First real life test!

I can tell the day job has started again, development work has been somewhat on hold. However, it was race day on Saturday! Which meant registration duties for me.



And the system has had it's first real life test! Wild Running very kindly volunteered their Race With No Name ultra to use it. It was a small race due to covid restrictions, so very easily manually timed if the system failed. The race was brilliant, and the system worked. However, it has generated a job list-

  • The PCB header pins used to connect the RTC to the Pycom Pyscan are too long, meaning the chance of a short with either the RTC of the prototype board holding the LED and buzzer is too great. Temporarily solved with some hastily attached plastic, but a better solution is required.
  • Did get the odd, weird restart in first 30 mins of operation. This is manageable for a race this small - but not acceptable. Digging into this further.
  • The IP rated aerial connectors come loose. Going to use the standard ones instead and bit of superglue to seal them.
  • Speaking of glue, the epoxy resin I was using is rubbish. Going to try some ABS specific adhesive.
  • Need to tidy up the admin excel sheet (where the data goes), and make a public facing results sheet. 

My thanks to Ceri for letting me use his event as a guinea pig. Off to the garage to modify some designs now.


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