Ranger Derby Tracks and Software

I am curious what tracks and software are you guys using in your Ranger Derbies? Lanes?

We are using Supertimer II Race Manager Software and hardware and our Track is a Richard Marriot design from the mid 80's. Ours is a 4 lane track.
Here is that plan with a few modifications.
http://readyrangers.tzo.com/TRACPLAN.pdf

We were setting up tonight. USB to Serial converter went belly up. Nothing would make it work. Windows 8 said it was there but it had a error message in device manager. Went to staples and got a new one. Up and running again. 2 hours of setup and trouble shooting. Race is in the morning.

My daughter is on the way to the hospital to deliver a 2nd grand child...race may be missed. She is walking the halls to see if she stays or goes home from the hospital.

Life is good!

Mark Jones

She went back home not ready yet. So the race is still on for now today. Ha!
I packed my bags for a quick launch up for a 2 hour drive for the new delivery. From one start gate to another! Life is good!

Mark Jones

We had to run the race with out a printer. The HP Officejet 8600 Pro was in a situation where it worked last year. It worked at Regatta. Race day. No printer found. Reinstalled printer software rebooted many times. Got it to work one time. Then bam it wouldn't work again. So I just ran the heats off of the computer screen. It acutally worked pretty well.

Track and software worked good. Sometimes these races can be a techno challenge. Getting it all to work. I had an extention cord that needs a new end on it. It would drop us every now and then...GRIN! A few things to fix.

Never got the call from my daughter for delivery yet. Anytime! I could be a grandpa for the 2nd time.

Mark Jones


Mark Jones

Mark,

Weren't we just talking in another thread about never going on an expedition with unproven equipment?

Yes. This stuff all worked last year. Put in the box and stored it for one year...and dead on arrival the night before... the printer that's a odd one. It's on my list to move back over to the proven list.

Even the best repeated many times over laid out plans... can go belly up. Yet I can sleep at night knowing it all worked last year. GRIN!

I get a kick out of this stuff really. There is almost always some snapfoo that needs some tweaking. One of these days I will move it out of my lap over to the next guys lap. GRIN!

It's fun to ask all the young budding computer nerds of today that have only one tablet or phone they swipe the screen on.... "Are you running a networked server that you can access from internet? Do you have 4 networked Computers with in 2 feet of your desk using 4 operating systems all working and another 8 in the house you keep going? Do you have 35 years in the broadband business? No? Ok. Do you want to handle this or do you want me to fix it?" GRIN!

They always ask the same questions. Did you reboot? Did you reinstall the driver? Yes and Yes 1st and 2nd thing I did. I even repeated that 2 times now. Right now I am suspecting .... this to be causing the trouble and will have it fixed in time or have a work around for it.

It would be like me walking up to you and telling you how t fix a rifle that all I know is you pull the trigger on. GRIN! It's all good though.

Mark Jones

Mark Jones wrote:

It would be like me walking up to you and telling you how t fix a rifle that all I know is you pull the trigger on.  GRIN!  It's all good though.

Mark Jones

Well, good analogy...........................up until the last paragraph.

My personal experience is that fine-tuning a computer with a file, a hammer, & a punch (no matter how petite) seldom fixes the problem.

You guys

Yet Claymore nothing feels better than pounding a worthless computer to bits.

It was funny.  We did two trial runs of 5 cars.  No glitches.  As soon as we got up there in front of 500 folks.  Glitch, Glitch, Glitch, Glitch...ran perfectly.  It took about 10 minutes to get it to run right. It was making me sweat.  

We had a great time and it was the fastest 87 cars running in 45 minutes I have ever done.  

I will setup the track and work it over to get it error free.  Was loosing communications betweent the timer chip and the computer.  USB conectivity can sometimes be a problem.

Mark Jones

The problem is obviously in he "Urgency Sensor" of the Unit.

Our photocopy machine at work had the same thing.  It would work fine at 2:00 in the afternoon, when there was nothing important going on.  If it was 7:15 AM and you had to be Downtown before the District Attorney at 8:00 with a 25 page Charging Report, it would jam & overheat every time.

(Check the "Urgency Sensor")

Yup. That one fails every time.

Mark Jones