Swedge Humper
Anarchist
I am not going to lie. That's pretty cool, BJ. Keep up the good work.
Sailing Related iPhone App
- Thread starter Not My Real Name
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Not My Real Name
Not Actually Me
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FWIW - now that I'm back from vacation I'm starting work on the next feature release. I'll be putting in some of the stuff that was intentionally left out of version 1.0 (mostly to keep it simple for my 1st app, and get it to market before vacation and boat commissioning season...busy time for me this year).
Major stuff that's going in:
- Rolling starts with options for 1:00 delay between classes or direct rolling (class 1 start = class 2 Warning and so on)
- Recalls; individual and general. General recalls affects rolling starts in a big way...what do you do with the bad boys? Kill the sequence and start them again or send them to the end?
- Better AP flag handling; showing the flag and adding the 1:00 countdown and sounds when you start a new sequence after an AP.
If you've got any suggestions, requests, etc. the time to put your $.02 in is now, when I am doing the functional design...before I start the programming modifications.
There some more detail in the Facebook page discussion section so I don't want to retype it all here. Like anything, there are more than a couple of ways to skin these cats in terms of how I can make the program handle it and what the program will support.
Major stuff that's going in:
- Rolling starts with options for 1:00 delay between classes or direct rolling (class 1 start = class 2 Warning and so on)
- Recalls; individual and general. General recalls affects rolling starts in a big way...what do you do with the bad boys? Kill the sequence and start them again or send them to the end?
- Better AP flag handling; showing the flag and adding the 1:00 countdown and sounds when you start a new sequence after an AP.
If you've got any suggestions, requests, etc. the time to put your $.02 in is now, when I am doing the functional design...before I start the programming modifications.
There some more detail in the Facebook page discussion section so I don't want to retype it all here. Like anything, there are more than a couple of ways to skin these cats in terms of how I can make the program handle it and what the program will support.
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Standard under rule 29.2 is that there is a fresh start for the recalled class, and all rollling class starts after that are delayed in sequence. The app should provide for this, so it needs to have a stop, restart on fall of First Sub, Warning Signal one minute thereafter sequence.
If you want a 'go to the back of the queue' process you need to specify it in the SI, but unless the App actually shows different Warning Signals for different classes, then I don't think it needs to make any difference to the app.
Not My Real Name
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They plan WOULD be to have a different warning signal per class. Not actual class flags - there are too many to include - but "Class 1", "Class 2" etc. with different colors so the R/C knows where the app is in the cycle and how many starts are left.
I'm planning to implement 29.2 as a option, and "Back of the bus" as an option. I've been on lines where it happens both ways; I have a personal bias against the "delay everyone else" approach due to a certain J/105 class we were behind that I think they eventually black flagged....I think we finally got to start when the class before the 105's was rounding the leeward marks right in front of us.
InNeedOfSomeRestraint
Super Anarchist
Why not have a feature which remembers what time each division starts at for handicap purposes and allows you to access that data later on after the race. I know it would take a lot to do but could be really great.
Grinder
Super Anarchist
How many have sold?
Not My Real Name
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ToD handicapping you don't need start times, only finished times...elapsed works as well as clock. ToT you need the start/elapsed of course.
The real reason is that this app has nothing to do with scoring, tracking boats etc. Getting data out of an iPhone is a nuisance but it can be done. But in general I don't want to slide down that slippery slope of getting into scoring and tracking races.
I think the best iPhone scoring app would be an interface to an on line yacht scoring program (LZ - you reading this?) rather than something which mucks about with tracking scores, calculating handicaps, doing stop watch finishes and the like. I have a hard time envisioning an iPhone interface to allow you to pick a boat and push "done" when it crosses that wouldn't be a complete clusterfuck. Think about 2-3 boats from multiple classes finishing at the same time while you thumb twiddle trying to get them up on the screen to record the finish...no way people wouldn't hate that in about 1 race.
