Race mode
SIM follows the FINISH races: each race loaded in FINISH appears in its list; SIM gives the start through the device's signal (when you click, or on its own), then runs the athletes, passing after passing, at the pace FINISH expects for the race. All FINISH races are simulated at the same time.
- The mode: Race or Manual.
- Who gives the starts.
- The realistic race: the intended errors.
- The next start, in one line.
- The status of each race.
- The Start button.
- The Stop button.
Mode
Where: settings card, on the left; Race by default, remembered from one launch to the next
- Race: “ChronoFEED-SIM follows the FINISH races: it gives the starts and makes the athletes race”. That is this page.
- Manual: “You send the transponder passings yourself: one by one, by selection or as automatic laps”. See Manual mode.
When switching to Manual, races being simulated stop (“stopped: ChronoFEED-SIM is in manual mode”) and the Starts and Realistic race settings disappear. Back in Race mode, races already started in FINISH carry on where they are, and the start delays restart from now.
Starts
Where: settings card (Race mode); Manual by default
SIM always gives the start, through the device's start signal, like the gun connected to it (the signal of each device: The start signal). This setting says who triggers that signal:
- Manual: “You click “Start” on the race”;
- Automatic: “ChronoFEED-SIM gives the start by itself when a race is loaded in FINISH”, at the pace of a real track.
FINISH decides which race starts: the active race in “one race at a time”; otherwise the first one waiting, or all of them if FINISH starts all loaded races with the same signal. SIM only offers the start on those races and never sends a signal when no race is waiting: FINISH would take a second signal for a false start. Two signals are always at least 2 seconds apart.
SIM only runs the athletes once the start time has come back from FINISH. A start given in FINISH itself (Manual start) is therefore followed just the same. If FINISH does not take the signal (start channel disabled, device disconnected), SIM writes to the log after 5 seconds: “FINISH did not take the start signal. Check its equipment, or give the start in FINISH.” A restart (new start) or a reset in FINISH is followed: the simulation starts again from there.
Pause between starts
Where: to the right of Starts (automatic starts); 60 s by default, from 1 to 3600
“Once the track is free, the waiting time before the start of the next race or group of races.” The track is free when all the races that have started have sent their last passing (or are no longer in FINISH).
Delay between two waves
Where: to the right of the pause (automatic starts, FINISH running several races with one start per race); 15 s by default, from 1 to 600
“Several races loaded together in FINISH: the time between the start of one and the start of the next.” Hidden when FINISH is in “one race at a time” or starts all loaded races with a single signal: it is then only used for the very first start.
The pace of automatic starts
On a real track, you do not give a start while others are racing on the same line, and there is always a pause between two starts. SIM reasons in groups and heats:
| Situation | Start given |
|---|---|
| No start yet | delay between two waves after the race is ready |
| Next heat of the current group | previous start + delay between two waves |
| New group, free track | free track + pause (and at least the delay between two waves after loading) |
| New group, track busy | no start; the time is only known once the track is free |
| Equipment not ready, FINISH not connected | no start |
| Signal sent | 5 s left to FINISH; if it does not start the race, the delays restart |
Example: FINISH keeps two races loaded. A starts; B starts 15 s later; C and D, loaded in the meantime, wait until A and B have finished; 60 s later C starts, then D 15 s after. Switching from Manual to Automatic restarts the delays from now: a race already loaded does not start the instant you switch.
Realistic race
Where: settings card (Race mode); No errors by default
“Missed passings, duplicates, delays, ghost signals, weak transponder: to see how FINISH reacts.” A single choice sets all the probabilities; it applies to the races that start afterwards.
| Error | What is sent | None | Few | Many |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Missed intermediate line | nothing | 0 | 2 % | 8 % |
| Missed finish (never the last one) | nothing | 0 | 1 % | 5 % |
| Delay | the passing, 1 to 5 s later, with its true time | 0 | 1 % | 5 % |
| Duplicate | the same passing a 2nd time | 0 | 1 % | 4 % |
| Ghost signal | a line at least 100 m ahead reads the athlete | 0 | 0.3 % | 2 % |
| Bounce (photocells) | a 2nd signal 20 to 120 ms later | 0 | 1 % | 5 % |
| Weak transponder | this athlete misses 40 % of the lines and 25 % of the finishes | 0 | 5 % of athletes | 15 % |
An athlete's last finish is never missed: without it, their race would not end. Each error is written to the log at the moment it happens (“⚠ SIMULATED ERROR — Saskia BROUWERS: finish STA missed (lap 1)”): you read in SIM what has been falsified, and in FINISH what was done about it.
