Yngwie Posted January 5, 2011 Report Share Posted January 5, 2011 (edited) I work in IT so computers are my thing. More importantly, it is important to me that they work, not just look pretty. Consequently, I have been using SRM for my timing needs as it works wit a minimum of fuss. However, lately, I have wanted to use the internet downstairs in the garage and so having DOS on my computer was a problem. So I bought Trackmate (Hardware and software) and installed Windows on my timing machines. Now the Trackmate hardware is exceptional in that it does the processing freeing up the computer to do its own thing. Result: timing to the thousandth of a second is accurate. Hoever, I have never been a fan of the Trackmate software. It works well enough but is not as feature rich as say PCLapconter or Ultimate Racer. Enter, Race Corrdinator. This bit of software is the best I have seen for Windows at running events. Most everything Trackmate, UR and PCLapcounter has is in RC. Furthermore, the developer of RC is very approachable with new ideas and seems to encourage people to ask him for suggestions. I have emailled him on numerous occasions and received a reply within 24 hours on each occasion. Whats more is that is never misses a beat. Som o the features I use and now cant live without include: * Separate leader board which allows 2 screen setups to have the current race on one screen and the overall leaderboard on another. * During practice, it keeps a list of the best lap, current lap and your last 10 laps. * Runs with Trackmate hardware or standard parallel port setup. * Wizards setup each race, driver, heat, race management etc * Heat order can be customised easily * Voice letting you know fastest laps, time remaining etc and many others If you are an experimenter like me and are looking for something different, I encourage you to give this bit of software a chance. Cant beat the price: FREE! Visit Race Coordinator Great work Dave and I look forward to new improvements! Edited February 10, 2011 by Yngwie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsmsoccer Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Yngwie I finally got the chance to install and play around with the software. I initially had some problems with lap counting accuracy. I went back to their website and downloaded the latest version of the software. Once I installed this version lap counting was fixed. I too want to setup 2 monitors and am having trouble getting a separate screen for the race leaders and next heat entrants. I like the idea that you do not need to run a seperate spreadsheet to complete a draw and record lap imes as this is all included in the software Good find mate Tsmsoccer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schuey19 Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Does it do fuel racing?? No good to me otherwise. Quote My Track- Design and Start of Build My Track- Early Construction My Track- Almost There My Track- Finishing Touches (Current Thread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yngwie Posted January 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 Does it do fuel racing?? No good to me otherwise. No, not yet but he is in the process of developing it. Really is a great package! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlotsNZ Posted January 25, 2011 Report Share Posted January 25, 2011 Yingwie, thanks for the heads up on this one. I had ignored it, just confused it with RaceManager_X, similar name, same development timeframe, and also being specced to work with Trackmate. I downloaded it yesterday. So far I have set it up on 2 PCs, my main laptop, where I am doing screen development work for it, and on my old desktop that sits under my track to do timing..... Well, it wouldn't work on the desktop. The error message advised "you need .net 4.0 installed. To install that, I had to drag the old brick inside, plug it insto a broadband connection - thankfully it had a network card in it; - and update windows XP in stages, through Service Pack2, and then SP 3, then install WIC (a Windows imaging thing). Once all THAT was done, Race Coordinator was willing to install itself, - downloading the latest version of .NET, which it requires so that it can parse the xaml files that define what the screens look like. Then I found I couldn't update anything. One answer is to run the program as an "administrator" each time, but I did it another way, I just went in as Administrator once, and changed all the file permissions to any user could "write" to files - especially the database that holds the main record data. Problem solved. All that could be a drama for a lot of folk with limited PC knowledge, but if you have a more modern machine, you won't have those problems, youll just need to ensure you can write to the database file called rc.db Having got it going, I like the facilities and race options. It has a range of race types included, including lap based races, with options to allow all to finish, - or not. [Guys at CMRC, this is like you mostly run on SRM software, but Windows based, and for Malcolm et all, DEAD easy to create your own screen styles in xaml] It comes with 2 and 4 lane screen definition files, but since most of us have 3 lane routed tracks, I wrote a 3 lane one last night, looks the same, but I changed a couple of font sizes, and I made a 2nd version which has an image background in the top area above the scoing grid instead of just graduated colour. To use it you will need a file called image.jpg in this directory. \Race Coordinator\data\images\image.jpg" Here are links to the two versions. Ignore what windows says to call