Timing an Event With ElfScore



Timing an Event With ElfScore©

© Copyright 1991-2013 by Alan J Avery

1. Overview

ElfScore© utilizes 3 separate items to time an event:

1. A database containing info about each entry in the event.

2. A folder containing the database and additional files with parameters for the event.

3. One or more timing devices (e.g., TimeMachines, chip timing readers) to collect elapsed times of participants at various timing location checkpoints.

The Elfscore database stores the following about each entry:

• Their name, sex, and age (required for sex/age grouping of results)

• What classification in the event they are entering (run, walk, etc. - required)

• Optional info such as birthdate, address, city, state, zip, T-shirt size, phone numbers, and email address. Elfscore can calculate the age automatically from the Birthdate, if the race date is set in the Global Settings.

The folder files store:

• General information, such as where, when, race director, and the distance(s) and name(s) of the event(s).

• Report scripts used to generate listings for registration, results and awards, and for uploading to the Internet later.

• Auxiliary tables to automate certain registration chores.

• Results collected from various timing devices, or entered via bar code reader or keyboard.

The Timing Device stores the elapsed time of the event at any instant.

ElfScore© gets the elapsed time for a participant by one or more of several methods:

1. Manual – entered via the keyboard (possibly using an internal timer).

2. Automatic – imported from an external timer (e.g., TimeMachine or chip timing reader).

Elapsed times can be manually matched to participants by:

• Keyboard or Keypad entry

• Scanning bib tag barcodes

• Comparing select times to separate bib and number data.

Elapsed times are automatically matched to participants by:

• Chip information when a transponder is detected as it passes a sensor. Here, both the bib number and time is recorded in Elfscore as the chip data is processed.

*RACE RESULT REPORTS

The act of timing an event and matching elapsed times to participants in order of their finish is a simple one-on-one relationship. A simple race that only reports the name and time of finish requires little in the way of data processing. Races having reports that give more information require more data processing and the EVENT files structure these reports and tell ElfScore© how to manage the database for the event … let’s practice setting up an EVENT folder for a simple race.

ElfScore© comes with sample EVENT folders that contain all the files needed to score an event. We will hold a simulated 5K foot race as our event. We will call this event the “WARTRACE 5K”. We will use 05/01/2010 as the event date. We will use 5 male and female age groups from 5 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70 to 99. We want awards to go three deep. To setup the event:

2. Setting up the Race

Start up ElfScore©

Make a folder for the race.

1. Close any open event by clicking on “File” and then clicking “Close Event”.

2. With no event currently open, click “File”, and then click “Open” The Open Database dialog box displays.

3. The ES_RUN1 folder has an event similar to WARTRACE 5K, and is the sample we will use. Double click the ES_RUN1 folder and then click Open.

4. Click “File” and then click “Save As”

5. We replace the C:\ELFSCORE\ES_RUN1 suffix with a new suffix - WARTRACE which identifies our event as C:\ELFSCORE\WARTRACE

6. Press Enter, and the event files are quickly copied to this new folder. Click OK.

7. You’ll be asked if you want to open the database for this. Click Yes. You are now in the WARTRACE 5K event database.

Next, we’ll modify the files so that they will store the information specific to the WARTRACE 5K event (notice that we’re not altering the sample ES_RUN1 folder).

We want the WARTRACE event files to show the information about the WARTRACE 5K…… BUT…… any changes we make in one WARTRACE event file needs to agree with each other file in the WARTRACE event folder. Before we start modifying files we need to look at some guidelines. We’ll start with some of the Readme.txt file.

About files in the ElfScore© program

Here is a list of the race files that store race-specific information: Please pay special attention to the ENTRIES.VAR file. Its contents affect almost all of the report files.

ENTRIES.VAR

Has user-defined variables that store much information specific to this race, such as race name, director and sponsors. The variable names appear in the first 20 columns, and the values associated with them start in column 21 of the same line.

For example:

* Variable Value |== |>= |= 1

.Include Race1

*************************************************

** Clear any existing timing data in the timing location.

Initialize Times

*************************************************

** Select a sample of up to 200 bibs and generate a time for them.

Simulate Number 200

*************************************************

** Use this timing location.

Location {Event1}

*************************************************

** Specify the distance we're generating the times for.

Simulate Distance {RaceDist_1}

To enter 200 random times we can double click the 1_Simulate_Times.LST file in the file list or use any of the “View Output”, “View HTML”, or “Run Report” buttons when the 1_Simulate_Times.LST file is highlighted.

