O How Do I ? - Recent questions and answers

Answered: Why are the past 4 SA events missing from ranking.bigfootorienteers.com?

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 10:12:48 +0000

The usual reasons for events not being ranked are:

1. No courses seem to have the minimal number of ranked runners (7 ranked runners are required).

2. The event seems to be a street or urban event. These are excluded as they distort the rankings - the UK rankings system is a notorious example.

In the situation asked about by anonymous (rankings at end of June/start of July 2025) there was also processing anomaly whereby Eventor didn't serve up the results for a large event.

This will happen on rare occasions - the Big Foot ranking software will be updated so that further attempts are made at loading that specific result.

Answered: how to download geospatial coordinates from route gadget

Wed, 21 May 2025 07:24:34 +0000

Method 1: Ask the organiser for the control file if the map is geo-referenced, this bypasses any interaction with RG.

Method 2: Take a screen-shot of the RG map image and use it as a background map in OCAD or OOM and geo-reference it in the product-relevant way. Set up the fake map with real world co-ordinates and you should be able to determine the location of each control point.

Answered: How do I add a document to this resource?

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 08:59:01 +0000

The intent is to provide answers in direct form - i.e. html since this is a web-site. You should be able to cut and paste them fix up.

If there is a requirement to refer to a long document (such as a manual) refer to the canonical document.

If you want to add (say) screenshots you should be able to add a picture directly, but it looks as though this functionality is currently broken.

Answered: How to replace battery in SPORTIdent Air (SIAC) sticks

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:22:22 +0000

Like the SPORTIdent control units the recommended approach is to return the device to SPORTIdent or the local dealer.

However, like the control units it is possible to replace the battery yourself if you have some basic soldering skills.

The tip of the stick is sacrificed during the replacement so you will need a replacement tip in addition to a replacement battery (Renata CR1632FH1-LF). The replacement tips can be 3-D printed. Here is a design for the tip, you should be able to print (or get printed) from the stl file. If you still want to see the flashing lights then the tip needs to be printed in something translucent.

Phillip Herries from o-lynx.com has made this great instructional video about the process (he also created the design above).

Answered: Simplest way to upload results to Eventor from MeOS

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 23:13:57 +0000

MeOS interface in Eventor

The very simplest way is to use the MeOS interface with Eventor. This assumes that:

The event is in Eventor with class names
The event in MeOS was created from Eventor using the "Competition from Eventor" functionality available on the inital screen

If those conditions are true then to upload results back to Eventor, then when the event is complete:

Click on "Eventor Connection" on the competition tab
Click "Publish Results". Obviously you will need an internet connection.

"Manual" Uploading

If the first approach doesn't work, then you can manually upload the results file to Eventor. There are a few more steps.

Export the results to an IOF v3 XML file using "Results & Splits" under "Export data" on the right hand side of the Competition tab
Select the classes to export - avoid selecting anything that is not in Eventor (or add those classes to eventor).
Browse to choose where to save the file and what to call it.
Click "Export" (its easy to forget to do this and then no file is created).
Logon to Eventor
Click on "Administration" (top menu)
Click on "Club's Events" (side menu)
Choose the event
Click on "Data exchange"
In "Upload result list" click on "Choose File" and choose the file created in step 4

Answered: How do I import smoothed contours from Kartapullautin to open-orienteering mapper

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 11:03:57 +0000

Import the out2.dxf file (File | Import)
Show the Tag Editor (View | Tag editor)
Click on an intermediate contour, the Tag editor should show you that the Tag for it has Key "Layer" and Value "contour_intermed"
Open the Find dialog (Edit | Find...)
Set the Key and Value the same as the intermediate contour tag values ("Layer" and "contour_intermed")
Click on Find Next to make sure it finds an intermediate contour
Click on Find All to find all of them (in my installation they are not highlighted, but they are still all selected)
Hit the delete button

There is an article about this, but it is a little out of date, so some of the things the author mentions have been moved in Mapper.

