Timing devices, from the box to the desk
The four ways an FDS T-Box connects, Sync all, the test press, the light, how an impulse reaches a bib, a second window, what a dropped connection costs, and importing a run.
What it's for
An FDS T-Box records every press in its own memory and sends each one to the desk over whichever link you choose. Race Bureau reads the device; it never writes a time to it and never changes what it sent. This page follows one impulse from the box to a bib on the desk, and what happens around it: the clock, the light, a second window, a dropped connection, a run timed somewhere else.
The chain
- Choose the connection — Timing Desk › Timing devices, one row per device: Make › FDS, then Connection — Direct to this computer (USB, Chrome or Edge on a computer), Internet (through the timing box) (any browser, iPad included), Timing box (offline, its own Wi-Fi) (no internet; join the box's Wi-Fi), or Bluetooth (Chrome, Edge or Android; standby when a cable is also in). → Timing devices · Connect an FDS T-Box
- Connect — pick the port, the T-Box in the Bluetooth list, or the unit plugged into the box. The dot turns green and the row reads CONNECTED with the device's name and serial. → Connect an FDS T-Box
- Sync all — sets every connected device's clock in one go: This Device, GPS or Manual. (The FIS synchronisation for the timing report is ⟳ Sync on the desk's window bar, with its check one minute later.) → Timing devices
- Test — Test timing device, press a button on the box: the press shows with Seq, Channel, Role and Time. A test press is never numbered and never used in a calculation. → Timing devices
- Assign the device to a window — right-click (or press and hold) the window's tab and tick the device under Timing devices; a unit belongs to one window. → Timing windows
- The light — per race and per run: red stores nothing, yellow stores impulses with no number, green sends each impulse to the next racer. Which race and run is picked, plus the colour at the moment the impulse arrives, decides where it lands; nothing else does. → The traffic light
- The impulse lands — a start goes to NEXT TO START, a finish to the first racer on course; the Hour cell is the time of day the device recorded; a doubled bib is flagged ! and left for you. Desk settings set the row order, names, lock times and the timing checks. → Timing Desk · Settings
- A second window — + add on the window bar makes Timing 2 with its own device and its own light, for System B, a wireless backup or an intermediate; Compute a missing time reads System B as the backup. → Timing windows · Modify data and hand time
- Offline — the box keeps every press whatever the link does; the installed Timing app keeps the race on this device and sends in order when the internet is back; the gap fill brings in the presses the drop missed, judged by the light at the moment they were taken. → Race on this device · Offline · Backups and USB export
- A run timed elsewhere — Import a run copies one run's times from another event of your club into the active race, matched by bib. → Import a run
What success looks like
Every device in use shows a green dot and CONNECTED, a test press appears within a second, the light is green on the right race and run before the first start, and the first start impulse carries the box's time of day and the bib of the next to start.
If something goes wrong
- The dot is orange: the box is plugged in but not turned on.
- The port list is empty: the cable is not in, or this is Safari; use Chrome or Edge, or go through the timing box.
- The box answers on the test but the desk is quiet: the light is red, or the device is ticked on another window.
- Presses taken while the light was red are not in Race Bureau; they stay on the device. Read them off the device's times list and enter the time in Modify data.