This section is a reference manual for the features in TapPoint RaceTimer. You can browse it using the contents links or print it out using your browser's Print command.
| RaceTimer normally starts in the Races
view, which lists all of the races that have been saved on the
device. You can open and view a saved race by selecting it in
the list.
To start timing a new race, tap the New... button, which brings up the New Race Dialog. Each race can be assigned to a category, which can be used to help categorize your saved races in the Races list view. Some sample categories are included by default, but you can rename and define your own category names. For example, you might use the club and class name (e.g. "SCCA GT3") for club racing events. |
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| You can specify the track for a race, which serves two
purposes. The name of the track is used to label a saved race in the
Races list view, and the length of the track is
used to calculate the average lap speeds. Specifying a track is
optional, and if you use "(None)" then
the track label and speeds will be left blank.
You can pick a track from the popup list of most recently used tracks on the New Race dialog, or pick Tracks... to get the Tracks dialog, where you can pick from over 50 pre-defined tracks or add your own tracks. The tracks listed in the Tracks dialog are fully editable, so you can rename, edit the length, and delete tracks as well as add your own. When adding your own tracks, you specify a name and length. You can omit the length if unknown, which will just result in the lap speeds being left blank in the race results. |
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| You can specify up to 5 cars to time together in the New
Race dialog, which can be any cars within a race. Each car is
specified by a car number and an optional color, which is used for the car
icon display.
You can enter 1 to 3 digits for a car number, using the on-screen numeric keypad or any of the standard text-entry methods for the device. Enter the car numbers in their relative starting order to make timing the first lap easier. To select a color for a car, tap on the dotted rectangle next to the car number to display a popup list of available colors. Color devices can choose from 10 different colors, and non-color devices can choose black, white, or two shades of gray. RaceTimer remembers the last color assigned to each car number, for up to 32 cars, and will select it by default the next time you enter the car number. |
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Timing multiple cars with RaceTimer consists of pressing a single Time button each time any of the cars you are timing passes your reference point, then checking and verifying the order that the cars crossed the reference point and changing the order if it was different than expected. RaceTimer records times for each car in sequence, keeping track of the expected order of the cars. Whenever the cars stay in the same order, no other action is required and RaceTimer will assign times in the proper sequence. When passes occur, you will need to update the car order in RaceTimer, which is explained below.
| At any point during the timing of a race, the car that is expected to
arrive next and be assigned the next time is shown as an icon in the Next
area. If you see that the next car approaching is not the car shown,
you can change the Next car by tapping on the
car icon and selecting a different car number from the list before it
arrives. You can also press the hardware scroll up/down buttons on
your device to cycle through the cars in the Next
position.
It is important to note that Setting the Next car to the correct car before it arrives is not required, because times can be reassigned after the cars cross the reference point, as explained in the next session. In fact, assigning cars after they cross is usually the preferred mode of operation, because there is much more time to do it then. However, if you have enough time and can clearly see the next car approaching well before it gets to your reference line, you may choose to verify and/or change a car before rather than after. |
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| Each time any of the cars you are timing crosses your reference point,
tap the Time button to register a time for that
car. You should tap the Time button for
each car you are timing, whether or not the Next
expected car or current car order shown by RaceTimer is correct. You
can reassign the times to different cars after they cross, as explained
below, but you must register a time for every car you are timing as it
passes to avoid missing laps.
Each time you register a time, the Next car icon shown moves to the other side of the line into the Last Time Order area. The car icons accumulate in this area in order (shown from right to left as if the car icons were following each other in driving order) until processed and cleared as explained below. When more than 3 car icons are displayed in the Last Time Order area, they stagger side-by-side, so that the crossing order for the example at the far right is 93, 68, 0, 63, 71. |
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As an alternative to tapping the Time button,
you can press either of the two inner hardware buttons on your device
(this is configurable -- see 6. User Preferences) to
register a time. This is usually the preferred method since it can
be done easily with one hand.
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| At the next break in the action after a group of cars has crossed your
reference line, and you have registered times for them, you should check
the order of the car icons shown in the Last Time Order
to see if the order shown is the correct crossing order for the cars on
this lap.
