Link and simulated equipment

The link card

Where: top of the window

1. The FINISH light.
2. The Simulated equipment light.
3. The FINISH connection light.
4. The connection guide: what to set in FINISH.
5. Where the transponders come from.
6. The equipment photo.

The three lights

Where: link card; orange: not yet, green: done

They turn green one after the other. In Race mode as in Manual mode, SIM sends nothing as long as all three are not green.

FINISH

Green when SIM has found FINISH on the network and FINISH has accepted it (Accept ChronoFEED-SIM box checked in its Broadcast module). The possible texts:

Simulated equipment

Green when SIM has started the same equipment as FINISH: FINISH publishes its timing mode and its device, SIM creates the matching fake device and sets it up the way FINISH expects (track loops, start signal code, channels). There is nothing to choose in SIM: to simulate another device, change it in FINISH (see The emulated equipment).

When FINISH changes device, SIM stops its own and starts the new one; the races being simulated carry on with it, where they are.

FINISH connection

Green when FINISH says its equipment is connected: it will receive the starts and the passings. FINISH connects to the fake device exactly as to the real one, through its own setting (Timing mode); SIM never connects it on its behalf, it guides you.

• FINISH receives the passings of the simulated equipment: green.
• As soon as the simulated equipment is ready: the second light is needed first.
• Not yet: set up FINISH as shown below: follow the guide.

The connection guide

Where: below the lights, in dark orange; disappears once FINISH is connected

SIM compares what FINISH has set for its equipment (address and port, or serial port) with its own addresses and port, and says what does not match. The same text is shown in the centre of the window as long as there is no race.

A network decoder (RACE RESULT, Ubidium, MyLaps, Chronelec)

• In FINISH → Timing mode → RACE RESULT: address 127.0.0.1 (or 192.168.1.35), port 3601. SIM and FINISH on the same computer: 127.0.0.1 is enough. On two computers on the same network: one of the SIM computer's addresses.
• Followed by what FINISH is currently targeting:
  • “FINISH targets 192.168.1.50:3601 — that is not this computer.”: FINISH is still targeting the real decoder (or another computer);
  • “… this computer, but not the port of the simulated equipment (3602).”: correct the port;
  • “FINISH has no address for this equipment yet.”;
  • “FINISH is set to serial port COM3, but ChronoFEED-SIM imitates the network link (chosen here): in FINISH, choose the network link, or choose “Same as FINISH” here.” (a Chronelec set to “UDP network” in SIM while FINISH reads it on a serial port)
  • “FINISH targets 127.0.0.1:3601: that is the simulated equipment. Turn the equipment switch ON in FINISH (Configuration module).”: all that remains is to set the switch to ON; “… It is connecting…”: done, the light is about to turn green.

A serial device (USB Timing Box, FDS TBox, Microgate REI2)

The real device connects to a COM port: the simulation can only run on the FINISH computer, through a pair of virtual serial ports (see Virtual serial ports (com0com)).

• “USB Timing Box connects through a serial port: the simulation can only run on the FINISH computer. FINISH is on another computer (192.168.1.20): start ChronoFEED-SIM on that computer.”
• “Port COM11 does not exist on this computer. Install the com0com virtual serial port pair ("com0com?" button), or choose a port of the pair here.”
• “ChronoFEED-SIM could not open COM11: … Choose the other port of the pair here, or close the program holding this port.”
• “In FINISH → Timing mode → USB Timing Box: choose serial port COM10 (the other port of the pair; ChronoFEED-SIM holds COM11).”
• “FINISH uses COM11, the same port as here: choose the other port of the pair here (e.g. COM10).”
• “FINISH uses COM10; ChronoFEED-SIM holds COM11. These two ports must form a com0com pair. Turn the equipment switch ON in FINISH (Configuration module).”

To go back to the real hardware: put the real decoder's address (or the port of the real USB Timing Box, of the real timer) back in FINISH.

ChronoFEED-SIM serial port

Where: link card, below the guide (only for a serial device); COM11 by default

The COM port SIM opens: one of the two ports of the virtual pair; FINISH opens the other. The list gives the computer's serial ports (re-read every two seconds); the chosen port stays in it even if it does not exist yet. Changing the port restarts the fake device on the new port right away. Remembered from one launch to the next.

com0com ?

