I thought I'd take a quick moment to talk about v3.

v3 is largely a total rewrite. Why? Well, first, I started this project 4-5 years ago, when node.js (the server) was still very young. Since then it has matured and developed a massive community and adoption rate. That said, lots has changed and vastly improved. Including my own knowledge as LR and RM were my first published/usable projects with node (and since has been my dominant platform for the last 4 years of projects). Secondly, the codebase is simply messy and hurried and drives me a crazy given it never took the time to go back and rebase into a better structure/pattern as I learned more and more (like real automated testing with complete code coverage).

So, now is the time. It is going to take some time, and I super appreciate everyone's patience and feedback.

Now for the good stuff... features.

v3.0 will be the current feature set with some updates.

• UI completely redone (every single screen). Tablet first views and switched out of the jquery mobile UI.

• Core features are exposed as a RESTful api (e.g. add driver to queue, finish line crossed, add cones, new registration, etc.)

• Separation of real time communication concerns, meaning you manipulate the system through the API and receive data updates at the client (screens) via real time socket updates. This makes soooo many things easier on so many different levels, as well as opens up more possibilities for those that want to customize
  ** the above was a big change and much needed. Now all system manipulation is done through a single interface. Like adding a new registration, all goes through the same "function" regardless of where it is coming from (MSR import, CSV, the registrar sitting at the reg table, etc.) I know, I know, shame on me for not doing this in the first place :-)

• Separation of timing and scoring. These are now 2 different things which allows a much simpler approach when adding new scoring types (hello Rally Cross, Pro Solo, etc.)

• Worker checkin. Let’s be honest, the first version sucked. My bad. Now it is better. It won’t satisfy everyone, but most of you. You all do work assignments so differently, which I still don’t quite get. My original intention of flexibility is still there. assign work duties prior, worker checks in prior to their rungroup/heat/etc. but person checking in can assign to whatever. Bottom line, first version = yuck, new version = better.

• Dedicated car # / class is now separate screen and not updated by registration screen. Think of it as your binder / Excel spreadsheet that you all keep with all your reserved numbers/classes.

• Registration / Driver Checkin is merged and simplified into a single screen.

• Multiple events per day by simply making one live and the other not live. By default, events are “live” (so long as the date is “today”), but you can “disabled” the first event when you’re ready to start the second.

• CQ is getting a screen makeover with more contrast, functionally the same

• CC… I have a total rewrite again but given some of your feedback will probably end up with 2 options. Or a single screen that allows for either grouping drivers by “status” (queued, on course, finished), or order by car # or snaking slot (this keeps the car in the same “slot” regardless of status.

• CC’s new feature is having a new screen for adding/managing cones. From a single screen you can add cones to multiple stations without having to go back into the screen… you’ll see it is waaay nicer/easier.

• TK - I’m still deciding. I’m toying with the idea of making a single system screen for TK that can do TK, CC and CQ easily and intuitively.

• Results - many of you have expressed wanting to have to old school format in printed form. This isn’t a replacing Live Result, but the printed results. Your wish, my command.

• Exports / Imports - one improvement of exporting an event and importing it again. Maybe you had to use a different main computer for a single event and didn’t use the restore from cloud backup and then backup to cloud. :-/

Well that’s what I have off the top of my head.

I’m still a couple of months away, so thank you for the patience… it’ll be worth it, I promise.

Oh, Rallycross version will be formally introduced in v3.1. I need to get through the rewrite, and then add the big change, as I want to do it right and awesome.

Feedback is always super appreciated!

Chris

Hey, this popped up at our last event: on the various penalties screens, may we please have an INS option for Instructor runs? They would not score a time, would (or would not?) not be counted against the regular driver's run count, but would not be DNF or OFF.

What's the hive's common practice for instructor runs? Does the student lose a run, or is it just like a demo?

@Duke , when we have those we click on RRN (re-run) and those do not count towards final number of laps, nor get timed as their best lap.

@Chris, now that you're back in the saddle, is there a timeline for v3.0 release?

Thanks!

Ditto ... our autox season will ramp up in May and I'd like to know what changes might be coming before then.

@JasonPowell At this point, I'm assuming we'll soldier on with the current release. I'm just glad support is not extinct.

As long as the could services and live results keep working, I won't complain =)

I was really hoping at some point to be able to see timing splits just for fun ... I have 2 extra heads, so hardware wise, I'm golden.
BUT yes, gotta have da cloud!

RE: v3, Given the last 12 months of my life, I've decided to do it differently. Since time is a current constraint, I'm going to start tackling smaller chunks, refactoring and release more with smaller changes.

Since I'm a little out of touch with everyone, it would be great to hear what your top issues are (bugs or features).

@Chris said:

RE: v3, Given the last 12 months of my life, I've decided to do it differently. Since time is a current constraint, I'm going to start tackling smaller chunks, refactoring and release more with smaller changes.

Since I'm a little out of touch with everyone, it would be great to hear what your top issues are (bugs or features).

That's a great way to approach it, Chris.

Top of my list would be:

• Imports from MSR should be able to recognize rookies and who has paid
• Fixed points allocation instead of calculation option
• Two com ports, one for RaceAmerica Display and one for T-Link PC connection

Thanks.

@Chris - I think the divide and conquer approach is definitely the way to go until life settles down a bit for you. Here are some of my previous items that I would still like to see:

@Duke said:

1. When using Lookup, it would be really nice if the popup window automatically activated the entry field.

2. It would also be nice if this cleared itself on close, BUT if it activated itself with the contents highlighted, that would be the best of both worlds.

