Deja vu

[Godders]

Having spent three hours on Sunday evening getting routegadget to work for a small colour-coded event I'm not surprised many events / clubs don't use it. My computer was very close to going out the window...

[swat]

Uploading to all these tools (club website, RouteGadget, SplitsBrowser, Winsplits, BOF results, rankings database) does take time and effort (although it gets quicker the more you do it), and so very much depends on the time and inclination (and technical knowledge) of the volunteer doing the work. Problems on the day with controls not working, incomplete runs etc can often mean manual clean-up of the data is required which can take quite a bit of effort. RouteGadget for example requires 3 inputs (map, controls/courses and split times) which all need to be in the right formats.

The rachet effect of event 'quality' means people expect these things quicker after each event but it's not always possible to do because real life gets in the way. Personally I try to get all these tools up and working as soon as possible after the events I help at ('cos I like geeking at them myself), but some of the other volunteers in our club simply aren't able to always do this. So, it can be a bit of a lottery as to exactly what is available after our events, but I think that's ok - they are 'nice to have' not 'need to have' after all (apart from the results obviously - we'll always post those!).

[andy]

Uploading to all these tools (club website, RouteGadget, SplitsBrowser, Winsplits, BOF results, rankings database) does take time and effort

You're right, this does take time initially and it does usually fall to one person (or a small number of people anyway)

I highlight initially because after doing 15 or so events in routegadget now it's become almost second nature to me. (Getting over the 'crossing point' syndrome was the big hurdle there!)

Maybe this is more cause for a 'tech' forum on nope, where people can discuss such things, as well as any other 'O' computer related issues.

[Mr Chips]

I was about to come back with the same suggestion (a Tech forum) but andy beat me to it.

I agree 100% with swat about the ratcheting effect and the extra burdens that it imposes. On the other hand the "orienteering experience" has greatly improved for me with the coming of EPS and associated gadgets and, more importantly, has had a visibly motivating effect on juniors and other newcomers (or at least that has been my experience). I have also experienced the steepness of the learning curve with event and post-event software and have been lucky to have help from clubmates, but I know that knowledge of this software is not evenly spread around the O-population and help can be hard to come by.

I'm off now to the Support forum to cast my vote in favour of a Tech forum.

Please accept my apologies for hijacking this thread!

[andy]

there's a poll in the support forum for those interested (or not!) in having an 'o tech' forum.

[Scott]

sometimes you can view a race graph and sometimes you can't; also, sometimes you can compare runners from different classes on the same course and sometimes you can't. I have no idea what determines this.

Splitsbrowser race graphs require a record of the start time for each competitor. For events with a punching start, SI logs an absolute start time on the card, and so SI events should always have a race graph available; EMIT does not (and, I believe, has no facility to do so), and so race graphs can only be produced for EMIT events (or events with timed starts) if someone manually enters all the start times into the Splitsbowser .csv file (as I did for Oxford last year) - and, of course, such graphs will only be correct if everybody started on time...

[Paul Frost]

The problem Godders had with RouteGadget was "crossing points".
I recently re-launched the RouteGadget UK website with more hints, tips and FAQs and crossing points is one of the items. These sorts of issues are coming to light as more people use RouteGadget and use it sometimes in a non-standard way. People can add comments or ask questions about each item.
If anyone has any tips they have learnt to aid processing an event, let me know and I will add them to the database.

RouteGadget was originally developed by Jarkko Ryyppö for use with EMIT in Finland so there is no reason why the use of EMIT should preclude the use of RouteGadget. The cost shouldn't be a problem either, I only ask for a £20 year contribution towards the running costs or clubs could install it on their own website for free.

As Andrew said, the more you use it the easier it becomes (like most things in life). The key thing is to prepare some of the files required in advance, trying to get hold of the planner/organiser for them on the day of the event is asking for problems. The OCAD map needs to exported into a JPG or GIF and the course data from Condes or OCAD exported to an XML file. So, when you get the results splits you are ready to go. If there are no other problems this is a 5-10 minute job. It is when there are faulty controls or timed crossings to remove that some manual editing of the files is required.

Whilst I don't promise same day support to users of RouteGadget UK I am often available to help out if there are problems.

[MIE]

EMIT does not (and, I believe, has no facility to do so), and so race graphs can only be produced for EMIT events (or events with timed starts) if someone manually enters all the start times into the Splitsbowser .csv file (as I did for Oxford last year) - and, of course, such graphs will only be correct if everybody started on time...

Probably true for standard EMIT software but there is an "extra/addon" bit of software which does the Splitsbrowser output correctly. Check the BAOC results website and you will see that most mid-week league events have full Splitsbrowser results up by 19:00 on the day of the event. The add-on was completed well over a year ago and is used regularly. Try an e-mail
to EMIT-UK to see if you can get a copy.

[Mr Chips]

Check the BAOC results website and you will see that most mid-week league events have full Splitsbrowser results up by 19:00 on the day of the event. The add-on was completed well over a year ago and is used regularly. Try an e-mail
to EMIT-UK to see if you can get a copy.

But the army events never show a race graph correctly. You can select race graph but it appears as if everyone started at the same time, so it just looks like the splits graph.

PS
I do greatly appreciate the midweek army events and their rapid results service - this is more a matter of technical curiosity for me.

[Scott]

You can select race graph but it appears as if everyone started at the same time, so it just looks like the splits graph.

Quite. It's not a problem to produce Splitsbrowser files for EMIT events, but you don't get the accurate logging of start times that you do with a punching-start SI event, and which are needed for a "proper" race graph.

[batty]

The original post was about visiting the same control twice. This was not a butterfly and did not add anything to the course which was very boring and not worthy of national event standard with most controls of orange standard and with long path runs. Why did this course not use the large rentrants to the east instead of coming back to this control in which you ran back the same way you left it? Considering the cost of entering (including charging juniors for hire of emit) and £2 for parking it was very poor value for money.