There’s an App for That – Statistics, Backup Competitor Devices, Tablet Recommendations, SCCA Convention

Statistics

December 12 marked the end of the 2021 road rally season. The last event of the year scheduled to use the Richta GPS Timing and Scoring System was held, and the total event count for the year rests on exactly 100 events. Over 1,600 entrants passed through over 4,000 checkpoints generating 69,000 timeslips during 2021!

Backup Competitor Devices

The increased use of this system raises the importance of providing a dependable, resilient system. Device failures, where the Competitor crashes repeatedly, or the physical device fails, are uncommon. Nonetheless, the impact of such a failure can result in an exciting road rally event turning into a major disappointment. The impact is even more significant when the rally event is part of the SCCA National Championship or an important destination event. 

Several organizers and entrants have requested support in the system for a backup device running the Competitor app. This function was delivered in the fall of 2021 through enhancements to the (Android-only for now) Rallymaster app.

Here is how to use this feature.

1. As a rally entrant, use the Competitor app running on your desired primary device to register for the event using the current process. Select the event, enter your assigned car number and enter a password and your team name, class, and contact information. For this example, assume you’ve been assigned car number 7.
2. Use a second physical device and register it for the same event; this will be your backup device. Do not register it as the same car number as your primary device. Instead, register it as a different car number, say 100 car numbers higher than your primary device; the event organizers will determine what car numbers to use. This example would mean registering the backup device as car number 107. As usual, run the road rally event, keeping the Competitor app running on both devices.
3. Using the same car number on both devices will detect the checkpoints, and both devices will update the timeslips in the database. The last device to update the database will have its time and score saved; the other is lost. DON’T RUN THE SAME CAR NUMBER ON MULTIPLE DEVICES IN THE SAME EVENT.
4. Should the primary Competitor device fail and not record your passage at a checkpoint, the event’s scoring team can use the Rallymaster app to pull the missing timeslips from the backup device. The process they should use is: Rallymaster -> Advanced Menu -> Add Missing Timeslips function. They’ll be prompted for the car number for the primary and backup devices. The app will display the CP numbers of the missing timeslips for the primary device and the CP numbers of those timeslips available on the backup device. Press the Add Missing Timeslips button to create new timeslips for the primary car number using the timing information from the backup device. Then use the Rallymaster Edit Timeslips function to enter the correct Out Time (leg start time) for the replaced timeslips and rescore that timeslip. With practice, this operation can be carried out in a matter of minutes. 
5. This feature cannot be used to replace timeslips if the primary device has detected the checkpoint. This prohibits entrants from using multiple backup devices and cherry-picking the score from the device which produces the lowest score.
6. Add Missing Timeslips was initially developed on Android Rallymaster and will be available on Apple Rallymaster in 2022. The procedure to use this function may appear complex and require the user to be familiar with the process. Should you need help in the heat of scoring your event, please do not hesitate to contact me for assistance. We have not had to use this feature yet, although we have seen cases where entrants failed to restart the Competitor app after a rest break and missed the restart CP, resulting in max scores for checkpoints dependent on the missing restart. Those situations were rapidly corrected by using Rallymaster Edit Timeslips to generate the missing restart timeslip and rescore the affected timeslips. 

Tablet Recommendations

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Which device do I recommend as a dedicated platform for the Competitor app – as either a primary or backup device? No doubt, it doesn’t surprise you that I’ve been asked this question several times! I own (or have owned) several Samsung tablets with good effect. They are physically solid devices with good screens and long battery life. I favor the 7-inch Samsung for its low price, under $100 on Amazon, if I use it for a backup Competitor platform. I prefer the 8-inch Samsung tablet with its higher screen resolution if I use it for personal email or web browsing. These are available at Amazon or Costco for under $150, though prices vary throughout the year. 

When selecting a tablet, the amount of internal storage needed for Competitor (or Rallymaster) apps is minimal; any amount will do. The specific Samsung model (Tab E, Tab A, or Tab Lite) is also unimportant.  You’ll find these models differ in their price, screen resolution, speed, and internal storage, but none of these are essential selection factors for the Richta GPS apps. You may also save some money by buying a used or refurbished device. The only requirements are running Android version 6 or later and have an internal GPS receiver (which I believe all Samsung models do).

I do NOT recommend the low-cost Amazon Fire tablets. The price is attractive at under $50 for the 7-inch version, but some Fire tablets do not have GPS chips and are useless for running Competitor. I had one email from a user who learned this the hard way. 

I use a variety of devices in my daily life. I have a powerful deskside computer for software development and an inexpensive laptop for email, spreadsheets, and word processing on the go. I have email access on my phone but will often use a tablet for Zoom meetings, email, and web browsing when I want a larger screen than the phone provides. For this purpose, I have both an Apple iPad (7th generation) and a Samsung A10. Both feature 10-inch screens and day-long battery life. Both were purchased used on eBay for under $200. I use my phone as the primary Competitor device and one of my three Samsung tablets as a backup for running Competitor on an event. 

SCCA 2022 National Convention

I hope to see many of you during my January 28 presentation at the SCCA National Convention. I’ll be presenting an update on the Richta GPS Timing and Scoring System on January 28 at noon, Central Time, and answering questions on the use of the system.  

Please send any questions you would like to see addressed to my email: richtarally@comeroadrallywith.us