ProCount is the ultimate in computer lap counting programs for radio controlled model car racing. It is the culmination of my experience in lap count programming since 1980 and includes virtually every feature you could wish for to organise and run a race meeting.

Its versatility means that ProCount is a large program, but this does not mean it is difficult to use. On the contrary, it uses colourful pop-up windows with single keystroke menu operation to ease you through its many features. The various functions and features of ProCount are grouped together under common menu headings so it is easy to find your way around. A single one line prompt is displayed at the bottom of the screen to briefly explain what you must type in, or the consequence of selecting a particular function. If this is not sufficient, a simple press of the F1 function key will display up to 10 pages of the context- sensitive help manual to further explain that particular feature of
ProCount.

The function keys have been assigned common meanings wherever possible. For example, the F5 key is LOAD, the F6 key is SAVE, F10 is PRINT and F3 is FIND. The FIND key is used to search for competitors by name rather than by number and greatly speeds up the retrieval of competitor information. A special pattern matching algorithm is used so that when you want to search for a name, it does not have to be typed in exactly. In most cases it only has to be 50-70% correct for the search to find it. When more than one name comes close, the best 5 matches are displayed in a menu for you to choose the one you meant.

Very good! When interfaced to the AMB lap counting system it times up to 10 cars, each with a timing resolution of 10ms and with no problems when all cars cross the line together. Even if you do not have an AMB system, ProCount can still be used manually using the keyboard, but with slightly less accuracy since the computer's internal clock is not quite as accurate as the AMB interface card. Manual input via the keyboard is also possible whilst using the AMB system in case a driver's transponder is not counting for whatever reason. Laps can be added or docked at the race director's discretion and these are shown separately on the race results for clarity. Individual lap times are stored for the first 300 laps (this is usually more than sufficient for 8 minute races) and the fastest, average and last lap times for each driver are constantly updated on the race screen throughout a race.

ProCount can handle up to 200 competitors per meeting. For each competitor it can hold details about their name, BRCA number, grade, formula, league, frequency band, available frequencies and main frequency. This is a lot of information to type in, especially as most of it is the same for each meeting. To save typing this in each time, a competitor can be given an archive number and stored in a large database called an Archive. All of the above information can then be drawn out of the archive database simply by entering a competitor's archive number. An archive can hold the details of up to 1000 competitors and you can have as many archives as you wish. The only limitation is that all drivers at a meeting must belong to the same archive, if they belong to an archive at all. Competitors can also be extracted from an archive by name using the pattern matching techniques described above.

A league table can be created for any archive database. Essentially the league table is an extension of the archive to hold the points for each archive member over a maximum of 20 meetings. The points can be based on the best qualifying score or the position in the finals for each competitor (or both!). The league table can be split into a maximum of 10 divisions for differing driver abilities. Usually each division is for drivers in a particular formula, and special provision has been made to accommodate this, but drivers can be placed into a particular league by altering their league number manually for whatever criteria you wish. Each league can also have a programmable number of points for first position at each meeting.

Each competitor can race in 10 rounds, including the finals. These may be split at any point, for example: 7 rounds of qualifying heats and 3 rounds of finals, providing the total number of rounds does not exceed 10. However, these limits can be exceeded by splitting a meeting into two, one meeting of heats and one meeting of finals to give an absolute maximum of 10 rounds of heats and 9 rounds of finals. The scores for each competitor for each round can be altered and ProCount will automatically keep track of each competitor's best & total heats and best & total finals.

Sorting competitors is one of ProCount's strong points. Many different ways of sorting competitors are available to suit almost any kind of race meeting. Once the competitors's data has been entered into a meeting, from the archive or manually, the drivers can be placed into the heat table manually or automatically. The drivers can be grouped together so that only people in the same formula, same grade, or same race times race together. Each group of drivers can be then be sorted into order based on their best heat score, best final score, grade or competitor number.

Once sorted into heats the competitors are allocated car numbers and frequencies. Two frequency allocation methods can be chosen between, one that works on best qualifying heat score, and a better one that works on the number of available frequencies to minimise the number of frequency changes. Competitors who have to change frequency or car numbers are indicated on a grid print out.

The drivers in each heat can then be sorted into frequency order or into grid position order so that pole position is car 1. Programmable default frequencies can also be assigned to car numbers regardless of whether each competitor has a particular frequency or not. Adjacent heats can be grouped together and competitors randomly sorted within each group to add variety to each round of races. Each competitor will remain on the same car number between sorts, but may have to change frequencies unless a specific frequency is given to each car number. Heat tables can be saved and loaded to disk individually, so each round can be set up before a meeting and loaded in when required.

The results of a meeting can be printed out in many numerous ways to suit your meeting. The overall results, for example, can group drivers on formula, grade, or racetimes with each group being sorted on best qualifying heat score or on best final score. Printer output is normally sent to the parallel port of the computer, but it can be redirected to the screen or a disk file for later printing if so desired. Error trapping is provided to prevent the computer from crashing if the printer is not working and each print out is time and date stamped and also marked with the round and heat number after or during which it was printed.

1. Its tried and tested and it works!


2. Ease of use coupled with on-line help and clear screen displays.


3. Simple multi-tasking means that the computer is not tied up whilst a race is in progress. It is possible to update scores & competitor details, change the heat table and perform print outs and many more things whilst ProCount continues to count laps accurately without mistakes. (Only available when using automatic lap counting equipment).


4. Pattern matching used on all name seaches to quickly find a competitor, even if you type it incorrectly.


5. Scores are saved to disk after every race to protect against power failures. Clear on-screen indication when data is UNSAFE and requires saving to disk.