COACH on a PC (Windows)

ChronoFEED-COACH also exists for Windows, with the same functions as on the tablet and the look of ChronoFEED-FINISH: modules as tabs, a search field in the middle of the header, menus, a status bar, F1 help. The tablet screens described in this help are the same there; this page says what changes on a PC.

Install and start

Run the installer ChronoFEED-COACH-Installation-….exe (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit), downloaded from chronofeed.ca (COACH's Windows button). Nothing else to install: COACH does not use a PostgreSQL database, it has its own encrypted database, created at first launch.
At first launch, a 30-day trial lets you discover the application with the demo data (menu Tools › Create demo data).
To synchronize with FINISH, activate your licence: menu Help › Licence…, token COA-… (a ChronoFEED-COACH token: a token for another product is refused). The licence is tied to this computer, like those of the other products of the suite. A token covers one device at a time: the tablet or this computer. To use both at the same time, you need two tokens; otherwise, Release this computer (or Release this tablet on the tablet) lets you activate it on the other device.

The window

Header: the product name, then the five modules as tabs (Dashboard, Live, Athletes, Synchronization, Analysis; Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+5), the Search field in the middle, and on the right the File, Display and Tools menus, the Settings button and the ? help menu.
Status bar (at the bottom): the number of connected FINISH stations (click: Synchronization), the licence status (click: Licence), the athletes and sessions kept on this computer (click: Settings), and messages.
The Athletes module shows side by side the list of athletes (sortable grid: click a column header) and the record of the chosen athlete, with its Sessions, Load, Progress and Load curve tabs: the tablet's successive screens, brought together.
A session opens in its own window (double-click, or Open the session); several sessions can be open at the same time, each one follows the live feed.

The menus

File: Request access to athletes…, Synchronize now (F5), Export the athlete's sessions to CSV…, Export to Excel…, Exit.
Display: The five modules, Lapping tile and Hide absent athletes (the Live settings).
Tools: Simulate a practice (demo), Create demo data, Open the data folder.
Settings: The tablet settings: coach, language, start of the season, demo data, your data, erasing.
? (Help): ChronoFEED-COACH Help (F1), suite help, Licence…, About…, Report a problem or suggest an improvement…, language. Contact support…: a live written conversation with a support agent; see Contact support.

Contact support…

Where: ? (Help), just after “Report a problem or suggest an improvement…”

A live written conversation with a ChronoFEED support agent. The window leaves COACH usable and never comes to the front by itself: a message received does not disturb you during a race.

Looking for an agent
Only when the window opens (never at startup or in the background), COACH looks for an agent online in the interface language, for this program and, if it knows it, for your sport: 5 seconds at most.
An agent in your language
“An agent is online.” Enter your email address (required, for the rest of the conversation) and, if you wish, your name. The conversation starts with your first message; Ctrl+Enter sends it.
An agent in another language
“An agent is available in English. Accept help in English?” Accept opens the chat in that language; No, write a request opens the feedback window.
During the chat
Your messages on the right, the agent's on the left, with their first name. A lost connection is announced; your messages wait and are sent when the connection is back, only once. Close the conversation ends it.

The three tools. Nothing is sent without your consent: each tool first shows a preview, with Send and Cancel. When the agent asks for one, a banner says so, with View and send… and Ignore: you are always the one who sends.

Screen clip…: a window of this program or of another program of the suite open on this computer, never the whole screen. Annotate and mask… lets you write on it, black out what must not be sent and keep only an area (Whole image goes back to the full image). An image can show athletes' names: mask them if needed.
Settings…: the settings useful for diagnosis, with secrets masked; one checkbox per line to remove some.
Topology…: the ChronoFEED programs of the installation, their versions and their links, each computer under an alias (“Poste 1”); you see the exact text.

The fallback. No agent free, chat closed, server unreachable or too slow, licence refused, limit reached, or no reply from the agent for 2 minutes: the feedback window (Report a problem or suggest an improvement…) opens instead, without an error message, already filled in with what you wrote, and it says why at the top. Your request goes that way; the answer reaches you by email.

Search (Ctrl+K)

The Search field in the middle of the header (Ctrl+K or Ctrl+F) finds, as you type a few letters:

a screen, a setting or a menu command ("tile", "season", "curve", "CSV"…): COACH goes there and highlights it in yellow for a few seconds;
an athlete ("Jérémie"): their record opens;
a session ("Speed Jérémie", "October 2026"): its details open.

↑ ↓ to choose, Enter to go there, Esc to close. A typo is tolerated.

Help (F1)

F1 opens this help at the section of the targeted element (the one with the cursor, otherwise the one under the mouse), in the interface language. The ? menu also opens the home page of the COACH help and the suite help.

Request access to your athletes from a PC

As on the tablet: the PC shows the athletes of the current session of a FINISH, you choose yours, the FINISH operator accepts.

In COACH, Synchronization module (or File › Request access to athletes…): Search for FINISH, then choose the one of the track in the list.
The athletes of its current session appear, each with a chip in the colours of their record in FINISH; those already paired with this PC are circled in vermilion. Tick yours, then Request access.
FINISH shows the request to its operator, who accepts all, some or none; the granted athletes appear under the request: check them (answer). Without an answer within 5 minutes, the request expires and nothing changes.

Then, like the tablet, the PC finds the FINISH stations on the local network (UDP announcement, port 8217; the installer opens the Windows firewall for COACH), catches up on what it missed and receives laps live; several FINISH stations at a time. The computer name shown in FINISH is set in Synchronization › Computer name.

The PDF report on a PC

In a session's details, PDF report offers three actions instead of Android sharing:

Save as…: write the PDF wherever you want;
Open: open it with the Windows PDF reader (to print it, for example);
Send by e-mail…: your e-mail program (classic Outlook, Thunderbird…) opens a message with the report attached; choose the recipient and send. Without a compatible program (new Outlook, e-mail in the browser), the report's folder opens, with the file selected, along with an empty message: drag the file into it.

The session comment is typed to the right of the chart; a lap's comment, in the Comment column of the lap grid. Both appear in the report. The CSV export (Export to CSV) is saved the same way.

Your data on the PC

It is kept in your Windows account's folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\ChronoFEED\COACH; menu Tools › Open the data folder), in an encrypted database (SQLCipher, AES-256). Its key is protected by Windows for your account (DPAPI): a copy of the folder on another computer, or under another account, cannot be read.
As on the tablet, it is kept for 10 years and then erased automatically; Settings › Erase all data on this computer… erases everything (you will have to request access to your athletes again).

What differs from the tablet

Topic	Tablet (Android)	PC (Windows)
PDF report	Android sharing (Quick Share, e-mail…)	Save as, Open, Send by e-mail (attachment)
Lap comment	Tap the lap	"Comment" column of the grid
Screens	One screen at a time (menu on the left)	Four modules; list and record side by side; one window per session
Search, F1	—	Search field (Ctrl+K), F1 help
Encryption	Key kept by the Android Keystore	Key kept by Windows (DPAPI, your account)
Licence	Tied to the tablet	Tied to the computer (like the other products)

What about the Mac?

A version of ChronoFEED-COACH for Mac (macOS 12 Monterey or later, Apple Silicon or Intel) is being tested; it is not distributed yet. It brings the tablet's screens into a Mac window, with a menu bar and shortcuts (⌘1 to ⌘7 for the screens, ⌘R to synchronize, ⌘E to export to Excel), “Export to Excel…” as on the PC, and for the PDF report: Save as, Open or Share. The same COA-… token works there, on one device at a time.