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ChronoFEED SIM Help

Testing a specific decoder

Before going to a venue equipped with a device you do not have at hand — a MyLaps, a Chronelec, a USB Timing Box, an FDS TBox —, put FINISH to the test with its exact protocol: SIM emulates it on its real transport, and FINISH connects to it as to the real thing.

1. Choose the device… in FINISH

SIM has no list of devices: it emulates the one FINISH uses. In FINISH, SessionTiming mode (decoder)…, choose the mode (Decoder or Photocells) and the device, then Confirm.

SIM stops the previous device and starts the new one: “Simulated equipment: MyLaps, listening on port 5403.” The photo changes.

The table of the seven devices, their protocol and their port: The emulated equipment.

2. A network device (RACE RESULT, Ubidium, MyLaps, Chronelec)

  1. Same computer or two computers

    Same computer: address 127.0.0.1 in FINISH. Two computers: one of the addresses the SIM guide gives (that of the SIM computer on the FINISH network). The second case also tests the firewall and the network, as at the venue.

  2. The port

    The one shown by the Simulated equipment light. If the usual port is busy on the SIM computer (another program, another SIM), SIM takes a free one: enter that one in FINISH.

  3. Connect

    In FINISH, the address and the port, then the switch to ON. The SIM guide follows what FINISH targets (“FINISH targets 192.168.1.35:5403: that is the simulated equipment. It is connecting…”).

    The three lights are green.

  • Ubidium: leave the address empty in FINISH to test its automatic search: the fake Ubidium announces itself on the network like the real one.
  • Chronelec: SIM emulates the link set in FINISH, UDP network or serial port (com0com pair, as for the USB Timing Box), and the time it expects (time since Start or time of day).
  • RACE RESULT: the start signal is the pulse code set in FINISH (99999 by default), on the “Gun” loop if there is one.

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

  1. On the FINISH computer

    A serial device can only be simulated on the FINISH computer: launch SIM there. Launched elsewhere, SIM says so.

  2. The virtual port pair

    Install com0com once and name the pair COM10 ↔ COM11: the SIM help window opens by itself and gives the ready-made commands (see Virtual serial ports).

  3. Each program its own end

    SIM: ChronoFEED-SIM serial port COM11. FINISH: the device on COM10, then switch to ON.

    “FINISH uses COM10; ChronoFEED-SIM holds COM11” then the three green lights.

  • FDS TBox: the Radio transmitters of the simulated TBox card appears. Test the input settings in FINISH: put photocell 1 (Radio_B) on another channel in FINISH and see the channel change in SIM; fit another transmitter (new serial number) or switch one off (Connected unchecked) and see what FINISH says about it.
  • Microgate REI2: the signals go out on the channels set in FINISH (start, photocells 1 and 2).
  • With a timer whose start channel is disabled in FINISH, SIM does not give the start: give it in FINISH.

4. Watch the exchanges

  1. Chosen passings

    Switch SIM to Manual mode to send passings one by one, without a race: each passing arrives in FINISH as a passing from the real device.

  2. The two logs side by side

    In SIM, check Every passing (log); in FINISH, open the equipment log (and, if needed, its detailed log). Each passing sent by SIM must arrive there, with the same time and the expected code.

  3. Dropouts

    Turn the FINISH switch off, send a few passings, reconnect. Devices with memory (Ubidium, MyLaps, TBox) keep the passings like the real ones; what FINISH recovers depends on its connection settings (see Timing mode, “Fetch the passings already in the decoder's memory…”).