##
##	pinewood/trouble.wc
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##	Talk about trouble shooting and things which might go wrong.
##

#define	_TITLE_	Things which might go wrong.
#include head.wh


It seems that Murphy's law applies here:<br>
<pre>
	<i>If anything can go wrong, it will</i>
</pre>
as well as the corallary:<br>
<pre>
	<i>Murphy was an optimist</i>
</pre>

<p>

The computer and electronics in some sense make the whole pinewood derby night
a bit more fragile as well as less flexible.  What you get is a shorter race
night and nobody has to eyeball winners.  However, this page attempts to describe
some things which might go wrong, and how to fix them, or work around the problem.

<p>

<ul>
    <li> Dry run.
	 The dry run and testing before the race is important.
	 It will help find problems before people are watching and waiting.
    <li> Double check all race schedules.
    <li> Double check all cabling.
    <li> Make sure that people know what they're doing, and how it fits into the race.
    <li> Suppose somebody kicks out one of the power plugs.  If it is to the
    	 the PA system, there is no harm done.  If it is to the timing electronics
    	 the current race may have to be retaken.  If it is to the computer,
    	 then it is convieient if the computer is on a UPS or is a laptop running
    	 on batteries.  If that is not the case, all is not lost.  The program
    	 saves its work often.  You may want to print the reports that the program
    	 can make to ensure that you know which races the computer thinks it knows
    	 about, and restart from the appropriate race.
    <li> Suppose the computer or race electronics dies during the race.
    	 I really hate to think of this, but if it happens,
    	 it seems that the best to make of it is to continue running the races,
    	 and have somebody writing 1st through 4th on a copy of the race manifest.
    	 You may have to do additional runoffs to attempt to get the faster cars
    	 together for a pack run off.  If this happens, I wish you the best of luck.
    <li> Suppose a car does not trigger the sensor.  If you have time, it would be
	 best to adjust the race electronics.  If this doesn't seem practical (and
	 during the race it may very well not be practical), it is likely that the
	 car will trip the sensor on at least one of the lanes.  The computer does
	 the average "right" and will give an average time for those races that it
	 could measure the car.  However the announcer may have to be careful announcing
	 who came in first on the race.  If the car cannot be seen in any lane I
	 don't see much choice but to adjust the electronics package.  I believe
	 that the problem is caused by a highly reflective <i>top</i> of the car
	 in question.  If you can put a piece of black tape on the front of the
	 car, it may well trip the sensor.
</ul>

<p>

Much of pulling out of bad situations will require a bit of quick creative thinking,
as well as arbritrary decisions of the race chairman to decide what's to be done.

#include tail.wh