[awallace]

I know that this may be re-inventing the wheel a little, but I have had a go at creating a software console for SSD because:
1) I fancied the callenge, and
2) I wasn't totally happy with the ones that I had tried

Anyway, here is is for testing...
Scalextric Sport Digital Console (jackaments.com)


Installation:
1) download the link
2) unpack the ZIP file into a directory
3) run setup.exe
4) connect your PC to SSD power base using a RichG cable
5) startup the program, and use the settings menu to select the serial port
6) whilst in the settings window you can click on the car images to change them, enable sound and set the lap count (as this cannot be read from the powerbase)
7) use the connect menu to start the connection
8) use free practice mode for qualification
9) start a race using the powerbase as normal, the software will follow automatically

I have used some commercial controls, and as such, would like to try and recover the cost of these through contributions from those who like this app. I haven't bought the controls yet, but would be keen to know if anyone is happy to pick up some of the cost (I propose about £10 each). As a result, this version of the software will mention that the controls are in evaluation mode.

Some of the features:
1) a leaderboard type display with the leading car, in qualifying or racing, at the top
2) loads of sound effects for pit stop, low fuel, fastest lap, winner, start etc. with Murray Walker commentary!
3) fuel burn rates definable for each car with fuel gauge updated in real time
4) refuelling with Lane Change + Brake button pressed simultaneously
4) ability to copy the qualification leaderboard to the race grid
5) customisable pictures for your cars
6) cars are eliminated from the race if they run out of fuel

Apologies to Apple users. I don't have a Mac, and VB is the programming language that I know best, so that is where it ended up. If anyone has any feedback, good or not, I would be keen to hear it.

Regards,
Andrew

 

[gecko67]

I ask for the people which have the digi-parma, which has no break button. perhaps you could program a solution for use user. perhpas 3 secands without throttle or better with throttle under 100. for the case that you have a little input of long cable.

greetings and good luck from germany

 

[RichG]

Brake button is the same as zero throttle. So long as you have Dynamic or Both selected. No need for anything special.

Rich

 

[awallace]

geko67,

RichG, as always, is right! Zero throttle is the same as brake, and so the software should work for you. If you find that it doesn't, I would be happy to alter the algorithm a little! Let me know. I was thinking that I might change it a bit anyway, as if you hit a LC with the LC button pressed, and zero throttle (if you are slowing into a corner), you sometimes start refuelling!

Andrew

 

[Minardi]

QUOTE I have used some commercial controls, and as such, would like to try and recover the cost of these through contributions from those who like this app. I haven't bought the controls yet, but would be keen to know if anyone is happy to pick up some of the cost (I propose about £10 each). As a result, this version of the software will mention that the controls are in evaluation mode.

Hello Awallace, always good to see new development ! I don't understand what you mean by 'commercial controls'. Can you explain a little more ? Options sound very interesting.

 

[awallace]

Minardi - commercial controls means .net components in the application itself. I bought two. One for the fuel guage and one for the numeric LED display. They look great, and I couldn't have written them easily myself, so I made use of someone elses work! I am planning to do some more work soon, such as keeping a Microsoft Access database of all the results etc, and then I need to get another RichG cable and powerbase to do pit-in and pit-out recording. I am open to suggestions as to what others mike like to see also.

 

[awallace]

I have just updated the file on the download site with a version that has the licensed .net components. So for the 30 or so of you that have downloaded so far, please download again. It will remove the messages about the evaluation of the AGauge and NumericLED components, but not the one about contributing to the cost of these

 

[Tileguy]

QUOTE I am open to suggestions as to what others mike like to see also.

I'd really like to see somebody come over and hook it all up for me so it works

Well, since thats probobly not likely to happen, I'm paying attention here..........I am not too far off from the point where i'll be looking into the differant computerized options.............I already bought a new computer so I can donate my current 2.4 mghz Win XP unit to important stuff.....Like Racing

Man stepping back into this hobby is like going back to the university

 

[eshanabrook]

Andrew

Great job, best SSD software we've seen yet. We like the interface with the PB and the screen layout. Racing in GRP mode worked well, but in QLY mode the screen stopped showing results after the first car completed the set number of laps.

A few suggestions:
Add the ability to type names of drivers instead of pictures.
We found the sounds for the pit stops a little distracting.
Add the fastest lap for each driver in addition to the last lap.

We're happy to test some more!

