First steps: training with FINISH
From a brand-new computer to your first timed training session, with lap times shown large on a screen: seven steps, in order. Each page gives the goal, what you need before you start, every action (menus and buttons exactly as they appear), what success looks like, and what to do if something does not work.
How it works
Each athlete wears a transponder (a chip) on the ankle. Every time it crosses the loop buried in or laid on the track, the decoder reads the chip number and the time and sends them to FINISH. FINISH knows whose chip it is, computes the lap and sends it to TABLEAU, which displays it for athletes and coaches.
What you need
- A Windows 10 or 11 computer (64-bit) for FINISH, connected to the decoder (network cable, or USB depending on the model).
- A supported decoder (RACE RESULT, Ubidium, USB Timing Box, MyLaps, TAG Heuer / Chronelec), its loop and the transponders.
- The list of your transponders and the list of your athletes, in Excel (the formats are given in steps 1 and 2).
- For the screen: a second computer on the same network, connected to the TV or projector (or the same computer with a second monitor).
- No equipment yet? SIM imitates a decoder and makes athletes skate laps: you can do the whole guide without a track.
Allow about one hour the first time. Everything is kept: next time you just open FINISH and time (see the one-page checklist).
The steps
- 0 Install and activate the licence
Install FINISH, open it, request and install the licence (or keep the 30-day trial).
- 1 Import the transponders
An Excel file with 5 columns: number, usual code, owner, start position.
- 2 Import the athletes
Names, birth dates, transponders, colours, min and max lap time, from Excel or CSV.
- 3 Set up the track and the decoder
Choose the decoder, connect it, place the finish line and intermediate lines, test the passings.
- 4 Create the training session
The Excel session from your athletes, the Training activity and the free session.
- 5 Enable lapping
Each athlete's last lap, very large, in FINISH and on the screens.
- 6 Set up TABLEAU
Install TABLEAU, link it to FINISH, a training view, the ON/OFF phase, the live track.
- Your first session, A to Z
The one-page checklist, to print and keep next to the computer.
Five words to know
- Session
- What FINISH has loaded: the list of athletes (and of races, in competition). For training, a simple Excel file.
- Free session
- In training, FINISH creates the “race” by itself at the first passing; each athlete joins it at their first passing. Nobody loads a race.
- Min and max
- An athlete's expected lap time (their target). A lap outside these limits is flagged and is not held by lapping.
- Lapping
- The last held lap, shown very large for a few seconds, in the athlete's colours.
- Broadcast
- FINISH sends everything over the network to the TABLEAU screens and to VOICE. Nothing to set up on their side on the track network.