29 replies to this topic

[Johnny D]

Race Hero need more work to be where race monitor is now.

I don't think they should aspire to be a complete friggin mess.

Not sure if it's the system or the users, which still comes back to the system, but Race Monitor has gotten progressively worse in terms of how results are displayed. Nearly useless much of the time and almost always a pain.

[Todd Green]

Like how Racehero is developing.  The only thing I'm really missing is a sort by lap time instead of position toggle.  (Unless I'm missing it.)  Really dislike Racemonitor constantly nagging about upgrading after I'm already paying a yearly subscription.

[Johnny D]

FYI, Motorsportsreg.com and Race-Hero.io are from Brian Ghidinelli. Any feed back on either site, I think he would appreciate.

Steve, as for Race Monitor... are you paying attention to the icon in the upper right. (you can switch it)
If it's a clock/stop watch, it's qual times, fast to slow. If it's a podium/steps, it's finishing position, crossed the line.

Maybe that helps.
J~

[Brian Ghidinelli]

This isn't NASA's fault but MyLaps Orbits doesn't seem to set the start value correctly with merged grids like Race 1 + Race 2 = Start Pos, so some weird things can happen. If we don't receive a start value, we calculate our own, so we're working on some rules for when to ignore the Orbits value and just use the order that cars cross the stripe with. That's not perfect either but is far closer barring any major pile ups on the start.

 

A few ways RaceHero is different from race monitor:

• Live timing, results, entry lists and schedule in a single place (and generated automatically for the T&S team)
• Provisional and official results including penalties and other announcements you would see at the bottom of any printed result
• Never gets the session type wrong (P, Q, R) meaning your sort will always be in the expected order
• You can tap any racer to see lap times and position chart as well as all fields normally included on printed results (e.g., sponsor, hometown, etc - based on what the race organizer enters into the MyLaps system)
• Races have positions gained/lost indicators which tell the story of the race (subject to the above)
• When a racer breaks or pits, we color them pinkish in live timing as they drop down the order so it's obvious they have a problem
• I'd argue it's more "fun" with trophies and awards but that's not for everyone
• Our search ... actually searches!  http://racehero.io/r...me=mark drennan
• And it's free.

 

Feedback on things you'd like to see (e.g., sort by lap time during a race) is welcome and appreciated!  We have a lot in the works I don't want to discuss publicly yet but there's stuff coming!

 

 

 

 

 

[Tom Scheifler]

Race monitor app navigation is not intuitive to me. Aside from that, the results section does not provide the ability to group racers by classification within the results (it does in the live timing). This is a huge negative for me. Also, the notify feature is very unreliable. I'm always calling it a POS for one reason or another.

I used RaceHero for the first time last weekend. It seems much better than RaceMonitor. Time will tell.

[Jay Stroud]

Brian - any chance some of that stuff "in the works" includes an API like Race Monitor provides?

[Steve Scheifler]

FYI, Motorsportsreg.com and Race-Hero.io are from Brian Ghidinelli. Any feed back on either site, I think he would appreciate.

Steve, as for Race Monitor... are you paying attention to the icon in the upper right. (you can switch it)
If it's a clock/stop watch, it's qual times, fast to slow. If it's a podium/steps, it's finishing position, crossed the line.

Maybe that helps.
J~

Johnny, thanks but that's not the issue. Time after time run groups are missing, other times they are duplicated multiple times for no apparent reason, classes listed in the wrong groups and in multiple groups, dropping off line, etc, etc. I suspect a lot of it is user error by the people trying to feed it but it happens so often that I'll still blame the developers for not making it easier. And then add in the things Tom mentioned and I give it no more than 2 stars of a possible 5.

[Brandon]

On principle I'll never download anything from RaceMonitor ever again.  After initially getting it, liking it enough to pay for the 'full version', they then decide to fudge anyone who paid for it by making it a one-time/monthly/yearly subscription.  Language yes, but this is exactly what they did.

 

Race Hero - if it's available on Android I'm in with it.

[Ron Alan]

Racehero...Love the ease of going to the self explanatory tabs..."results". "schedule" and so on. The position by lap is very cool as well as lap times. Only found one thing that i struggle with so far...contrast on the lap times. The color/background/size makes it impossible to see without my cheaters. I can see racemonitor during the day for some reason without my glasses. I'm sure young eyes have no problem!

 

Question...I assume the event has to choose one or the other to send data to? Or is this up for grabs anytime Brian? Does the event pay to connect to either or does the money go the opposite way? Or is this all tied to MyLaps? Curious how it all works,

 

NASA East Champs was not on racemonitor but the West was? NASA has racemonitor all over their 25hr stuff though?

[Todd Green]

Question...I assume the event has to choose one or the other to send data to?

http://racehero.io/relay

[Steve Scheifler]

On principle I'll never download anything from RaceMonitor ever again. After initially getting it, liking it enough to pay for the 'full version', they then decide to fudge anyone who paid for it by making it a one-time/monthly/yearly subscription. Language yes, but this is exactly what they did.

Race Hero - if it's available on Android I'm in with it.

Yea, I felt the same way then figured I misunderstood so no big deal. If it worked most of the time and they actually kept improving it I'd be fine with the annual fee, but at the moment it sucks.

[Brian Ghidinelli]

Brian - any chance some of that stuff "in the works" includes an API like Race Monitor provides?

