Alan Adamson

I got this autodrive from Sean at powerfactorshooting.com. It said it was in stock and it shipped really fast to me. Just got it up and functional with my CasePro. I rigged it for now so that I could pull a casefeeder from one of my 1050's and with no additional changes just set that feeder onto the AutoDrive and CasePro. In this video it's doing .40 SW, and is running about 24/min or approx 1400 an hour. ... I also have dies for 9 and .45 (although I should sell/trade the later, as I don't reload .45 ...) I know this pushes the extreme of laziness, but hey, it's what I wanted... and It works great. It did take a bit to get adjusted right. I broke probably 3 or 4 of the little nylon shear bolt/feed mechanism bolts on the Casepro before I got wise and *really* loosened the clutch on the Autodrive.... Now it doesn't slip, only when it needs to, which actually isn't very often.

As a quick follow up on the DropBox thing... And one NOTE, I *DO* have an 2g SD card in my nook... I just leave it there all the time as you never know that they are dirt cheap. Anyway, put the .apk file in your DB, click it on the listing on your nook, it will download and install. but again, note, that is with an SD card installed in the nook... but it's still simpler than using andexplorer and still needing an SD card to install it. Alan

Keyboard issue fixed in 1.0.16 NOT! The 1.2.1 firmware changes the keyboard. 1.0.16 and 1.1.0 firmware had the right keyboard, 1.0.16 and 1.2.1 does not. Here is a picture. If I remember right, and I spent a good bit of time going over this with Josh (the prior programmer on PS)... the nice keyboard is a custom one (or at least not the default one). An application can put up whatever keyboard it wants to. it's not per-se a function of the OS (or os version). The 10 keypad keyboard is the Phone one actually if memory serves me right, it has the period and the - etc. Josh I believe had to assign (can't remember the correct android parlance) that keyboard to that activity/screen etc. In order to get it to function. The way this picture shows is the the way it was originally until Josh changed it sometime back on the 0.9.x days...So I suspect with the 1.2 update, something changed either removing the keyboard, or the root kit could have removed it as well where it is a phone option and there isn't a phone in a NST.... Just a guess, but we've been down this road before...

Where do you find the dropbox directory in andexplorer? I don't see it. Are you able to use dropbox on your nooks without a microsd card in the slot? No please, go right ahead and brag! You all have developed so many different utilities and procedures to make this work, there's no reason in the world other than just breaking down and buying the devices that ANY club couldn't go to electronic scoring. (A written treatise on how we make all this come together would be nice just in case one of us gets run over by a truck on the way to our respective ranges!) Bill, you don't even need to use andexplorer... but now you are going to make me go figure out how to do it from dropbox... I know I don't open it in andexplorer, I just select it from dropbox and it will load it.... but I'll have to verify the exact steps. Alan

I believe that is going to change real soon... They have or are implementing a much improved sync process for both apple and android. From all accounts, it should solve the issue of needing an IOS device as the master, but we'll see.... We as well do the same, having Bonjour find all the devices vs. needing to know the ID codes on android is soooo much nicer at the moment...

Late on this response, but don't bother with phones, White paper NST's (Nook Simple Touch's) are the way to good for now... the only issue is rain, but that would be true of a phone too. In bright daylight however, they are the bomb...

For quick updates for the application, you guys need to start using Dropbox on all your Nooks... Then just copy the .APK file to DB, open it in the file manager (you do have a file manager on your Nooks right?), and install it from the single sync'd DropBox directory. Not to mention we use DB for all kinds of other things. And while I had to take a little break due to real work... We've been scoring matches with PS not for almost a year... Haven't gone to paper one time since. Next to Ken, I'm betting that Chris and I have score more matches with PS than just about anyone. At one time we were scoring 10 matches a month and in most cases we score at least 6 and usually 8. 2 weekly clubs and 2 sometimes 3 outdoor monthly matches... Not bragging, but I don't know what we'd do if we had to go back to paper. And Thanks To Chris (JCWREN to some of you), he's created all kinds of little tools to make the integration with SSI functional and solve some issues even with EZWS.... Ken, and team just keep up the good work and as you know we put good words in with you with area and section all the time from this part of the US... Alan

