Discussion: What are my options to generate some kind of download and results before 11 am PST tomorrow (12 or s

Or doesn't work. What can I download and use?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sisimple/ ?

Geco worked for me the first time I used it. http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

Has the event already happened ?
If so, SI Simple (and maybe SIME ?) are options, or extract the data with SI-Config and manipulate in a spreadsheet (but Excel may cack up the times).


If Or has the known problem with serial devices, you might be able to work around it - see Martin Flynn's notes at that link.

MeOS is a free alternative that you can get up and running quickly on Windows.

(I emailed T/D with basically this idea:)

I had trouble getting Or to run (rather than install). I had to go to the command line and type something like this (Our download computer uses XP):

C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaws.exe -localfile "C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\41\698ae7e9-2475a3e7"

Then I created a shortcut and used that string as the "target". Go poking around that Java directory tree and see if one of the files there could be the right one.

I don't know exactly why this worked, but it did.

Also, I tried to run it. It did connect and appear to upgrade, but maybe it just checked. I'm still running version 4.1.9 from August 2012. When I closed it and ran it again, it didn't appear to connect---it just popped up quickly.

I just saw your other thread. Do you have something that works with the master station, such as SI Config? The master station driver setup is always a trial-and-error process for me. If you've got different masters, each has to be setup separately.

Yes SI-Config works with this particular station on the same computer just fine, so problem is not in the driver. Problem is with Or or with Java. Thanks all for the suggestions!

I put rxtxSerial.dll into the Java directory (the only one). No changes: Or still can't see the master station.

I am not having problems getting Or to run. It just doesn't see the serial port.

Geco is not an option.

I do siconfig to a spreadsheet, clean it there by hand, adding some extra column for the course and putting names in, then a custom python script to generate a file for winsplits. Works for small events.

The station with the USB out, or with a serial port that is adapted? Or only worked for me with the USB outputting station, not serial through adapter.

The cable has a USB end. Obviously inside the station there is a COM port, I see this COM port fine in Windows and in SI-Config.

Thank you all! MeOS was a breeze to install, it sees the COM port, and all event files imported successfully. Will let you know how it goes... it should be clear to anyone in the same situation (perhaps there isn't anyone, just throwing it out there) that Java-based SI-related software is no longer viable, perhaps due to the recent changes in Java. This means both Or and Geco.

Too bad I'm a bit too late to help. That sounded like a good case for the "log import" feature in Geco 1.3 (can recreate a full race by reading an siconfig log as if runners had just downloaded their cards in Geco - works even with COM port issue)

(See Post-mortem procedure)
http://sdenier.github.com/Geco/workflows/training....

As for the COM port, if you can launch Geco, this should not be an issue (Geco is self-contained, it does not use java webstart to update itself as Or does)

As has been mentioned before, Ór is distributed using a Java tool called Webstart. This makes the task of installing & managing Ór very easy for me and for users. It also made it easy for Ór to be made available for Mac & Linux.

Most of the time, Webstart has worked well but there have been several instances in the past where Sun/Oracle have broken important features. The latest one, where Webstart insists on re-downloading the native libraries that Ór uses to access the COM ports, is by far the most serious.

I have put a workaround on http://http://orienteering.ie/wiki/doku.php?id=or:... . This has worked well for me and several others. However, for some reason, it doesn't seem to work for everybody. I will post a second workaround during the week which I have found works in other cases. Basically, it involves installing Java 6 and, possibly, removing Java 7. However, this is far from ideal. All possible workarounds negate one of my prime aims which is to make it easy for a non-technical person to operate SPORTident.

In the long term, I think I will have to abandon Webstart and use a normal Windows installer (can anyone recommend a free installer). This will probably have an impact on Linux and Mac support. I do not intend performing the work needed to provide future support for Mac or Linux unless there is a demonstrable need. So, if you use Ór on a Mac or Linux machine and you need future updates, you'd better let me know.

Realistically, I will not have time to invest in this changeover until at least mid-May. I do have another release in the works (the main feature is drawing start times from a start list) which may still use webstart. I am not sure when that will be ready but it will probably be some time in May.

My apologies for the uncertainty caused by the latest problem, but it is not of my making.

Martin

one of my prime aims which is to make it easy for a non-technical person to operate SPORTident.

Indeed that aim was achieved many times over, and many thanks to Martin for getting the priority straight! I think I am a somewhat technical person, but in our case the constraint is not having the SI equipment on hand long enough to play with it exhaustively and gain the experience of what happens in various situations. Nothing unexpected ever happened with Ór, provided it started—until, I believe, the Java 6–>7 update.