How to run the computer on raceday

Started by Blake, August 13, 2008, 12:34:00 PM

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Blake

Since myself, Daryl, and likely Tom won't be there this Sunday, here is a bit of an instruction sheet for what to do with the computer on race day.  Some of you guys should print this off and take it to the track on Sunday.


If Ken Nguyen or Jarrod Heap are there, get them to help as they have a *little* experience


TRACK LAYOUT - CRAIG
Make sure Craig lays out a "regular" type track with a standard sweeper at the end of the straight.  Electric cars have to start just before the loop, and the Nitro cars have to start just after the loop.  "Weird" tracks like the diagonal track, or the Speed Weekend 2008 track will cause problems because of the position of the loop in relation to the electric grid and the nitro pit.


INITIAL SETUP AND TEST
Get Don and his crew to setup the laptop, printer, AMB box, PA, etc... during track setup.

Make sure the black printer cable is plugged into the USB port on the back of the laptop, rather than the USB ports on the side of the laptop.

Make sure the AMB box (red box that the loop coax cable plugs to) is connected to the computer with BOTH the grey USB cable AND the beige/white serial cable.

Turn on the printer before turning on the laptop.

Boot the laptop and when it has loaded Windows, double-click the "RC Scoring Pro" icon on the desktop.  Wait 10 seconds for the program to load.  Do not double-click twice - the program will load eventually.

Once the software has loaded, click the "Open Practice" button in the upper left corner of the screen.  This will minimize RC Scoring Pro and load the main Practice Module window.  Take the transponder rack out to the loop and run it past the loop once, wait 15 seconds, and run it past the loop again.

Check the computer screen to see if a bunch of little practice windows appeared everywhere.  If they did, then the AMB system is working.  If they didn't go and check all the connections and reboot the computer.

Press the red "Close" button on the main Practice Module window.  You may have to manually close some of the little practice windows to get to the main Practice Module window.  RC Scoring Pro should come back to the foreground.  If it does not, just click on it in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.


ENTER DRIVERS
Click on the "Drivers" tab.  It is located near the top of the screen.  All our racers are listed in the big list on the right side of the screen.  Everyone is listed multiple times - once for each class they've run in over time.

For each racer at the track on Sunday, double click on their name in the list on the right side of the screen.  Make sure to double click on the correct one for the class they are running in.  If they are running in two classes on Sunday, then you will have to double-click twice; once for each class.  It's pretty straight forward.  As you do this, you'll see drivers names appearing on the left side of the screen.  That list represents all the racers registered for racing today.  While you're doing this, try to be careful and only double click the right racers for the right classes.  If you make a mistake, you can remove entries by using the "Remove Entry" button in the lower left corner of the screen.

If there happens to be a new racer on Sunday (of if an old racer is running a new class), press the "Add Racer" button in the upper left corner area.  It's hard to see this button.  When you press it, the Name, Transponder, and Class fields will clear out and you'll enter the person's name (Last Name, First Name), transponder number if they have one, and choose their class.  Use the Add/Edit Freq's button to set their frequency.  Once you have done this, the new racer will appear in the main list of racers on the right side of the screen.  You can now double click their name to add them to the race program for the day.

Once you're satisfied that you've got all the racers (for each of their classes) entered, you can move to the next section.


SETUP HEATS
Click the Heats/Mains tab near the top of the screen.

Press the "Setup Heats Automatically" button near the bottom of the screen.

The computer will do some stuff and then show a heat listing on the screen.  Press the little "X" button near the upper/middle of the screen to close the heat listing.

You'll now be looking at the main RC Scoring Pro program again, with two heats showing.  Race 1 and Race 2 will be on the screen.

Press the "Popup Heat Form" button near the bottom right.  This will popup four windows showing the first four races.  You can use the Plus and Minus buttons to move along to Race 5 and beyond.

Using these four windows, you must drag and drop racers to their respective races.  In Touring Stock, if you have three races (Race 1, Race 2, Race 3), then Race 1 is the C-Qualifier, and Race 3 is the A-Qualifier.