them, save them with the file type .xaml, NOT .cache like windows proposes. They need to go into the directory \Race Coordinator\data\xaml\ 3 lane standard file, no image 3 lane file with background image Once that is done, you can "update race" to use these files for all your races. Quote Custodian of many used screws (quite a few loose ) * Recovering Lapsed Slot Addict * Companion of other delusional slot addicts * Total kidder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlotsNZ Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 Well, I've been bounced a couple of emails with one of the developers of the package, and there is more to come. But first, one advantage I didn't mention is that once you choose your drivers, they stay on the driver panel window for the night, regardless of any changes of race type, so you can move between ungroup/grouped/seeded races, teams races, lap racing, time based racing, and you never have to alter that drriver list unless you need to remove one driver for a particular class..... handy. Latest released version has the "groups" section limited to dsitributing seeds for a race evenly, but it wasn't clear to me how seeding was done. 1) Seeding order is simply the order in which you add drivers from the database to the race entrant's list for that race. Future versions will allow you to make full use of this by ticking or unticking the "balance" box, so that the seeding can separate the top level racers from the less experienced, to make more even heat racing amongst people, but because they are all part of the same race run in those two groups, the results get accumulated from both groups. ALTERNATELY, you can "Balance" - spread the seeding equally into two groups, so that you simply get half your guys driving at once, in one round robin, with a mix of skill levels, then repeat with the other half after the first half of the drivers are done. 2) Later version will have "teams" section, where you can have two "Teams" instead of two groups, and the results of each team member get accumulated into their team score. - I haven't seen that done effectively in any other package, and it will certainly make running of our local enduros really simple in future! 3) The basic windows are now all re-sizable, text size changes, so you don't display any more info. at once as the window grows, but the basic layout gets a little more on screen than in the previous/public version, - the data then resizes font as you resize the window. 4) The release now includes some 3 lane and 8 lane GUI files to use with an 3 or 8 lane tracks. 5) "Manage Race" now allows for a few more parameters to be changed, but not the in-heat voice callouts, so it is neccessary to use the Wizard to create those as correct for your lenngth of heat, and generate from there. - But once you have created one "3 minute heats" race, it can be cloned to alter almost every other parameter, which is way faster than using the wizard ever again. There is undoubtably more, but those are the things I have been able to work through this morning. Certainly worth people with trackmate giving it a try, it is "donation-ware" and the developers are very supportive. We'll use it for club tonight, as we're racing at my place. Here's a typical 3 lane race setup, I have shrunk the race window, to allow 2 columns of the race/heats data to be brought up and displayed alongside at as the heats progress. These update as the race is run, so you can see progress "on the fly" at all times. After each heat, you can add segments to a racer's heat results with a quick pop up window if you wish, else, you can set the race up so that it allows "start from last position", in which case, cars just get moved across the lanes in the same spot as they finished the previous heat. Quote Custodian of many used screws (quite a few loose ) * Recovering Lapsed Slot Addict * Companion of other delusional slot addicts * Total kidder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalbfellp Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 Dave started development of this software about the middle of last year, to try and over come some short comings he saw in Trakmate that he was using. Most of the screens can be edited or created to suit yor own wishes! The development is still continuing and updates are coming often. IMO it is a very good alternative for people already using Trakmate or looking for a great timing/race controller program and Dave responds to Emails and suggestions. Now that many " screens" can be down loaded helps with the initial setup. I have run it in parallel with Trakmate just to ensure that it Times and counts well and it does. Quote Phil https://www.hobartminiaturecarclub.com/ Email Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 (edited) Hey guys. Just got this posting sent to me and thought I'd introduce myself. Indeed I originally just wanted to fix some things I didn't like about the Trakmate software and call it a day. But as I got further there was enough interest and a desire for me to give something back so I polished up RC and it is what it is now. I personally use about 10% of the features/options because I primarily race alone, but I enjoy working on the software and I'm happy to do it. RC really has two main goals. The first is to provide skinnable race screens (which it does). No other software that I know of has this and with a little effort it's incredibly powerful. All the screen shots you've seen (more coming when the official website goes live) were taken from modified race screens within RC. The second is to allow both the really simple race format and the really