FINISH races
Where: large card in the middle (Race mode)
Each race loaded in FINISH, or started and not finished, with its name, its number of active athletes, its distance and the length of the track. There is nothing to choose: all of them are simulated. A race that FINISH no longer has (finished, removed) leaves the list. At the top right, the FINISH technology: “Decoder (transponders)” or “Timer (photocells)”. With no race, a sentence says what remains to be done (“Everything is ready. Load a race in FINISH: it appears here and ChronoFEED-SIM simulates it.”).
Next start
Where: at the top of the list, in green
What is going to happen: “Next start in 0:42 — 500 m Women — P04”, “… (pause between starts)”, “Next start: … — click “Start””, “Next start: … — when the track is free, then a 60 s pause”, “Next start: … — FINISH is not connected to the simulated equipment”, “Start sent — …”. Empty when no race is waiting.
The status of a race
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| waiting for start | it is the next one to start; with manual starts, the Start button is there |
| automatic start in 0:42 | SIM will give the start on its own |
| waiting for the track to be free, then the pause | another group is still racing |
| waiting for the start — another group is on the track | manual starts: you can still click Start |
| waiting for start — simulated equipment not ready waiting for start — FINISH is not connected to the simulated equipment | see the lights |
| waiting for start — the timer's start channel is disabled in FINISH: give the start in FINISH | photocells: the start is given in FINISH |
| waiting for its turn — next wave of the current group waiting for its turn — next group, after the pause waiting for its turn (FINISH will start another race first) | FINISH will start another race before this one |
| start sent… | SIM is waiting for the start time to come back from FINISH |
| racing | the passings are going out; below: “lap 1/2 · 4/8 passings” |
| finished (all passings sent) | in FINISH, the race is ending |
| stopped in SIM (the race goes on in FINISH) | Stop button |
| started — waiting for the simulated equipment | the device is changing or restarting |
| started — no athlete to simulate started — nothing to simulate (unknown track or distance) started before SIM arrived: nothing left to simulate | the log says why; a race started before SIM was launched only receives the passings still to come |
| interrupted | the simulated equipment stopped while sending |
Start
Where: to the right of the race that is waiting (manual starts)
“The start signal, like the gun plugged into the equipment.” The green button only appears on the race FINISH will start, and only when the device is ready and FINISH is connected. A single signal starts all the races FINISH has designated.
Stop
Where: to the right of a race that is running
“ChronoFEED-SIM sends nothing more for this race; it goes on in FINISH.” To finish the race in FINISH, use its commands (Finished, All finished…).
How the athletes race
When a race starts, SIM works out all its passings in advance, then sends each one at its time. The movement follows the FINISH lap prediction: the race's acceleration (m/s²) and top speed (m/s) (the same ones that give the expected times in FINISH) — standing start, constant acceleration up to top speed, then constant speed. The first lap is therefore slower per metre than the following ones. So that the athletes do not all pass together: top speed ± 3 %, acceleration ± 6 %, start reaction from 0.15 to 0.40 s, pace ± 1.5 % from one section to the next. Without a prediction in FINISH, SIM uses 3 m/s² and 11 m/s (≈ 40 km/h) and writes it to the log.
- Finish line: crossed at the race's distances in FINISH (a 1500 m on a 400 m track, start line at 300 m: at 300, 700, 1100 and 1500 m).
- Intermediate lines (FINISH loops): crossed on every lap, at their distance counted from the finish line of the race.
- Photocells: only the finish counts; the lane follows the FINISH grid (in long track, odd start position in lane 1, even in lane 2, changing every lap) and the signal goes out on the channel of that lane's photocell.