Thanks for the comments. Yes, we learned that there were two primary issues with the way we did the paper version. a) it didn't leave enough room for any RO comments as might be required for things like procedurals, etc. it didn't leave enough room for any specifics that an RM might need to include, say a target under despute, etc. We went back and forth prior to the match of doing the individual sheets that you all see traditionally at a paper scored match, and elected to go the way we did (8-9 shooters on one legal sized sheet of paper), post the stage, the shooters would cut up the sheets with provided scissors to get their copy. Ideally, I think over the next year, we are going to work seriously hard to come up with a way to *print* live final *strips* for each shooter... I don't know how we are going to do it, but we are... There was one huge advantage to how we did do it however... it made confirmation of squad by paper easy, if I know I had 20 squads out shooting on a day, at the end of the day, by stage, I should have 20 sheets of paper. All in all however it worked as it should have and we had a solid paper trail if we needed it... In the end, we did not. It was such a good conversation point during that match that Bill Noyes even designed a *new* single sheet version that mirrored the way that PS readback results, in hopes that maybe that would make it easier for the next time... But hey, we have a year to figure that part out .... Unless of course Mark drafts us to go help him with the AL Sectional, then my year just got cut in half! ... hehe... Alan Hell, I already have J.C.'s commitment to help. Just waiting on you...... Mark K hehe, somehow I knew that was going on... he pinged me today asking if I was going to shoot your sectional.... I figured you musta been twisting his arm. Thanks Mark for your NOOKS, and your support! Couldn't have done it without a *bunch of people* Alan

Thanks for the comments. Yes, we learned that there were two primary issues with the way we did the paper version. a) it didn't leave enough room for any RO comments as might be required for things like procedurals, etc. it didn't leave enough room for any specifics that an RM might need to include, say a target under despute, etc. We went back and forth prior to the match of doing the individual sheets that you all see traditionally at a paper scored match, and elected to go the way we did (8-9 shooters on one legal sized sheet of paper), post the stage, the shooters would cut up the sheets with provided scissors to get their copy. Ideally, I think over the next year, we are going to work seriously hard to come up with a way to *print* live final *strips* for each shooter... I don't know how we are going to do it, but we are... There was one huge advantage to how we did do it however... it made confirmation of squad by paper easy, if I know I had 20 squads out shooting on a day, at the end of the day, by stage, I should have 20 sheets of paper. All in all however it worked as it should have and we had a solid paper trail if we needed it... In the end, we did not. It was such a good conversation point during that match that Bill Noyes even designed a *new* single sheet version that mirrored the way that PS readback results, in hopes that maybe that would make it easier for the next time... But hey, we have a year to figure that part out .... Unless of course Mark drafts us to go help him with the AL Sectional, then my year just got cut in half! ... hehe... Alan

For the past 6 months, we have worked very closely with Kens team at Practiscore and the fruits of that paid off this past weekend. After much nay-saying, some significant push back, and lots of thought and practice, we ran 220 shooters in 4 5.5hr sessions with 10 stages (including Chrono) all with Android devices and all using PractiScore as the primary scoring method. When the dust settled (or in this case the skys cleared). Within 10 minutes of the last shot fired, we had *ALL* 220 shooters scored, *ZERO* missing score sheets and most importantly, *ZERO* issues. Yes, we backed everything up on Paper, but only needed to resort to those ONE TIME to gather DQ's and deal with one shooter that had their scored entered under the wrong shooters name (which we had addressed in about 30 seconds). In fact, the longest wait was due to having to print out the required paper sheets for the final review and wait period, which was promptly waived. Did we have some small issues, yes, but I'd dare say no worse than any other typical L2 match. But what we didn't have was any manual entry of scores from paper, having to translate chicken scratches to scores, and the associated wear and tear on the data entry personnel etc. I suppose we need to hold a postmortem and set down and document what/how we did this in the hopes that others can try it. We used 20 nooks, swapped them at session turn over, had ZERO of them give us any issue the entire match. We did learn what we like and don't like about how to do paper backup. And we all *wished* we could electronically generate (print) competitor stage results at the end of their run to hand them directly in place of the paper backup carbons.... But all in all, to the best of my knowledge, this was the first 100% successful match scored completely with Practiscore, the way it should be. And for those nay-sayers.... We took RO's, some that had little PS experience, some with lots of PS experience and after a few minutes of education, they were off and running. We used 2 Stats people, one rover with Ipad doing backup syncs over a rage Wifi (without internet) at 30-45 minute increments, and one doing the registration/ezws/ps postings and changes. We ran EZWS and PS side by side, and we used SSI as the registration tool. One could say we used every form of digital tool we had at our fingertips to pull this off - AND lessen the amount of manual data entry and pen to paper impacts. We even pushed frequent updates to both the USPSA website and the practiscore website and on more than one occasion I heard people say they couldn't believe that they had updates on their phone as frequently as they did. Who knows, next year we may try a "jumbo tron" with live updates and sponsor crawls , don't laugh, we've already talked about it and it's easily within the realm of possibilities. Now remember, for the prior 6 months, we've run 100+ shooter monthly matches and have done each and every one of those completely with PS. To the point where we had match results ready and published before we left the range for the day... ... Many thanks to Peter Oliver the MD for letting us try this (actually, I think he wanted it more than we did). To our Section coordinator - Bill Noyes for putting up with us and watching over our shoulders, and mostly to Phil Strader, Prez at USPSA for granting us permission, even though he still had a bad taste in his mouth from some prior attempts. Oh, yeah, we aren't going back....it's electronic scoring or BUST! For those that attended, thanks, hope you had a good time and for those that missed stage 8.... ya never know, it may be back at a future time ... Alan Adamson Atlanta, GA

