Anyone else find Harry Laptimer next to useless v17?

Nor · Post by **Nor** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 8:56 pm

Hi

I know that the subject of my post sounds mean BUT Laptimer used to work so well with my GoPro with v16. V17 at the end of last racing season came with a lot of crashes and failed recordings.
Now, coming back from my first race weekend, I see that no video was really recorded. Worse than that, for my last race, lap timer started the recording on the gopro 20 minutes into the race, and then let the gopro carry on recording for another 2 hours.
I am now very frustrated with this whole setup and this is really causing me to conclude that laptimer is no substitute for a more "professional" solution in order to integrate gopro into my timing videos. Also, I found laptimer to now as much as one second off from the MyLaps official transponder times. It used to be at most 0.1sec off.
All of this is with a gopro black, an iPhone 5 with 64gig of ran, and a 10hz xgps (bluetooth). All diagnostics on laptimer always saids that everything was a-ok and the track is the only one loaded in the track list.

So, anyone else suffering a lot from the current versions of laptimer? It is absolutely awesome to see some of the new features, and how great harry has been at getting new versions out (at not cost), but it is so much less reliable than before

Post by **Harry** » Sun Apr 13, 2014 9:32 pm

The subject is not mean but simply not the way I want to see communication on this forum. In case there is a support request, please raise it as such a request and not as some speculation on the overall status. I think it is difficult to understand the status of a release without having facts.

With every new release I get some feedback "it worked before but doesn't any more". My theory is that users perceive "there has been a new version" and consider problems they run into invented by the new release. While there have been major releases that showed some instability in early stages (2 or 3 years ago), iOS v18 has no major issues so far. Although I have added some changes to iOS copying over fixes from Android, I have not even considered to submit a bug fix release so far.

So to answer the overall question: from my stats I see a by far higher stability in v18 than for all other major release before.

On your problems:

Please make sure you run the latest version. Not sure you really meant v17 or v17.5 (which has actually been a major release too), but please update to v18.
In case the GoPro is not started correctly, check you network connection and especially if you have anything changed since the time it worked. When the GoPro is started late, this is a sign it has not been connected / reachable when the lap started. LapTimer checks the status from time to time and in case it gets a connection at some time and "sees" the cam is off, it will turn it on (if wanted). In case the GoPro is not stopped, the reason is either it had no connection again, or you started video recording manual(!). Whenever you start video recording manually (red button in video view), you need to turn it off yourself too. This is the so call "mixed mode" provided to allow users to add arbitrary intro and outro video recordings. Wireless connections are always critical. As an example, a BT client sitting in your car constantly in discovery mode, will interrupt and disturb any other wireless communication a lot. In-car audio devices are good candidates for this - just as an example.
Every LapTimer release is going through a regression test when it comes to accuracy. This means accuracy is verified against a reference lap and needs to deliver a defined result with 1 hundred second accuracy. For every GPS based system deviations from standard accuracy are part of the overall system. Please remember GPS guaranties "correct" reporting for only 95% of all measures. This is due to sun eruptions, atmospheric turbulences etc. In case you want absolute accuracy, you need to use a transponder system (but oddly get nothing but a time from it).

- Harry

Nor · Post by **Nor** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:47 pm

Hi

Yes, I am running the latest version. Which is actually v18.0. Some of the issues I hinted to seemed to have started with v17.0 for me.
One thing that I noticed is that the "Discover Multicams" gets switched off randomly. Sometimes it remains turned on and then next time I try to use Harry Laptimer, it is back to off. All the diagnostics say that everything is fine.
Another thing that has been happening is that Laptimer also seems to randomly switch to night mode (or something resembling that) when I browse and look at my laps. I have been ignoring this for a while but that does not seem quite right.
The only warning I get when I test the setup, is that Video is shown in yellow, and selecting it displays the message that Background Video is not turned on and could be turned on under 'Video'. I yet have to be able to find the setting anywhere. It is probably me being thick but I have not been able to set that up properly.