complicated to be setup and run quickly and easily with out the need for paper and pencil (this is 2011 afterall). As for setup, we've provided Wizards that hopefully explain pretty well every last feature RC has. On top of that, as mentioned in this post RC stores your race setups. Once you get things the way you want you never have to touch them again. Even better, you can have as many race formats setup as you want. It's been a long time but I don't think there are too many other software packages that make it that easy to run the race you want. And as for no paper/pen, RC supports race events which is simply (but powerfully) a series or races run one after another. The results of the previous race affect both the seeding and the participants in the next race. You can run as many different type of qualifying races you want, and then end with a finals race that includes some or all the drivers that originally started out. For club racing this seems to me like an incredibly powerful feature Now to address a few things in this post specifically (oh, yeah, I can get long and winded). Most of this post is spot on, but I'd like to clarify and say that I'm not currently working on fuel management. There's a few reasons for this, but it comes down to keeping the RC setup screens as clutter free as possible and the fact that I have no clue how fuel management should work. Depending on how busy I am, I'm open to working with somebody to work out the details, but for now I'd say if you want fuel management you'll probably have to go with UR 3.0 or PCLapcounter. tsmsoccer posted the following as well: "I too want to setup 2 monitors and am having trouble getting a separate screen for the race leaders and next heat entrants." Do you mean the "Leader Board" window and the "On Deck" windows? On Deck is new to the 1.1.2.6 (and higher) beta line. So if you're running the official release you won't have the On Deck window. I can send you the latest beta release or you can wait for the next official release (which should be fairly soon) Okay enough for now. Please, don't hesitate to email me. I'll try to check up on this forum as much as I can but I don't have a huge amount of time and most of that is spent on SCI... -Dave Edited January 27, 2011 by Race Coordinator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalbfellp Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 Dave: Welcome to the Aussie forum and thanks for all the effort with this. Those who have only just found your program just don't know how much effort you have put into this project over the last six month or so. Well done. Quote Phil https://www.hobartminiaturecarclub.com/ Email Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 Hey thanks Phil. It's been a lot of work, but to be honest it's nice to have a software project I actually enjoy working on. There were moments where I just wanted to shoot myself (the wizards for example), but most of the real pain is over with. Now it's just making it as good as it can be and figuring out a way to let people know it's out there. I could use some more testers of the beta version I have if anybody is interested. I believe the version I have now is the final beta as it fixes everything I'm aware of and I don't think I'll have a lot of time to do further testing in the next couple of weeks. If anybody is interested shoot me an email and I'll send it to you (daufderh@hotmail.com). Also, if anybody out there uses the gameport for track communication and wants to volunteer a little bit of their time I need somebody to help me get game port support in and working. It should be really easy, but currently the gameport support I have is taken out of the release because I don't even have a computer with a gameport much less a track hooked up to a gameport to test with... Any volunteers would be appreciated. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 Sounds like a job for you John! Quote Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again Gary http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) I just made the following post on SCI and thought I'd share it here: Two new exciting things related to RC (at least for me). First, I'd like to publicly announce the Race Coordinator official website. Check us out at http://www.racecoordinator.net. On the site you'll now be able to get lots of information about RC including what it is exactly, screen shots, change lists from release to release and of course beta and official release downloads. Many thanks to Stephan for hosting RC so long. In fact the new site is based off Stephan's original effort. With out his starting point I couldn't have put the site together. I try my best not to ask for much, but I'm going to ask for a small favor now, this one time. Please check out the site. Specifically the http://www.racecoordinator.net/charity.html section. That section basically tells my life story and my motivation for RC. All I ask is that you have a read. Especially if you're enjoying the use of RC. Next, of course I wouldn't be mentioning a new website if there wasn't also a new release. RC v1.2.0.0 has been given a thorough run through by as many suckers, errrr, helpful volunteers as I could find plus the usual crew. As always I think we have a very high quality release and as always let me know when you find problems . It can be downloaded from http://www.racecoordinator.net/download.html but you already knew that because you've checked out the site. The list of changes for this release is immense. A ton of bug fixes for things users have reported and that I've found during my normal round of testing plus a very healthy