Race Management Software - What do you use?

[pinewoodnut]

I've been using GPRM for the last 13 years. I'm running a 4 lane Best Track with a Microwizard P3 timer. Since I run about 25 races a year, I always did my updates each year to try to optimize my process and support the software. I learned about 10 years ago to ALWAYS run the latest patch/update for the version you are on. I had upgraded in November, but hadn't tested until the night before the first race of the season. There was an issue with the GPRM and my P3 timer, but after applying the latest patch, everything worked fine.

Each year I would pay for my upgrade and run the latest version. I had issues with results/reporting last year with GPRM v16 Pro. For now, I'm running v15 Pro. I've purchased v17 and Derby Web to do some testing after derby season is over.

My question for you is what software do you run, but also which version & edition? (GRPM lite/pro) Is anyone running the Derby Web add-on? Is anyone using Derby Net with/without GPRM? Is there something else that I should look at using instead?

 

[bracketracer]

I think GPRM is probably the best thing going. Some of the other software only allows for single or double elim or just points. I prefer to score on time. We've used an old copy ( version 8 ) since I took over running the pack race. I tried out the v16 demo last year but on my laptop I had serial port issues with the software. My desktop PC could run it fine so I figured it was an issue with my laptop. When v17 came out I tried it also but had the same issue. To his credit, Randy kept working at it and released an update last month that cleared up the issue I had so I bought v17 Pro for our race next year. I looked at Derby Web but I probably won't dive into that for our pack race.

They used the Race Replay add-on at a corporate derby I attended last year but the camera they were using needed way more light then they had to get to an adequate frame rate so it wasn't very useful. Nothing but a flash of a blur. Not a problem with the software I don't think, it was just too dark in the venue. I was going to try the RR demo with a Mobius action camera and see how it looks before next year's race.

 

[JonG]

I used derbynet stand alone. It waa flawless, except when the raspberry pi got unplugged. Rebooted and it started back up.

Jeff wrote some rock solid software. My setup was as follows. Ran the race elapsed time by rank. Top four advanced for the finals. I had a laptop and the pit crew had a tablet. Used it with a champ timer on 42' Best Track outside in 25 mph winds. I could not get the timer to connect that day. Just entered times manually. Pit crew had next racers up on tablet.

Timer worked great on the bench that night. I had never got my hands on the timer till 30 minutes before the race so just my inexperience. I did not run the kiosks due to being outdoors, but I did run it at home that night.

Equipment:
Raspberry Pi 3 with 8 gb sd card and official case. Power supply. Ftdi (USB to serial adapter)
Raspberry Pi zero w with case for kiosks. Power supply.
Laptop
Tablet
Inexpensive router running dd-wrt software

I recommend that you run your pi headless (no keyboard or mouse). Turn on VNC in your pi options. Then you can do everything from your laptop after installing VNC. Derbynet is completely web based so I never had to access the pi except to start the timer since I suck at getting scripts to run.

Next up is instant replay.

 

[Jeff Piazza]

Pardon the self-promotion, but just FYI, DerbyNet v5.0 is now available.

The big new feature this year is instant replay in the browser: super simple to set up, and will get you a lot of compliments from the audience:

.

 

[DerbyDad4Hire]

Pardon the self-promotion, but just FYI, DerbyNet v5.0 is now available.

The big new feature this year is instant replay in the browser: super simple to set up, and will get you a lot of compliments from the audience:

.

Any chance you might help me set this up and customize it for www.pinewoodderbyracing.com?