Personnal Scoring System for PDAs

[Julien Boit]

I was just wondering if anyone uses this ?

I'm waiting to receive mine, a french version of the PSS.

I know Burner's wife/coach used it at the WS in South Africa to keep on real time the squad One's results.

Someone else ?

BTW: Thanks Patrick for the Front sight's article.

DVC

JUlien

[Patrick Sweeney]

Julien,

You're welcome.  And I'm trying to get my hands on the program to see about doing an article.

[Shooter Grrl]

I've only briefly heard about it, but would like the program if y'all can get a copy of it!

[EricW]

For a demo copy head here:

http://www.autoscoringsystems.com/pages/softwareframeset.htm

(Edited by EricW at 7:51 am on Jan. 15, 2003)

(Edited by EricW at 11:58 am on Jan. 15, 2003)

[Flexmoney]

I read that it only works on PDA's with newer software?  Too bad.  There are likley people that have old PDA gathering dust...they might "donate" them to the local club.

[EricW]

The software requires Palm OS 3.1 or above, which isn't a terribly rigorous requirement.  This includes any handheld made within the last couple of years.  Palm also provides free OS updates to users of compatible handhelds.  Only the very oldest of handhelds cannot be upgraded to a compatible OS.  

http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/

My 2 year old, $99 (refurbished) Handspring Visor is compatible as well.  A damn nice handheld for the moola, by the way...

[Peter Cunningham]

GREETINGS from Australia (and Papua New Guinea)

I throw in my bit here after a fellow shooter said I should.

YUP - It is I who developed PSS and USPSS programs that run on the old Palm 3.1 Operating System and upwards.

I'm not going to try selling it here - I'm a Civil Engineer, not a salesman, so the best bet is to try it for yourself.

Mariyn Barnhart, The Australian, PNG, Pommie (English) teams used PSS at the WS.

If you care to have a peek at the site ( http://www.autoscoringsystems.com) you will see candid off the cuff comments from Marilyn, Eric Grauffel, Saul Kirsch, and mere mortals in Australia.

They are NOT my words - they are the words of informed users telling the uninformed of reality.

Just follow the links, but two threads of chat on the Australian IPSC site are long - however they are most informative.

In the spirit of sportsmanship, Marilyn and the Aussie team manager used and shared scoring information.  Marilyn found it easier to jot down the scores on paper then instead of registering scores as would an RO (individual hits) she used the second scoring method TS scoring in PSS that is means to use with paper scoresheets.

To cut a long story short - try it.

If you don't have a Palm, then at least download "Manual 1 Zip" file as it shows you exactly how it all works and technical info, comparisons at WS where the MSS inherent limitations incorrectly placed second and third shooters.

Don't read the entire manual - you will go nuts.

The thing to remember is this - the more shooters and RO's who invest a little extra, will make a QUANTUM difference to the way our sport is managed, and we ALL will enjoy ourselves more.  What it means is that SHOOTERS will be the driving force of change.

PATRICK SWEENEY - Please - anything you can do to honestly assess the program is appreciated.

FLEXMONEY - You have "heard" wrong.  We structured this to work on the basic V3.1 Palm OS, but it us upwards compatible, therefore, nobody is disadvantaged.

You are correct and have identified one major advantage - as time progreses, these things get cheaper and cheaper, therefore WE benefit because we don't need the latest and greatest.  I prefer for RO work the old Palm 3xe, but overall I like the Acer S10 as it's got MP3 recording and other good tricks.

Match Magic and Data Input utilities are set up on the industry standard Microsoft Excel for Win95.  This againis done deliberately. The macros are upward compatible, so that nobody willbe disadvantaged.

The question is oft asked - WHY isn't someting like this done.  Answer - the amount of work involved is tremendous and cannnot be protected as it uses a standard Excel platform.

By the way - these utilities enable MAJOR matches to be handled EASILY by using a PC, and relegating Palms as slaves - the master of which transfers to the PC by HotSync.  All you need do is to open Excel, then Match Magic - Name the match - select the type of match and press GO.

Please remember - I undertook this 2.5 years ago and had no idea what I was getting myself into.  

