Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 00:03:03 -0700
From: "GPSoftware"
I can't help but to chime in one last time on this subject, since I market a
software product for timing and scoring.
<<<SNIP of a good explanation of why a PC can do timing>>>
As an embedded system programer (for fun on the side) I do understand what
you are saying, and agree that there should be plenty of speed and resolution
to do the job more accurate than needed. There are many things in a PC which
need timing accuracies far beter then what we ask for. Try writing to a
single sector of a 7200 rpm hard disk. With proper software setting up an
interupt timer the resolution and repeatability is much better then needed.
The "problem" as I see it has to do with Windows and perception more than
anything else. People see glitches and crashes under windows and feel the PC
is too unstable. The good timing software I have seen for PC's runs in dos
with no other app running since it used the system timers. Windows does not
let you do that. The process you mentioned about polling a port pin 2300
times a second using a timer is a very god idea and should give very nice
.001 accuracy +- .0004 better than the latency error of many photo heads.
My question is, Will your software run under windows and pass the info to
another app? If it can it should fill the needs of most users. In our club we
use a JAC timer and hand type the times into a second PC running TS99. And we
have the timer operator hand writing the times on a log sheet with the car
number and class. It is tedius, but we have a backup when the PC is behind or
times get entered on the wrong car # or class. The JAC timer does have a port
that sends the time out and I think the TS99 software can accept it, but
there is that lack of trust, and the need to have someone pick the car on
course to keep it up to date. When we used a PC based timing system before we
had several times where the operator did not keep up with the starter
launching cars and we would have to hold start and get it straightened out.
And we also had problems that we filled the data base on that one and it
could not hold new cars without dropping old ones.
I think the fix is what they do at nationals. Grid the cars in class groups
in number order, but in a small club all that does is waste time tht the cars
should be running. About 1/3 of our runners reg on site so we can't pre
assign anything. How does GPSoft handle the database of drivers? How many can
it hold? What is the operator interface?
We have changed systems so much that we only have a few people now who can
run timing, we need to standardize and train more than we need more equipment
and software. Just 8 more members who can run timing smoothly will be a great
help with whatever we use. When we did it with just an old JAC and paper,
almost any driver could work timing, Not now.
Gary M.
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