It is important to understand that each pressing of the Time button marks a point in time, and that these points in time are then tentatively assigned to the crossings of the cars shown in the Last Time Order display, in right-to-left order. These crossing times are used to calculate the lap times for the cars (a lap time being the difference between two successive crossing times assigned to a given car). As long as the car icons are in the Last Time Order area, you can reassign the corresponding crossing times to different cars if necessary, which will result in the lap times and car positions being recalculated and updated. Thus, you have until the cars come around again for another crossing to verify and correct the time assignments as necessary. |
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If the order of the cars shown in the Last Time Order area is correct, or once you have corrected it as explained below, you can tap the Check button (displayed as a checkmark) below the car icons to confirm the order and clear the icons from the Last Time Order. As an alternative to tapping the Check button, you can press either of the two outer device hardware buttons (this is configurable -- see 6. User Preferences).
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If the order of the car icons in the Last Time Order area does not correspond to the order in which the cars actually crossed, or if any of the cars are wrong, you can change the cars assigned to the times in the following ways.
1. You can tap on any car icon in the Last Time Order area to display a popup list of car numbers and select a different car which properly corresponds to that pressing of the Time button. If the new car number already exists in the Last Time Order area, the order of the two cars will be swapped.
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2. You can also change the order of cars in the Last Time Order area by dragging a car icon to its correct position in the order with the stylus.
3. If one of the positions in the Last Time Order area does not correspond to a car that you are timing (because you accidentally pressed the Time button when a different car crossed), you can tap on the icon in that position to display the popup of car numbers and pick the "Other" choice. This will remove that car icon from the Last Time Order and discard the corresponding crossing time.
Note: When discarding a crossing time by selecting "Other" from the car popup, be sure you do this at the position corresponding to the unneeded pressing of the Time button so that the correct crossing times can be assigned to the remaining cars. For example, if you pressed the Time button 3 times as 3 cars crossed, but only the 1st and 3rd cars that crossed were cars you are timing, you should tap on the 2nd (middle) icon and select "Other". You can then reassign the two remaining times to the correct cars.
If one of the cars you are timing pits or goes out, you can mark it as 'Out' to prevent it from appearing in the predicted Next position at each subsequent lap (to avoid needing to correct the predicted crossed cars on each subsequent lap). There are two ways to this.
1. If the car you want to mark as 'Out' is currently shown in the Next position (you can also pick it from the Next car popup to put it here), you can tap on the Next car icon and pick the "nn Out" item (where nn is the car number) at the bottom on the list. This will mark that car as 'Out', predict a different Next car, and stop predicting the reappearance of the 'Out' car for subsequent laps.
2. You can also tap on any car in the results list on top then tap the Edit... button to bring up the Edit Car dialog and check the Out checkbox to mark it as 'Out'.
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If a car marked as 'Out' comes back, you can bring it back in by simply selecting it from the Next car popup the next time it passes to record a time for it, or by using the Edit Car dialog. The first lap time recorded after a car marked 'Out' is brought back in is marked with the 'P' (for Pit Stop) icon in the lap time list (see 3. Viewing Lap Times and Statistics).
| If you are timing fewer than the maximum of 5 cars, you can add a new
car at any time during the race by using the Add Car...
menu command, which brings up the New Car dialog
where you can specify a car number and color. You can also specify
an initial lap count for the new car to place it in the correct position
in the standings list for a race in progress
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You can delete a car at any time during or after the race by tapping on
the car in the results list at the top of the main RaceTimer
view, tapping the Edit... button to bring up the
Edit Car dialog, and then tapping the Delete...
button.
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If you miss one of the cars you are timing (fail to record a time for it) on one or more laps, then the lap count for that car in the results list will be too low. Alternatively, if you accidentally assign an extra time to a car then its lap count will be too high. RaceTimer gives you an easy way to fix these and other mistakes any any time during or after the race by simply editing the lap count for a car. In addition to updating the lap count and position of the car in the results list, RaceTimer will update the lap times for that car to correctly adjust for the most common scenarios.
To change the lap count for a car, tap on the car in the results list on the top of the main RaceTimer view, then tap the Edit... button to bring up the Edit Car dialog, where you can adjust or enter a new lap count. For example, the following sequence shows increasing the lap count for car 68 from 19 to 20 laps to correct for a missed lap.
