scottwitting Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 (edited) Recently had some thoughts along the lines of dragging trials marking into the 21st Centuary. Imagine the scenario... Riders have a profile/username/password (Trials Central logon?). Arrive at a trial and the entries system is all on a waterproof laptop/tablet where it is just a case of adding the rider to the event and ticking a box to specify the route they wish to ride and assigning a riding number. They could even have entered themselves the evening before and paid the entry fee via Paypal. Removes the need for dealing with paperwork/cash in a wet windy field... All observers have a waterproof tablet. Rider rides the section and all they have to do is tap his/her number and then the score to log it. Again, does away with soggy boards and pencils... All tablets have sim cards and are constantly sending live results to a central server. This would allow anybody with the 'Trials Central Live' App installed on their mobile device to view live results for that event. Riders queing for a section can see how they are doing. Observers having a quiet moment could see who's doing well on other sections. Results are instant once the last rider rides the last section. National and international events can be 'watched' by anybody anywhere in the world. Spectators taking photos/video of riders can instantly tag it to that rider in that section. Rider develops a history of results which they can look back on in future. The possibilities are endless! The obvious big stumbling point is that some of the places we ride are fairly remote and coverage for transmitting mobile data may be non existant. However, the observers tablet could still save the marks and dump it all once a data connection is established (back marker riding back with tablets from remote SSDT group, gets into data coverage area, results are uploaded, saving the intensive data entry process). Another draw back is relying on an electrical device which may fail so you'd still need to issue a 'back up' paper observers board. Clubs would also need to invest in the laptops/tablets and possibly pay a connection contract to a mobile provider, but this wouldn't be a huge cost and could be passed onto the rider (£1 a trial..). Potential to be quite profitable - gradually all riders would have a profile - 'Trials Central Live' would be the 'must have' app for all trials riders - advertisers would be very attracted by this! I don't have the IT knowledge or the time to progress this idea myself so will just take a small cut (5%?) of the revenue it generates......... Edited May 31, 2015 by scottwitting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelly1 Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 great idea but the cost involved would prevent any small club from ever using it. Plus a lot of riders can strip down an engine weld up a frame alter gearing etc but can barely reply to a text message 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterh Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Yes! Had the same sort of ideas - transponders on each bike (heck they use them in motocross) and the transponder starts as soon as enter the section to send the rider number to the observer's waterproof shock-proof unbreakable mini-tablet and also sets the 90s timer which stops when passes the end flags or times out for a 5. Observer punches the score and rider gets it on their little screen and transmitted or data-logged as previous post - Ahhhhh - problem arises - not so much with the technology, that is all achievable - but still relies on having ready supply of observers. So may be no greater advantage than punch cards or rite in rain paper as observers are the most valuable resource that need to be valued, respected and trusted and keep them dry and warm in the wet - just like modern technology. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottwitting Posted May 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Observers would have free use of internet/Facebook during the trial! Observers could also have a profile/log on so riders could debate if it was a stop or just a dynamic pause after the trial....... Agree, the cost could be prohibative for the smallest of clubs, also agree with the point about not all riders being IT savvy, but as time went by more would sign up. Pre 65 trials could still be marked on slate.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan williams Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Could be prohibitive? You guys haven't priced out ruggedized electronics. There's two ways to do this, well there's a million ways but two main architectures. Checker has transmitter and receiver is on bike or transmitter is on bike and checker has receiver. Remote radio for the checker is a non runner due to terrain. Better to have the receiver on the bike that can dump accumulated results when it gets within range. Communication by Bluetooth so receivers should be preprogrammed to recognize and automatically pair with the observers transmitter. The observer needs nothing more than a small box that displays rider number and confirmation of score received plus buttons for 0,1,2,3,5, 10,25,DQ. Or whatever your local penalties for bad behavior are. Other bikes would have to be kept out of the range of the observers transmitter to prevent inadvertant pairing. Not too difficult with low power Bluetooth. As a radio backup SD cards in the receiver and transmitter. So about £300,000 to £500,000 to develop if there are no regulatory hassles and each system could probably be brought in for ~£60,000. When do we start? Or you could just pay that money to observers including training. If you say, "But motocross uses them." True but motocross just has to have one receiver set up that records a bike passing one point with a time stamp. Enduro is similar with several receivers. This is much more complex and much more prone to going wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naichuff Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Hi just a note that the Pre 65 used a scanner at the finish ramp to log in the finish time Each number plate had a bar code The scanner was not cheap plus a laptop It was try to see if it worked and t did As said remote section would be a big problem and weather damage ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadof2 Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Keep it simple, plasticised paper and waterproof indelible marker. Bit like the story of the Americans developing a Biro pen that would work in zero gravity, Russians just said, use a pencil. I do not like punch cards - take too much time. Ideally observers marksheets should have a place to sum the multi lap scores, this means less work for organisers at end and scores could be put up very quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naichuff Posted May 31, 2015 Report Share Posted May 31, 2015 Agreed our SSDT pre65 books are made of waterproof paper The observer writes the number and circles ( in pre printed columns) marks lost They did try punch cards some year's ago it took to long and more observers were need on continues sections like pipeline 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony27 Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Has been tried here in NZ using PDAs, was talked about being trialled at a UK round which may have been world round. Allows live updated scoring on a screen back at HQ. The biggest problem is cell phone coverage being a bit patchy in the kind of areas we normally use, the PDAs have been ditched from what I understand now & punch cards used as before that the riders carry & hand in at the end of each lap which are then entered & shown on a screen The system was developed by a couple of riders, 1 who rode in the UK for a few years in the late 80s & early 90s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biffsgasgas Posted June 6, 2015 Report Share Posted June 6, 2015 this is feasible. here in the states we have enough cell coverage. why not make the tablet a number plate? --Biff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldilocks Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 Still think we need to invest in observer training and observers rather than subsequent communication of the score 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadof2 Posted June 7, 2015 Report Share Posted June 7, 2015 Still think we need to invest in observer training and observers rather than subsequent communication of the score Plus rider training in the rules I assume we have all purchased an enviromat for refuelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feetupfun Posted June 8, 2015 Report Share Posted June 8, 2015 Keep it simple, plasticised paper and waterproof indelible marker. Bit like the story of the Americans developing a Biro pen that would work in zero gravity, Russians just said, use a pencil. I do not like punch cards - take too much time. Ideally observers marksheets should have a place to sum the multi lap scores, this means less work for organisers at end and scores could be put up very quickly. That story about the zero gravity pen is a good story, except that it is urban myth. The Russians also bought pens from that US pen company that developed it and they used them on their own space trips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.