Well if there are other people out there that have done this I will try and find it. This would make it so some one does not have to sit there and monitor it all the time. Sure would be cool to have.
Here's the latest version. http://home.comcast.net/~jakucera/laptest_v1002.zip v 1.0.0.2 You can now save results as a csv file. I haven't added the ability to delete individual results yet. The same participant can only race once at a time. And I improved some stuff on the edit participants dialog. If you have some time to try out the software and give some feedback, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
cool looking program. this will be awesome for timing. one note on the timed runs, during the day if it gets fairly warm the times will be horrid. so only doing morning/evening runs will yield faster times. for starting lights why dont we just set up Ryan's L at the starting line with his 8 fog lights.
Yeah, we might need some kind of track groomer. Maybe some chainlink fence and cinder blocks we can tow around the course and even out the snow and rough up the ice a bit. For starting I think what we did last year worked well. Stage the car a few feet back from the starting line and signal the driver when it's ok to start, but don't start the timer until their front tires cross the start line. That makes it a bit more consistent I think. Rich can dig the starting lines with his snowmobile again, that worked great.
I'm gonna change the UI a bit. I was thinking that if you're waiting for someone to start with the dialog open, you can't click on any of the other buttons to stop someone else's lap time. So I'm going to change it so you select the participant from the dialog, but you have to click the large button to start and stop. And I'm going to add a DNF button so that you can cancel someone's time and it'll be marked as DNF in the results. That will let me change how the results are saved too. I want to write the results after each run, that way if the laptop crashes, we don't lose everything.
Ok, so I've got it now that you have to choose the person before you click to start their lap. I think it makes it a bit easier since you can set up several people and start them as they cross the start line. And it reduces the chance that you'd have the Start Lap dialog open when someone finishes. There is an X button that can be used to cancel a lap. If you cancel and the person hasn't started the lap it doesn't record the result, if they already started it records their time with a DNF in the result. Up next I think I will change so that it saves each result to file as it happens, rather than export them all at once. So when the program opens you'll have to choose a results before you can records any time. That way if the laptop crashes or something the times so far aren't lost. Here's the link to dl the latest version. http://home.comcast.net/~jakucera/laptest_v1003.zip v1.0.0.3
Bump. Uploaded the latest version. When you start the program, you see a dialog for New Event. From here choose the file where you want the results saved. Also, click Edit Participants to choose who is going to be in the event. I have most of the people already in the file participants.ptf, which you can import. Click ok in New Event. Then you can click Select to choose the driver. Once the driver is selected you can click the larger button to start the time, and again to stop the time. Click the small X if the driver does not finish. Please take a look and send some feedback on anything you find, etc. http://home.comcast.net/~jakucera/laptest_v1004.zip Thanks, Joel
Thanks for the critique plasticar. Two feature ideas and one bug found. Well, he actually had a lot of feature ideas, but two that I can actually finish in a reasonable amount of time.
anytime.... as a manager turned sales engineer, I'm good at criticizing things and creating work for other people :evilgrin:
Bump. New version with some minor improvements thanks to Dan's input. home.comcast.net/~jakucera/laptest_v1005.zip v1.0.0.5 Keyboard shortcuts. Ctrl+[number] (1-5) to select a participant for a slot. Then once the participant is chosen, simply pressing that number (1-5) will start and stop the timer for them. There is no keyboard shortcut for DNF (the "X" button). Hopefully these shortcuts make it a bit easier to use. Higher resolution timer. Now records milliseconds, although I have my doubts if it's really that accurate, probably just to the tenths, but hey I am not someone to dismiss a 2/100ths of a second win regardless of the accurracy of the timing equipment or the number of cones hit after crossing the finish line. Note, the csv results file contains the full time mm:ss:xxxx, but opening it in excel truncates it to tenths. Maybe I'll have time to look into that...
Didn't mean to be a jerk, anyone can do there own timing anytime. We have been trying to organize the group timing for Sat. afternoon.
nope, not at all. I just wanted to make sure we have something. in fact, I'll bring mine anyway.....just in case we need it, or you guys want to take a break.
I finally got around to trying out your laptimer program. Really cool. I'd like to use it for our upcoming ice driving event this Sunday. Couple questions... 1. What is a .ptf format file? Can I import participants using .csv format? 2. Is there a way to change the time format to include tenths of seconds or even hundredths? 3. How do I "save" an event or is that happening automatically to the .csv results file? 4. Are the participant numbers / names constantly stored so that each new event pulls up the current list? Nice to haves... 1. Year, make and model of car (for easier identification during timing) 2. Identifier for multiple runs of same car / driver. 3. Identifier for same car / different driver 4. Participant list sorted by car number in ascending order (looks like it defaults to descending) Thanks again for your work on this. You could really market this tool to car clubs around the country. Let me know if you'd like help doing that.
1. The ptf file is really just a csv file already. 00,discopope 001,tangledupinblu 10,StatGSR 11,phi11 117,dynapar 1337,AWDimprezaL 14,ScandiaWRX 153,prezawagon 19,readymix first field is the number, second is the name. no header needed. I just named it ptf to be short for "participant file". 2. Check the first post again, I had a link to 1.0.0.4, 1.0.0.5 is the latest and does include hundreths. 3. The results file is saved continuously after each run. You don't have to do anything to save it. If you start a new event you can choose a new results file. If you choose the same results file, it will append to it (even though it still warns that it will replace the file, it really doesn't (i should fix that ...)). 4. edit: it will bring the same participants into each new event. The nice-to-haves. Yeah, I agree with all of those. #4 I could probably do easily. #1 might be possible by sunday. 2 and 3 would be a bit more work.
Ok, I updated the first post with a new version (v1.0.0.7) home.comcast.net/~jakucera/laptest_v1007.zip v1.0.0.7 Car number is now sorted in ascending order. I didn't really add new fields for the participant, but you can add info the their name to include the make/model of the car. As long as the string doesn't get too long it will work ok. I changed the Select Participant dialog a bit. You can double click on an entry to select it. The search also acts more as a filter. Start typing in the search field and it will only show the participants that match that string. So you can search for a number, name or any addl info you put into the name. If only one result is listed it will automatically be selected and you can just hit enter to close the dialog. I hope this works ok. I'm out of time for now to work any more on it.
Awesome!! Thank you so much. I used the 1004 version yesterday at our event. It worked really slick. I'll grab the 1005 version for next time. One other thing I found would help during my field test is to make the start/stop buttons green and red to indicate they are driving or ready to drive. Clicked the wrong buttons a couple times, but oh well. Hope to see you at one of our events some time http://www.glacierlakesqclub.org Cheers!
Wow! Just took a test run of version 1007. Much better with hundreths and car number sort fixed (also I see you widened the participant selection screen). Nice work. Thank you again. We should get together. Send me an e-mail sometime. [email protected] ttyl
I'm glad it worked for you. I'll try to get the results changes in for the 22nd so it'll show multiple runs per driver so you don't have to reorganize all the data afterwards. Yeah, I think the 5 buttons gets a little confusing. I'm thinking of making some changes that would simplify that aspect as well as allow for the possibility of using timing lights with the software.
