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28 April 2009 Info in the computerised results system The club is attempting to introduce a computerised scoring system to reduce the hours it takes to produce the results from each event. We have examined the various costs for establishing the base computer system and the cost per rider. Off-the-shelf packages, using battery powered transponders, are too expensive for the club. Riders would have to buy their own transponders which are between $200 to $300 each and membership fees would probably have to go up to cover the cost of the base system. At the other end of the cost scale are barcodes, which are about 20c per rider. Last Sunday, we set up a system to time capture barcodes, but the barcode reader struggled to read barcodes in sunlight. Time capture with the barcodes was abandoned on Sunday due to this. An alternative to barcodes are passive RFID tags, which can be read at varying distances depending on the reader. There was one potential RFID reader investigated that could score riders for all events, but the set up costs for the base unit and infrastructure were still too expensive for the club. If we score enduros only with RFID, then a hand held close proximity reader should work fine (these are cheaper than the long distance readers) as riders have to walk through the chute with their bikes to have their tag marked. The data collected by the reader could be integrated easily into the current software that uses the barcode reader. Cost per rider would be from $3 to $10 depending on the form of the RFID tag, but the tags are reuseable. This option is now being examined. 
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