I usually just set everything up and make sure that the XGPS and the GoPro are all ready to go. The GoPro is detected and shows up as an icon on Laptimer. I press the Video icon at the bottom left of the Laptimer and then let it do its thing. Some times it works, sometimes it keeps recording after I pit. If I press the X at the top right of the screen, the iPhone forward camera (facing me in the car) picture goes away and I get a message about background video not vein available. The message actually gets displayed too quickly to read. So I wait for a bit and eventually the Video icon at the bottom left shows up again and I press it again to keep the camera video running since I would like to have the incur video. What I did notice is that once I get into the pits and press the X on the top right right of the screen, the only option I get is Cancel (where Reset is, which is just Right of the Video button).
Overall, I have really loved Harry Laptimer, as I said, but I do not seem to be able to figure how to make it works lately and it seems finicky.

Two request, if you can: when editing the laps, first the option to sync the video to the end of the lap is great, BUT the controls are hard. I am able to estimate the exact time I cross the line by watching the video frame by frame on a larger laptop screen. It would be great to be able to have the option to actually enter the time in the video manually and not have to scroll through the frames. The latter is very imprecise and requires fiddling quite a few times to get it right.
Also, the buttons, when looking at a lap, to go to the previous lap or next lap are very small. I do not have particularly large hands at all (:-) ) but it requires up to three attempts to get to the next lap when I try to edit more than one lap. I also see that when I look at al the lap list, it shows the lap time, with avg speed below and time and date on the right of the screen. There is a lot of room between the two and it would be awesome to have the actual lap number appear in there. Without that information, looking up a particular lap is rather difficult (although I can scroll through them using the buttons that I mentioned above but as I said these are small and hit-and-miss).

I do not know if this helps at all... hopefully, it gives you an idea of the issues I am having, in a more constructive manner

Thanks for Laptimer!

N

Nor · Post by **Nor** » Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:03 pm

Ok, I confess not having spent enough time reading the documentation... It seems that I was confused "no background video" which, to me, seemed to be a complain about the configuration of lap timer. All I had to do was click on the Record Auto to display the lap times while the background video would be acquired. Me bad on this one.
One thing I could not see in the Video chapter of the documentation is what a grey icon with a small white flashing dot means. I assume that it means that video will start with the start/finish line is crossed.

N

Nor wrote:Hi

Yes, I am running the latest version. Which is actually v18.0. Some of the issues I hinted to seemed to have started with v17.0 for me.
One thing that I noticed is that the "Discover Multicams" gets switched off randomly. Sometimes it remains turned on and then next time I try to use Harry Laptimer, it is back to off. All the diagnostics say that everything is fine.
Another thing that has been happening is that Laptimer also seems to randomly switch to night mode (or something resembling that) when I browse and look at my laps. I have been ignoring this for a while but that does not seem quite right.
The only warning I get when I test the setup, is that Video is shown in yellow, and selecting it displays the message that Background Video is not turned on and could be turned on under 'Video'. I yet have to be able to find the setting anywhere. It is probably me being thick but I have not been able to set that up properly.

I usually just set everything up and make sure that the XGPS and the GoPro are all ready to go. The GoPro is detected and shows up as an icon on Laptimer. I press the Video icon at the bottom left of the Laptimer and then let it do its thing. Some times it works, sometimes it keeps recording after I pit. If I press the X at the top right of the screen, the iPhone forward camera (facing me in the car) picture goes away and I get a message about background video not vein available. The message actually gets displayed too quickly to read. So I wait for a bit and eventually the Video icon at the bottom left shows up again and I press it again to keep the camera video running since I would like to have the incur video. What I did notice is that once I get into the pits and press the X on the top right right of the screen, the only option I get is Cancel (where Reset is, which is just Right of the Video button).
Overall, I have really loved Harry Laptimer, as I said, but I do not seem to be able to figure how to make it works lately and it seems finicky.

Two request, if you can: when editing the laps, first the option to sync the video to the end of the lap is great, BUT the controls are hard. I am able to estimate the exact time I cross the line by watching the video frame by frame on a larger laptop screen. It would be great to be able to have the option to actually enter the time in the video manually and not have to scroll through the frames. The latter is very imprecise and requires fiddling quite a few times to get it right.
Also, the buttons, when looking at a lap, to go to the previous lap or next lap are very small. I do not have particularly large hands at all (:-) ) but it requires up to three attempts to get to the next lap when I try to edit more than one lap. I also see that when I look at al the lap list, it shows the lap time, with avg speed below and time and date on the right of the screen. There is a lot of room between the two and it would be awesome to have the actual lap number appear in there. Without that information, looking up a particular lap is rather difficult (although I can scroll through them using the buttons that I mentioned above but as I said these are small and hit-and-miss).