Drag and drop racers around into what you feel is the right race for them.  If you drag one racer onto another, they will swap positions.  This makes it easy, because you don't have to drop a racer into an empty slot all the time.

Use the Plus and Minus buttons to move along to Race 4, 5, and 6.  Race 4 is probably Nitro.  There is nothing to do here since it's just one heat and all racers are in it.  Move along to Pro10.  You'll have to move racers around here, just as you did for Touring Stock.

Once you're satisfied that all racers are in the right races, go back to Race 1 and reposition the racers so they are on only the following numbers: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10.  That is, DO NOT position any racers on 3, 5, or 9.  This way, no one will be assigned the 3, 5, 9 transponders (they do not work).  Note that you can actually position racers on these bad numbers if you know those racers have personal transponders.

Go through all races and make sure everyone is on a good transponder, or has a personal transponder.

Once you've done all this, press the "Close All" button in the bottom corner of one of the four windows.  This will return you back to the main RC Scoring Pro screen.

Press the "Remove Empty Races" button in the middle of the screen.

Finally, press the "Dot Matrix Print" button in the middle of the screen to print the heats.


RUNNING RACES
If the little Practice Module window is running, close it by pressing the Red "Close" button on it.  You may have to close several of the practice windows to access the main Practice Module window....

Press the "Race" button in the upper left corner of the screen.  This will load the yellow race screen.

Get Phil or someone else who has called races to come and run the race as per usual.

If an unknown transponder is detected, a red window will appear on the screen.  Get Phil or Nick to handle this.  They know how to "Drag and Drop" the new transponder number overtop of the old transponder number listed for that racer on the yellow screen.

After the race is over, the race announcer should press the "Save" button at the top/middle of the screen.  This will print the race results.

Go through all the races in the first round in this manner.

At the end of the last race in the round, a little window will automatically appear, talking about Creating a new round.  Go ahead and choose "Create new round WITHOUT resort".  A confirmation dialog will appear a couple of times - just click OK.

Note that this procedure is different for setting up the mains.  See below for that.


END OF ROUND 1 PROCEDURE
After Round 1 has finished.  Click on the "Classes" tab near the top of the screen.  Press the little "Print TQ" button for the Touring Stock class.  Press it again for the Touring Nitro class.  Finally, press it again for the Pan Car class.  This will print the qualifying list for each class.

Post the results on the van.

Start Round 2 by pressing the Race button in the upper left corner of the screen.


ROUND 2 and 3
Same procedure as above.


AFTER ROUND 3 PROCEDURE
After Round 3 is complete, the same little window will appear asking about creating a new round or setting up the mains.  This time you want to press the "Setup Mains" button.

The next window is a little confusing.  Using the fields on the left side of the screen you can select how many racers you want in the D, C, B, and A mains for Touring stock.  Try and arrange it so that you have roughly the same number of racers in each main, but keep in mind that two racers will bump up each time.  So, for example, if you have 23 racers registered in Touring Stock, you would want to put 8 racers in the D-Main, 5 in the C-Main, 5 in the B-Main, and 5 in the A-Main.  This way, with the two bumps, you'd end up with 8-7-7-7 which is about right.  Note that you can have a D-Main even if you did not have a D-Qualifier.

Once you've set the numbers correctly for Touring Stock, press the OK button in the lower right corner.  If the OK button is not clickable, then you have done the math wrong and you need to slightly alter the numbers on the left side,  Make sure the E-Main field is zero.  Once you've got the math right, the OK button will work.

It will now show you Touring Nitro.  Make sure the B-Main field is zero, and the A-Main field is equal to the total number of racers in Nitro that day.  Press OK.

Next is Pan Car.  Do it similar to Touring Stock.  Press OK.

You will now be returned to the main RC Scoring Pro screen.  Press the "Popup Heat Form" button near the bottom right.  Move racers around in their mains so that no one is on numbers 3, 5, or 9.  If you have to put someone on those numbers, then make sure it's someone with a personal transponder.