 

Yes - we're not ready to offer it yet publicly but please email me so I can take into account what you want to do as we build it out - brian at podium.racehero.io is best for this. We have done a few private things like provided the feed for the 25 Hour announcers last year from Endurance Radio.

 

On principle I'll never download anything from RaceMonitor ever again.  After initially getting it, liking it enough to pay for the 'full version', they then decide to fudge anyone who paid for it by making it a one-time/monthly/yearly subscription.  Language yes, but this is exactly what they did.

 

Race Hero - if it's available on Android I'm in with it.

 

RaceHero is currently web-based meaning it works on any device, small screen, big screen, Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, laptops, etc. We elected to skip native apps initially so we could iterate quickly without the app store approval delays. At the NASA West Championships we were deploying improvements mid-race.  We will be doing native versions in the future so that pesky screen will stay on among other things.

 

 

Racehero...Love the ease of going to the self explanatory tabs..."results". "schedule" and so on. The position by lap is very cool as well as lap times. Only found one thing that i struggle with so far...contrast on the lap times. The color/background/size makes it impossible to see without my cheaters. I can see racemonitor during the day for some reason without my glasses. I'm sure young eyes have no problem!

 

Question...I assume the event has to choose one or the other to send data to? Or is this up for grabs anytime Brian? Does the event pay to connect to either or does the money go the opposite way? Or is this all tied to MyLaps? Curious how it all works,

 

NASA East Champs was not on racemonitor but the West was? NASA has racemonitor all over their 25hr stuff though?

 

Organizers can run both RaceHero and race monitor simultaneously - we use a different feed which is why we have more and better information.  There are other reasons why NASA didn't run race monitor at the East Champs which I can't disclose.  There's no fee to the organizer to run our relay (as linked above, http://racehero.io/relay) as we see the organizer as our partner - same philosophy as with MotorsportReg.

 

Ron, on contrast, do you have a screen protector or anything on your phone? I will be at Sonoma this weekend so make sure to show me your phone and we'll compare notes.

[Tom Scheifler]

We will be doing native versions in the future so that pesky screen will stay on among other things.

What do you mean "stay on"?

[Todd Green]

What do you mean "stay on"?

Cell phones will auto-dim/turn off the screen to save battery.  A native app can override that.

[Todd Green]

Feedback on things you'd like to see (e.g., sort by lap time during a race)

 

Great to hear Brian!  For additional info on that, I don't really care about lap times for races (though that is nice), but for quali and TT groups it is what matters.  I don't know if Orbits tells you the session type but if there is a TT/Quali type, then defaulting to sorting by lap time would be great.  (If not, perhaps search for regexps on the class and qual in the title?  At least for NASA.).  I've sent the link to our T&S guys for our region so hopefully we can get your app supported.

[Tom Scheifler]

Cell phones will auto-dim/turn off the screen to save battery. A native app can override that.

Ah OK. I did not perceive it as an issue for the time I used it last week.

[Brian Ghidinelli]

Great to hear Brian!  For additional info on that, I don't really care about lap times for races (though that is nice), but for quali and TT groups it is what matters.  I don't know if Orbits tells you the session type but if there is a TT/Quali type, then defaulting to sorting by lap time would be great.  (If not, perhaps search for regexps on the class and qual in the title?  At least for NASA.).  I've sent the link to our T&S guys for our region so hopefully we can get your app supported.

 

Todd - we already do this. A major differentiator is that we do know with total accuracy the type of session (P, Q or R) and we display the racers in the appropriate order. You know how race monitor will switch to the wrong sort mode and you have to keep hitting the button? You won't encounter that with RaceHero - P/Q is always sorted by lap time (optionally grouped by class) and R is always by total time.  TT groups should be listed as "qualifying" because T&S needs them to sort by lap time so you should see it correctly.  One thing we don't offer yet is the ability to merge multiple TT sessions together into one result but we're looking at how to do it.

 

Ah OK. I did not perceive it as an issue for the time I used it last week.

 

Tom - if your dim-time is set long, like 5m, or never, it won't be an issue.  That's what I do when I'm at the track for the weekend but the average user seems to have more like 1 or 2min so if you watch the race for a few minutes, look down, the screen is off. Obviously easy to fix but annoying.

[Jay Stroud]

Brian - thanks for the response.  Me and/or my development partner will be in touch via the email you listed.  Thanks again.  ~Jay

[Todd Green]

Todd - we already do this. A major differentiator is that we do know with total accuracy the type of session (P, Q or R) and we display the racers in the appropriate order.

I swear when I went to look in on TTE (live) is was being sorted by lap.  Perhaps T&S didn't have it flagged correctly?  Of course when I go to look through results now, they are all sorted on time/correctly.  If it pops up again, I'll be sure to note the session/time etc.

 

One other request: right now the search box only has racer and transponder.  Being able to search on event name, organizer, track name etc. would be great.

[Brian Ghidinelli]

I swear when I went to look in on TTE (live) is was being sorted by lap.  Perhaps T&S didn't have it flagged correctly?  Of course when I go to look through results now, they are all sorted on time/correctly.  If it pops up again, I'll be sure to note the session/time etc.

 

One other request: right now the search box only has racer and transponder.  Being able to search on event name, organizer, track name etc. would be great.

 

Agreed, this just caught me out yesterday actually so I'll be checking those criteria today.  Thanks!