list of additions. The following is the list of new stuff that might interest you. The website has the full list as does the readme that comes with the installed version: Added support for special characters like single quotes in database entries (like names, file paths, etc.) Added basic team support to the race configurations Added ability to add/remove sections to any heat already completed or currently being run. No more waiting until the end of the heat. Added new audio callouts for the raceCallouts for overall fastest lap and overall fastest laps per lane Callouts for best lap during a race and best lap per lane during a single race Callouts for new race and heat leaders [*]Added new F1 style scoring bonus points Bonus points for best race lap time Bonus points for best race lap time per lane Bonus points for best heat lap time [*]Added drift support enabling laps to be counted for a brief time after the heat has ended or a yellow flag has occurred [*]Added 3 lane xaml files to the install [*]Added 8 lane xaml file to the install [*]Added the Kitchsink_4l.xaml file with comments. This one is particularly interesting as it shows off almost everything RC can do all at once. It's a good example if you're building your own race day screens. As always, thanks to everybody who tested beta versions and gave feedback on bugs and features. And of course keep the feedback coming (including the website now). Happy racing -Dave Edited February 10, 2011 by Race Coordinator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalbfellp Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have the Betta version running for a few days and it seems to be all O K so far, so looks to very good. Quote Phil https://www.hobartminiaturecarclub.com/ Email Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Same here, will be able to give it a workout next weekend Quote Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again Gary http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have the Betta version running for a few days and it seems to be all O K so far, so looks to very good. Just an FYI, v1.1.2.17 and higher aren't much different than v1.2.0.0 which is the official release. There were a few minor changes to some of the stat displays and stats in general, but nothing super critical. I'd still strongly recommend updating to the official release though. If you do run into problems the first thing I'm going to ask is if it happens in the latest release which in this case is the official v1.2.0.0. Now that the new release is out I all but don't support the beta releases. It's just too much for me to support every beta version as well as the official releases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 (edited) Thanks to everybody currently using RC and providing feedback. So far the last build looks pretty solid. Unfortunately there was one crash in the race wizard (my testing focus is on racing and I missed this one). The beta has been out for about a week and the fix is confirmed and no other issues have come up. So I've officially released v1.2.1.0 on the site www.racecoordinator.net Here's the short list of fixes: Fixed crash in the race wizard Image Setup screens Moved Track Wizard Interface configure button so it is on screen without resizing the window. Fixed Track Wizard to invalidate itself after creation because the track name is now a duplicate name. Bullet proofed DirectSound resource loading as there have been rare reports of problems related to loading sound files Fixed issues with Custom Heat validation Fixed bug in which stopping the re-start countdown twice in a row would reset the race time None of these fixes are crucial to racing, but I strongly recommend upgrading. The race wizard crash is annoying to say the least as it happens as you get close to the end of the wizard and you lose the race you just spent time setting up. Sorry about that If there are further issues with this release, questions or comments, feel free to ask here or privately (see contact section for the best way of contacting me now outside of SCI). Edited February 16, 2011 by Race Coordinator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted March 10, 2011 Report Share Posted March 10, 2011 (edited) Sorry to bother you all, but I just wanted to let you know there's a new beta version of RC posted on the Race Coordinator site (v1.2.1.9). I mention it because it has two new screens (from the latest official release). A "Race Results" screen which shows a race summary. It can be used at the end of the race or during the race to augment/replace the leader board that was there. There's also a new "Heat Results" screen which can be used to display driver lap times for the current heat as well as a bunch of other information. This was meant for the end of the heat as a heat summary but can also be used during the heat. I could really use feedback on both screens. The Heat Results screen in particular as I think I need to tweak it. If you have a chance check it out. The site will have the full list of changes from the official release (or whatever beta you happen to be using) so you can see everything you're getting there. There's a decent amount... Thanks, Dave Edited March 10, 2011 by Race Coordinator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Lots of news. First, RC v1.3.0.0 has been officially released. There was one minor bug fix between the last beta and this release. The changes between this release and the last are too numerous to list. Check out the website for the download and list of things that are new http://www.racecoordinator.net Next, the website has some changes to