I have not had one cent of financial assistance, and not one iota of cooperation nor interest from IPSC hq.

It has cost me personally well over US$200,000 to achieve, and now I seek to (hopefully) recover my costs.

It makes NO commercial sense to do this as our market is too small - hence the higher than anticipated cost.

In the overall scheme of things it's 'peanuts' for an individual shooter, and therein lies the secret - BROADBASED ownership

That's enuf from me - we have BIG bushfires around our place and doesn't look like getting better, so I must be off (like a bad smell)

Feel free to ask Marilyn, or Eric Grauffel, or Saul Kisrch or ME!

BE HAPPY

PC

[Flexmoney]

Sorry if I mis-spoke on the versions of the software.

I have a Palm IIIxe...I think it runs some version of 3.x or highier.

My question was how old of a model of Palm will work?  Do/can the original Palm Pilots run 3.1 and highier?  If so, those (m series?) can be had for peanuts.  That would make it super easy for clubs to buy up a dozen or so of the old Palms.  

(I'm pretty sure my Palm IIIxe is a go...I am looking for cheaper Palms?)

[EricW]

Flex, I think that the only models that cannot have the firmware upgraded are the Palm 1000, 5000, Personal, and the Professional.  All other Palm Pilots / Handsprings / Sony's et. al. are upgradeable to a useable OS.  Sorry if I sounded like a jilted geek when I posted my response.  (The medication seems to be helping, I'll be better before you know it.)

FWIW, I looked on EBay, and perfectly good Handsprings were bidding in the $30-50 range.  Much to my chagrin (I own Palm stock), Handspring makes a better and faster handheld and they're much less expensive.  (Don't ask me how or why.  I've owned two Palms and a Handspring, and the cheap Handspring runs circles around the Palms.)

E

[Peter Cunningham]

FLEXMONEY

If you download Manual 1 from the site (will be updated next weekend) it will answer all your questions.

PSS / USPSS is designed to work on anything running on Palm 3.1 and above.

You have the 3xe (what I prefer on the range) so that is the base level handheld you need.

YES - you can upgrade your 3xe to the latest 4.1 version.

Obviously your palm can't do everything that V4.1 drives, but it fixes some HotSync problems and a few other glitches

I was going to put the file on site, but discovered that it is illegal for me to do so.  Therefore, go to the Palm site and download the 9Mb (yup - a big one) file for nil cost.

Don't bother with the HotSync301 upgrade - that's included in the V4.1

The M series - "M130" I think.  From memory they have V3.1, so there should be no problem - however - my tired eyes find the screens too small, so I prefer the 3xe.

I suggest grabbing as many 3xe's that you can - their main advantage is that they have replaceable AAA batteries and a bigger screen (lousy backlight), and they are CHEAP, but they are IDEAL for use on the range.

If you do your sums, the club (better still - key shooters/RO's) acquire (say) 10 Palm 3xe's at (say$100 max) = $1000.   These are the slaves - they merely gather the information (scores)

Then get one 515 that can do the number crunching.

When each slave beams scores to the 515, let it do the number crunching.  That is the Master Palm.

If you have a portable printer - IR print direct from your Palm to a compatible IR printer.

The match and stage results are available in SECONDS, even for a very large match, and nobody has to bust a gut doing it - and it's ACCURATE.

NO need to buy a generator, computers, and so on.

Overall it often works out cheaper to do what you discovered than to kit out a club with expensive gear just to get the results.

Shooters here have discovered that there's no need to print - just beam the results to other computers or email them later - then everybody has a copy.

FIRES - some 420 houses gone - 300 people hospitalised, and in most places, NOT getting any better.

GOTTAGO

Peter C

[Shooter Grrl]

Ahhh - tis not really a PERSONAL scoring system!  It's actually been developed to do whole matches, that's cool!  BUT, not what I'm looking for  Thanks for replies Peter!

Good luck to you!

[ErikW]

Peter gave me a demo of his system back in ought-one at the back-to-back nationals. Very cool. There are some obstacles to adopting electronic scoring for match use (cost, durability, hard copies, backups) but the software itself is outstanding.