[sailwave] Re: Transmitting Finishing Sheets

[RalphT]

Hi Calum

You may be thinking of Spray EasyTimer created by Simon Williams sprayeasytimer@live.co.uk

Simon has been developing a new version which can deal with large General handicap fleets.

If he does not see this posting, I’m sure he would welcome a direct message

Regards

Ralph

···

From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Calum Polwart
Sent: 21 May 2011 19:03
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [sailwave] Re: Transmitting Finishing Sheets - SCAN to pdf

Ralph - I think the point being made is if you can send a spreadsheet in an email you can send a blw file or html file. So would you be better running a copy of sailwave on a laptop on the committee boat and having them already on the web when the sailors arive ashore… Our 3G coverage is better afloat than ashore so we could get it on the web then no-one will be able to see it! (we can’t get landline broadband at the club as too rural) Presumably as not every race officer will have a good enough phone the club is considering buying one. If so they may be better buying a laptop + dongle…? What happened to the windaes application that could do the timing and finishing and then import into sailwave? Showed pictures of the boats with SNo’s for you to look at and click as they finished if I recall…? Back on the picture of the sheet - You may get better results using an app designed to make the camera behave like a scanner: http://www.scanr.com/ Free trial available. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.intsig.camscanner&feature=search_result - seems to let you uplaod it to dropbox as a PDF from within the app but I can’t be sure… On Sat, 21 May 2011 17:35:16 +0100, “Ralph Tingle” rat@attat.com wrote:

Hi Mike

This whole process started as an alternative to sending the results in by RIB. Unfortunately 3G coverage is extremely variable between different venues. Dongles appeared to be the perfect solution as you say but the “Three” PAYG failed miserably at Rutland other venues. (I did not want to sign up to annual contracts then find that it did not work)

Photos are big files whilst a spread sheet is quite small. You are not missing anything - just lucky that 3G is consistent in your part of the world

Regards

Ralph

From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: 21 May 2011 17:25
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [sailwave] Re: Transmitting Finishing Sheets

I’ve been following this discussion, and wondering why you would use this method. We used a laptop + dongle on a Committee Boat in Falmouth Week last year publishing directly to the website, and will do again this year. Its so quick, I can’t see why you would use a smartphone with a spreadsheet instead. It is using the same 3g method with one less thing to do. What am I missing ?
We are experimenting with photos of hand written finishing sheets using a smartphone as a back up, and that seems to work ok.
Regards Mike Swingler
Flushing Sailing Club

— In sailwave@yahoogroups.com, “Ralph Tingle” rat@…> wrote:

Hi Jon

Copy attached (if it goes through the SUG system). Some were totally grey,
some part like this one

The actual photos on my phone are great.

I did a number of trials, some through 3G some through my wireless at home
all with varying results. Emails were sent to myself, Rutland Office Viv’s
(RYA) computer connected to the Rutland wireless.

Before I carried out a thorough, fully logged trial to identify what is
happening when, I thought that I might ask the SUG techies

GH results should ideally record class as well as sail number to cover any
errors when writing the numbers down. It’s surprising how few duplicates
there are but it does happen we cannot use the last 4 digits for Lasers
etc. Added to this, we must have the finish times (clock) laps along with
the start time for each start (if there is more than one start).

I have not tried it on a mobile but switching the QWERTY keyboard between
alpha numeric will probably be too tedious

However - just remembered that I can drag drop files if I connect my phone
to my laptop. This might be a solution by creating the spreadsheet file on
my laptop then transferring it to the mobile.

If I get really bored, I might spend some time working out how to connect my
laptop to the 3G connection on my mobile (by bluetooth or hardwire?) so that
I can email it direct - at this point I think that I am losing the will to
… ;-))

Regards

Ralph

From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Jon Eskdale
Sent: 21 May 2011 16:42
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [sailwave] Transmitting Finishing Sheets

Hi Ralph,

I wouldn’t think it was due to corruption of the email. If the message got
corrupted it would most likely not even have a photo that could be
displayed, What did the photo look like on the phone. You could also try
emailing the photo again to yourself to test it out.

I think you will find nearly all the Android spread sheets are Excel
compatible. I have ThinkFree Office (on my Galaxy Tab) plus QuickOffice and
Documents to Go (on my Nexus one).

Interested in your comments on the General Handicap racing. Do you feel
this because of duplicate sail nos or because of the effort of entering the
times as well

Regards
Jon

On 21 May 2011 14:23, Ralph Tingle rat@…> wrote:

I acquired a new Sony Xperia arc because it has a great camera requires no
manual intervention before taking the photo

Unfortunately, the first trial at Rutland was bad news. All the photos
received, looked as though a sheet of plain grey paper had been laid over
the results page with edges of the photo perfect (on all MP settings).

Is this due to file corruption during sending the email?

Emailing a spread sheet sounds good.

Can anyone recommend a suitable Android spr ead sheet which is compatible
with Excel?

One point Richard is that creating a spread sheet on a mobile phone is OK
for class racing (only need to input sail number) but I suspect that it
would not be practical for a General Handicap race, particularly the large
events such as the Tiger Trophy. For these events, a photo is still the best
solution(at the moment!). One thought is to upload the file to a web site
then text the results office to download the photo from the site.

My technical knowledge is not great so does anyone think that uploading to a
web site is less likely to cause less corruption than emailing??

Great to hear of the developments that you, Huw et al are making to get
results up on the noticeboard quicker.

Keep up the good work can’t wait to hear what working significant
improvements involves

Regards

Ralph

From: sailwave@yahoogroups.com [mailto:sailwave@yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Richard
Sent: 19 May 2011 18:41
To: sailwave@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [sailwave] Transmitting Finishing Sheets

I have documented the technique used to get results ashore and into Sailwave
at both the L€# aser Masters in 2010 and the Youth Nationals this year. You
will find it at www.sailingclubsoftware.com/results.aspx

The procedures worked well and enabled results to be published within 15
minutes of the last finisher - not bad when you consider this includes
checking the finishing sheets and data entry on the finish boat. It was all
achieved using readily available kit and as a bonus queries were minimal.

But this is only version 1 - Huw Pearce, Jon Eskdale and I are working
significant improvements to be used at Sail for Gold. Once we have
demonstrated its effectiveness I am sure it will find applications at many
events.

If you have any ideas or observations do get back to me.