SI-droid Guide

SI Droid Instructions Ayrshire Orienteering Club

Before the event

1/ Gather all the kit and information required in good time. We are assuming that we are using an Android tablet which has SI-droid Event installed and has had a folder created called "SI-droid" (a phone will work but has a smaller screen to peer at) .

2/ Plan the event on Purplepen; when Purplepen is ready to export the pdf's for printing also export the event in the "Data interchange File" IOF v3 xml spreadsheet format with a suitable file name and keep it for later transfer to the tablet. (see Note A)

3/ Write or obtain a list of the entries and put them on a spreadsheet which complies with the SI-droid format with four columns headed "SI number", "name", "age and club" and "ID" . ID is used to list BOF or SOA numbers. "Age and club" should be BOF age category and club acronym. Each line of the file should look like "12345. Madeup Name, W95 Clubname, 9876". If you don't know a particular age, club or BOF number just leave it blank. There is a prepared SI dibber list file with all the SI numbers that we have so far identified on the club Dropbox file, you can download that to edit. If the prebooking for the event has been done via Google Forms the "report" form from that can be quickly edited into the SI-droid format. (if you don't have working spreadsheet software then "Libreoffice Calc" is a free solution). Anybody who has prebooked a hire dibber can have their name allocated to the dibber number on the start list, then label the actual dibber for issue to the borrower. Save this start list in .csv format.

4/ Start the tablet, select SI-droid and click the three dots symbol at the top right of SI-droid > Manage Database > Clear the previous event data. (In the unlikely case that you might want to reuse an event it is possible to save a backup copy from this menu before clearing it.) Navigate to the SI-droid folder on the tablet and delete any files from the previous event.

5/ Add the new "start list" .csv and the event courses Purplepen IOF v3 xml file to the "SI-droid" folder on the tablet (either plug the tablet into your planning computer and drag the files into the SI-droid folder or email them to the gmail account on the tablet, download them and move to the SI-droid file).

6/ Enter Courses:- Click the three dots symbol at the top right of the SI-droid "Courses" screen, tap "Import courses", navigate to the SI-droid folder and select the course .xml file that had been produced by Purplepen. If necessary enter length of course in metres (e.g. 3.1km would be 3100). Enter estimated climb in metres. If this is to be a Score course some more information has to be manually entered. Tap the course and it will become possible to edit the details via the pencil symbol. On the “Edit Course” window a drop-down box allows the choice of “Score (time limit); when that has been picked a new line will appear with a red exclamation mark and two boxes for “time limit” and “penalty”. Put the relevant numbers into both spots and click OK. Note that (at the time of writing) the time penalty is on minutes or part there of.

7/ Click the three dots symbol at the top right > Settings. Select Name > enter event name (whatever the event was advertised as). Select Date > enter date of event. Select Start time/Zero time > usually set a time about an hour before the planned start. If it is going to be a mass start set the actual planned start and don't use a Start punch. If the real mass start time turns out to be a bit different from the planned time that can be altered (to the nearest minute).

8/ Still in Settings. Select “Lookup of Card Owner”. Check all the boxes are ticked except "Fetch owner from internet" (BOF doesn't offer this service). Tap “File with card owners”, and this should take you to the SI-droid folder. Choose the pre-entries CSV file for your event.

9/ Make sure tablet, Bluetooth printer and any spare batteries are charged. Check the supply of paper roll. Check that when the tablet bluetooth is turned on the printer (and any spare printer) has been paired and the bluetooth ID code for the printer (written on the bottom of each printer) has been entered on the tablet. In SI-droid Settings "Receipt Printing", under "Automatic Printing" check that "always automatic" is selected. At the bottom of the "Receipt Printing" menu, check that there at least 3 line feeds set.

On the Day

In SI-droid Settings choose "Receipt Printing" and "Bluetooth Printer", choosing the relevant printer (which must be switched on). Have pen and paper handy.

Connect an SI Download station to the tablet via a USB OTG adapter to the micro USB port on top of the tablet. When the download station is powered up it will ping and a red light will show; if the red light on the station goes out it has been disconnected.

Results download: Ask finishers to insert their dibber into the download unit. SI Droid will pick up the name, age/club from the start list file. Where no name has been pre-allocated to an SI Card number, in Results tap the pencil symbol and replace the dibber number with the name and age/club (if it is busy, take a note on pen and paper and correct the name later). The results will be stored on the tablet and the competitor will receive a printed copy. SI-droid matches the course to the controls punched on the SI Card when it is read.

Our tablet has been set to make different "ping" audio alarms for success, miss punch or "no course". If that becomes unwelcome it can be disabled in the settings menu under "readout alarms"

Monitor the battery level on the tablet. If it is a particularly long day a spare battery can be added to the system using an OTG 2 Port Hub Adapter Cable, which is stored with the Bluetooth printer. It is important in what order things are connected to the cable for getting this to work. First the SI-station should be connected, then the power source and finally the phone/tablet.

After the Event

Make any necessary corrections to the results. Selecting any individual result will allow editing; "status" has a drop down menu with options to Finish, DNF or disqualify.

