Radio Controls
 addison
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Posted: 24 January 2011, 11:39 AM
For those that don't know - Phillip Herries from HB needs to be commended for his amazing work in developing his own Radio Controls which were utilised at Sprint the Bay.
I was sitting today at my desk at work thinking how many good uses there are for a system like this and how desperately we needed it here in New Zealand. I think about all the times at the Night Relays where there has been kids that we don't know where they are on the course, or the late finishers in the middle of the night. Schools events etc too.
Well done to Phillip on developing the system and I look forward to seeing it developed further and utilised more. Perhaps this could be the stimulous to set up a bit of a "technology" group ??
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addison
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Posted: 24 January 2011, 11:40 AM
Also failed to mention - looks like an awesome system which would be great for the Oceanias 2013 / World Cup !! Just need to sort out how to hook it up with mobile broadband for live feeds?
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PhillipH
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Posted: 24 January 2011, 2:12 PM
Thanks for the complements Simon. I'm sure a lot of people could also do the same thing, especially with the advances in off-the-shelf mesh technology. Though the expense of buying SI stations to output the data is a bit of a drawback to getting started.
Big thanks to Duncan and Ross Morrison for taking the time to use and test the gear for me at Sprint the Bay ( It was good to give it a decent workout ahead of Nationals ). Duncans great commentary also made the most of what information he got.
Yes it opens up all sorts of possible uses besides just results. e.g...
-During club trials it showed you could also know when controls could start to be collected.
-Since the electronics was already there, the start unit was trialled as a count down beeper. This allowed us in one instance to have an unmanned start for the red courses - which of course could be monitored in realtime.
-Another option on the units is to use the spare switch on the units as a panic button so someone can call for help from out on the course. They still have to find the control though and the way some people treat the controls, could be hard to stop false triggers.
I'm sure there are a lot of other uses besides results as well. e.g. GPS, cameras etc. Range on the current units is a bit low but hopefully that will improve in the near future, though the ability to simply put another repeater in place worked well for STB. Also the nature of orienteering with controls for different courses never being too far apart suits this type of gear.
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