CloudLaps, A decoderless solution for laptiming
 

Dear All,


I'd like to present you this gadget, wich can be a quite useful training equipment, and is capable to organise, and time complete races.


Cloudlaps is developed by a small European team, and is currently manifactured in house, so it is designed, manifactured, tested and supported in and out of Europe. It is Cloud based, so there is no need for an amazingly expensive decoder purchase. Ideal for bashing around on a make shift track in the back yard, or a full on race on any onroad tracks. It works with magnetic sensing technology.

Currently there are 2 types of transponders in multiple colours. The basic can read lap times, where as the pro can read up to 9 sector times as well, great to map out a track, and to find out, where you have to get faster, how quick the pit stop is on a nitro race, getting better on one particular double, the possibilities are endless.



We wish to open this as a thread, where you can directly ask questions from the developers, and the testers, to have solid information from the closest source. Also, any feedback is greatly appreciated.


Norbert

cloudlaps.com
https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/client/q_g...colors-pro.png

So you pop the transponder in the car, but then having read the above info, I’ve no idea how this is going to time a lap or sectors?
What equipment defines sectors / laps?

Hello Dazzler,


The way this transponder works, is you have to have 4 things:
-The transponder with an activated license on it
-Wifi capable device ( tablet, smartphone, laptop, etc)
-magnetic tape for lap and/or sector times
-internet connection


We have lap triggering, and sector triggering tapes, they are distinguished from one another, so you just have to lay them down to the track surface, or bridge them over it (the particularities are on the website, but I'm keen to explain if needed).


The way the system works is:
You have the transponder in your car, you go over the tape, that triggers a signal. This signal will be intercepted by your wifi capable device, and that device registers it in the web app, that is on the cloud ( it is searchable, and accessible from anywhere you have internet connection). Essentially, we have just turned your phone to your personal decoder :). You can practice on your own, or can start races or full on race days with different categories, no entry limits( some lap timing softwares do limit the entries). The software is actually capable to serve a complete race day, with split and laptimes, individual fastest/slowest laptimes, printouts and so on, so you can train, or you can race with this device.

It would be good to see it being demonstrated in a video

That’s a good idea and product.

In registered clubs, there allready own a laptiming system base on Mylaps..so it will be hard for racers to own 2 differents type of transponders.

This can be affordable on brand new tracks or for tracks that don t allready own lap timing system

Thank you for your observations :)


Yes, we know it well, that a tutorial video is necessary, it is on the top of our to do list.


In terms, of already existing lap counting and measuring systems, we do not wish to be a contender to them, because in all fairness, it is not monetary feasible to sell all the expensive equipment, and buy this. Instead, We'd like to offer our services to those guys, who'd like to have a lap timing device, without the need of a serious investment. Either the avid racer, who wants to have timed practices -with sector times- without getting the AMB-s out ( this is the case at my local track), or for those guys, who'd like to have a bash around the parking lot, or the home backyard, and measure the times accurately over there.

Furthermore, any small, or new club who can not buy the expensive decoder and software package, can look at this as an alternative tool, because our software is capable of organizing complete race days with split times, lap times, fastest and slowest laps and splits, without any entry number restriction, and the costs are divided among the racers equally.

SO, in essence, what you're proposing is an alternative to the Lap Monitor system, but something that hooks up to a mobile device?

If you can price it competitively, sounds like an interesting idea.

Yes, something like that, but with a completely different technology in terms of transponder triggering, and with more capabilities in terms of race organization capabilities. Pricing is already up on our website, altho we are still honing them, like tape can be bought by the meter, and further licensing will be considerably cheaper then the current website prices.

Read the website, interesting concept. Few questions and comments.

Whats the difference between pro and basic transponders?

At a race meeting do all the competitors have to connect to the same wifi device?

On the cloud side will clubs be able create an account to save competitors info so they do not have to manually populate name and i.d. every meeting?

I can see this being a 2nd system for outdoor tracks to allow people to practice whenever they like without a club official being there to open up race control.
Your pricing/subscription model, As I don't think this will ever take off as a race day system I would look at a price for the transponder and then a monthly subscription to the app as people will only want to practice when the weather is good i.e. summer in most countries.