We can now “View Output” of all result report files to check them but if the two sex/age group reports @1_Results_F_AGrp.LST and @1_Results_M_AGrp.LST check out then the rest should also check out.

Clear Timing Data

At this point, all of our report files work and we have optimized our registration form to match our needs. We now want to practice entering times and matching these times to bib numbers. The current practice times need to be removed without losing our entries’ data.

The “Initialize Times” command is used to erase all times and Bib numbers from one or more timing locations. Use with caution. A safe way to do this is:

1. Go into the “Timing” menu and select “Clear Timing Data”

2. A check list of the timing locations appears –

3. Make sure all locations are selected

4. Then select either “Process Bib #s” or “Process Times” (or both)

5. Select the “OK” button

Go back and check that you entry data is unchanged and all associated race times are removed.

5. Timing

The ElfScore© program is used to time and score athletic events such as cross-country meets, road races, triathlon, duathlons, canoeing races, skiing races, etc. The process of entering or editing athlete’s bib numbers and times into the ElfScore© program is called timing.

Setting up the Timing Location(s)

Before timing an event, the ElfScore© program needs to know something about the timing locations that will be used. From the main program window, click Timing to use this option to access the Timing Location(s) that are part of the scoring and to put in bib numbers and/or times for the participants. Once the menu option Select Location is picked, a menu of predefined Timing Locations is displayed. Select the Timing Location desired and it will be displayed in the Timing Location form immediately.

Although the ElfScore© program has facilities for typing bib numbers and times, it is usually far faster to use its abilities to either transfer this information from an external timer or to use the computer’s clock to keep track of the time and just press a key whenever a participant crosses the timing location.

Note: If you are timing a triathlon, if the time being subtracted for a participant is larger than the actual Timing Location's time, a series of question marks (?) is printed for the time. This lets you know that that particular athlete started in a wave earlier than the one assigned to them.

Traditionally, when scoring a triathlon or duathlon, you would subtract the start time from the finish time. To assign a start time, you would use the command of Assign Times. The ElfScore© program sample setups for triathlons and duathlons has reports to assign bib numbers, to assign waves by bib number or by sex/age group, and to assign start times for each wave code.

Using a timing device to measure elapsed time

The ElfScore© program can keep track of elapsed time with an internal timer and also offers support for transferring information from numerous popular external timers and other devices, including:

• IPICO readers or files

• MyLaps or ChampionChip readers or files

• Winning Time files

• Chronotrack files

• RFID Timing files

• TimeMachine - all models

• Ultrak files

• TimeTech - all models

• Chronomix - all models, including the display clock

• PocketTimer - Timing system using the PalmPilot

• Chatsworth - model 1000 mark-sense optical scanner

• Bar code readers with numerous bib numbers, but no times

• Keyboards.

See the corresponding XX_Start.DOC file for some of the various chip timing setups for more info on connecting to ElfScore.

A Special Note For TimeMachine Users

When a TimeMachine is newly purchased from Flying Feet Computers, and not from me (Alan Avery), it will likely need some settings to be changed so that it works well with Elfscore. In particular, I change the setting for Display Base Unit Place #s to NO, I set the Enable Handshaking setting to YES, and I set the Base Unit and button #1 to 1 and 1. The factory defaults for this are YES, NO 11 and (usually) 1, and these lead to problems I see commonly among people trying to get everything working the first time.

When working with 2 or more timing locations (say, a 10K or halfway split point in a half marathon or marathon), races commonly have a good 10-key person with a TimeMachine to capture as many select times at the split point as they can, and another such person at the finish to capture select times there as well. In a situation such as this, I advise setting the base unit for the TimeMachine used at the 10K split to 1, and the base unit for the TimeMachine used at the finish to 2. These would correspond to an EVENTS file listing these timing locations:

10K

10KSel Select

Finish

FinSel Select

GunStart

Start

The key is to have the base unit number match the position of the Select location (ignoring those locations that do not have Select following the name). Here, there are 2 – 10KSel and FinSel. Please call if you need clarification about this, as it is critical to telling Elfscore what timing location to put the data into.

Start Internal Timer To activate the internal timer, complete the steps below:

1. Click Timing and click Internal Timer and click Start Internal Timer.

The Internal Timer Menu displays.

2. Type the time into the Timing Location (if it's under way) and click the “OK” button to start the timer.

The time can be entered to the hundredth of a second.

Capture a Time

Once “Internal Timing is activated”, ElfScore sets up “SCROLL LOCK” as the timing button. Each time “SCROLL LOCK” is pushed, one time is stored in the Timing Location currently associated with the Internal Timer.

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