Messages

31

Future Development / Re: Start Fuel Level in the Pre-Race Window

« on: December 21, 2014, 04:49:20 AM »

I believe pit strategy will be a future addition to the program. Presumably, this means choosing a tank level and other options prior to race start.

32

Future Development / Season needed

« on: December 21, 2014, 01:19:44 AM »

RCS64 needs a "Season" in the racing series option, or a new tab for it.
A season would be what I normally call a series. It is the entirety of a group of races that a club may race over many meetings.

To make a comparison to SSDC, this is what SSDC calls a Series. What you call a Series, SSDC calls an Event. And what you call an Event, SSDC calls a Race. I'm used to what SSDC calls these things, which also matches up to what other clubs call these things, so I'd rather your naming convention changes to match what I believe is the norm.

Whether you change your naming convention, or add "Season" or something different entirely, there needs to be something that allows us to track a number of meetings that take place on different dates as one larger "thing".

Just like F1 and other real racing series/seasons/whatevers.

33

Issues with version 4 / Preview of "No Rotation"

« on: December 21, 2014, 01:13:32 AM »

I don't see any reason not to preview the "No Rotation" series option. Being able to see which racers are placed in which heat would help the race marshal determine if that's the best set up or not, prior to getting people ready to race. For example, I had one set up with 9 people and running 6 cars. If I had seen the rotation, I would have disabled a car or two, so that the races were more evenly populated.

34

Issues with version 4 / Euro rotation sit-out wrong

« on: December 21, 2014, 01:11:32 AM »

I reported this awhile ago, and it got back burnered. I wanted to make sure it is addressed at some point.

The problem: in the Euro rotation of Series, the racer currently sits out between racing on 5, and then coming back in on 6 and finishing on 2.  This is incorrect.

The racer who starts in ID1 should rotate through all IDs with no break. Racers who start in other slots would "come out" after racing in ID2, take a break, then return in ID1.

For example, Greg starts in ID5. He would then race in 6, then 4, then 2, then he would SIT OUT until other racers have rotated in. When he comes back, he will race in 1 and then 3, and that will be the last race.

Another example, Alex starts in ID2. He would then sit out until the other racers rotated into the series, and come back in on 1 to complete his rotation.

As I said, the current rotation is working almost perfectly, except at what point the racers sit out from the racing until they come back in. They should sit out between 2 and then 1, not between 5 and 6.

Even when only running 3 or 4 IDs, the racer would still come out on 2, rather than 3, or 4.

35

Future Development / Re: Start Fuel Level in the Pre-Race Window

« on: December 21, 2014, 01:01:11 AM »

I chose yes, even though my group has not yet gotten into such detailed fuel strategy. I think if there are races out there, 1:1 I mean, that let a team decide how much fuel to start with, so should RCS64. Simple as that.

36

Future Development / Re: Better fuel level warnings

« on: December 21, 2014, 12:55:44 AM »

I agree. I think this goes along nicely with my previous request for better fuel indication.

37

Future Development / Re: Better design for the dashboard

« on: December 21, 2014, 12:55:07 AM »

I agree. All I care about, as a racer, is my laps, fuel level, and tire wear. I'll check my lap times at the END of a race, not during it. This information may be more useful for practice, but if I'm taking my eyes off my car long enough to read a number of several digits, I'm likely in the pit lane or something anyway, and can use more focus to do so.

We haven't had any problems knowing which dashboard to look at, but we definitely would not use sort dashboard by place, because that would just mess things up. There's already a color coded racing order on the side to look at.

38

Future Development / Re: Series: A big mystery

« on: December 21, 2014, 12:52:27 AM »

I'm not using it, either. For me, it lacks two very important features.

1) Driver has a preferred/favorite car. This allows the car and driver to move from place to place together. As it is, it's only suitable for IROC racing, where the drivers rotate through cars/lanes that remain the same.

2) A "Season" needs to be added so that multiple race meets can be easily summed for a season (what I normally call a series) of series races (what I would call events).

There are a lot of other "would be nice", such as all the things Gio suggests above, but those are the two that keep DRAWW from using it.

