Track setup

This screen is typically only used once, to define the physical characteristics of the track to which the LapMaster system is connected.

You can navigate to the Track Setup from the Race Setup panel.

Name of your raceway:
Enter the name you use for your track or club. This will be displayed on top of the Main screen, unless you fill out the “Event” on the Race Setup panel. It will also be available on printed diploma’s and WEB result lists.

Length of track in meters:
Enter the length of the track in metres. Currently not used for anything. Might later be used for speed and statistical purposes.
Valid data is from 1 to 200 meters. No decimals are allowed.

Number of sections on track:
Number of laps is usual not enough to determine the winner of a race. For this reason tracks are usual subdivided into a number of sections. LapMaster accepts a section count between 4 and 100. Based upon the time elapsed from last lap-count until power goes off, LapMaster estimates the number of sections for a driver. This must however be verified before use. I.E. if the driver falls off the track on the last round the estimation will be way off.
The value in this field defines how time is converted to sections and displayed as lap decimals. If you have 25 sections, lap counts could be i.e. from 134.00 to 134.24. One section more would be displayed as 135.00. However section time can never convert into the whole part of the lap count.
If however you are running in the “Challenge” mode, totals are accumulated, and then in this case, sections can add up to be carried into the whole number of laps.
It is recommended to use either the number of real sections marked on the track, or 99 to give a decimal appearance.

Starting from section:
By definition the counter position on the track defines the starting point of sections. However the starting line on your track might be located anywhere on the track relative to the counter. In this field you define in which section the starting line is located.

Sample: If you start the cars right after the counter, the starting line is in the “0” sector.
On the other hand, if the starting line is right behind the counter the start will be located in the “maximum number of sections” section.

Note: This value will not have any influence on the counting. It will however be used by the statistics system.

Note 2:
The definition and explanation of this field have changed over time from older versions of LapMaster.
Please accept our apologies for that unfortunate situation.
But for that exact reason make an extra check that you now has this setting correct in your setup.

Number of lanes:
This is the physical number of lanes on your track. Any number between 1 and 8 is accepted.
Note: If you change this value you should usually also change the Lane Rotation.

Prefer lane numbers over colours:
By default, the verbal announcer will attribute, I.E. a new track record to the lane colour selected. However if you check this field, the announcer will use lane numbers rather than colour’s.

Reverse remote trackcall:
Depending on the actual model of the remote control, “start” might either be the right or the left button. This can be annoying. However with this option you can revert the On/Off, so that it corresponds to your preference.

Control power to each lane individual:
(This option is only available if the LapTimer-II device is running the Version 1.4 (or greater) firmware.)

By default the Laptimer-II device controls track power through a single relay.
However by clicking this option the LapTimer-II device will use its 4 relays to control power to lane 1-4. By means of a second LapTimer-II device, (Dual version) lanes 5 to 8 can be controlled as well.
By controlled, means that power is only being supplied if a driver is expected to be driver on that particular lane. Also by having individual relays for each lane, you might not need additional lane relays, provided that the 15 Amp relays on the LapTimer-II device is sufficient.

The use of the “Track time seller” feature requires by nature that individual power control is being used.

Note: A bug in version 1.4 prevents certain function using the individual power control to function as expected. If you have a version 1.4 board and want to use the individual power control, please contact the author for a chip upgrade.

Reverse relay connection:
Normally the LapTimer-2 track power relay(s) are wired so that when the computer is powered off, the track power is removed. (Connection between COMMON and NO is used).
However it is possible to use the connection between COMMON and NC instead. This has the effect that track power will be on, while the computer system is powered off.
If you use this wiring scheme, you need to tell LapMaster that it should reverse its use of the power relays to match the wiring. You do that by checking this option.


Fig 2: Normal wiring would use the red and grey wiring; reversed wiring would use the red and green wiring.

Roll time:
Lapmaster has the feature to compare the time of each lap against a set minimum time to detect potential “riders” (Two cars in the same lane).
However if a trackcall is involved the time standing still needs to be accounted for. Also since the cars do not stop instantaneous when power is dropped (they roll a little while), this roll time also needs to be accounted for.
Disable: You can disable the trackcall and roll calculation altogether.
This is how it worked in LapMaster prior to 3.25.
Trackcall roll time: For each trackcall, the minimum allowed laptime is lowered with this value. By default 0.5 second. However you can adjust the value here.