Select the Results screen and tap the share symbol. A choice of formats is presented. Tapping "more reports" shows a drop down menu with more formats. If we are going to share among ourselves or place on the Club website use the "write to storage" button to save "Simple HTML" and "Results with splits HTML". If we are going to pass on the results to, for instance, BOF then also "write to storage" the "Results with splits (OE/MT CSV)" version (see Note C). All these files will write to the SI-droid folder. Give the results files suitable names while saving them and distribute the results from the SI-droid folder as required.

There is a "Help" facility available at the bottom of the "Settings" page.

Note A) Create courses. Apart from Purplepen there are other ways to create courses. Both OCAD and Condes can export the IOF v3 xml spreadsheet. Also, you can either start SI-droid, select the Courses page then press + and manually fill in the gaps or you can set all the SI stations (including clear/check/ start and finish) out on the kitchen table, dib them in the order for the course and download them to SI-droid then select the download in the "results" window by long pressing on it. An option to "create course from card" will appear. Select that, rename it to what you want, optionally add the estimated length and height gain and tap OK. Repeat for other courses.

Note B) Results Service. It is possible to set up a live on-site short range results service using the tablet WiFi connection. In the SI-droid Settings select "Result Service" which allows you to view the latest result on another device on the WiFi network. Selecting "Result Service" displays a url which can be seen on a browser on up to 10 other devices within 30 meters. The results available can be chosen between several html or spreadsheet options. When "Result Service" is selected an icon appears on the top of the tablet screen; swipe down on that icon and tap on the alert message to reveal the choices of result available along with the exact url required for each result type. Probably use "simple HTML". Either email the entrants that url beforehand (with the name and password for the router) to copy and paste as a browser bookmark on their smart phone or display it on a card on site. Suggest that users hit their "refresh" button to update the result. See the SI-droid website for more options and information.

Note C) Report Results. BOF require results for level A, B or C events to be filed with them within 7 days. Level D events are optional. The required BOF spreadsheet format is different from anything exported directly by SI-droid, so will require a bit of processing. If necessary email the event "Results with splits (OE/MT CSV)" results file to the person nominated to upload results to BOF and they will deal with it.

Note D) Minimum Kit. The first part of this document described how to use SI-droid for mainstream events where we are

using SI stations for every control. There may be activities where we are just using the Clear > Check > Start > Finish >

Download SI units and punch clippers or numbers on the controls. It might be that we don't want to put out a full set

of control stations for security or logistical reasons, or it might be that we have only the start and finish available.

It's simple enough to just use start and finish and then download for a single course, with no course pre-described; the

result will read "no course" but will give a start, finish and elapsed time.

What if you want to run multiple courses at the same time? Using any of the methods described in Note A, it is

possible to create courses which only have a start, finish and a title; for instance, "Score", Orange" or whatever.

With a full compliment of SI timing stations out on the course, if there is a matching course found at download the

runner is automatically assigned to that course. That won't work when we are only using clear/check/start/finish, so we

need to allocate the downloading dibber to the correct course. That can be done manually from either the "readout" or

"results" page.

The allocation of runners to courses can be automated a bit if you have prepared a .csv spreadsheet with the numbers

and names for the dibbers that you have entered for the activity. The five columns on the spreadsheet read "SI

number", "Name", "Club" (which can also contain age group if you want), "ID" (which is used for a BOF number, if you

have one) and "course" (If you know beforehand which course anyone is going to run, fill it in here). Then load the .csv

file into the SI-droid folder on the tablet.

Do the usual clear/check/start, run the course then finish and download. SIdroid will allocate the runner to the course

specified on the entries .csv. If someone wants to do another run or a different course do the clear/check/start thing

again and at download their name or dibber number should appear again on the tablet with a # symbol and a number

indicating which run it was. It is likely that the 2nd and subsequent runs might be allocated to the wrong course. If that

happens "long press" the name in the "results" list, tapping the funny looking squiggle symbol or the three dot menu

symbol will allow a change of course. Tapping the pencil symbol from the runners details allows you to change most

things in the record; there is a drop down menu hidden under "status" which allows you to disqualify and so on.

If you haven't gone to the length of loading a .csv file in the first place the download will just pick up whatever is on

the dibber and you can rewrite almost everything in the result, it is just better time management to prepare beforehand.

You still have to do clear/check/start before each run otherwise it won't add to the previous record.

If you have access to a small number of SI stations, it is possible to speed up result processing by using a single unit to

define each course. For instance White might be defined by Start > 31 > Finish, Yellow would be Start > 32 > Finish,

Orange would be Start > 33 > Finish and so on. Even without a pre-loaded .csv entries file using one SI unit per course

in this way will shuffle the results onto the correct course. The physical set up at the event would be Clear > Check >

Start > immediately dib the relevant numbered unit for the course > run the course clipping away merrily > Finish >

Download. In this use the numbered units would be placed next to each other near the start so, to prevent SIAC punching the wrong one, make sure that they are not in Beacon mode.

Updated April 2023 by WDN of AYROC.

The SI-droid developers website is at http://www.joja.se/index.php?title=Main_Page

Other instructions can be found at :

https://backwoodsok.org/using-si-droid

https://www.sboc.org.uk/club-info/resources/2021SIDroidInstructions.pdf

See other entries Categorised under: Resources