Answered: Maps From Routegadget 2

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 10:38:07 +0000

(Answer stolen from Frostbite on AP)

Assuming you are talking about the UK version of Routegadget2 you can use the Chrome developer tools to obtain the file name. Go to the event you want within RG2, then press F12 to bring up the developer tools. You then need to go to

Sources -> Page -> Top -> www. oclub. routegadget. co. uk -> Kartat -> x.jpg

x.jpg is the file you are after. You can right-click on the filename to open it or copy the address.

You can probably do something similar in other browsers.

Clubs usually hold the copyright for any of their maps but since they have published it on the internet you are free to view it. If you decide to then print it off and use it to go training you then you may run into problems with access issues and upset the club who own the map.

Answered: Master unit beeps repeatedly but doesn't read SI cards - why ?

Sun, 22 Jul 2018 08:34:31 +0000

The master unit is probably full and has been programmed with the setting "Stop if backup full".

The immediate workaround is to clear the unit either using a clear backup special SI stick or bu using SI Config. You may want to turn the bvehaviour off using SI config to avoid a recurrance.

Answered: Turning off a Sportident Air stick

Tue, 15 May 2018 11:32:48 +0000

Mark (we all know its you) - you apparently have two options:

Wait about 20 hours and it will turn itself off
Find somebody with a sportident finish unit and punch it

Answered: How do I get a copy of all competitor split times in MEOS

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:24:36 +0000

Select the competitor in the list of competitors and use the "Print Splits" button on the competitor screen. I have the same system. I find it quite clear.

Answered: How do i print splits in MEOS

Thu, 16 Nov 2017 09:48:38 +0000

To print splits for a competitor on an ad-hoc basis, select the competitor in the list of competitors and use the "Print Splits" button on the competitor screen.

To print splits on download, check the "print splits" check-box on the "SportIdent" tab. You can use the "Printer Settings" button on the same tab to configure which printer to use.

This is documented in the Help under the title "Printing Split Times".

Answered: How can I create a partial map for planner in Open Orienteering Mapper

Sat, 01 Jul 2017 23:45:06 +0000

Create a new map part.
On that map part, use a symbol that is bright and otherwise not in common use - something like the uncrossable boundary - to draw a bounding rectangle on the exact area that you want to export.
Save the file. This is the master.
Make a copy of the file.
Open the copy and merge all the map parts (Map|Merge All Parts)
Click on the bounding rectangle to select it.
Click on the Cutout button, or use Tools|Cutout.
Press the enter key
Save the partial map.

Answered: How can I compare versions of an OCAD map ?

Mon, 16 Nov 2015 09:22:28 +0000

There seem to be two ways of doing this.

There is an open source Windows utility OcadDiff (available from here) written by Yannis Güdel which shows you the differences between the two files graphically. This is probably the easiest way to do it.
You can use OCAD itself to create a map of all of the elements in Map A but not Map B. Then reverse the process to show those in Map B but not Map A. Pauli Ojanperä has documented how to do this here. This will require OCAD 11 or later, the Select commands are not available in OCAD 10 or earlier.

In case Pauli's instructions disappear, here's just the text from his explanatory page:

Let's say we have map versions A and B. They are almost identical with only some differing elements, for example some incremental modifications in the vegetation or so. No symbols or colors have been modified. This is how to proceed to reveal those differences:

Load the map A. (File - Open)
Select all objects in the map. (Select - Select All)
Save the selection. Accept the name "Selection 1" (Select - Save Selection)
Import the map B. Place with offset 0,0 and do not import any symbols or colors. (File - Import...)
Select duplicate objects. (Object - Topology - Select Duplicate Objects)
Delete the objects. (Object - Delete)
Reload the saved "Selection 1" i.e. all objects in the original map A. (Select - Reload Selection - Selection 1)
Delete the objects. (Object - Delete)

Now, in front of you, you have only those objects that are in the map B but are not in the map A. Before saving the result under a new filename (File - Save As), you might do some tidying: remove all background maps, delete unused symbols and colors, and optimize the map to not unnecessarily save all those deleted objects that will always remain hidden in OCAD's object storage until you optimize them away.

