by midmoslts » Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:49 pm
I will say that I have not tried all of the many options that are available, but I have tried several. Some options that you pay for and all of them that I could find that were free. Race Coordinator is by far the most feature rich and customizable offering that I have seen. The price tag is a very hefty, FREE. Donations are excepted and if you like it and decide to use it I highly recommend it. The money goes to a good cause.
Race Coordinator is my software of choice. Free is a plus, but what it dose is what sells me on it. It would seem that it can support even your wildest ideas. Want live race updates to your cell phone or tablet? They do that. Want to see live race data in different formats on different screen all at the same time? It dose that. Want to see who is on deck (drivers in the next race) while the current race is running? It dose that. Can be on the screen with the live race data, on a extended desktop, sent to a secondary device over a local network, ect.
Want race results? How do you want them? Excel spread sheet? Live and updated pushed out to the internet? Yep, It dose that. Want to run more than one event and score it as a series or season? Ya, it dose that too.
Driver stats, Car stats, Track stats. Yep. They got that too.
Hardware compatibility issues? Nope. It works with everything I have seen. Trackmate, Adrino, Raspberry Pi, you name it. I use the good old parallel port option with hardware I build myself. Infrared LED's mounted in a arch over the track above photo transistors that are in holes on the track. Hardware cost is less than $20.00
As if I haven't said enough already, one of my favorite features is the way it uses the track call button to advance from heat to heat. Example...
Start a race from the computer. Track power is off. Voice and on screen prompts count down to race start time (you can set how long this time is). When the timer hits zero the track power comes on and the light bar pops up. Voice prompts along with the lights going 1 by 1 from off state to lit red. When they are all red the next count is GO (voice prompt) and all the lights go green. F1 style. Race runs it course with track calls from the keyboard space bar or external buttons or just runs till it is complete (Depends on how you do things or if you end up having any track calls). When the race is over (by laps count reached or time, it up to you to choose) the track power goes off (Also an option). Race results are still on the screen and you are ready for the next heat. Stage cars on the starting line and hit the track call button or space bar and the system automatically advances to the next round and the count down to green.
My opinion, It's free so what have you got to loose?
Tip: Even if you don't run formal races check out your race results in the spread sheet. It tells you information that you never even thought about asking for, but will love to have. Even driver reaction time at the race start.
It's endless.Try it.