RS Components - Tweet Race, Controller hack wanted - £150 to be won Options

[Erik M]

This look a bit as when Sun, I think it must have been, invited programmers to use their Java "real time API", or whatever they called it, to race computer controlled cars on a track. It failed as no one, as it seemed, entered. Might be because the only actual real time O/S out there is a pure DOS... Everything else is behind a virtual O/S firewall of happen stance things the O/S wants to do instead of keeping the signals of the slot race come through as they must.
And with Twitter as the "controller" it will be even further away from the minute response needed. The whole of the Internet further away...

But it can be done. But it is back to the famous video of Sterling Moss and his wife racing on an anno dazumal slottrack.

[RichG]

Thanks Erik for those words of wisdom that only you could provide.... I think that makes it Game - Set - and Match.


Rich

[Erik M]

Aint it wonderful, say so! To have me around set right wrong and left over.

But! As usual...

If the concept is to actually drive the slotcar by way of Twitter, then I have it right.
There's is no way actual real time adjustments can be done over any present "multi thread task bucket whatnot" and then add the internet.

Your, Rich, idea to use the SSD function for automation is the one solution, presently, that would work.
Problem would be that it is not utilizing the presented API...

But yes, I have not gone through the RoE (Rules of Engagement), so my words are only based on my experience.
But then again, I got a PC time management capable of a 1/100'000 sec resolution. Stable enough to guarantee 1/10'000 sec timing.
And unless there is a new internal PC clock this is as good as it gets. Unless I get paid to evolve it even further...

Ok, ok, I will check the RoE.

[-Sy-]

Hi Erik, I'm not sure if I read you right, but the way I understood is it is that they don't need to be continuously running, so even if the cars start and stop its not a problem.

They're isn't really any real-time aspect to the problem, the votes / tweets come in with a timestamp, these are converted to a voltage which is applied to each car, it moves a bit then stops....I'm not sure why you mention DOS and an RTOS, it most definately is not.

I use and develop for QNX at work which is a real time operating system capable of timing to nano second resolution even on an 8086 processor, but again I don't see how Real Time applies to this problem.

[chris99]

Sounds like RS had to find something for a work experience person to do and they came up with this project. Why on earth don't they do something more creative with a strategy element rather than a moronic small movement per tweet if I understand correctly. Glad to see the Erik has popped in to add some poetry to this disorganised competition.
I would add that hardly any of my students (18 to 22 years old) use Twitter apart from the odd one who uses it for job searches. So who is a typical user - must be more than just geeks but I haven't found one yet

Anyway I have my bot network ready to send a million tweets in the first second of the competition, so put your money on the blue car (only joking)
In fact, it reminds me of the minature horses in 60s amusement arcades on the pier where the competitors had to get balls into a hole, marked run or trot, to move their horse forward a notch ... or something like that
Edit, not very clear but this is the best pic I could find:

Cheers
Chris

PS Whilst I'm here, maybe RS might deign to divert some of their work experience people to deliver my Raspberry Pi for which they relieved me of my pennies 7 weeks ago
(yes I know the order said despatch might take 9 weeks but why take my money if you knew that?)

[Erik M]

I aim to lease...

And such a track is still in operation here in Gothenburg. At Liseberg, Sweden's number one amusement park.
(Or Fun Area as a long ago classmate managed to read that last social event you are... not at. But is.)
At least I think it still is, it was a few years since a got caught un-catching...

Sy ~ I presumed. And faultily. That it would. Be a race. With speeding cars. Getting their tickets. By way if internet. Triggers.

Chrisalmostfull ~ Bots are cheating...

[RichG]

OK nothing new here, at least two other Tweet based Scalextric races have been run.

Capespeed

BBC

The problem with this one is incredibly bad timing to coincide with the Olympics, very bad organisation & lack of / confusing information & rules, combined with being a tad boring...

I was told it was digital which at least would make it different, open up some slightly more interesting options and raise the bar on the code needed to compete.

I suggest a technical time out and restart with Digital being mandatory and move it on from a Red and Blue car Analog race to a Gold, Silver & Bronze Digital Race.


Rich

[Sam RS]

Why on earth don't they do something more creative with a strategy element rather than a moronic small movement per tweet if I understand correctly.

We tried to tackle the problem of having a trickle of tweets resulting in a very fractured, stop-start race. To try and combat it, we're tallying up tweets for a lead-up week prior to the live race, so we can calculate how far each tweet will actually move the car (based on the amount of tweets we've received). It was certainly a problem we wanted to try and avoid!

