Mandi
10-28-2005, 08:25 PM
My father in law is heavily involved in the cross country ski association in Anchorage, Alaska. One of his projects is automating the timing process for each racer during ski season. They use a device that lets one official type in bib numbers, and another person clicks a switch. (This is the backup/secondary timing - there is also an electronic eye thingy, not part of this query though.)
The system is kind of pieced together, and the documentation is bad. He's really struggling with getting the device to behave on the radio modem/wireless mode - it is supposed to talk to the laptop gathering race data over a wireless --> serial port link, but won't. I spent some time troubleshooting with him today, and I think he may have a bad modem - the laptop can't actually ping it, either. The whole process will work if the modem is left out - that is, the timing device is left as a serial device strictly . . . but then the officials must stay very close to both the laptop, and each other - and it's not always practical.
Anyway, I noticed the laptop is bluetooth equipped, and I was thinking that perhaps some handy dandy bluetooth device exists for this purpose - timing events and inputing racer data. A google search left me boggled, so I thought I'd probe here. Anyone seen something like this?
I'll post back with a link to the device in question, but I'm stuck with a blank at the moment, and not with my FIL. Max . . . something. Helpful, I know :rolleyes:.
(Oh, I'm in Alaska for the weekend, BTW :vday2: !)
The system is kind of pieced together, and the documentation is bad. He's really struggling with getting the device to behave on the radio modem/wireless mode - it is supposed to talk to the laptop gathering race data over a wireless --> serial port link, but won't. I spent some time troubleshooting with him today, and I think he may have a bad modem - the laptop can't actually ping it, either. The whole process will work if the modem is left out - that is, the timing device is left as a serial device strictly . . . but then the officials must stay very close to both the laptop, and each other - and it's not always practical.
Anyway, I noticed the laptop is bluetooth equipped, and I was thinking that perhaps some handy dandy bluetooth device exists for this purpose - timing events and inputing racer data. A google search left me boggled, so I thought I'd probe here. Anyone seen something like this?
I'll post back with a link to the device in question, but I'm stuck with a blank at the moment, and not with my FIL. Max . . . something. Helpful, I know :rolleyes:.
(Oh, I'm in Alaska for the weekend, BTW :vday2: !)