Where: to the right of the serial port

Opens the Serial port: installing the com0com virtual ports window. It also opens by itself, once per launch, when the FINISH equipment is a serial device and the SIM port does not exist on the computer (unless you have checked “Do not show automatically again”).

Chronelec / TAG Heuer: link, passing time, Manual (MAN)

Where: link card, below the guide (only when the FINISH equipment is a Chronelec)

• Link: Same as FINISH (default: the link set for the equipment in FINISH), UDP network (port 2008; SIM answers the computer that sends it commands) or Serial port (8N1, no flow control, on the ChronoFEED-SIM serial port, through a com0com pair; 9600 baud, the protocol speed, or 19200 to imitate a Protime).
• Passing time: Same as FINISH (what FINISH expects; with an older FINISH: time since Start on a serial port, time of day on the network), Time since Start (classic decoder: “00:02'57"541” is the time elapsed since the Start command, the same as the status time) or Time of day (Protime set to “Time of Day”). A time or speed that does not match FINISH is shown in orange.
• Manual (MAN): like the decoder's button, a passing on the MAN box with transponder 000000. FINISH makes it a start if its MAN line is set to “Gun”, a photocell if it is set to “PhotoCell”; otherwise it records it without making a lap of it.
• Cell (255): the photocell input of a real decoder, transponder 000255, on the box of FINISH's “PhotoCell” line (otherwise STA). FINISH makes it a cell pulse only if that line is set to “PhotoCell”.
• The SIM start is the manual input (000000) on the box of FINISH's “Gun” line (otherwise MAN): FINISH no longer takes 255 as a start. Without a “Gun” line in FINISH, SIM says so in orange.
• Configuration: FINISH can read and rewrite the fake decoder's configuration like a real one (levels, time of day or race time, GPS and time zone, tones, addresses). The levels, the time mode and the time zone (with GPS) apply to the passings; the grey line recalls them.

Like the real one, the fake decoder sends no passing before the FINISH Start command, waits for each passing's acknowledgement and sends a NACK every second until it gets it.

FINISH and SIM on the same computer: over the UDP network, FINISH listens on ports 2008 and 2009 by default and sends its commands to port 2008. If FINISH connects before SIM opens the Chronelec, FINISH takes port 2008: SIM falls back to another port (shown in Simulated equipment, for example “port 51091”), FINISH receives its own commands (log: “unreadable bytes <1B><05>”) and no passing arrives. In FINISH, Equipment settings: set Listening port (UDP) to 2009, then Apply; switch the Chronelec off and on again in SIM so it takes port 2008 back; then, in FINISH, Restart. Another way: in FINISH, Port = the port shown by SIM. With a real decoder, at another address, this setting is not needed.

Where the transponders come from

Where: link card, last line, in grey

• SIM runs the transponders FINISH gave to the athletes. Each athlete already carries their transponder in FINISH (event file, manual entry, previous assignment): SIM makes that one cross the line (and the second one, 200 ms later, if they have two).
• FINISH assigns transponders by start position: SIM picks among its 16 position transponders. FINISH is in automatic assignment: for an athlete without a transponder, SIM takes the first FINISH transponder that carries their start position, of the device's type, and that is not already on the track; FINISH assigns it to them at the first passing.
• Photocells: no transponder, one signal per lane.

An athlete who has neither is not simulated; the log says why (“… has no transponder: not simulated.”).

Finish loop of the simulated decoder

Where: header of the FINISH races and Manual passings cards, left of the technology

“Finish loop: 30%”: the power FINISH has set on the simulated decoder (RACE RESULT, USB Timing Box, Ubidium). It follows the FINISH Finish loop switch and its Auto mode: 0% before the start (in red, “cut by FINISH”), its power after the delay. Each command received is also written to the SIM log. Nothing for a model without a power command.

The equipment photo

Where: on the right of the card

The photo of the FINISH device SIM emulates (installed with SIM). Without a photo, nothing is shown; the simulation does not depend on it.