Eliot

 

[cl_jagman]

I too like the software. One thing I'd like to see is the ability to show less than 6 drivers information. I race with 4 max due to the size of track and have no need to see info for all 6 possible drivers.

 

[TxSlotRacer]

@cl_jagman If you start a race at the PB it shows info only on the cars racing.

@awallace I downloaded it and tried it, nice interface. I like the fuel gages and the sound effects when piting ( crew telling you to go! ). Seems to run good on older laptops and lap count is accurate to PB and Rich G's Lap Display. Seems to be limited to a 100 lap race, even just in Qualifing mode at a 100 laps I got a error message. One item on my wish list is different color for each car ID ( I know you can load photo's but if each racer was a different color it would be easier to keep track of during a race ).

 

[tarro]

Will this work with a 4 lane track and 2 of RichG's cables connected to 2 PB's?

 

[awallace]

Thanks for the feedback - and pleased to hear that it is working well for others. So here are some of the things that I was planning on doing, and some questions....

In the plan (being worked on already):
1) an (optional) Access database of car details, driver names, tracks, lap statistics and race results. This means that you can then identify cars by their driver and display that with/instead of the image. The options scren will be more complex as a result though!
2) a qualify timer (configurable duration) during which qualification times will be recorded, with the best lap being used for defining race grid position

In the plan (not being worked on yet):
1) optional levelling of fuel usage per lap across all of the cars, by analysing past laps (some cars need more throttle than others which results in them "using" more fuel). This would effectively set the fuel burn rate for you.
2) a handicap system that will either force faster cars into the pits more often than slower cars, or add seconds to the lap time of faster cars. A complete refuel is currently set for 10 seconds.
3) support for a second PB which records pit-in and pit-out events, and only refuels if a car is in the pit-lane. I need to order some bits before I can do this though.

Stuff I can add, based on your feedback:
1) Adding the colours for each car is easy. I can do that one evening.
2) Support for 4 lanes and 2 PB's - it doesn't sound hard. All I would need to do is monitor 2 serial ports and manage 12 cars. I presume that there are 2 cars with ID=1, running on effectively different (but parallel) tracks. RichG - is this how it works?

So some questions:
1) do you find all of the sounds distracting, or would you like to turn off just some of them?
2) what info do you like to see on the leaderboard for (1) qualify and (2) race? I prefer to keep it limited so that you can see it easily from a distance
3) how long is the longest race in laps? I did set it for 100, as we usually only manage 50 before the kids get bored

Thanks again for the feedback,

Andrew

 

[RichG]

QUOTE (awallace @ 28 Feb 2007, 16:45) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>2) Support for 4 lanes and 2 PB's - it doesn't sound hard. All I would need to do is monitor 2 serial ports and manage 12 cars. I presume that there are 2 cars with ID=1, running on effectively different (but parallel) tracks. RichG - is this how it works?

4 lanes and 2 Powerbases still only supports 6 cars, not 12. The tracks will be joined with all cars using all lanes. The 2 Powerbase's are just necessary to allow 4 lanes at the Start.

I think there are some issues asscociated with the times generated by the 2 Powerbase's not being in sync? I think Riko? / Rubenio? can be of help here. I can't quite remember who did the work.

Rich

 

[RikoRocket]

QUOTE (RichG @ 28 Feb 2007, 16:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>4 lanes and 2 Powerbases still only supports 6 cars, not 12. The tracks will be joined with all cars using all lanes. The 2 Powerbase's are just necessary to allow 4 lanes at the Start.

I think there are some issues asscociated with the times generated by the 2 Powerbase's not being in sync? I think Riko? / Rubenio? can be of help here. I can't quite remember who did the work.
Rich

Ouch. Don't remind me. That was a painful journey. The clocks do vary from one PB to the next. The only way to address it is to calibrate them together. PBs have to be joined together Run a car through both. Get two clock times. Go and have a cup of tea (the longer the better - more accuracy) run the same car through and get a time delta for each PB. Generate a conversion factor for the second PB f=(a2-a1)/(b2-b1). Apply this factor to all times from second PB plus the offset between the original timestamps.

The difficulty was that this works in theory but it is easy to get an inadvertent change, or a progression away from being synchronised. We were using the two PBs for sector timing. The solution was to use a self correcting measurement, so that the initial delta calculation was valid but effectively the timing was resynched every lap. It works well.

