SPORTident School and Training Set: Manual

1. Introduction

The SPORTident School and Training Set brings accurate timing to school lessons, orienteering trainings and many other sport activities and exercises. The set consists of SPORTident Cards (SI-Cards), SPORTident Stations and the SPORTident Printer. In addition to the components coming with the set, only an Android phone or tablet is required. All components run on battery.

This Manual walks through the preparation, operation and results production with the School and Training Set. The set is compatible with all products of the SPORTident family. The basic steps and principles laid out in this Manual apply similarly to many other SPORTident products.

2. Quick start with illustrated description

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3. Preparation

3.1. First time use

Before using the School and Training Set for the first time, you need to install the SPORTident Orienteering App (O-App) from the Google Play Store [1] on your Android device. The phone or tablet needs to support USB OTG and come with Android 5 or newer.

To use the SPORTident Printer with your phone, the printer needs to be paired to the phone. Please follow the included SPORTident Printer Quick Start Guide.

If you would like to use the online features of the SPORTident Orienteering App, you need to create a SPORTident Center account [2]. Please also activate the bundled five-year Orienteering 100 subscription by using the included promo code in SPORTident Center.

3.2. Before each use

Charge the SPORTident Printer and your Android phone before you use them. The printer can print five hours non-stop on one battery charge - in practice that is sufficient for a couple of trainings or lessons.

We recommend to synchronise the clocks of all control stations once a month. Please refer to the section "Synchronising the clocks" below for details.

4. Operation

The SPORTident System is comprised of two basic elements: control stations (BSF9) and cards (SI-Card8 or SI-Card9). Each station has a unique control number. Every athlete carries a SPORTident Card which records the times and control numbers as he or she dips the card into the stations. After the event, the SPORTident Card holds the athlete’s start-finish time, split times as well as all control numbers.

SPORTident Stations are normally in standby mode. The first SI-Card that dips a station activates that station, i.e. stations turn on automatically. The stations go back to standby mode after two hours of inactivity (two hours without a card being dipped), i.e. stations switch off automatically. This operating time can be configured with the software SPORTident Config+ [3], if needed.

Please connect the mini Reader station (BSM8) to your Android phone via the included Micro-USB to USB OTG Adapter or USB-C to USB OTG Adapter and then select and start the SPORTident Orienteering App when prompted.

Follow the following order of SPORTident Stations for all events:

  1. “CLEAR”: Records from any previous uses of the SI-Card are cleared.

  2. “START”: Start time is recorded on the SI-Card. If the SPORTident Card has not been cleared correctly, the station will not beep or blink.

  3. Control Stations (31 - 40): Control number of the station and the time is recorded on the SI-Card.

  4. “FINISH”: Finish time is recorded on the SI-Card.

  5. “Mini Reader”: Read out the records on the athlete’s card into the Orienteering App on the Android phone (or into a PC program on a computer).

5. Producing results

5.1. Using the SPORTident Orienteering App and the SPORTident Printer

With the mini Reader station connected via USB and the printer connected via Bluetooth to the phone, producing results with the SPORTident Orienteering App is easy. You add a new training event in the app and start reading out cards by dipping them into the mini Reader station. Each athlete’s results are printed. In addition, the overall results can be printed or - with the included five-year Orienteering 100 subscription - published to the web (SPORTident Center) immediately. SPORTident Center also allows you to export the results for further analysis. The behaviour and operation of the Orienteering App can be customised via the app’s settings menu.

5.2. Using a computer

With the mini Reader station connected via USB to a computer, results can also be produced with one of many available PC results programs. Options include SiTiming [5], MeOS [6], SIME [7], and EasyGec [8].

6. Maintenance

SPORTident Cards do not require any maintenance except clearing them before each use as described above.

SPORTident Stations do not require maintenance except setting and synchronising the time occasionally (see below).

Useful information about the station - such as the battery voltage - is shown on the station’s display in service mode. Service mode is enabled by switching the station on with the Instruction card “Service/OFF”. In service mode, the station will automatically switch back to standby after five minutes.

SPORTident Stations can be read and configured with the software SPORTident Config+ [3]. Please refer to the User Guide [4] for more details.

The expected battery lifetime of BSF9 stations is 3 to 5 years. Battery replacement is done by SPORTident GmbH or certified service points. A battery voltage of 3.0 Volts or less (300 or smaller on the station’s display) indicates that the battery should be replaced.

7. Synchronising the clocks

The “CLEAR” station is an SI-Master station, providing extended functionality such as setting the time. To synchronise the control stations' clocks to the clock of the SI-Master station, please follow these steps:

  1. Put the Instruction card "SERVICE/OFF" twice (with a very short time interval) in the SI-Master. On the front side of the SI-Master there is a small LCD display. On this screen TIMEMA must be shown. When you see this the station is ready.

  2. Put the coupling stick in the SI-Master.

  3. Place the Instruction card "SERVICE/OFF" ONCE in the station you want to synchronise. On the LCD display SERVMO is visible (afterwards the other data of the station are shown).

  4. Place the station on the coupling stick and the SI-Master. After some seconds there is a ‘beep’. The time of the station is now adjusted.

  5. Place the Instruction card "SERVICE/OFF" into the station until the LCD display is empty. The station is now back in standby mode (it would automatically switch into standby mode after 5 minutes).

The SI-Master station itself can be synchronised to a computer with SPORTident Config+ [3]. It is also possible to set the time of all stations directly from a computer. Please refer to the User Guide [4] for more details.

8. Personalising the cards

SPORTident Cards can be personalised. The card then stores the athlete’s name, sex, club, date of birth and other personal data. This information is used by the SPORTident Orienteering App when reading out the card, making results production simpler and more personal.

SPORTident Config+ [3] allows to personalise cards. Please refer to the User Guide [4] for details.

References