[Race Coordinator]

A few people mentioned I should make a post here letting people on this forum know that there's a fairly new analog RMS available that is totally free called Race Coordinator. It supports just about everything you can think of (and maybe more) for an analog RMS. Including all the important track interfaces

• DS
• Phidget
• Parallel Port
• Game Port
• Trakmate
• Webcam

RC is incredibly feature rich:

• Incredibly accurate timing
• Everything is customizable (sounds, images, race screen layout, everything)
• ANY heat rotation imaginable can be configured
• Fuel support
• Season scoring
• Track relays (master and per lane)
• Call buttons
• Permanent stat storage w/ customizable xls option
• Save/load races with auto save support in the event of power outages or other disasters
• F1 Scoring
• Step Up race support
• Event system allowing qualifying races to run right into finals races
• So much more

Again, the analog software is 100% free. I accept donations which I in turn donate to Charity. Check out my website for more information and feel free to ask questions/make comments. Race Coordinator Home Page

-Dave

 

[Slingshotx]

Hi Dave, glad to see you posting on SlotForum.

Just thought I'd add what good software it is, I use it at home with a joystick interface and our club flbt uses it with a trackmate interface.

It's a complex piece of software but Dave has some good tutorials over on the Race Coordinator website.

Thanks

Kevin

P.s if you want to see the data you can get out we've started publishing the default race reports in the race reports section of the club website (flbt.co.uk)

 

[Black3sr]

Dave has been most helpful. I use his software with TrackMate hardware.

Here is a screen grab from a race. In addition to these I distribute copies of the spread sheets it creates to the racers.

 

[CMOTD]

There is a new beta release (v1.6.1.4) available with a couple of very useful additions. LINKY

1) The space bar will now advance to the next heat if you're at the end of the heat so you can now virtually run the event on it - next heat, start, yellow flag and continue.

2) Double clicking with the right mouse button on an "available driver" or a "drivers racing" on the Race Day Setup screen will automatically add/remove the driver respectively. A great improvement on the somewhat clunky "drag and drop" used previously.

A brilliant program just got even better. It is quite complicated to set up, but the results are well worth the effort. The two additions are a direct result of feedback from users, Dave is really quick with suggested updates.

Apart from FLBT are any other U.K. clubs using the software?

 

[Race Coordinator]

If anybody has suggestions on how to make the software easier to use I'm all ears. I have online video tutorials and the wizards explain in some detail each and every option for the software. The problem is RC does so much it's very hard to keep it simple. I've even considered a very dumbed down version but it's hard to pick and choose what options should be in it. So as a compromise I created the Basic Wizards which talk only about common things people want to do... Again I'm all ears on how to simplify.

Oh, and I know of several UK clubs using RC. Though it's not my place to name them.

-Dave

 

[montoya1]

Dave - would it be possible on future releases to have the space bar act as a means of pausing races as well as the enter key please?

 

[Race Coordinator]

QUOTE (montoya1 @ 4 Jul 2012, 08:04) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Dave - would it be possible on future releases to have the space bar act as a means of pausing races as well as the enter key please?

Do you mean you want enter to do it? Space bar currently does it... The space bar is currently setup to do this in the race day screen itself so it's very easy to create a custom screen that uses either space bar, enter, or both to pause the race. Keep in mind that the space bar does not "just" pause the race. It's actually special in that it does different things based on the state of the race. In fact it works much like the track master call button.

If you need help customizing a race day screen to do this let me know what your using.
1) Go to the expert track setup
2) Select the UI tab
3) Give me all the information from the top of the screen down to and including the "Example Full Filename" box.
4) Tell me how many lanes you have on your track.

It's a one line change in the current files to do what you're asking. I just need to know what files you're using.

-Dave

 

[montoya1]

The reason I asked was that we have a PC remote so we can do wireless track calls, but it only works the enter key (sorry, I got it the wrong way around).

Would it be possible to make it that whenever enter is hit it globally acts the same as if spacebar had been? I'm thinking this might be worth you doing on all future releases as using the remote is a cool idea that others might want to use.

If not I can of course provide the data you need.

 

[Race Coordinator]

Unfortunately for me to change default key configuration at this point could mess up any number of people. Too many people are already using the software. The best I can offer is to help you do it yourself. I do have on my list to add an easier way to change the default keys. I really hate that you have to "customize" your UI just to change the default keys. But it's pretty low on the todo list.

-Dave

QUOTE (montoya1 @ 4 Jul 2012, 13:48) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The reason I asked was that we have a PC remote so we can do wireless track calls, but it only works the enter key (sorry, I got it the wrong way around).