For a side by side PB that would not work. And you could not calibrate if you want to go the seperate circuit two independent PBs route, as you would blow the PBs when connecting together. I think as RichG says that would not really be what people want anyway, yes we would like more cars, but most people that want a 4 lane start will narrow down to 3 and then 2 lanes further on in the circuit.

Thanks for bringing back my headache Rich

 

[Savage]

QUOTE (awallace @ 25 Feb 2007, 20:15) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>f you hit a LC with the LC button pressed, and zero throttle (if you are slowing into a corner), you sometimes start refuelling!

Couldnt you make it so you have to hold that combo for 2 seconds .... you dont need to do that for LC so should differentiate the two ... not yet tried the software, but will give it a go next time i get the track out

 

[eshanabrook]

I think the only thing that needs to be added to the race screen is the drivers fastest lap. A qualifying screen should be the same. We have a white board with a car/driver matrix where we keep each drivers fastest lap for each of the cars he's driven, so it's nice to have this information available all the time.

I agree keep the screens simple and easy to read from a distance. As I said before I'd prefer a way of entering the drivers names rather than selecting a jpg image. If each driver could set their name a different color that would be even better.

Sounds; it'd be nice to select the sounds desired, perhaps even adding our own wav files.

Don't change to much it works great!

My son and I just did three 100 lap races after dinner. If we crash we both stop, while the crashed driver re-slots the other driver can re-fuel. The software is very stable, worked perfectly.

Eliot

 

[GulfRacer]

Very nice, thanks for sharing this nice piece of software. I really like the big display. I would like to see customizable colors... I prefer orange/yellow/green etc. on black as opposed to dark colors on white and I agree that color coding is nice because the changeable color clips on the controllers really simplify things for newbies. also, having the the built-in sounds is a nice feature but i would also like to use my own. The software I have been working on has driver, car, venue, and event tables. basically to set up a race, you first define/select a venue which basically has information about the track itself (name, length, year built, etc.). Next, you define/select the event which could be a 500 lap race, a timed race, whatever. Then you define/select the cars and drivers that will be involved in the event. The nice thing is that you can usually just select the a pre-defined event and then assign the cars and drivers you want and off you go. It's kinda fun because you can come up with silly names for your events like the "Summer Breeze 200" and the infamous "2.4 minutes of Le Mans". The reason I set it up this way is so if you decide to change your track layout in the future, that race data will be linked to a different venue in the database and would allow some flexibility for reports. The car table is cool because it also acts as sort of a collector database and allows you to define the fuel tank size and burn rate for each car...but that information could be overridden and a standard tank sized and burn rate selected.

I was also thinking of implementing a client/server so people anywhere could connect with some sort of a client and watch the race in progress... another use I thought about for this was using the second vga output port on the video card attached to a 7" widescreen LCD monitor turned vertically to function as a scale lap tower... basically a bare-bones display client running concurrently with the main program acting as server.

I also picked up one of these: http://kitsrus.com/jpg/k74v2_1.jpg to wire through my controllers so if a car runs out of fuel, you can cut power to that car. It's pretty easy, just wire your controllers into the relays then send a string to the parallel port like 00000001 if car 1 is out of fuel or 00000010 if car 2 is out of fuel or 00000011 if both are out of fuel. I haven't had time to test it yet but I it should work

. Anyhow, if you can use any of these ideas for your software then go right ahead as I have such a small amount of time to work on my own software. Your software is the first package that I have seen (due respect to all other authors) that really captures what I want in race management software so keep up the development... it would be so much easier just to license a copy of your software.

 

[1eye101]

hi...tried your rms out tonight and it was great really clear and love the sounds. is the fuel burn rate regualted by the throttle? also if you run out out of fuel are you out of the race or was i dong something wrong? and if so is there or could there be an option to stop counting laps or adding the extra time that a driver has run on empty to the pit stop like richg is suggesting with his fuel tower?

thanks for all your efforts

 

[TxSlotRacer]

QUOTE So some questions:
1) do you find all of the sounds distracting, or would you like to turn off just some of them?
2) what info do you like to see on the leaderboard for (1) qualify and (2) race? I prefer to keep it limited so that you can see it easily from a distance
3) how long is the longest race in laps? I did set it for 100, as we usually only manage 50 before the kids get bored

1. Selecting which ones to turn on would be nice.
2. What you have now but only for the cars running in Qualifying mode, in Race mode same info as now.
3. 100 laps is O.K. in Race Mode, in Qualifying or Practice mode should be as many as possable.