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[46zilzal]

I had trouble with the OLD OLD system of timing at little Fraser Downs (standardbred track) in Cloverdale British Columbia.

THIS OLD system was based upon a beam across the track (sent from the outside to a "catcher" on the inner rail) and would would go active about 3 to 4 seconds before the first horse would interrupt the beam.....I had a series of lights on the computer screen that would sequentially come on as each was ACTIVE (this delayed activation was used in case a bird, or debris might fly between the beam and the catcher "cup" across the track to activate that timing point BEFORE the horse actually got there)

Each day before the races, I would run a program to check to see if all was working, and ALMOST DAILY, I had to ask a fellow out on the track to check an alignment that was not working and they were fragile...had two examples of a very strong wind moving them, but the MAJOR source or error was snow filling the receiver cup during a program as we raced all Winter in the evening.

I would have a stopwatch as a backup...

THE BIGGEST problem I had at that little track was on the weekends when we ran during the day.....Winter time this far NORTH gives dark shadows earlier in the day. As it became later, the grandstand shadow crept UP the stretch to eventually be right on the finish line...If you know photography, the exposure on the SUNNY (inner rail) side of a scan would be about f16 but in the shadow right next to it, a mere f4..I had to use a special holder to slide down neutral Density Filters progressively as this shadow occluded more and more of the scan. Late in the day, that shadow moved faster and the camera being on a different floor that I was,means I had to run up and down all day adjusting the mid point between these two extremes.

Another problem,usually in the Spring, were clouds...When a cloud came over (and this was an old MANUALLY functioning exposure camera) the entire can would require opening the internal iris to a higher f stop....Now since the camera was DOWN STAIRS to me, if an exposure set for bright or cloudy CHANGED from the time I initially set it, it would either over or underexposed at the wire. I told the judges that ONE DAY the potential was that thing would change (exposure wise) dramatically form the time I set it,and the time the scan was made at the finish....It happened, luckily ONLY ONCE and I was able to save an image (for order of finish purposes, but NOT of good enough quality for a public image).

At Woodbine, we had a much better Finish Lynx system that had automatic exposure,so it was much easier...At night you set it once since all the conditions of ambient light were the same every race. There the problem in the Day (particularly when the sun was going down) was White balance..You would have to white balance every race until if got dark.