Guest post by: Jason Heineman, Delta Endurance LLC
Climb 89 results: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=415373
Climb 89 is an Everesting Run event, which involves repeating a 0.7 mile out and back hill climb segment up to 100 times within the allotted 32-hour time period. Completion of 100 laps will yield a total elevation gain of 8,900 meters, which just exceeds the elevation of Mount Everest.
There are five other ‘mountain milestones’ available for participants to reach if they are unable to complete the 100 laps. For example, 50 laps will achieve the elevation of Mount Rainier.
A timing system was needed to record laps for each participant with minimal effort on the race staff. The first year of the event used a typical RFID chip timing system with a mat and side antennas, where it recorded participants upon completing a lap.
That system presented two main challenges:
1) Due to the event being in December, participants were adding and removing clothing layers routinely, which would result in the bib mounted chip getting covered and occasionally not read.
2) While the timing software had a time buffer to ignore a second scan when the participant turned and went back up the hill, if they rested for more than 5 minutes, the second scan would need to be manually removed by the timer, which require constant attention by the timing crew.
While improvements could have been made to reduce the issues described, an alternate method was pursued to remove the need for a dedicated person managing the timing system.
For the second year of the event, a new system was assembled where participants self-scan a barcode each time they completed a lap. Participants were provided with a number bib with a barcode and also a separate barcode on a lanyard to use as desired. Once testing and troubleshooting was completed, two additional systems were built in order to have three systems that could handle multiple participants at one time. Each system would talk to each other through webscorer.com, so any of the systems would always display the current lap count of each participant.
The hardware consisted of the following items:
3x Homebuilt enclosures holding an iPad and barcode scanner
3x iPads (Gen 9) running Webscorer PRO 7.6
3x USB Barcode scanners (link)
3x Camera card adapters (link)
3x USB-C lightning cables (link)
1x Multi-port USB charger (link)
1x 1,000 Wh Power station (link)
1x 100w Solar panel (link)
1x WiFi-to-Cellular Hotspot (link)
50x Code 128 Barcodes (sticker on the bib and a badge with lanyard)
One of the iPads was configured as the master device with live results activated, with the other two iPads were set as helper devices. The iPads were each set to display continuously and were protected behind the enclosure’s plexiglass front, which eliminated touch control of the iPad by participants.
The systems were strapped to a table outside and successfully endured 32 hours of continuous operation between 30 and 50 F with winds reaching 50+ mph. The power station kept the iPads and hotspot fully charged for a little over 24 hours at which time the solar panel was plugged in to recharge the power station.
The iPad used as the Master device was configured with the following settings during setup:
- Load a start list with the participant data
- Use "Start type = Mass"
- Turn “Record lap times = On” and choose “Number of laps = Time-limited”
- Turn on “QR code / Barcode scanner”, choose “External Bluetooth scanner”, and set “Ignore repeat scans = 1 minute"
- Select “Timing precision = 1 sec”, “Lap distance = 0.7 miles”, and turn on “Overall results” and “Overall by gender”
- Select “Live results = On” (Master only)
- Select “Timing mode”, turn on “Use helper devices”, select “Master”, select “Sync data via Webscorer.com”, select “Sync data back to Helper”, and select “Accept data from Helper”
- At the bottom of the screen, select “Post Start List” and then select “Post to Webscorer.com (public)” in order to update the start list with the established settings. The helper devices will then load this updated start list.
Each of the Helper iPads were then setup as follows:
- Load the previously uploaded start list from webscorer.com
- Select “Use helper devices”, select “Helper”, select “Helper used for timing”, select “Sync data via Webscorer.com”, select “Send data automatically”, the select the left arrow in the upper left
Prior to starting the race, the following steps were performed:
- Setup each system (enclosure with iPad and scanner), connect them to the power station, and connect the WiFi of all iPads to the hotspot.
- Open the Webscorer app on each iPad and have it open to the Race Start screen
- On the iPad setup as the master device, select “Activate master”
- On each helper device, select “Connect to master”
- At the start of the race, select “Start race on all devices” on the master device
To view the software setup of your own device:
1. Navigate to the Webscorer app's home panel
2. Tap "Race with start list"
3. Tap "Download start list from Webscorer.com"
4. Tap "Search for results"
5. Tap the "Race ID" field, key in 415373 and tap Enter
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