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Car 68 is missing one lap |
Missing lap is apparent at lap 5 |
Increasing Lap Count to 20 |
Lap 5 is split into two laps |
When the lap count is increased manually, RaceTimer will split laps that look abnormally large into two or more smaller laps. The resulting new laps are marked with a '?' in the lap time list to indicate that the times are estimates based on splitting a larger lap. When the lap count is decreased manually, RaceTimer will combine laps that look abnormally short into adjacent laps.
While timing a race, the results list at the top of the main RaceTimer view maintains a running display of the relative position, last lap time and speed, and lap count for each car. In addition, you can select one of the following four statistics to show in the last column via the popup list in the header:
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Default Results Display |
Popup for Last Results Column |
Results List Showing Best Time |
| You can view the list of all lap times and speeds recorded for a car by tapping on the car in the results list at the top of the main RaceTimer view. The best lap time is shown in bold. Laps during which the car was marked as 'Out' (see 2.5. Marking Cars as Out) or when the race was stopped (see 5. Stopping and Restarting a Race) are marked with a 'P' icon, and lap times that are estimates calculated by splitting larger laps (see 2.7. Correcting Mistakes by Changing Lap Counts) are shown with a '?' icon. |
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You can also view the total elapsed time for a running race on the Race Details form (see below).
| Pressing the Details button in the main RaceTimer
view brings up the Race Details form, where you
can edit the Category, Track, Date, and Time assigned to the race.
In addition, while the race is running, the total elapsed race time is
shown in the upper-right corner.
Pressing the Note button on the Race Details form brings up the Race Note, where you can attach a text note to the race to record any notes. |
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| Pressing the Stop button in the main RaceTimer
view stops the race and displays the car icons in their relative finishing
order. Pressing Done will then save the
race and return to the Races list view.
You can restart a race that has been stopped (even if it has already been saved), by tapping the Restart button, which will resume timing and add more laps for the cars. The duration that the race was stopped will be recorded as 'Pit' lap and marked with a 'P' icon in the lap times list (see 3. Viewing Lap Times and Statistics).
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Picking the Preferences and Device Buttons... commands from the Options menu will bring up RaceTimer's Preferences and Device Buttons dialogs, respectively, where you can select options for RaceTimer's general operation. These settings will be remembered each time you start RaceTimer. |
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Choosing mph vs. km/h for Speed Display affects the display of lap speeds in the main results and lap times list, and also determines whether track lengths are shown in mi or km in the Tracks dialog.
Checking "Predict Passes" modifies the way RaceTimer predicts the Next car while timing. If not checked, the order of cars is predicted to be the same as the car order from the previous lap. If checked, RaceTimer will predict which car will cross next based the cars' speeds during the last lap and their last crossing times. Checking this option can reduce the number of times that you have to modify the car crossing order, especially when timing cars of largely differing speeds. However, if all the cars are of similar speeds, or passing on the track is difficult, it is usually better to use the standard unchecked state.
Note: Experimenting with the Predict Passes option while recording unrealistic lap times (e.g. just clicking off quick laps with the Time button) will usually produce strange results, such as the same car being predicted as Next several times in a row, due to very different speeds being calculated.
The Device Buttons dialog controls whether and how RaceTimer will intercept the device hardware buttons for the Time and Check operations (see 2.2. Recording Times and 2.3 Checking the Crossing Order) while timing a race. When "(None)" is assigned to a button, the button will perform its normal operation (for example, switching to the build-in "Address" or "To Do List" application). The number of device hardware buttons and their built-in functions varies from device to device, but typically they are arranged on the bottom of the device, left-to-right, with Button 1 on the far left.
If any hardware Time buttons are enabled, then the "Time Button Beep Sound" option controls whether the sound emitted by the device when these buttons are pressed is the same as for a normal button press (typically a "click" sound), or a louder sound (typically a "beep"), which is easier to hear in a loud environment.
You can share data with other users of RaceTimer by beaming information to and from devices with an infrared port. You can also beam the lap times for a car to users of TapPoint LapTimer as explained in Appendix A: Exporting Data to TapPoint LapTimer.
You can beam the results of a race, including all of the lap times for all of the cars timed, to another user of RaceTimer by opening the race you wish to beam (if it is not already open), then picking the "Beam Race" command from the Race menu.