I would add that hardly any of my students (18 to 22 years old) use Twitter apart from the odd one who uses it for job searches. So who is a typical user - must be more than just geeks but I haven't found one yet

We tend to find that short, engaging competitions like this generate interest from a wide range of Twitter users...and frankly if they want to be part of the race we're happy to welcome them, it's a bit of fun after all!

Anyway I have my bot network ready to send a million tweets in the first second of the competition, so put your money on the blue car (only joking)

Ha! Nice try Obviously if we had a bot doing that, it would be great for the race...but none of the Tweets would enter you in the draw to win a Scalextric kit as you need to be register on Facebook for your tweets to count. You'll end up just getting a million tweets back saying thanks for your tweet, register on Facebook to be in the draw!

PS Whilst I'm here, maybe RS might deign to divert some of their work experience people to deliver my Raspberry Pi for which they relieved me of my pennies 7 weeks ago
(yes I know the order said despatch might take 9 weeks but why take my money if you knew that?)

As a lowly work experience boy ( ), I'm not sure if there's anything I can do. However, I'll put a word in with the head of e-commerce and see what I can do. Hope that's ok!

Chrisalmostfull ~ Bots are cheating...

Thanks Erik!

OK nothing new here, at least two other Tweet based Scalextric races have been run.

Capespeed

BBC

Both of these came to our attention after we'd done a lot of work - the Capespeed one was only recent from memory and it does differ from the competition we're running

As for the Radio 1 bit, as I'm not an avid R1 fan I unfortunately had missed it. Again though, it does differ to ours.

By recommendation of Doug I did actually get in touch with my contact at Guinness World Records to see whether ours will qualify as the largest race of scalextric (in terms of participants). Hopefully it would qualify and I'll be sure to drop by to let you all know if it does

I was told it was digital which at least would make it different, open up some slightly more interesting options and raise the bar on the code needed to compete.

I suggest a technical time out and restart with Digital being mandatory and move it on from a Red and Blue car Analog race to a Gold, Silver & Bronze Digital Race.

I have to confess, until I started chatting with some of you guys I didn't quite realise the huge range of different ways Slot Cars can be controlled - not least the difference between digital and analogue.

I'm actually hugely grateful for everyone's help/advice/tips etc, it's been an eye opener to the world of slot car racing. I'm really kinda getting into it now!

Just as a quite note, Scalextric have been kind enough to provide 10 kits to us to supplement the competition...I'll speak with Doug and see if we can spare one to be won on this forum

Again guys, thank you!

Sam

[Sam RS]

Oh, and as for the Gold/Silver/Bronze theme, it's most unfortunate that the strict Olympic branding policies and rules surrounding 'ambush marketing' firmly put paid to hooking in any sort of Olympic Theme

[-Sy-]

Just out of curiousity, how would you suggest controlling the lane switching on digital with multiple people tweeting for one car, surely it would be uncontrollable or voting would have to be in advance of the lane change and the highest vote for switching wins?

Still you would need good monitoring facilities so that those monitoring the race could vote in advance of a lane change.

[injectorman]

I must agree it all seems pretty unorganised so we've decided to pass on it sadly.

Rick

[Sam RS]

Just out of curiousity, how would you suggest controlling the lane switching on digital with multiple people tweeting for one car, surely it would be uncontrollable or voting would have to be in advance of the lane change and the highest vote for switching wins?

Still you would need good monitoring facilities so that those monitoring the race could vote in advance of a lane change.

Is this in reference to making sure that one car isn't having a larger distance to travel? Is it a solution that's better solved using a digital track?

[-Sy-]

@Sam, What I mean is on a digital track you can change lanes in addition to controlling the speed. So I assume that you would also allow tweeters to be able to choose when to change lane in addition to tweeting for speed, if not then you might just as well use analogue.

[RichG]

It's an analog track, so no lane change, so not considered. If it had been digital with > 2 Cars I had in mind that the box would control the lane changing by monitoring the lane & closeness of the cars when they crosssed the Powerbase, and then switch lanes to keep them apart. Hence my request for an XLC just after the Powerbase.

Rich

[Sam RS]

@Sam, What I mean is on a digital track you can change lanes in addition to controlling the speed. So I assume that you would also allow tweeters to be able to choose when to change lane in addition to tweeting for speed, if not then you might just as well use analogue.

Ah, understood! I didn't even realise this was a possibility from the outset, so had never considered incorporating it

I know the analogue/digital issue has come up a few times in this thread, I'd probably add that my misunderstanding of the difference is largely the problem - I was answering the 'digital' questions thinking that yes, it would be digital because it's powered by the on/off nature of receiving a tweet. However thanks to your insight I've come to learn the difference, so apologies for the confusion!