Autocross - small tracks don't fully record

[lostpilot28]

Hello,
I need help...love the application, except for one (big) issue. My autocross events are held at a location that often times require 2 runs around the course before crossing the finish. The area where the 2nd lap begins is usually about 40 to 50 feet away from the exit. This causes the application to believe I'm finished after 1 lap, and it stops recording.

Is there a way to set this so the boundary layer is smaller, or more precise to a specific location? I've got the POI detection set to "Narrow" and it's apparently not narrow enough. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Sonny

[Harry]

Narrow will be ignored in case you have set a driving direction for your trigger. Whenever a trigger has a direction is set, it is considered "safe" and the Wide corridor is used. In case you need the direction to work around other issues (like false triggering when passing it in opposite direction), please adjust the Wide corridor to something smaller than 40 meters. You find this in Expert Settings (Wide Corridor) - pretty much in the bottom. Please do not forget the reset the value later because narrow widths applied will frequently miss triggers and create cumbersome effects.

- Harry

[lostpilot28]

Hi Harry,
You may have to walk me through how to set that up. I'll attempt to attach a picture of the track we had setup over the weekend...if you notice along the right side, going past the starting point into lap #2, it parallels the Finish run and the Laptimer stops recording. And now that I look at it, it appears that the recording didn't even capture a lap...it captured the first 5 or 6 seconds from when the car started moving until it past by the Finish area.

So, I think I need to understand how to force the Laptimer to record within a narrow field. I don't think the direction would matter since they are going in the same direction (usually).

[gplracerx]

For autocross, I suggest using the minimum of setting of 5m for corridor width. This will, of course, be too small for a race track. I have had way fewer problems with false trips after I started doing that.

[lostpilot28]

OK, so as a follow up...I don't think I had a direction set. If you look at the map I posted above, I started a new Autocross event and clicked "Set" for the start...walked 50 feet over to the Finish lights and clicked Set again for the finish. I actually did this twice because I backed out of the application accidentally and the first time I do recall it asked me if I wanted to set a direction...that was new to me, and I couldn't figure out which way the compass was pointing to set it.

Either way, the 2nd time I set Start and Finish, I didn't set a direction. But after reviewing my videos and track analysis, it shows about 5 seconds from start to finish. It didn't even record once around the track and tripped the first time i got near the finish.

So, how can I force a very narrow finish corridor?

[Harry]

Using distinct Start and Stop triggers in nearby position always comes at the risk a lap just started is stopped after a short time or when coming back after lap #1. So as long as we have no triggers getting active after N passings, I'd recommend to use a standard stop/go trigger right in the spot you pass after starting, crossing when ending 1 and start 2 and when leaving after 2. This will give you two distinct laps instead of the complete run but should be fine otherwise.

- Harry

[gplracerx]

lostpilot28,

A course like that is going to be a problem as you're going in the same direction on the course as for the finish. Setting a direction won't help in that case. Your best bet is to set the finish some distance further away from the course, closer to N. Glenwood St. in this case, but still on the line for the finish. I would have tried standing in front of the trailer to set the finish, then walk the course to test if it works, moving closer or further away as necessary. If you set the corridor width to 5m in expert settings (Administration/Settings, scroll to the bottom for Expert Settings then scroll to Trigger Detection), you should be able to get a trip for the finish, but not when you're on the course, most of the time anyway.

[lostpilot28]

Using distinct Start and Stop triggers in nearby position always comes at the risk a lap just started is stopped after a short time or when coming back after lap #1. So as long as we have no triggers getting active after N passings, I'd recommend to use a standard stop/go trigger right in the spot you pass after starting, crossing when ending 1 and start 2 and when leaving after 2. This will give you two distinct laps instead of the complete run but should be fine otherwise.

- Harry

Hi Harry,
This sounds like what I need, but I want to make sure I understand. Are you saying there is a way to have LapTimer ignore the passing of "trigger point #2" for a couple iterations, then have it trigger the "STOP" on the 3rd passing? How do I configure that?

Thanks!
Sonny

[Harry]

That's not available so far but has been a feature request. The reason I have not introduced something like this is, it will create a pretty complex dependencies and probably more issues than benefits. The proposal above will simply generate individual laps for each round - two in your case. Instead of adding a trigger like this it would probably be better to add a function to join laps...

Harry

[lostpilot28]

Thanks, Harry. Ok, I misunderstood your previous reply.

You said " I'd recommend to use a standard stop/go trigger right in the spot you pass after starting, crossing when ending 1 and start 2 and when leaving after 2."

Can you please tell me how to do that?

Thanks!