Answered: Can you save the background map from The Beaten Track onto your computer?

Sun, 18 Oct 2015 09:29:42 +0000

You can do the usual screen-grabs to get an image. A nice free program for this is MWSnap.

Otherwise (after a quick look at the web-site):

It looks like the map images are geo-referenced, tiled (split into bits) and stored at different resolutions on the beatentrack server. The relevant tiles are then served up using the Google Maps interface as you pan and zoom. You could reverse-engineer the javascript to get the tile names and then retrieve each tile... but that looks a bit painful, maybe better off emailing Juffy and asking him if the original map files are stored anywhere accessible before tiling..... and of course I may have read that javascript all wrong, its not something I'm very good at.

Answered: How do you replace the battery in SportIdent units ?

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 09:20:32 +0000

Repairing units yourself (including battery replacement) will probably void any warranty, so don't do this unless you are happy to risk that.

Having said that, the battery, beeper components and o-rings are available for a few dollars each, so if you are a long way from the nearest authorised SPORTident repair-man, you may want to try this.

See the guide on the Big Foot site for detailed instructions. See the guide on the sportident.us web-site. You will need to be able to wield a soldering iron with at least a little confidence.

Answered: Does SportIdent software xxxx work on Windows 10 ?

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 01:36:18 +0000

Probably.

So far we've tested SI-Config, SI-ConfigPlus, MEOS and SI-Simple. They all worked and the driver for the USB terminated SI master unit still works fine.

You should be good to go.

This was tested on a Win8.1 PC that had the free Win10 upgrade applied to it.

Answered: In MEOS how do I handle someone doing two courses ?

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 11:02:42 +0000

If they have already downloaded and then gone out, this should be straightforward (provided they have cleared). Either add a new entry with their details or wait until they finish and MEOS should prompt you to handle it manually.

Answered: How do I save map from new (HTML 5) RouteGadget onto your computer ?

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 11:46:01 +0000

This is a two step process:

1) Find the name of the map file the RouteGadget is using.

Right click on the browser - it seems to work best over on the right hand side where all the RG controls are. Choose the command "View Source" or words to that effect.

You will then see a new browser window full of text. Use ctrl-F to bring up the text search and search for "/kartat/". Some text that looks a bit like this should show up:

var imageUrl = '../kartat/43.jpg'+mapidentifier,

This shows us the name of the map file (43.jpg in the example).

2) Create the complete url (web-address) for the map file

Your browser will already be showing you the address for the RouteGadget - something like:

http://routegadget.bigfootorienteers.com/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=46&kieli=

Just take the first part of that (the bit before /cgi-bin/ ) and stick the text "/kartat/" followed by the map file name on the end.

That will give you the full url. In this case its:

http://routegadget.bigfootorienteers.com/kartat/43.jpg

Answered: MEOS no longer receiving times from SI master units

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 18:05:04 +0000

The "auto-send" functionality in the SI Masters needs to be turned off or MEOS won't work. Similarly for eSiRego.

Just reprogram the master in SI-Config and you should be good to go.

Answered: SI-Config says my serial port number is too high - how to fix ?

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 10:05:33 +0000

The developer of Radio Online Control has a utility to do the fix described in the earlier answer - see http://olresultat.se/blog/?page_id=399

The utility only works for SPORTident devices - if you have a 3rd party serial-to-usb device, you will have to use the other method.

Answered: In MEOS can I define a 'rogaining' course at the same time as a traditional sequential course?

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:57:34 +0000

YES - any control created with a 'status' of 'rogaining' on the Controls screen will do double duty and either award it's points or be check the sequence of course controls, depending on the course the competitor is allocated to.

