Manual mode: manual passings
To try out FINISH passing by passing, without a race: you choose transponders FINISH knows and you send their passings — one by one, a whole selection at once, or in automatic laps, with or without errors. Same fake device, same protocol as Race mode.
Choose Mode Manual in the settings card (see Mode). The race list gives way to the Manual passings card; SIM no longer gives starts or runs anyone.
The Manual passings card
Where: large card in the middle (Manual mode)
- Add a transponder to the list.
- Send the selection, the spacing, the start signal.
- The automatic laps: lap time, variation, errors.
- The transponder list.
Above the list, an orange line says what prevents sending: “Nothing can be sent: FINISH has not accepted ChronoFEED-SIM (“Accept ChronoFEED-SIM” option in its Broadcast module).”, “… simulated equipment not ready.”, “… the FINISH equipment is a photocell timer: manual mode sends transponders, a decoder is needed.”, or “FINISH is not connected to the simulated equipment: the passings will not reach it (see above).”.
Transponder
Where: at the top of the card; drop-down list you can type in
“A transponder FINISH knows, or a typed number (several: separated by spaces or commas).” The list offers, in this order:
- the transponders of the athletes in the FINISH races, with the athlete's name (“9853806 — Saskia BROUWERS”);
- the transponders in the FINISH database that carry a start position (“… (position 3)”);
- the other real transponders in the FINISH database.
Never the fictitious transponders of the FINISH numeric keypad. A transponder that has a printed code and a number is shown as “code · no. number”. Type the first characters to move through the list. A number or code typed that FINISH knows is taken as FINISH knows it; otherwise it is taken as is.
Add
Where: to the right of the transponder (or Enter)
Adds the transponder (or the transponders typed) to the list. Already in the list: the log says so (““9853806” is already in the list.”).
Send the selection
Where: below the transponder (or F5)
“A passing for each selected transponder.” Select the rows with a click, Ctrl+click, Shift+click or Ctrl+A. The passings go out now, on the FINISH finish line, all at the same instant (or spaced by the spacing). The log writes each one: “Passing sent: 9853806 (Saskia BROUWERS) at 14:21:07.402 (STA).” Nothing selected: the log says so.
Spacing
Where: to the right of Send the selection; 0 ms by default, up to 5000
“The time between two transponders of the selection; 0: all at the same instant.” 0 tests FINISH with simultaneous passings (a bunch finish); a few hundred milliseconds imitate a pack crossing the line.
Start signal
Where: to the right of the spacing
“The equipment's start signal, like the gun plugged into it” (on the FINISH “Gun” loop if it has one, otherwise on the finish; never two within 2 s). It also works with a photocell timer.
Start the laps / Stop the laps
Where: below Send the selection (or F8)
“Transponders checked “Laps” cross the line on their own, at their lap time.” Each checked row crosses the finish line endlessly, at its average lap time (its own, otherwise the common time) plus or minus the variation, drawn on every lap. The first passing falls at random within the first lap, so that the transponders do not all pass together.
- A row added, removed, checked or unchecked while running starts or stops its laps; a changed lap time applies from the next lap.
- Nothing checked: “No transponder is lapping: tick “Laps” on the rows you want.”
- The laps stop by themselves if FINISH no longer accepts SIM or if the device stops (the log says why), and when switching back to Race mode.
- The log sums up: “Automatic laps started: 2 transponder(s), 35 s per lap (± 5 %), errors: few.”
Lap time
Where: to the right of the laps button; 30 s by default, from 1 to 3600 s
“The average lap time of transponders that have none of their own.” Decimals accepted (comma or dot).
Variation ±
Where: to the right of the lap time; 5 % by default, from 0 to 50 %
“Each lap varies randomly around the average time.” 0: perfectly regular laps.
Errors (none, few, many)
Where: to the right of the variation; No errors by default
“The race-mode errors: missed passings, duplicates, delays, ghost signals, weak transponder.” Exactly those of the realistic race, with the same probabilities: missed finish, delay, duplicate, ghost signal on an intermediate line more than 100 m away, weak transponder — without a “last finish”, since the laps never end. Each error is written to the log when it happens. This setting is separate from the Race mode one.
The transponder list
Where: bottom of the card
One row per transponder added: its shortcut (Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 for the first nine), the transponder, the Athlete in FINISH who carries it in a loaded race (empty: none), Laps, its Lap time, the passings Sent since launch and the time of the last one, then Send and the cross. Del removes the selected rows. The list, the boxes and the times are remembered from one launch to the next.
Laps
Where: Laps column
“It passes on its own when the automatic laps are started.”
Lap time (of the row)
Where: Lap time column
“Its average lap time; empty: the common lap time.” Give each transponder its own pace to watch FINISH rank, overtake and count lapped athletes.
Send
Where: to the right of the row (or Ctrl+the row number)
“A passing of this transponder, now”, on the finish line.
Remove from the list
Where: the cross, at the end of the row
Removes the transponder from the list (its laps stop). FINISH is not touched.
What FINISH receives
Real passings, in its device's protocol, on its finish line. The code sent is the one FINISH will recognize: for a RACE RESULT, the transponder's printed code; for MyLaps and Chronelec, its number. FINISH does with them what it would do for real: a lap for an athlete in a race, an athlete in the free session in training, a passing from an unknown transponder… Manual mode sends transponders: with a photocell timer in FINISH, only the start signal goes out.