Next Level Timing

[arch2b]

Next Level Timing


Not a lot of information is provided.
Where re user guides, manuals?
What kind of race management is offered?

CROSS SYSTEM COMPATIBILITY
Support for windows and mac. Compatible with Orange Lap RC, I-LapRC, and Trackmate timing systems and more devices are being added!

SUPPORTED DECODERS
Trackmate Iridium RC lap counter
I-LapRC Race Timing System
Orange Lap RC
Easy Lap Serial Decoder
Easy Lap USB Decoder (windows only)

WHY SHOULD I USE NEXT LEVEL TIMING?
Never stop racing. Direct races with ease by adjusting racers and transponders on the fly- no need to stop the race.

Setup what you want, not the kitchen sink
No limits on racers in a race
Racer Management
Assign and reassign racers during a race
Assign and reassign transponders during a race
Automatically register racers
Sounds
Voice announcements

HELPS IMPROVE CONSISTENCY
Improve your consistency. It isn't just about fast laps anymore, consistency streaks makes practice exciting by giving you another metric to strive for.

Practice Mode
Consistency improvement
Difficulty adjustment
Voice announcements
Sounds

[BladeSling]

Hey there,

I am the owner of Next Level Timing. I am attempting to build racing software in a way that makes life easy. If I can find a better way to do what racing software does today I want in on that action. There are other alternatives that currently have more features. Some are just about as easy to use but have stalled in development, some have more features but are way to hard to use. And then you have some that are super costly.

Currently I'm targeting small clubs and individuals. I'll be honest- this is because I have a limited bandwidth and the features they need are minimal and they can help find issues before I start adding the bigger features.

I haven't made a manual because the software "Just works" at the moment. Seriously, just plug in a decoder that I support and start a race. The software auto connects to the decoder and you don't manually add people to races. Just line up at the starting line and on the buzzer you go. As I get more features there will likely be in software help, not a manual.

Feel free to leave feedback. I am actively working on things. Currently there is a bug with Robitronic and EasyLap hardware that causes the times to be "rounded" or "static" in a way. It is forcing me to rebuild a bit of the software. I've solved for the serial devices but the USB devices are giving me trouble. Hopefully someone at Robitronic or EasyLap can help.

[arch2b]

Welcome! Glad to have you and look forward to working with you if possible. I'm already trying to get this started however must be incredibly incompetent as I couldn't get it plugged in and working but will take that discussion offline.

[Thorvald]

Hi BladeSling, I just tried it out today with my EzLap setup. Basic software seems to work fine, auto detected EzLap and transponders when creating racers.

Quick questions:

1. Does the software support a practice mode yet?
2. Is there a way to bring up a score board to a second monitor?

Thanks
Tim

[SuperFly]

Originally Posted by Thorvald

Hi BladeSling, I just tried it out today with my EzLap setup. Basic software seems to work fine, auto detected EzLap and transponders when creating racers.

Quick questions:

1. Does the software support a practice mode yet?
2. Is there a way to bring up a score board to a second monitor?

Thanks
Tim

1. When you get to the New Race page, there is a pull-down labeled "Mode," with two choices; the default is "Standard Race," but the other option is "Practice"

Also, the "consistency" tab is related to practice.

[BladeSling]

Originally Posted by Thorvald

Hi BladeSling, I just tried it out today with my EzLap setup. Basic software seems to work fine, auto detected EzLap and transponders when creating racers.

Quick questions:

1. Does the software support a practice mode yet?
2. Is there a way to bring up a score board to a second monitor?

Thanks
Tim

First thing, since you are using the EasyLap equipment I highly recommend you upgrade to 1.4.0 which was just barely released. There were accuracy issues that I fixed specifically for that decoder.

Your practice was answered by Superfly. You set it up similar to a race at the moment but it works different than race mode. It calls out your lap times and consistency streaks.

Can you explain the second monitor score board a bit more? It sounds like you are working with a single computer and two monitors? At our club we duplicate the laptop display to the TV and this works. What are you hoping displays on the second monitor? The only thing I can think of is removing the navigation. Something I've been considering letting people hide during a race.

[arch2b]

Zround offers a second scoring monitor display that you cannot interact with and is solely dedicated to displaying real time results. It doesn't need any extraneous information and infact, you are able to configure from selectable data sets what is displayed. In our club, we have up to 5 monitors throughout that display this all day while the operator only sees all the controls. It's simply a way of presenting only the relevant data to the public while no one needs to see how the sausage is made so to speak. I've uploaded examples.

[Thorvald]

Arch got the info down in the post above.

To add to that it's basically it's a second window which can be moved to an external monitor only shows race info, no buttons/controls etc. So it allows for a MUCH larger font size to make it visible from across the track for the drivers to observe.

You could actually make a couple of versions, one would be a simple scoring tree like in MotoGP and other races that provides basic info on position etc.

Cheers
Tim

We just switched to NextLevel timing from zround. I really like that you can start a race with any registered drivers. You do not have to run practice laps every time the program starts.

Is there a way to set the default on the quick race feature. We run HFAY so we always practice 8 minute races, currently it defaults to 3 minutes.

[BladeSling]

MTseo,
I believe you contacted me and I responded that it is a feature we are looking to add. I may make a page available for features to be submitted as there are a fair few of them and it can be difficult to prioritize. Obviously there is a workaround for that and currently I am prioritizing things that people need in order to even use the software so you may be waiting a little bit for the feature. Sorry!

In other news, v1.5.0 has just been released. We added Core Speedway decoder support, race staggered starts, and race lap length.

[briankstan]

Originally Posted by BladeSling

MTseo,
I believe you contacted me and I responded that it is a feature we are looking to add. I may make a page available for features to be submitted as there are a fair few of them and it can be difficult to prioritize. Obviously there is a workaround for that and currently I am prioritizing things that people need in order to even use the software so you may be waiting a little bit for the feature. Sorry!

In other news, v1.5.0 has just been released. We added Core Speedway decoder support, race staggered starts, and race lap length.

Awesome, I'll download and install and look forward to using it tonight for racing. once I get my Timer back

[SuperFly]

Mac version link is giving a 500 error.

Thanks, I will download the new version tonight and check out the new features.

[BladeSling]

Originally Posted by SuperFly

Mac version link is giving a 500 error.

Fixed! Thanks for reporting the issue

[art4242]

First of all kudos on the program, super easy to setup and run compared to other race programs. Great for quick practice and race sessions.

A couple of future feature requests (these would all be nice to haves):

- Can the lap times be announced during a race as an option?
- Can remaining time (say every minute) be announced during a race? Handy for those of us without a race director/announcer, hard to tell how much time left in those 8 minute runs.

- Can the post race results include more stats such as average lap time, top 5/10/20 laps?

- Can the post race results be formatted in columns for each driver, instead of a block per driver?

Thanks.