NLT Helper

This is a commandline tool for working with Next Level Timing v.4.6.0+

This is purely a demo application and may not suit your needs. We use this with Brisbane RC Mini and Micro Buggy Racing to track our daily progress with heats and finals where we have 2 classes. While NLT is a great product (I recommend using it!), it doesn't support some of these thing easily (at least not yet - hint hint :P ).

What does it do:

• Has a countdown announcement - so racers have more than the start beep.
• Has a serial driver to announce start, end, laptimes and last lap. We use this with a LED display panel
• Has class handling - add a class record heat results to a class
• Generate standings for finals - we run a simple 2 heats and one final. It doesn't handle multiple finals etc.
• Announces the current fastest lap for the day for each class.

Run this using Node.js on the commandline, or use the executable in the releases. Yes, it should've been a Web app :P

To see how it works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCQyP0KglI

How to use the App

After startup, you'll be presented with a command prompt:

NLT Bridge> 

Hitting tab will give you several options:

help

Provides help...

Genaral Config

apikey api_key

Sets the apikey needed to connect to NLT. You'll find this apikey in the Setting Neon Timing page

ip ip_address

Sets the ip to find NLT - defaults to 127.0.0.1

port serial_port

Sets the serial port for sending strings to display. Hitting Tab after the port will give you a list of ports.

audio

Mute the audio for different NLT Events.

• count down - is the built-in countdown on start race
• fastest class - don't say the "fastest lap for xxx class" audio. This stops the ovelapping speech.
• lineup - don't say the "Line Up for XXX class..."

dropheats number_of_heats_to_drop

Amount of heat to drop the lowest points. e.g. dropHeats 2 will drop the two lowest scoring heats. Most times this should be set to one. Run this before the results command.

points points_from_1st_onwards...

Set the points for each position. For example:

NLT Bridge> points 20 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

The above sets 1st place to have 20 points, 2nd is 18 points etc. for each heat.

splitfinals number_of_final_groups class(opt)

The amount of final groups in each class. This provides a one or more splits as seen in the results for a class.

addclass new_class_name

Adds a new Default Class. These default classes are added to any new Race Event. For example, we have two classes: "micro" and "mini". So this becomes:

NLT Bridge> addclass micro
NLT Bridge> addclass mini

removeclass class_name

Delete any unused Default classes. Does not remove it from a Race Event.

debug

Toggle Debug - not really needed, but helpful to see messages between NLT and this app

exit

Exits application.

Race Events

From 1.0.5 NLT Helper requires a Race Event. Each time you have a Race Day you create a new event for that day. Each Race Event creates a new race event file that can be reloaded. The last Race event is automatically loaded.

newevent Name of Event...

Creates a new race event ready to run the heats and finals.

loadevent

Load a previous race event from a list.

clearclasses (deprecated - use newevent)

Clear all class data - do this at the beginning of the Race day. This no longer removes all the classes.

nextheat class_name heat_number group(opt: A, B, C etc)

Set the next class and heat that is racing. Tabbing will let you choose from the classes added. This records the results that stored for the day to generate the ordering for the finals. The Group field allows you to run multiple Groups of the same class.

NLT Bridge> nextheat micro 1
micro class to line up for Heat 1

After the first Heat, it will generate a line-up order based on the last heat. Drivers that did not race in the previous heat will not be listed.

NLT Bridge> nextrace micro 2
┌─────────────┬────────┐
│ Line Up POS │ Name   │
├─────────────┼────────┤
│      1      │ demo-4 │
│      2      │ demo-2 │
│      3      │ demo-1 │
│      4      │ demo-5 │
│      5      │ demo-3 │
│      6      │ demo-7 │
│      7      │ demo-6 │
└─────────────┴────────┘
m class  to line up for Heat 2

removeheat class_name heat_number group(opt)

If a race goes bad, and you need to remove the data from NLT Helper. Use this so you can re-run.

final class_name group(opt: A, B, C etc)

Like nextheat this sets the racing up for the final for each class and finals group. Rerun results to see the heats and finals for a class. Note: multiple finals are not handled yet.

results class_name

See a filtered list of best laps and times for the day for a class. Use this to set up the order for the finals.

NLT Bridge> results micro
┌──────┬────────┬────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ POS  │ Name   │ Points │      Heat 1 │      Heat 2 │      Heat 3 │
├──────┼────────┼────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ A 1  │ demo-5 │   10   │ 7/01:06.764 │ 7/01:02.669 │ 7/01:06.458 │
│ A 2  │ demo-4 │   10   │ 6/01:00.459 │ 7/01:05.361 │ 7/01:03.363 │
│ A 3  │ demo-7 │   10   │ 7/01:05.388 │ 7/01:09.240 │ 7/01:05.733 │
│ A 4  │ demo-3 │   8    │ 7/01:06.739 │ 6/01:01.408 │ 7/01:04.564 │
├──────┼────────┼────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ B 1  │ demo-6 │   7    │ 7/01:07.665 │ 7/01:07.080 │ 7/01:04.603 │
│ B 2  │ demo-2 │   6    │ 7/01:06.795 │ 6/01:00.143 │ 7/01:05.469 │
│ B 3  │ demo-1 │   6    │ 7/01:08.242 │ 7/01:07.628 │ 7/01:06.379 │
└──────┴────────┴────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘
Fastest Lap: demo-5 8.016 secs
NLT Bridge> 

allresults

See results for all classes.

export class

Export the result for a class. This will be exported as an XLSX file in the same directory as the app.

Clubs Using NLT Helper

Please let us know if you use this software - it helps me keep motivated :)

Club	link
	High Rollers RC Funpark (Michigan, USA)
	Brisbane RC Mini and Micro Buggy Racing (Brisbane, Australia)
	San Diego RC Events and Parties