So we are now weeks into the North American ski season.
One big circumstance keeps popping up.
How do I make my ALGE displays work with VOLA?
The answer regrettably is that you have to reprogram them to accept the data that VOLA chooses to send.
The ALGE format for BIB RANK TIME has existed since the 70s. Every major ski race software except VOLA ( Soft Control/ MSports) has adopted this simple data string.
Address 0 and the use of a "toggle switch" to determine the personality of Hr Min Sec , Min Sec 100th, or Bib Rank.
SIMPLE
So now we have people climbing on ladders in the dark switching the personality of their well used and loved display to accommodate some new comers idea.
WHY?
And of course there are various ages of ALGE displays
GA 82 - never tried with VOLA
GAZ c > GAZ 5 = works on address 6 toggle in HH MM SS
Dline 2006> 2011 = Works as GAZ4 in Address 6 but won't work as DLINE in VOLA
Dline 2011 > present = appears to allow Vola to program if started in Address 1
Microtab ALGE Emulation > appears to only work as GAZ4
Get the drift?
So be prepared to spend extra time dealing with programming, scripting, saving, loading.
And be prepared for dealing with issues if you use USB<>Serial adapters with Windows 10 and VOLA to send data to the displays.
A perfect circle of Windows<>ALGE<>VOLA variables.
But the ALGE protocol is not a variable. It has been out there for so long that it is the standard.
A handy utility does exist to help try to make some sense out of this.
http://alge-timing.com/alge/do...oftware/gaz4test.exe
Make sure you try either legacy software or this before modifying. Handy to get back to home base if you know where it is before leaving.
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