About (Timers+Displays) - the future

[Radu]

Hi all,

I open this topic for a discussion about the (future of) technical stuff in competitions. I was wondering if there is any info about new Displays that could be used, maybe even timers?

Probably I'm not the only one who thinks that the stackmat displays are kinda obsolete. Let's face the facts...it's relatively an old product (over 7 years since it was released) and quite impractical for the year 2011. I think it's hillarious to have a device that uses 8 Type D batteries for a simple luminous display. They are very heavy, expensive, inefficient, etc. One could make a better display than that even at home....you just have to use some simple LEDs. With today's technology there could be made a really better, nice, sleek and not heavy display...also much cheaper. It's exaggerated to pay 100$ for this http://www.speedstacks.com/store/retail ... isplay.php (and that is on the official website and without shipping).

I bet the Chinese can come very fast with such a display at amazing prices, that could make life of WCA easier. And I see no reason for WCA not to accept different displays that could work with the stackmats, as the timer is the same and the display has no influence in time measurement.

Besides that I am convinced about what I posted above, the other reason I opened this thread is that I was thinking to buy some stackmats and displays, but I somehow feel it's a bit of a waste as I estimate there have to be some new displays in development with better technologies. Is there any info about this? Any opinions other opinions are welcome.

[MadsMohr]

Thailandcube.com have made some custom displays that works together with the stackmat. They can be seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUEJt22Lm98

I don't know much more about them, perhaps Ron knows more as he was there.

What I would want from a 3rd generation stackmat timer would be better precision and some better prevention of accidental 0.02 times. The shape and function is really perfect as it is.

Our options are limited because there are not any funding in our sport and "real" sports timing equipment are much more expensive. Would be major cool to use though.

[DanCohen]

There's nothing in the regulations that specify the use of displays. We do force the use of the stackmat timer for a standard of measure, but the display is just aesthetic. The thai displays were even used for Asian Championships, and worked quite well. Someone has to find the initiative to produce these displays though, as SpeedStacks obviously has no incentive to improve them (and I see that as a very viable business solution). It would be nice to have displays that are much cheaper, but until someone makes them, don't hold your breath.

[Faz]

Yes, the ThailandCube displays had the exact same function as Speedstacks displays, and I was told that they cost about $20 each to make, as opposed to the ridiculous $210 Speedstacks Australia charges for displays. I think it would be a great idea to produce much cheaper displays, and I'm sure many cubers would be interested in buying them, along with competition organisers, but I don't think it would be easy to simply mass-produce our own displays.

[Radu]

Didn't want to start a new thread, but I came across this post on speedsolving.com:

" This link was provided: http://www.lightake.com/detail.do/sku.4 ... NYYFNOIJTE

The speedstack timer on Lightake is a fake knockoff. Larry Goers (president of speedstacks) confirmed that it is fake and they are taking care of it legally.

The only place where you can buy official speedstack timers is from a speedstack website... otherwise other online sellers are violating the contract.

"

So, my obvious question is, if this is true, then how can we avoid the use of these in competitions? If all these look the same?

[Pedro_S]

From what I've seen, they took some not-with-data-port timers and added a jack to it. It's easy to distinguish, because it's outwards, unlike the original ones wich are just a small hole on the timer. Also, the original one has a different edge where you plug in the cable.

Compare here:

Knock-off
http://i52.tinypic.com/23krx39.png

Original
http://www.speedstacks.com/store/media/ ... le_1_3.jpg

[MadsMohr]

It looks like speedstacks has released a 3rd generation timer with 0.001 accuracy:

http://www.speedstacks.com/store3/retail/speed-stacks-stackmat-pro/

It is currently being discussed in a thread on speedsolving:

http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?33378-Speed-Stack-Timer-Version-3-Real

This new timer should be allowed according to the regulations:

8a7) The authentic Speedstacks Stackmat timer (at least Generation 2) must be used for time measurement.

But how do we handle the extra accuracy?