Discussion: RFID card idea

Hello! I have a few ideas about epunch. I like having the ability to see split times. Although the systems are really expensive. Has anyone experimented with or heard of someone using an RFID card? The idea is to use the card with a memory bank or a card and use a transmitter as a control to send the signal a distance. Just playing around with the ideas.

Can't you do that with a regular watch by hitting the lap button every time you punch a control? That is how we did it back in the old days.

@A6C5O7: All electronic punching systems are basically some form of RFID!

EMIT was the only one that got started before the RFID revolution, so it has a relatively intelligent card and cheaper/more durable control units, while Sport Ident got started when a Swiss guy figured out that the programmable RFID tokens used in BMW car keys could be bought very cheaply. The downside with Sport Ident is that the tags have no clock so you instead need to have that in every control unit, and those need to be manually started & stopped around every race.

There has been one or two other systems developed after this point, but they all use some form of near field radio communication and a programmable tag with flash (non-volatile) storage.

This group has been using RFID tags for several years.

How does one afford their exorbitant entry fee?

Yes, Geoff has been playing with this idea for some years. The way he has the system now is that the operator turns it on and the rest is automated. A real "black box".

turns it on and the rest is automated

That's nice. Anything to reduce the effort of orienteering organization.

A phone orienteering app (MOBO) used either QR codes or NFC tags for punching at controls. It worked, though one had to be pretty close for the NFC tags to be read.

An [...] app

(1) What happens when the phone runs out of battery?

(2) What happens when the sun is so darn bright you can't see the screen? (much less of an issue nowdays with OLEDs, but if you are cheap, perhaps you can't afford a phone with an OLED screen)

(3) What happens when sweat soaks the thing and, at a minimum, the touchscreen doesn't work? (you won't ruin an IP68 phone but see cheap, above)

For starters.

What happens when you go to the cinema and think you're going to avoid the queues by showing the ticketing barcode on your phone but as with any new technology, the barcode scanner is having issues reading phones and people with paper tickets are getting in faster than you are?

Ask Mike Schuh what his experience was with the app. He completed the course and uploaded results, despite whatever sunlight and sweat may have been present. (I use my phone all the time for topo maps when I'm hiking, so I'm amused by all the notions of how impossible it must be. Yeah, I do sometimes carry a spare battery, such as long hikes or search and rescue missions. Twenty minutes of drizzle does cause responsiveness problems if you don't keep the phone dry. Then again, similar can be true with paper maps.)

Geoff has described his bespoke timing system here.
https://issuu.com/orienteeringaustralia/docs/auso-...
Scouts Adventure Racing starts on page 28.
At one point he mentions RFID competitor sticks costing 28 cents. There have been improvements since, but the unit cost is still below $A1. There is also a description of the event management software that is well worth reading.

http://mobo.osport.ee is a pretty good. But for rogaining prefer. Orienteering is also possible.

3 weeeks ago I try use so ancient software http://www.appindesign.com/dib/ for ordinary orienteering
It was uncomfortable, cos screen of mobile phone should be switch on during punching.

There are at least 2 open systems which use RFID on off-the-shelf electronic components (primarily Arduino).
Sportiduino - https://github.com/alexandervolikov/sportiduino
OTIMCON (Open Timing control) - https://github.com/stajp/otimcon


Disclaimer: I'm the author of OTIMCON.