Some Info on DURT and DH Timing Issues
OK, a couple of things to bring up here, a bit long, but here goes...
MTBA will shortly be giving (yep - free) the FileMaker Pro database software plus the latest version of the DURT race software to all the clubs/organisations who will be staging the 06/07 national rounds plus the national championships. MTBA have also agreed to provide a cut-down set of data (due to privacy considerations) of the MTBA membership. This is used by the latest version of DURT to allow the user to register a rider simply by typing in their MTBA number, and the other info is loaded automatically. It will also validate their membership and warn you if it will have expired by race day. This was used at the NSW State DH at Mt Stromlo on 9 July and also at the NSW State XC Champs at Arcadia on 16 July.
As The Cat has said, the registration module of DURT will then export a data file for use by CASTECH in a format which has already been agreed with them. Its a one-click process. Copy the file onto a memory stick and hand it to CASTECH and that’s it. This was trialed at the NSW State DH at Mt Stromlo on 9 July and announced at the MTBA promoters forum on 15 July.
For organisers who use an online registration system, the ability is still in DURT to import data from your online system.
So, that provides consistency across the national series. It also makes it easier for producing series results, because the naming of riders across the series will be consistent.
In terms of using DURT for DH timing, yes a DH race is a time trial and you can use the time trial module for that right now but only if you're happy with results displayed to 1 second. I only display results in DURT to 1 second because the input method is manual and you need to consider human reaction times in calculating the error budget. I can display times to (ridiculous) decimals of a second but because of the manual input method they wouldn't mean anything in an accuracy sense.
The on-screen timing results display for DH in the DURT time trial module provides the usual most recent 15 riders' times, plus across the bottom are 3 extra waterfall displays - for the top 10 men, top 10 women and the top 10 places in the category of the rider who just crossed the line.
In terms of the displayed times for DH, there can be a big difference between the actual accuracy of a time and the displayed resolution of a time. And, how far do you want to go anyhow? For example, something like 1/1000 of a second? At the speed of a DH bike, 1/1000 of a second is about how long it takes the bike to travel the height of a knob on the tire.
Having said all that, I am working on a 1/100 second display time for the time trial module of DURT, and also working on an inexpensive means of triggering the timing. You can't have one without the other. Without some reliable and accurate means of triggering the system, anything to the right of the decimal point is meaningless. I am also re-working the option for totally manual input if you want to use DURT for rego and results for DH. This is what I did at the Nationals DH at Mt Buller in 2004, taking input from Buller's ski timing system.
DURT will automatically produce start lists for DH races if you want to count people off, and if you have a second laptop, it will also allow one to be set up at the top of the course as a programmed start timer, which automatically calls up riders and counts them down to their allocated start time, and beeps them off. These don't have to be connected and can be used to get around the communication problem between the top and the bottom of the course. This is pretty much Tour-de-France time trial rules, where if you miss your allocated start time, you are in trouble. There are several road cycling clubs in the UK who use this feature for thier time trials.