Note that RaceTimer must be installed on the receiving device for it to accept the session (but it does not have to be running). If you want to share race results with someone who does not have RaceTimer installed on their device, you can beam them a free 30-day trial version of RaceTimer before beaming them the race (see below).
You can also beam the lap times for any of the cars you are timing to users of TapPoint LapTimer as explained in Appendix A: Exporting Data to TapPoint LapTimer.
You can beam a free 30-day trial version of RaceTimer to another device by using the Beam RaceTimer command, which is in the Options menu.
Beaming a trial version of RaceTimer can allow you to setup multiple devices at an event or share RaceTimer data with other users (e.g. by beaming), before these users have purchased the registered version of RaceTimer. See Appendix B.1 The Free 30-Day Trial Version for more information on the trial version of RaceTimer.
You can export the lap times from one of the cars you are timing into a session in TapPoint LapTimer's session database if you also have LapTimer installed on your device, or you can beam the times to LapTimer on another device. Exporting times into LapTimer is useful if you use both LapTimer and RaceTimer and keep track of all of your sessions in LapTimer's database, or if you want to use LapTimer's more extensive lap time editing and analysis features (for more information on TapPoint LapTimer, see www.tappoint.com/laptimer).
To Export or beam to LapTimer, tap on a line in the results list on top of the main RaceTimer view to view the lap times for that car, then tap the LapTimer... button and select either Export or Beam.
Sessions transferred to LapTimer will be assigned a session name of "Race", a track name that is the same as that used in RaceTimer (use the same name for your tracks in both LapTimer and RaceTimer to avoid duplicate entries in your LapTimer tracks list), and a blank driver and car. You can assign a driver and car in LapTimer by opening the session and tapping the Details to edit the session details.
The following sections contain general information on TapPoint RaceTimer.
RaceTimer offers a special free 30-day trial, which is a fully-functional version of RaceTimer, except that after 30 days from the time it is first used, it can no longer be used to time or import new races. You can continue to view saved races after expiration, however, and when a registered version is purchased all existing data (sessions and preferences) are preserved.
The free trial version of the Race Timer program file (RaceTimer.prc) is identical to the full registered version, so all that is necessary to upgrade to the full version is to enter a registration code. The trial version will display the number of days left in the trial at each startup and pressing the Register... button on this dialog will allow you to enter your registration code.
Your registration code is sent to you via email when you purchase your product at www.handango.com or other online retailers. If you lose your registration code and need to reinstall RaceTimer after a device reset, contact support@tappoint.com.
| To determine which version of RaceTimer is installed on a device, pick
the About RaceTimer command from the Options
menu. This
command displays the About RaceTimer dialog,
which contains the version number, as well as indicating whether the
program has been registered or not (see B.1. The Free
30-Day Trial Version). If you contact customer support at TapPoint with a question about RaceTimer, please indicate which version of the program you are using. |
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| Lap time accuracy | 1/100 sec |
| Maximum lap time | 99 days |
| Maximum number of cars to time in a race | 5 |
| Maximum number of laps to record per car | 250 |
| Maximum number of saved races per device (if sufficient device memory) | Up to 65,534 |
TapPoint RaceTimer runs on any device running Palm OS® version 2.0 or later. This includes any Palm™ device except the original Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 models, any Handspring™ device, and other devices by Sony, IBM, and others. Palm OS® version 3.0 or later is required to beam data or transfer data to TapPoint LapTimer.
The RaceTimer application occupies about 85K of memory on the device. Saved races are small, so you can usually save several races per each 1K of device memory.
For questions on the operation of TapPoint RaceTimer, look on http://www.tappoint.com/racetimer for the latest product information, or send email to support@tappoint.com. For questions on downloading and installing RaceTimer, first consult the support contact of the source where you purchased RaceTimer (online or retail) or the reference material for your device.
For product feedback, and suggestions for future features or products, send email to suggest@tappoint.com.
For information on where you can purchase TapPoint RaceTimer, TapPoint LapTimer, and other products by TapPoint, see http://www.tappoint.com.
TapPoint is a registered trademark of TapPoint, LLC.
Palm OS and HotSync are registered trademarks of Palm, Inc. Palm is a
trademark of Palm, Inc.
© 2001-2003 TapPoint, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