However something to quickly allow you to post the results you record to a web based system while still on the water and see them on the phone - that's a completely different kettle of fish.
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Not My Real Name
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60-70 paid copies. I've also sent a fair number of promo codes out to various people at US Sailing, in the media, college coaches I know, volunteers to test it, my club's race committee, etc. Probably cost myself a few sales on some of those, but I figure the word of mouth buzz over the long run will pay off.
Haven't quite earned back the Mac Mini yet...
Grinder
Super Anarchist
My wife has it on her phone, I don't have a good phone.
We like just blasting the horn to scare people.....
We like just blasting the horn to scare people.....
Not My Real Name
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One morning when I came into school to sign a permission slip for my son I showed it to my son's English teacher who is a sailor that does race committee quite frequently. Little did I know the "Lockdown" signal for the school is a series of airhorns since the school doesn't have any bells. Needless to say, blowing the horns in the middle of the hallway five minutes before school started...we were this close to pandemonium as the teacher manged to convince a couple of middle schoolers that "no, we're actually not having a Lockdown drill".My wife has it on her phone, I don't have a good phone.
We like just blasting the horn to scare people.....
Grinder
Super Anarchist
It's a great horn
Not My Real Name
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BTW this is an older thread...you all can ignore the "I'm looking for testers" sub topic. Testers I got.
Now I'm looking for feedback on upcoming features as I am designing them.
h34r:And of course customers... h34r:
Now I'm looking for feedback on upcoming features as I am designing them.
h34r:And of course customers... h34r:
Not My Real Name
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Some screens from the under development version. Comments?
Fleet about to get a General Recall:
New setup screen (of you turn "Pre Start Warning" off the Sound/Time/Repeat options all get hidden, cleaning it up).
And the rolling Start Setup Screen:
Fleet about to get a General Recall:
New setup screen (of you turn "Pre Start Warning" off the Sound/Time/Repeat options all get hidden, cleaning it up).
And the rolling Start Setup Screen:
InNeedOfSomeRestraint
Super Anarchist
Awesome BJ!! This looks like a huge step forward!! You can be sure that I'll be updating and checking this out to give you the full scoop.
No Bargers
Member
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You do need to input each races start time into your the scoring software (even TOD). Maybe have a history that keeps the start times for all the races.
You'd still have to sync the clock you're using to track the finish times to the IPhone time, but that would only need to be done once.
Pertinacious Tom
Importunate Member
Can v2 make my iPhone waterproof please?
Elapsed time for each fleet/division, so as to verify target race duration is quite important for race management in dinghy/sprint regattas and in match and team racing. Once you go into abandon/postpone/gen recall it can get difficult to keep track and having the app do it for you would be really good.
Not My Real Name
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- #38
True - but anything scoring related, and really anything which involves dynamic data retention beyond setup and configuration parameters adds a whole new level of complexity to the application. Put in data persistence between sessions (like if someone stops R/C Assist after the start and restarts it before the end of the race) and you've multiplied the pain-in-the-ass factor of coding the app.
I see that as a separate - but possibly related - application to this one. Maybe someday this one logs starts to a file that some other app can pick up and use for scoring purposes, pumping results up to a web site etc.
In truth I don't see the Storm Trysail Club running BIRW or the NYYC doing their Annual regatta with this - my target user is typically a much more relaxed environment. Beercan races, weekend frostbiting, practicing starts on college/high school race teams and the like. To REALLY do scoring right you've passed the $5.00 price point of an app like this by a lot - something like http://www.yachtscoring.com/pricing.cfm charges considerably more than that for a reason!
Not My Real Name
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Here's a screen shot from the upcoming release. It's the middle of a sequence of rolling starts (class 2 start, class 3 warning approaches) with an individual recall flag being thrown. I've very close to finishing all the feature development - I suspect this will be through Apples approval cycle and out for download in about two weeks (Apple takes a week or so).