Right, you grasped it quite accurately.

The difference between the basic, and the pro is the capability, to register split ( or sector) times. The pro can register up to 9 sector times, the basic can only register full lap times.


Yes, at larger meetings, everyone connects to the same Wifi, and every transponder's time will be registered on that one device.
Take a look at the Web app's link: https://webapp.cloudlaps.com/sessions



If you click on a session, there you can see the individual racers' results, like below:

https://webapp.cloudlaps.com/session...39580015ea02be


If you start a session, and name it properly, then it can be searched back by anyone, and can be found quite easily. I hope this helped :).
Yes, we also think, that this could be an ideal auxiliary system, that everyone can use besides the main lap timing system.


The population of the racers data currently the fastest is if you clone your previous session, and then populate the racers one by one. This manual population's automation is under development, you can expect this release mid summer.

I'd like to add to this comment.


it is not mandatory, to connect to one hotspot with all of the transponders, because the results will be summarized in the cloud, so you can connect to 10 wifi hotspots with 10 different transponders, but you have to account the latency differences with the different devices. Wifi routers have a better latency around 1-200ms, smartphone 2-300 ms. The voice feedback could delay differently if you connect to different wifi hotspots. The lap time accuracy however does not depend on the wifi connection.

Hello All,


I'd like to announce our latest development with our system. We created an emulator, that tie in under the already existing lap timing software on windows laptop, and the lap timing software will detects the signal just like it is another transponder.

The significance of this, is that you can use your already in use software on your laptop, and you can add split times to your track without a hitch. Also, this version is offline, no internet connection is required. This is currently under Alpha testing, as soon as we are finished with Beta testing as well, we will introduce this offline package on our website.
Stay tuned :)

Hello everyone,

We've officially launched the offline product line with 2 transponder types, one with and one without the capability of the sector time measurements.
As an introductory sale, for a limited time, we offer the plus version ( the offline capable one) for the same price, as the base models.

Feel free, to check out the shop, and the virtual decoder below.

https://cloudlaps.com/cloudlaps-virtual-decoder/

As usual, any feedback is much appreciated

Sounds a great idea but as a racer I would want to be spending £100 on another transponder

Hello Daz75,


Sorry for the late reply.



Consider this system, as a training aid. You go to your local track, the Club officials are not there, but you have access to the track, then you can use this to do a timed training, where you can analyze your tracks, even sectors, if you wish. If the Club officials are there, then with the installation of our emulator, you can use this software in parallel with the AMB transponders, extending their capabilities, because with this, you can introduce sectors to the track simply, and cheaply. If you think about it, 100 gbp is the fee of 2 race weekends, where you pay the admission fees, and get a set of wheels.

Dear everyone,


Last Sunday we had a testing day held in an indoor carpet track, feel free to check out the report that we wrote up of it.


https://cloudlaps.com/practice-day-08-03-2020/


Should you have any question, let us know.

Not for people like me and Daz it isn't! If race fees were £50 a meet then I could afford to race twice a year. ;)

I think I've spent £80 in the last 12 months on entry fees and tyres for me and my lad combined.

Good luck with it all, but it's not for me. If you could have got it working with existing RC3 and RC4 PTXs then I'm sure a lot more folk would be interested. £100 is more than double the cost of a brand new MRT which is way too much in my opinion.

Hello Yorkiebar.

When I raced the BRCA clubmans that was 2 sets of wheels for 1 race plus entry fee, came to the total of 55 gbp :) also, our system is compatible with rc3 and rc4 :) if you are interested in the details, take a look at our website, or let me know, I'm more than happy to help.

My lads have had the same wheels and tyres on all winter. Will no doubt have a new set for all summer too. £6 entry for them £10 entry for me indoor

Free for the boys outdoors :thumbsup:

Maybe for the pro racers it could be worthwhile

Hi daz75,


well, we just hope, that the others will see the benefits of this system the same as we do :)