3. It's not a biggie, because the lookup function is always available, but it would be nice to have Sort buttons for First Name and Last Name instead of just Name (which is of course by first name).

• Combining the Registration and Driver Check-In screens, as you previously noted was in progress, would be great.

• It would be nice if the Registration buttons for Role, Paid, etc. didn't stay in the previously-placed position from driver to driver. For instance, if you assign a specific role or mark a driver as paid, all subsequent registrations will have those same settings unless you remember to reset each one. Moving from driver to driver, they should default to No Role and Not Paid, since that is the default condition of the actual driver.

• We just started using Worker Check-In, so maybe I don't understand it yet. But it would be nice if you could click, say, Work Group B, and it would give you a list of names who should be presenting themselves to you, and what they should be doing. Maybe those names could get a tick mark or remove themselves from the list once they are checked in. Right now it's easy enough to log who does show up at the tent, but it seems very much harder to track down which names didn't. I'd like to be able to shame slowpokes and goldbrickers over the PA.

• It would be nice if the Cone Counter gave you an option to add cones cumulatively, so if a driver hits 1 cone at the beginning of the course, and 2 cones at the end, the person entering it doesn't have to do any mental math; they can just log each penalty separately and the system will total them up.

• 2-way synching of just the MSR Reserved Numbers list would be fantastic. I realize this is both more difficult and of lower priority than some other items.

@MCOAutocross said:

• Fixed points allocation instead of calculation option

Isn't that what's managed at Club Home \ Manage Seasons \ 20XX \ Class Points Calculation Method ? Unless I'm misunderstanding your item, you should be able to set that to the "Class Points Table" option, then edit the points tables at the bottom of the Season screen.

@Duke you can't use your own custom points... it has a default set of 10, 9, 8... something like that (I don't have axtime in front of me) and only a limited number of spots.. say 10 spots for allocating a number... Since our club's old points system (before we switched to the FTD calculation) started at 40, 35, 33, 30, 28, 26, all the way down to 0, we were not able to recreate this by default in Axti.me. Chris had to make a custom plugin for us. Would be nice to have the option to do this (fixed points allocation) without a custom plug in. Even though now we use FTD calculation, haha.

@MarcGSR : Ahhh, I see. I didn't realize that you were restricted to the number of points positions. It should be easy enough (from where I'm sitting anyway) to add a button on that screen that lets you keep adding slots until you have enough.

@chris my wish list ... pulled from some of my past ideas as well as others

• runs marked RRN should NOT count towards a driver's run count in the various screens ... this always has been a point of confusion for my workers.
• it would be SUPER FLIPPIN' handy if the "all runs" screen included the timestamp for each run. I need to predict how many runs we might be able to do to hit out 12:30 lunch break and this is really tough to do via the raw times screen since there's no car info. This is one aspect of axware I like since you can see date/time stamp for each run making it pretty easy to calc how long run cycles are taking (ie. how long it's taking between a car's 1 and 2nd run, 2nd and 3rd, etc).
• in TK the order (top to bottom) is backwards of CQ. So if they are side by side, it's a bit confusing. Also would be great to separate the drivers when they are on course vs staged/queued. Right now TK does a good job of bumping a card from on course to finished, it would be nice to see a similar thing done for a car going from staged/queued to being on course
• a single system screen that can do TK, CC and CQ easily and intuitively. I think this would be killer for clubs with one or maybe 2 people in timing trying to do it all. TK is close as is, if you could add cones to the current TK screen when selecting a driver. This is NOT limited to small clubs either as my local SCCA group runs a single laptop/person in timing for 100 car events.
• audible start/stop indicators (with a different sound for start vs stop) or some other visual way to see start/stop trips from hardware directly
• In the announcer window, along with noting if a driver dropped time on their recent run, I want to also see a blurb if they changed position in class and by how much.
  So like "DRIVER's BEST by -1.298 improved 9 to 7" ... even just adding a line under recent runs in TK if someone improves would be handy for announcing purposes.
  "IMPROVED 1.234s moved 9th to 7th" ... like maybe this http://take.ms/fiu0P

@JasonPowell said:

• a single system screen that can do TK, CC and CQ easily and intuitively. I think this would be killer for clubs with one or maybe 2 people in timing trying to do it all. TK is close as is, if you could add cones to the current TK screen when selecting a driver. This is NOT limited to small clubs either as my local SCCA group runs a single laptop/person in timing for 100 car events.

This ^ =)

@JasonPowell said:

• audible start/stop indicators (with a different sound for start vs stop) or some other visual way to see start/stop trips from hardware directly

Our scoring laptops are right next to the Farmtek console, so we can usually hear the start (1 beep) and stop (2 beeps) signals from it.

On the main laptop, I usually keep TK open, with a Chrono view tiled in a narrow window down the right of the screen. That makes it very easy to see who is currently on course and how accurately the system queue matches the real-world queue.

Am I the only one that's a bit concerned that Chris hasn't been online in two months?

@MCOAutocross said:

Am I the only one that's a bit concerned that Chris hasn't been online in two months?

No. I am very concerned and at this point treat the software as abandoned.

DaveW

I would say that as long as live.axti.me is still connecting and hosting live results, we can continue using the software as is. Of course new features and updates are nice but there doesn't seem to be any glaring issues with the current version which is more then usable.

Has anyone tried to call @Chris and see what he's up too? That'd be easier than us speculating :-)
While I do wish there were some enhancements to axtime, after witnessing a bunch of axware glitches this past weekend at 2 diff events, I'm at least content with it as-is so long as live.axti.me and the MSR import keep working :-)