I do not know if this helps at all... hopefully, it gives you an idea of the issues I am having, in a more constructive manner

Thanks for Laptimer!

N

Post by **Harry** » Thu Apr 17, 2014 9:55 am

Nor wrote: One thing that I noticed is that the "Discover Multicams" gets switched off randomly. Sometimes it remains turned on and then next time I try to use Harry Laptimer, it is back to off. All the diagnostics say that everything is fine.

Discovering MultiCams is a very critical process (particular for other iOS devices), so whenever there are circumstances that indicate MultiCam is not used at all, LapTimer turns it off. Especially when turning off BT, the switch will go to off too. I consider to change that in a future version

Nor wrote:Another thing that has been happening is that Laptimer also seems to randomly switch to night mode (or something resembling that) when I browse and look at my laps. I have been ignoring this for a while but that does not seem quite right.

The only way to get rid of this is to turn off automatic switching (see Skin Settings). LapTimer makes a decision on day / night based in the position of the sun for your current position. With a valid GPS position available, it switches every day at exactly the time the sun passes the horizon. The only exception is when a GPS lock is lost. As LapTimer has no position any more and can't calculate the sun position, it switches to the default - which is dark. The advantage is, if e.g. you drive into a tunnel, it will switch to dark even at daytime. Probably a little over sophisticated but works as designed. In caee this happens while on track, there is a severe problem with the GPS lock and the sensor / device needs to be relocated.

Nor wrote:The only warning I get when I test the setup, is that Video is shown in yellow, and selecting it displays the message that Background Video is not turned on and could be turned on under 'Video'. I yet have to be able to find the setting anywhere. It is probably me being thick but I have not been able to set that up properly.

I usually just set everything up and make sure that the XGPS and the GoPro are all ready to go. The GoPro is detected and shows up as an icon on Laptimer. I press the Video icon at the bottom left of the Laptimer and then let it do its thing. Some times it works, sometimes it keeps recording after I pit. If I press the X at the top right of the screen, the iPhone forward camera (facing me in the car) picture goes away and I get a message about background video not vein available. The message actually gets displayed too quickly to read. So I wait for a bit and eventually the Video icon at the bottom left shows up again and I press it again to keep the camera video running since I would like to have the incur video.

I think you have found the documentation already. Leaving the Video View with the close button -> video recording disabled. Leaving the Video View with the "Record Auto" button -> video recording will start jointly with data recording. Not leaving the video view: same as background recordings, video and data recording start / stop at the same time. Previews are disabled in general while recording, this is to reduce the load and wireless traffic.

Nor wrote:What I did notice is that once I get into the pits and press the X on the top right right of the screen, the only option I get is Cancel (where Reset is, which is just Right of the Video button).

That's o.k. When passing the start / finish line going from the last lap to your cool down lap, LapTimer started a new lap recording. It doesn't know you plan to go out. As an automatic lap recording is ongoing, the Cancel button is shown.

Nor wrote:Two request, if you can: when editing the laps, first the option to sync the video to the end of the lap is great, BUT the controls are hard. I am able to estimate the exact time I cross the line by watching the video frame by frame on a larger laptop screen. It would be great to be able to have the option to actually enter the time in the video manually and not have to scroll through the frames. The latter is very imprecise and requires fiddling quite a few times to get it right.

Use the slider to find the rough position and the plus / minus buttons above to fine adjust. This usually works fine. As there is no need to use this dialog for regular users at all, I did not want to spend even more time on the dialog.

Nor wrote:Also, the buttons, when looking at a lap, to go to the previous lap or next lap are very small. I do not have particularly large hands at all (:-) ) but it requires up to three attempts to get to the next lap when I try to edit more than one lap.

Try a slow horizontal swipe action, that is probably more convenient for you.

Nor wrote:I also see that when I look at al the lap list, it shows the lap time, with avg speed below and time and date on the right of the screen. There is a lot of room between the two and it would be awesome to have the actual lap number appear in there. Without that information, looking up a particular lap is rather difficult (although I can scroll through them using the buttons that I mentioned above but as I said these are small and hit-and-miss).

All the views are too busy already (that's at least what I receive as feedback regularly). So try the grouping options from the top of the list. It allows you to drill down into e.g. one session and is making it a lot easier to not lose the overview.

- Harry