it. Most significantly is the new tutorial/race format page. This page has about 2 hours of tutorial videos. The videos are no more than 10 minutes each and range from high level overviews of different things within race coordinator to low level details on how to setup particular race formats. Hopefully you'll find these tutorials useful, and if so I'll create more based on what the user base is looking for. Check them out, and as with everything any comments are welcome. In this case especially if the tutorials aren't clear because after all there supposed to show you how things work... Finally, I have a short list of things I still want to do with RC. However, none of them are really for anybody in particular (including myself) so I'm shelving them. As of now, I'm not working on bugs or features within RC. I'm still 100% supporting it though so if you have issues, or want new features all you have to do is ask. But RC is far beyond what I had ever intended so unless I get specific requests I see no point in putting more time into it. As always, any/all feedback is welcome and encouraged. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza Posted March 27, 2011 Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Thanks Dave I was playing with it today in single lane mode for use on the rally tracks, and it worked fine, accumulated the times for each driver and moved them around to suit there position. You didn't have a single lane set up on file so i modified the 2 lane Quote Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again Gary http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teamredracing Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 (edited) Hi Dave ,Gazza has recently set my track up with RC and I'm slowly coming to grips with its ease of use.Still bugger up now and then but can always aquire Gary's knowledge to get anything fixed as he's not that far away from me .Have also found a way of putting my own voice,which should drive the boys nuts on race nights thanks to tmsoccer (charlie), for the countdown and starting of races ,as well as putting in sound effects for the ending of a heat and racing. I'm also using it for the Rally set up as well. It's great ,thanks a lot.Well done Cheers Craig Edited April 2, 2011 by teamredracing Quote Craig "You can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slots Posted April 2, 2011 Report Share Posted April 2, 2011 CHARLIE!!!!!!! Quote Stu Old racers race harder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teamredracing Posted April 3, 2011 Report Share Posted April 3, 2011 Yes Slots ,Charlie. He was in I.T (information technology),I was going to see you about it but I didnt know how flooring could count laps .By the way have you got your track up and running yet or am I still in the running for the braid. 1 Quote Craig "You can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted April 5, 2011 Report Share Posted April 5, 2011 Cool to see you guys are customizing RC with new screens and audio. That's really what RC was built around. It's 100% customizable. If you have questions don't hesitate to ask (PM is usually faster as I don't get around to checking all the forums as much as I use to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted April 19, 2011 Report Share Posted April 19, 2011 (edited) FYI, another version of RC is up on the website v1.3.1.0. Single bug fix update, but the bug is a race time issue that could cause you to lose heat data or even crash. The probability of running into it is fairly low, but updating is simple and the last thing you'll want is to accidentally trigger this issue during a big race. -Dave www.racecoordinator.net Edited April 19, 2011 by Race Coordinator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Race Coordinator Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 There's a new beta release of RC up on the website. http://www.racecoordinator.net This one has a few minor bug fixes and more importantly analog fuel support (no extra hardware needed). If you configure your race for fuel, every lap completed consumes fuel based on lap time. To refuel simply park at the track sensor. This has been fairly thoroughly tested with the parallel port and trakmate interfaces. I've used IR sensors, but reed switches should work as well. Dead strips probably won't work simply because parking in the dead section means your stuck. Correct? The web cam interface "should" work assuming your web camera software continues to trigger laps while the car isn't moving although this has never been tested. This release also has a revamped race day setup and race wizards in an attempt to make things clearer for a newbie. If you have an opinion please share it... Many thanks to all the people that contributed to this new release. Specifically Steve and Dale... Finally, I considered making this a pay feature to help raise money for First Candle and/or St. Jude's but in the end decided it's not fair for me to "muscle" anybody into donations. Instead I'll just say that these two charities are very deserving of all our support and if you like/use/appreciate RC please keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that I personally use about 10% of all that RC offers, the rest I've donated to you guys and all I ask in return is for you to consider making any sized donation either through me or to the charities directly. My story and more information on these charities can be found on my site at http://www.racecoordinator.net/charity.html Thanks and enjoy. -Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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