Howdy,
On Mon, 27 Sep 1999, Eric W Clements wrote:
> My experience with computers and timers tells me computers are less
> reliable.
> When was the last time you've heard " the timer crashed ! " ? Our club
> timer
> has never had a problem (excluding triggers/wires) except operator
> error...
> which takes me about 30 seconds to fix (take off helmet,unbuckle,walk to
> timing van,
> flip one cell/two cell switch). Computers often have problems and when
> they do
> they take longer to fix (out comes the stopwatch)
...
> The software could be perfect but your still using a computer to run it.
> To me using a computer as a timer is like driving your car 100 feet
> to get the mail, why complicate a simple thing ?
...
> > If you don't already have a stand-alone timer, it's pretty hard to
> > beat the value of Accucros or any other computer based timing/scoring
> system.
>
> Unless you have to buy a computer and generator to go with the software.
I think its important to recognize a few things w/regard to this
discussion.
First, experience with one or two systems isn't a great indicator of what
they can do. For instance, I've never once seen a case of "The computer
crashed" taking out a timer system at an autox. Like everyone else, most
failures are trigger related or operator induced (and I've induced my
share... :-) Both our experences are perfectly valid, but neither is
really appropriate to decide that computer based systems suck or whatever.
Second, Most clubs I've seen already have a computer, so its not totally
out of the question to disregard that extra cost, though its a pretty
hefty pricetag if you gotta put it in.
Third, with the popularity of the web and region websites with results,
storing the timing information on a computer only makes sense so that you
can get it to the web faster and easier. And if you're gonna do that, you
may as well have the computer talk to the triggers, rather than having the
triggers talk to a box that a human looks at and then types info (while
making mistakes) into a computer.
Fourth, if your computer is crashing (pretty much ever) then fix it :-)
With even close to proper care a computer will be totally fine. It may
not be as rugged as a completely solid state box with some LED's but it
does a hell of a lot more as well.
I'd pick a computer based system.
Mark
(current software geek, past hardware geek)
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