All, it's pretty easy to install the SDK, and then I use the adb-wireless way of doing it, just turn it on on the nook, and type what it tell you to connect to it and then it's adb install <whatever>.apk. I downloaded the es file explorer and installed that on all my nooks, via wireless, then you can either install PS that way, or you can put it on sdcard. Alan

Mark, here's the fix for both. a) it's a known issue that PS brings people back to EZWS as unclassified, it's an issue with the legacy interface that is used from the Palm days. So just update the classifications on EZWS and all fixed. If you post to PS.com from an IOS device (and soon from an android device) you can update the classifications there in the sync tab and everything is happen as well. On the second issue, I know what the problem is. The NOOKS use an IR mechanism to sense touch, it's not a capacity of Resistive displays, it actually has a very thin plane of IR that is directed across the screen from a thin light pipe that sets out in that recessed area at the edges of the display. If you get *any* debris, dust, sand, a hair etc out there, the device will detect that as touch and all kinds of strange things will happen.... Usually an early sign is that things that you press (primarily buttons) don't do what you expect, or the screen will just start to act strangely. The simple fix is to take a damp Q-tip and run around the edge of the recess. And take a wide canvas type paintbrush and sweep all the debris out of that area (do the two things in the reverse order ). That should fix it.... I did see one bug yesterday that I need to report.... but it was so strange and I remedied it so quickly that I doubt anyone else has seen it. Alan

Chris is going to clean it up and maybe *webize* it such that you just give it the file from SSI and it will give you back the files fixed, both competitors and squad info. You then just import stuff into EZWS and go from there. Don't want to put any pressure on him as I know he has a million work/work projects, but we'll see... If it looks like a long pole, I'll send you the existing perl script. Alan

I've got what they call a 3.5 moa round dot and side by side, you'd be hard pressed to tell any difference between it and a 6moa cmore module at the distances away from your eye that we shoot. To that point, watch for a classified from me. It's brand new and never been shot on a Arredondo mount. I'll be posting a whole bunch of mounts and scopes in the next day or so... Alan

Ended up being 95 shooters in 7 squads, and 160 rounds 10 stage match. We used 10 devices, all NOOK Simple Touch's. Yes, I solved the what feels like a device gets sluggish and then starts to act strangely, it's dust getting on the IR sensors housing right at the flat of the display, but on the sides. After cleaning them all and brushing off the dust, all 10 devices ran just fine all day. We had zero issues, sync'd via wifi at the range to an Ipad (actually 2 of them) each time after I shot my slot in squad 7. Needless to say, we had the match scored, and uploaded before tear down was complete. We also used the PC basedup helper app from PS and had the EZWS file uploaded within 5 minutes of the PS upload .. Our integration was as follows. - Used Shoot-n-Scoreit.com to do online registrations - exported SSI's file for EZWS - use a small translator perl script to fix some things because import of competitors from SSI isn't fully baked (an SSI issue) - import the competitors, stages, and squads from SSI to EZWS - do any juggle of squads, and walk up registrations in EZWS at the range - export from EZWS, and import into PS - Shoot and score the match with PS - The post processing is pretty straight forward and what you do all the time if using PS. It was all the above that we tried new. It worked so well, that we got a standing applause at the shooters meeting for doing it! We even juggled 8 shooters from an 8th squad back into the other 7 squads due to people who registered and didn't show up. That only took a small effort and while a manual effort it paid off in not having to create an 8th squad and make sure it had RO's on it. We've still got a couple of tweaks to work through, but this was by far and away our simplest match to pull together and score with the PS way of doing things. About the only thing that was noteworthy.... We (practiscore) need to abandon the Palm legacy interface with EZWS, it's time now to get them to create the interface that is really needed between the 2. There are just too many things you *cant* do because of the palm interface ... But man is it nice to have that large of a match done, scored and scores out to shooters *before* teardown was complete! Alan