39

Pit Lane - SmartSensors - Pit-Pro / Re: Smart Sensor Installation

« on: December 20, 2014, 07:34:25 PM »

Found it. It's in the Updating APB Firmware video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZ0T1-w9cE
[youtube]hkZ0T1-w9cE[/youtube]

40

Pit Lane - SmartSensors - Pit-Pro / Re: Smart Sensor Installation

« on: December 20, 2014, 07:30:56 PM »

You might want to try changing the com ports to numbers less than 10, so 9 or lower. To do this, you need to enter into the windows hardware profile manager and change them manually. I believe there is a video describing this process that Vector made for this kind of situation.

41

Future Development / Re: Quick controller calibration on Pre-Race screen

« on: December 18, 2014, 05:30:56 PM »

If we could back out of the race without losing it, that would be nice, and especially helpful for situations where a Main Page setting needs to be changed, but it looks like once you're in a race or series... you're pretty well stuck there until you finish or cancel the race or series.

42

Future Development / Re: Quick controller calibration on Pre-Race screen

« on: December 18, 2014, 05:29:34 PM »

I'm intriged... If I understand correctly, your proposal is to encourage calibration ahead of the series, and then during the series, the calibration will move with the driver?
That would be cool, but doesn't help in situations where a controller becomes problematic during a race and needs to be cleaned or changed for a new one.

43

Future Development / Re: Quick controller calibration on Pre-Race screen

« on: December 18, 2014, 06:40:39 AM »

Ah. I see what you mean.
Yes, if that could be made to work, that would be cool.

44

Future Development / Re: Quick controller calibration on Pre-Race screen

« on: December 17, 2014, 07:15:36 PM »

Thanks for that clarification. I did mean for that to be "in a series" of races.
If running single events, I think it can still work the same way, though. A green Car ID means that there is a saved/custom calibration for that controller. Yellow indicates that there is not (so, default/clear calibration). Pull three times to clear it (goes to yellow), then pull and hold to recalibrate (goes green again). Flashing to red during calibration would be nifty, but not required, I don't think. The main reason to have it is so that people who like to flick the controller during pre-race get a visual warning that they're recalibrating their controller if they keep doing that.
In fact, thinking about it, it would work the same way whether in successive individual events, or in a series of heats using the Series screen.

45

Future Development / Re: Quick controller calibration on Pre-Race screen

« on: December 17, 2014, 05:40:50 PM »

I also just thought that it would be nice to be able to clear the calibration of a controller individually, such as by clicking the Car ID box. This would allow RCS64 to save controller calibration in the same place it normally does, so that controllers do not NEED to be recalibrated before every race, but a driver can choose to do so prior to the race, either by performing the calibration trigger motions (pull 3 times then hold, maybe?), or by clicking the Car ID box. This way, if people don't rotate or change position, they don't need to calibrate the controller, but if someone changes controllers (this happens more than you might think), or if they do rotate but want a "default" controller response (e.g. no calibration), they can clear what's in there.

To be clear, here is how I imagine it to work.
First race, all drivers wish to calibrate their controllers. The option to do so (on the Main page) has been enabled. All Car ID boxes are yellow (to indicate not calibrated for this race). If the Calibration option on the main screen is NOT enabled, then the Car ID boxes have no special coloring. They each pull and release the trigger 3 times, each time causing the Car ID box to flash red. then pull and hold the trigger (red light) until their Car ID box lights up green (calibration complete). Controllers are calibrated, they can choose their tires and press brake to start the race.

Second race, no rotation, but drivers 2 and 5 change controllers. On Pre-Race screen, drivers 1, 3, 4, and 6 do nothing. All Car ID boxes are green to indicate controller calibration complete, but 2 and 5 want to re-calibrate. They pull their triggers and their Car ID box flashes red each time they do, but return to green (not-recalibrated). This prevents accidental clearing if they didn't mean to do so. If the pull/release three times AND pull/hold once, then the calibration is overwritten by the new data, and the Car ID switches to Green from red when the routine is complete.

Third race, drivers have rotated and everyone is in a new lane/Car ID. On the Pre-Race screen, drivers 1-5 all pull/release three times then pull/hold once until their Car ID box switches from red to green. Driver 6 does not wish to calibrate, but does not want the previous calibration, either. The race marshal can click the Car ID box to clear previous calibration, and go with whatever the default is.

Another idea would be to make it so that pulling the trigger fully three times clears out previous calibration, and the final act of pulling and holding the trigger is what saves the new calibration. That would allow the drivers to easily clear, or clear and recalibrate, without needing marshal intervention. A Green Car ID could switch back to Yellow after the three pull/release cycles to indicate that calibration has been cleared.

Just some interface ideas for when you're ready to work on this.