Would it be possible to make it that whenever enter is hit it globally acts the same as if spacebar had been? I'm thinking this might be worth you doing on all future releases as using the remote is a cool idea that others might want to use.

If not I can of course provide the data you need.

 

[Race Coordinator]

v1.6.1.6 beta is up on my site. This is hopefully the last beta before this patch is officially released. This one was needed to fix a per-lane relay issue when you run lap based "Allow all to Finish" races. Probably a fairly rare combination...

-Dave

 

[Slingshotx]

Hi Dave, are there any plans to implement the team racing.

We are looking at running a team endurance race, so we could do this by having the teams as drivers and then running a round robin. But it would be nice to be able to assign drivers to a team and then run the round robin using teams of drivers.

Kevin

 

[Race Coordinator]

I have it on a list. RC's "team" support is total carp. More than once I've considered pulling it out and seeing if anybody noticed, but decided that since I released with it (accidentally way back when) that I should keep it.

For team support, my thought was that you would create any number of "teams". You would then check "use teams" in the race configuration. When you add drivers to the race you would have to add teams, not individual drivers. RC would then do heat assignments using the teams, and rotating around the drivers within the teams. It's funny because for some reason I was thinking about this when I woke up so in my head I have most of the code worked out. But it's a pretty major change, and I've had very few actual requests for team support (you're the third) so I have to prioritize the feature appropriately (meaning very low).

 

[Race Coordinator]

A new beta release is up. This release fixes the previously mentioned Trakmate issues. If you are a Trakmate users, I strongly recommend downloading and testing this release for your particular configuration before using it for any "important" race night. Although I've tested it and had it tested as thoroughly as possible, all Trakmate users will be affected by this change and as such could potentially be broken. If you ever plan on updated to a new release testing against this one is a good idea. Otherwise you may run into the problem and depending on release state you could end up waiting for a fix. I presume you won't be able to tell the difference between this release and the previous ones. but better safe than sorry.

I also added a power over ride feature. The race director can directly control track power from the Race Day screen. The RMS itself doesn't "know" you've done this so if you turn lane power off during a heat, the heat timer will continue as if nothing happened. The RMS will also override your override if/when it sees fit... This feature is meant to all you to run un-timed laps between heats, but can be used any time for any reason.

-Dave

 

[Race Coordinator]

New beta release up. v1.6.1.13. This one fixes a Trakmate drift issue introduced in 1.6.1.12 and it fixes a long standing "total time" bug that occurs when you abort a heat and restart it.

-Dave

 

[Race Coordinator]

v1.6.2.0 is officially released and available on my site. This is primarily a bug fix release (nothing too major) and a few minor features. Check out the readme on my site for more details. Thanks to everybody that helped with the 8 lane Trakmate issues, the DS problems, and the rest.

-Dave

 

[Race Coordinator]

New beta release is up (v1.6.2.4). This one fixes a very uncommon crash and more importantly fixes parallel port control register support so 8 lane tracks will work properly now. Thanks to the two people that helped me troubleshoot this one.

-Dave

 

[Race Coordinator]

By popular demand, I have no posted the multiple track/multiple interface version of this beta release. If you don't know what this is you probably don't need it...

-Dave

 

[Lasp]

Thanks for a wery clarifying sentes:
If you don't know what this is you probably don't need it

 

[Race Coordinator]

Sorry, I was in a hurry. The build supports multiple tracks and multiple track interfaces. These are features that got pulled out of the original software because 1) 99% of my users don't need them and 2) it was confusing the 99% of users that don't need it. The 1% typically ask me about it, at which point I explain how to use the custom setup...

-Dave

 

[Race Coordinator]

Sorry for this but I just posted an emergency beta release. I pulled v1.6.2.0 from the download page. It has what I classify as critical bug (2nd highest bug I classify).

To be clear, if you DO NOT use Trakmate, this bug WILL NOT affect you. Non-Trakmate users should update as they see fit.

For all Trakmate users, if you updated to v1.6.2.0 please update to the latest beta as soon as you can. The bug can cause a missed lap if a driver records a lap too quickly after a yellow flag. So if you use Trakmate and you use yellow flags you could run into this bug at any time.

This new beta has been tested by two users (hopefully a couple more in progress), but I could use any/all Trakmate users to volunteer and grab the release. Test everything to do with lap counting and especially test fuel races. Make sure parking under the track sensor works right in every case including if a yellow come out with a car under the sensor... Everything should be good now, but I thought that it was in v1.6.2.0 and clearly it wasn't.

-Dave