them. "Best intentions" cannot help. NO WAY.
3) Sometimes there are so many easy solutions to get through....
-a cable reel..even half a mile would be not that heavy and cost just some bucks;
-a radio modem from BlackBox or Xstream may send you the daytimes to the heated timing hut:
http://www.blackbox.com/Store/...ess/n-4294966713/p-0
http://www.digi.com/technology...00_2400solutions.jsp
-finally, if there are wires from the start to the finish (you didn't mention this possibility) you can connect the timers by wire and then use your TED to send the serial output from the finish to the timing hut.
Have no desire to catch any more flack. Take enough heat for every course I set. So just a few thousand more for 3 pair cable spools with the hope that they won"t get sliced. At scored races only 6 kids are around for the UN-Official results. Sometimes less. Only release official results after confirming TOD's from wired timers. Again this is not ideal situation nor would I purpose to race without a wires unless we had to. Unfortunatly mother nature causes us to adjust, improvise, & adapt.
N.
N.
I must be missing something here. I have about a dozen spools of wire (cat 5 STRANDED network wire) of lengths from 100 meters up to a couple of thousand meters. Each one has a connection box on each end with six doubled banana jacks. With these I can move starts or finishes pretty much anywhere I choose and still have hardwired connections for timing. Wireless is cool, but hard wire is tough to beat for reliability.
Will these TEDs work with IPICO chip readers? I would like to catch splits. The split locations are located half a mile or so from results computer with trees and hills etc. Question being, how would you connect the TED to the reader to transmit the impulse of chip. The IPICO reader has no serial connection only USB and Ethernet. Curious?
How would you connect a TED to an IPICO chip reader? There is no serial connection only a USB and Ethernet. I want to catch splits in XC races that about a mile from results computer through trees and hills.
The TED can only transmit serial data (RS232 protocol) or impulses. You may be able to find a device that will translate the USB data to Serial data on both ends (converter on the receive side is easy but the transmit side ???) bench testing would be a must. One mile without line of sight would be a challenge for the TED, but may be possible. Test first to avoid sadness. Search for Device Servers on the internet, there may be a wireless device other than a TED that can accomplish this task without using USB converters. Wireless print servers do essentially the same thing however distance for these is usually less than 50 feet.
The TED system has been great for us. Transmitting USB would be a new twist. Ethernet should not be too much of a problem using an ethernet to serial adapter or serial server. There are some very good ones out there and we have used serial adapters and serial servers from B&B Electronics. As far as some other devices, as John suggests, I am not familiar with any devices that would accomplish what you are trying to do. The problem with most devices is that they operate in the 900MHz, 2.4GHz or 5.8GHZ range. The 900MHZ might get through the trees but hills would be another problem. From what you describe, I would not even try 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz as they tend to be more 'line of sight' or short distance through obstacles. One major advantage of the TED's is that they operate in the 433MHZ range where trees and hills are less of a problem. The TED 400 units have an antenna connector on the top of the unit so you could put a directional antenna on the unit to increase the range or help overcome the obstacles. I would recommend just trying a pair of units between your locations to see if the units will work. If the units work then I would look at interfacing your USB or ethernet to them.