Lane colour:
Assign the colour you want associated with each lane on your track.
You can use a number of predefined standard colours. These are carefully selected to give a homogeny view to the main screen, while also being able to see black text on top of it.

For added flexibility, you can select “Custom” in the dropdown.
This will open up a colour select box, that allows you to select any colour in the RGB system for use as lane colour.
Note 1: However, make sure that you can still see “Black” on top of it.
Note 2: LapMaster do not know the name of the colour you selected, so any spoken reference to the lane will be by lane-number rather than by lane-colour. I.e. “New track record lane-2”.

Lane Rotation - Normal:
Assign the lane rotation scheme you wish to use. Lane rotation is the way you change lanes between stints. Simple rotation is to move one lane to the right or left, but also the more complicated “European” rotation can be used. A sample of “European” rotation for an 8 lane track is 1-3-5-7-8-6-4-2. This has the advantage that you are not riding next to the same person all through the heat. “European” can also be done the other way around, and possible other schemes can be implemented. However you are not allowed to assign a rotation that involves lanes not physical on the track. (As determined by Number of lanes above.)
When “round robin” is used, you have more drivers in a heat than you have lanes. This implies that new drivers enter on lane-1 and drivers that normally would be switched to lane-1 will enter the pool of drivers standing over in the next stint.

Temporary disabling of tracks:
It is possibly to temporary disable a track from service by removing it from the rotation list. (Setting it to “N/A”).
This can be very useful, if you for instant want to leave out the two outer lanes for a specific race, or if your track suffers from a damaged lane.

On Deck Lane 1:
In Round-Robin racing, you have more drivers that there is lanes, racing in the same heat. The principle is that for each stint, one active driver leaves the track, and one driver from the queue enters the track. This rotation continues until all driver have raced on all tracks.
The driver that exits from the active set, is the driver that otherwise would have been assigned to drive on the On-Deck-Lane. The new driver enters on the On-Deck-Lane.
Traditionally the On-Deck-Lane has been the first active lane. However you can now specify this lane using this option. Default is lane-1. To be compatible, if the selected lane has been disabled, LapMaster finds the next available lane, and makes that the On-Deck-Lane.

On Deck Lane 2:
Rather than just exchanging 1 driver per stint, you can also select to exchange 2 drivers for each stint. You do that by assigning a second on-deck lane. However you should take care not to select two lanes in a row, or the exchange scheme will interfere with each other’s. Also note that if the numbers of drivers are odd, an extra “empty” driver will be rotated due to need for symmetry. This also has the effect that an additional stint will be needed to complete the heat.

Lane Rotation - Half track:
This option allows you to setup a lane rotation scheme that will only cycle you through half the lanes on the track. In some race organisations, the initial racing rounds is done in a short form, where a given driver only races the odd (1-3-5-7) or even (2-4-6-8) lanes, thus giving a faster turnaround. If you check this option a heat will only have stints equal to ½ of the tracks number of lanes. (Rounded down, should your track have an odd number of lanes). The rotation itself must be programmed in the “Lane Rotation” settings, i.e. with the help of the speed setup buttons.
Whether or not you use Half or Full track rotation depends on a setting in the Race Setup

On Deck Lane A / On Deck Lane B
When you race in Half-track mode, you have two sets (A and B) of drivers on the track that rotates individually. As a consequence you also need two On-Deck-Lanes. You can specify each. By default the A set will use lane-1 and the B set will use lane-2.
You can however specify this as you like. E.g. If you run 1-2-3-4 as A and 5-6-7-8 as B, you will need to specify something different than the default of 2 for the B set.
Unlike On-Deck-Lane for full track mode, there is no automatic reassignment of A/B lanes, should you chose to disable the lane assigned as On-Deck.

Quick rotation setup buttons:
To aid you in setup of the lane rotation a number of “Quick setup” buttons has been provided. Using these you can quickly select a rotation scheme:
Simple up: Simple ascending rotation. (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-1).
Simple down: Simple descending rotation. (8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-8).
European up: Alternating ascending on odd lanes and descending on even. (1-3-5-7-8-6-4-2-1). This has the advantage that you do not have the same racer at the right and left all race long.
European down: Like “European up” but rotating in the other direction. (2-4-6-8-7-5-3-1-2).
Half heat up: Checks the “Half feat” option and set the rotation as follows: (1-3-5-7) and (2-4-6-8). Note that you either drive the odd or the even lanes.
Half heat down: Like “Half heat up” but rotating in the other direction. (7-5-3-1-7) and (8-6-4-2-8).