Once you've got that all sorted out, press the "Close All" button in the bottom corner of one of those four windows.

Now, press the "Dot Matrix Print" button in the middle of the screen.  This will print the mains.


RUNNING THE MAINS
Press the Race button in the upper/left corner of the program.

Get Phil or someone else who has called races to come and run the main as per usual.

If an unknown transponder is detected, a red window will appear on the screen.  Get Phil or Nick to handle this.  They know how to "Drag and Drop" the new transponder number overtop of the old transponder number listed for that racer on the yellow screen.

After the race is over, the race announcer should press the "Save" button at the top/middle of the screen.  This will print the race results.

You must also click "OK" on the next little window which asks about bump ups.  By default, the top two finishers will be selected for bumping.

At this point, if bump ups do not have personal transponders, they will need to be assigned transponders for their next race.  To do this, look through the mains printout to find an unused transponder for the bump up.  Do not select 3, 5, or 9.  Select any other transponder number that is not already assigned to a racer already in this main.  Once you have decided on an available transponder, right-click on their name on the yellow race screen, and choose "Assign House Transponder" from the popup menu.  This will popup another popup menu.  Select the transponder number from this list.

Do this same process for the second bump-up if they do not have a personal.

You're now ready to start the next race.

Repeat this process for all the main.


END OF THE DAY
Simply exit out of RC Scoring Pro, and then shutdown windows in the normal fashion.  If you have trouble with this, call Nick or Mick for help.



GOOD LUCK!

Tom

Alternatively, this Sunday could be a "fun" day where the 19-turn and modified motors get dusted off.

WhoDoYouThink

I'll print off your instructions Blake! Thanks!

DekelzMan

"Simply exit out of RC Scoring Pro, and then shutdown windows in the normal fashion.  If you have trouble with this, call Nick or Mick for help."

The only way I know of to "exit" Windows is with a hand grenade....

RC51

...or just wait until it freezes then take the battery out! LOL.

P.

jarrodH

i wont be there on sunday... or for the sundays following..

im shure somebody can figure it out..
ridez
2x 1/12 CRC xti-
1/12 nitro hydroplanes
1/10 customworks direct drive sprint. 
1/10 kyosho optima mid se
1/10 losi 22-2 buggy
1/10 xray t2'16
1/10 bolink eliminator

dajracer

If all else fails, I still have the old manual counting system. It's quite easy to operate, all you need are fingers to push the counters. I will put it in the van just in case.

Gorden

We could have used this info today

RC Scoring Pro -- Frequently Asked Questions


#1 I set up the mains, and I have more than one "A" main for some classes, how do I fix this so I have just one "A" main for each class?

First go to the "Classes" tab, select the desired class and set the "# of A Mains" to 1 (also check the "# of B Mains" and "# of C Mains" too).  Then go to the "Heat/Main Setup" tab, and click on the "Create a new round with a re-sort or setup mains" button.  If you mains are round 5, use the "Delete Round" button. Fill in the number "5" and click the "Delete Round" button.  Now you can click the "Setup Mains" button and create the mains.

#2 How do I modify the laps and/or time or a racer?

Display that race on the race screen (use the +/- buttons to change the race number or round number).  Then click on the little black arrow next to the "Save" button that saves a race. Select "Alter Results or reprint race". Make the changes required, then click one of the 3 save buttons depending on what you want to do. If you have a lot of changes to make, you may want to go into the "Reports" tab, then click "Show Current Race", then you can click the "Race Number" or "Round" checkbox and change those numbers to show the race you want to change. Then click on a different racer to SAVE your changes.


#3 How do I disqualify a racer?

Display that race on the race screen, then RIGHT click on a racer, then select "DQ (Disqualify) from this race".

#4 A racer checked in, and I clicked "Add to race" from the transponder popup box, but the name is not correct. How do I change the name?

On the racing screen, right click on the racer's name, then select "Change Drivers Name".