SPORTident.ca

Important to upgrade firmware

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:50:37 GMT

With the arrival of SI-10 and SI-11 finger sticks amongst orienteers, it is important for the people maintaining club SI equipment to insure that the firmware is up to date with the latest firmware. Version 5.74 has been available for over a year now and should by now be installed on all controls. This page will be updated shortly with a link to a detailed explanation on how to upgrade the firmware in your controls. Check back within an hour.

SI-10 and SI-11 now available

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:40:00 GMT

The latest (and greatest!) finger stick chips are now available from your SPORTident dealer. Both the SI-10 and SI-11 have a data transfer time of 60ms, which is double as fast as the SI-6 that they replace. Also, they can hold up to 128 controls, again double what an SI-6 could manage. Yet the price is essentially unchanged. In addition the SI-11 will confirm a successful control punch, by showing a blinking light in the tip of the control.

The battery in the finger stick is used exclusively to blink the light. It is rated to 30,000 control punches (which the American elite orienteer Ali Crocker has calculated would take her about 12 years). Once the battery expires, the SI-11 will continue to function identically to the SI-10.

Comparison of available Control Cards

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 04:00:00 GMT

A few years ago I had prepared a chart, similar to the one from SPORTident, which shows the different finger sticks that are available, but also included the discontinued SI-5.

I've now updated it to also show the discontinued SI-6 on the list for comparison.

Check here for the chart.

Firmware Version 574

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 21:19:58 GMT

574 has been out for quite a while now and has shown itself to be robust and reliable. All SPORTident users need to upgrade to this version. You can download the latest SI-Boot which comes with Firmware Version 574 from SPORTident’s website in Germany (here), or mirrored from this blog (here). Please contact me if you encounter any issues using it.

Also, version 574 is required for the new SI-10 timing card.

Release notes:

574

improved speed and robustness in station memory routines
SI-Card6 readout improved
BSM7-USB plug-in detection improved
introduced SIAC compatibility

568

corrects power consumption error in stadium controls
data transfer modes improved
This version is not qualified for BSM7 and BS7-P.

559

improves stability in SI stations in case of higher discharged batteries
inadvertently introduced stadium control power consumption issue

New timing stick: SI-10

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:53:01 GMT

A new timing stick is coming early in 2012, in place of the SI-6 which is being phased out in 2012.

The new timing stick can hold 128 controls, plus Start, Finish and Check and is twice as fast as the SI-6.

Prices have not been announced.

A chart comparing the various timing sticks can be downloaded here.

Compasses and the Hemispheres

SPORTident.ca — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:52:26 GMT

A compass is built for a specific band in the hemisphere. Fortunately all of Europe and North-America is in the same band, but the South isn’t so easy. Here’s an image I received from MOSCOMPASS:

According to this, a compass made for Brazil will not work in Australia. It is best to purchase a compass in the region you will be using it in, to insure you’ve got the correct one. Otherwise make sure you order with the country name, not just “Southern Hemisphere”.

Good luck, and Happy Travels!

Resolve SI-Personal problems

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 03:12:53 GMT

I’ve recently run into two issues with SI-Personal.

Error Messages

First it crashed with ugly error messages. This was quickly solved by SPORTident’s engineering staff who correctly guessed that I had changed the COM port that my BS7-USB occupies. To resolve this I had to delete the INI file which is well hidden. Here’s how to find the place, depending on the operating system. Regardless, open up the File Explorer (not Internet Explorer) in Windows, and copy/paste the following into the address bar:

Windows XP:
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\SPORTident\SI_Personal
Vista or Windows 7:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\SPORTident\SI_Personal

Press Enter and the folder will open where SI_Personal.ini is hidden. Just delete this file.

Read and Write buttons don’t enable when SI card inserted

This happens because my BS7-USB was programmed the wrong way. I had to start SI-Config and change some of the settings. In SI-Config enable expert view, change the target to DIRECT and read the device. It is most likely that autosend is currently enabled. The settings have to be changed to:

Operating Mode: Read SI cards
Autosend off
Extended protocol on

Press the Write bar, and now SI-Personal will work.

Kudos to Thomas Kühn at SPORTident

Update to new Firmware 5.68 released

SPORTident.ca — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 11:21:49 GMT

An update of SI_Boot has been released which mainly includes firmware loads for the Sprint, Printer and Download controls.

The installer program SI_Boot also has some minor bugs fixed.

The new SI_Boot is available from SPORTident.com (click here) or from my site (here).

New firmware 5.68 released

SPORTident.ca — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 00:46:56 GMT

SPORTident has released version 5.68 for SPORTident controls BSF-7 & BSF-8 as a replacement to all prior firmware versions. All controls should be updated to this firmware.

As many of you are aware, V5.59 had the stadium control bug which caused the batteries in stadium controls (Clear/Check/Start/Finish/Download) to be drained sooner under certain conditions. V5.65 was released in the spring, but withdrawn again due to a different issue.

Unfortunately the download control and the printer control cannot yet be updated to version 5.68. I will update this page as soon as I get a timeline on the availability of newer firmware for these two types of controls.

V5.68 has been wrapped into an updated SI_Boot application which installs the firmware into the controls. SI_Boot (V.2.11) is available from SPORTident.com or from here. For details on how to use the SI_Boot application, click here.

This is an important release and everybody should update
their controls to this version of the firmware.

[Update 2010-10-01: newer SI_Boot version]

New printer set

SPORTident.ca — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:59:26 GMT

SPORTident is using a new printer in its printer and school sets. And this printer has two features that make it worth considering:

It takes standard thermal paper rolls, available in business supply stores
The batteries are normal AA rechargeable NiMH batteries. Easy to replace when they wear out, a spare set can also be carried to insure that the battery doesn’t run dry before the end of an event.

I’ve been using it a bit today and I like it. It feels solid. It might be a little slower to print than the old GeBE, but I don’t have one nearby to compare.

And, best of all, it’s somewhat cheaper to purchase than the older set.

There’s also a printer only set (order # 14121). More details to follow.