RaceTec timing chips

[Blokeonabike]

I currently have 3 RaceTec timing chips linked to my name (various reasons for having 3 - of which 2 is dormant). I requested to transfer 2 of these to my children so that I don't have to buy 2 more chips @ R120 each. This request has been refused because there is data associated with the chips. I told them they can delete the data and "format" the chips. The response: we cannot delete data or re-progamme the chip. How can that be? How can you not delete data or reprogramme a chip? Can anyone please help me understand.It had to be done the first time? Losing the data associated with the chip is OK.

[alleyne]

To me that is a BS response but nothing new from them. I believe they can easily do what you are asking but they wont so that you will have to buy new chips for the kids. I am loving the all the new players in the game at the moment, some are not the best but the competition is good.

[Cornerz]

Financial reasons aren't always about the company making money. Often the costs associated with the software development required to accommodate changes of that sort on a database system are not worth the savings for the customer.

 

Would you be happy paying 90% of the cost of a new chip in order to fund the software development?

 

Simpler for all concerned to just buy a new chip.

[Stretch]

Bs... you can format and reprogramme those chips.. I have done exactly that

[straatvark]

They suck at software development if they cant add a 're-assign' algorithm for less than what 10 chips cost. There must be many dormant chips that can be donated to youth projects.

[Erroli8a8]

Its not the physical chip that has to formatted or changed, its the link in the system from one name to another that needs to be changed. the chip has an RFID, Radio frequency Identity and this is linked to a name in a data base. the change should be to change the name and all other relevant info in the data base. This is a manual labour job nothing more. I cant believe that there is no edit function once the chip has been linked.

 

Just a load of BS and not wanting to do some work.

[MTBc]

maybe they keep a spare chip on their shoulder.

[Vangar]

maybe they keep a spare chip on their shoulder.

 

That was terrible....and yet i laughed

[Donovan Le Cok]

That is total BS. Contact PPA they will put you in touch with someone that can do it for you.

[DJR]

maybe they keep a spare chip on their shoulder.

 

Chip of the day

[Patchelicious]

Financial reasons aren't always about the company making money. Often the costs associated with the software development required to accommodate changes of that sort on a database system are not worth the savings for the customer.

 

Would you be happy paying 90% of the cost of a new chip in order to fund the software development?

 

Simpler for all concerned to just buy a new chip.

I agree, we often do business cases for our clients to show them the cost of customization simply doesn't make sense to them. Also for the software developer there is a cost incurred to support the customization in future releases or upgrades of support software. I am sure if this was a regular request it will get implemented.

[Guest Smimby]

That is total BS. Contact PPA they will put you in touch with someone that can do it for you.

 

PPA owns racetec and Racetec refuses to re-assign a chip, becase of the way they designed their database, all results are linked to a chip...not to a person who (owns many chips)

 

So if they delete the records assigned to that chip all the results will change, and if someone what 4th in a race 3 years ago they will suddenly show as 3rd etc.

 

Bad database design and now RT is stuck with it.

[Erroli8a8]

Smimby, agreed.

 

If a chip is dormant and has not been used etc it is easy to change the linked personal details.

 

on the other hand how far back in history are the race results kept? is there a legal time frame 2 years 10 years. I don't see there being an issue if the current owner agrees to have a chips personal details changed to someone else especially if the results linked to them are older than 3 years, I don't know who uses seeding results from further back than two years.

[Guest Smimby]

Smimby, agreed.

 

If a chip is dormant and has not been used etc it is easy to change the linked personal details.

 

on the other hand how far back in history are the race results kept? is there a legal time frame 2 years 10 years. I don't see there being an issue if the current owner agrees to have a chips personal details changed to someone else especially if the results linked to them are older than 3 years, I don't know who uses seeding results from further back than two years.

 

I agree with you, was jut giving the reasons they gave me when I had a simular query....and Added the bit of BAD design myself :-)

 

WRT if it can be done, YES I understand how the chip number is the primary key they use to link all the other details....

 

Should one be able to delete the data. or assign it to a bogus chip "called X" that way the finishing tables stays the same just name jimmy whoever will change to X...

 

Hence releasing the chip for re-use....BUT RT is stubborn...

[jmaccelari]

These chips cannot be 'reformatted' - they are read-only. I know as the company I used to work for supplies the mini-readers used at the Expo. In any case, there is no point in 'reformatting;. The problem is that the chip has a unique ID and RaceTec would have to relink the results from the old chips to the new one.

 

As anyone who knows SQL will know, this is not a technical problem. The problem is that it is going to take them time (and money). And if they do that for you, they will have to do it for everyone. It will turn into a right pain in the arse for them, so it's best for them to not even go there.

[Rocket-Boy]

Financial reasons aren't always about the company making money. Often the costs associated with the software development required to accommodate changes of that sort on a database system are not worth the savings for the customer.

 

Would you be happy paying 90% of the cost of a new chip in order to fund the software development?

 

Simpler for all concerned to just buy a new chip.

 

How about I give them the SQL query to run?

It cant be harder than: delete from dbname.results where 'chip_id' = chipnumer;

Sure there may be multiple tables containing registration details etc, but they could write a simple join.

If I could see their DB's it would take me all of 2 minutes to write them something.