results archive

Questions and issues with the results
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Grandad
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results archive

Post by Grandad »

For the last few weeks i've been trying to incorporate results into the weekly videos, by asking for a hard-copy printout of the results at the end of meeting. It's still a work-in-progress, but I'm having fun with the workflow!

I have recorded footage from most meetings for 2013, but have incomplete results to work from. I know that some data is available on this website for that period, but I can't reconcile the footage I have with the website results. Although I can extract from the recorded footage metadata showing the exact time of recording, the start times of the website results are not visible, so I'm not sure of drivers names for each race, for example.

I was wondering if I could have access to all of this years result data, which hopefully would include start of race times, so I could have a chance of completing this years video project?

regards
Ian
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Re: results archive

Post by Webmaster »

Hi Ian,

I don't think there's any further information you can get from for the results in terms of start times. If I remember correctly, there's times the results are printed on the hard copies but this isn't saved anywhere on the computer. I would think that you could only guess. Some of the RC-Timing files have a last modified date which would mean we have the time of the final race if the file hasn't already been modified by me fixing things. You could work backwards from this but this obviously wouldn't take situations where races are delayed manually into account.

I have no problem with you having the all the results from this year but I don't have them either! (As I'm not currently local, getting them to me by email is the only option at present and finding someone to do this each week is an issue)

The RC-Timing files for the meetings aren't usually deleted from the Race Control laptop so everything you need should be on there under C:\Race Meetings. The RC-Timing software can be downloaded and will allow you to do most things you'd need to at home as a trial version so you could save it all onto a flash drive at the end of the meeting. You'd be able to generate the results as HTML files yourself from them or pass them onto me so I can update the site.

In the future, I'd be interested in making the website work for you and your project more than it currently does. Maybe it could be as simple as adding links in the results to the videos or a dedicated page if you continue. Let me know if you have any thoughts.
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Re: results archive

Post by Grandad »

Hi Ben,
Thanks for the info. I'll have a look at the lap top next time I'm down there then, which is probably this coming Sunday or Monday. If I can locate and copy the data I'll send it over to you to update the site results.

I'm still experimenting with the videos, trying a few different things - I'm always open to constructive criticism.

Yes, better integration with the website might be a good thing, we'll see how it goes for the rest of the year.

regards
Ian
Grandad
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Re: results archive

Post by Grandad »

Well I copied all results I could find from the laptop just before we packed up Monday afternoon. Just installed the trial version of rc-timing software and having a look through a working copy of the years results. Its getting late, probably have a better go with it tomorrow.

Looks like you are right about the lack of race start time information. I don't know much about the logging requirements of a good piece of rc race control software - which undoubtedly this is! , but to me I would have thought timestamping everything in the log file would have been a good thing. Maybe the developers were a bit paranoid about using too much disk space. Or maybe the timing is recorded in the files, but they didn't bother making that field available to the user.

My thought about the time printed on the hard copy printout being linked to the race start time turns out to be wrong. A you mentioned and as Andrew Slingsby pointed out that it was infact just the time of printing rather than anything potentially useful.

Anyhow, tomorrow i'll have a go at saving the summer results as html. From which date shall i start?

regards
Ian
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Re: results archive

Post by Webmaster »

Hi Ian, if you could zip it all and email it to me, it'd be appreciated. I sometimes make corrections on request so the original files are useful.
Grandad
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Re: results archive

Post by Grandad »

Hi Ben,
I've emailed you the results, which don't include the final meeting yesterday.

Let me know if you get them ok.

Regards
Ian
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Re: results archive

Post by Grandad »

Well I've been playing with rc-timing and the data I copied from the laptop. As far as printing out the results for my own use, it all works fine up to and including the meeting of 17/8/2013, but if I load the 'c:/race meetings/ buggies 2013/ dboots GP 2013.bmt' meeting, or 'dboots GP 2013 2.bmt' meeting, I just get error messages when I try and print.

For example, if I try and print 'Final Result', Race 1, Round 1, it gives me '1 is not a valid race number'. If I input any other value for Race: or Round: I get the similar error. If I select 'All races' then the error message says 'There are only 0 races'.

So maybe I'm doing it wrong, or I missed some data whilst copying. Any thoughts please?

I've got some good footage of day 2 of the GP, but no results.

regards
Ian
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Re: results archive

Post by Webmaster »

Hi Ian, sorry for the massive delay in responding.

I'd expect to see that if there were no results saved. "dboots GP 2013.bmt" appears to have no drivers booked in so there's no results there. "dboots GP 2013 2.bmt" does though and contains 4 rounds and 3 finals so I assume it's both days.

I can tell that the 17/08/2013 and the rest are empty by the file sizes.
rctfiles.png
If there's nobody booked in and no results, they're usually around 4KB. You can confirm this by opening the meeting file and clicking the "Drivers" button on the left. This should be everyone who was booked in along with their results towards the bottom if you click a name (screenshot from dboots GP 2013 2.bmt).
rct.png
Also, try and keep the directory structure the same as on the race control laptop otherwise you'll have to manually point each meeting to the correct archive and championship again. You might've noticed this (it complains when you load a meeting).
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Re: results archive

Post by Grandad »

Ok, thanks Ben,
No problem about the delay. I've just come back from five days down in Devon - fish and chips were nice!

OK, I'll have another look at GP 2013 2.bmt

At the end of the first indoor meeting, Ian kindly gave me paper printouts of the results which suits my purpose perfectly. I missed yesterdays meeting as I was driving back up the M5, so hopefully I can catch up and finish last weeks videos.

Talking of videos, I was wondering about making use of the blue HRccc logo as shown on the website. I was thinking of creating a composition where the camera 'flys through' the logo. I've had a look at logo.png from the webpage and I can't do much with it in that format. Do you happen to have an original copy of the logo, or if not, do you or the club have a problem with me tracing around it and recreating the logo in a scalable format that I can use? I've just spotted that credit for the logo goes to James Carroll, so would I have to try and get his permission, or is the artwork owned by the Club?

regards
Ian
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