Answered: MEOS message "Banan saknar rogainingkontroller." when setting course

Fri, 24 Oct 2014 00:05:38 +0000

MEOS will show this message if you create a course which has a maximum time set (for rogaining), but where none of the controls is flagged as a rogaine control.

Answered: Does results software handle SPORTident controls numbered over 256 ?

Thu, 01 May 2014 11:43:40 +0000

PP asked.

I looked at 4 pieces of software, and the results varied, so the message is probably to test your software. The course was set with 3 controls 248, 249 and 300.

Software Tested
Software	Test Result
MEOS	The software gets the wrong number when the card is read, however its very easy to assign more than one number to a control, so its easily fixable. For example control 300 could also have 44 assigned to it (=300-256).
Or	The software detects the wrong number when the chip is read and corrects it to match the number declared for the control on the course. This probably won't work if you actually used both the real number (300) and its "what SI5 sees"counterpart (44) on the same course...
SI Simple	The software read the wrong number and just reported it as a mispunch. Will be fixed.
OE 2010	The trial version doesn't let you set up courses... so you are on your own. It looks pretty blooming complicatd though.

Answered: Why does OrPrinter sometimes print nothing ?

Sun, 22 Dec 2013 00:32:17 +0000

Two possible causes:

1) The printer name specified in OrPrinter is wrong

(this is less of a problem now that OrPrinter collects the printer names rather than requiring you to type them in as it origibally did).

2. There is nothing to print because Ór is not configured with the "Activate" option checked in the Live Results tab of the Competition dialog.

When the "Activate" option is checked, Ór creates a file with th results data in it, even if there is no internet connection. This file is what the OrPrinter program uses to print results from.

Answered: How do I make Ór print all the controls on a splits printer ?

Sun, 22 Dec 2013 00:20:52 +0000

You can try altering the paper size if it is set to something small (like A6).

Altering it to a bigger format (like A4) doesn't seem to affect the formatting or make teh splits A4 length, but gives good splits.

Answered: Does anyone know of a way to import Competitors into Ór ?

Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:58:49 +0000

See the samples on the Ór web-site:
http://www.orienteering.ie/or-home/or-samples

Format is:
Surname,First Name,Club,SI Number,SI Rent Request,Start Time,Entry Class,Course,Federation ID

The sample given there doesn't actually contain start-times, I just tested with start times and it sort of works...

So:
"Bloggs","Philip","BF",123456,"N",00:01,"M60L"," ",,0
"Bloggs","Helen","BF",654321,"N","00:09","W55L"," ",,0

Importing with Tools|Startlist|Import gives me the two starters, but the start times are:
24:01 and 24:09

I've no idea whether the extra 24 hours resolves itself. When I export the same start-list, I lose the 24 hours.

Answered: What is the best laptop to buy for Orienteering clubs ?

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 17:41:25 +0000

Have a look at

http://www.au.best-price.com/search/landing/query/Toughbook/s/google/koid/7157584593/?query=Toughbook&gclid=COv77d3ulroCFQghpQodakEAcg

http://penta.com.au/panasonic/13-14-laptop/panasonic-toughbook-cf-53-mk2-cf-53jawhyda-core-i5-3320m-2-60ghz-4gb-500gb-14-1-wxga-lcd-super-multi-drive-wlan-bt-win7-pro-3-years-p-100355

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/271152099267?lpid=87

Answered: Can I use my SI 11 stick for ultra-sprints ?

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 08:45:44 +0000

Yes, you can use it, but just like at the clear and check you will have to wait for the flashing to stop.

According to SPORTident it may be possible to reconfigure your SI-11 stick to change the duration and frequency of the flashing (or visual feedback cycles).

Here's what they say :

There is exactly one feedback signal cycle from the SI-Station. Then next 11 feedback signals will be transmitted by the SI-Card within 5 seconds. The number and the rhythm of the optical feedback signal can be configured by the user. There is an input mask in “SI-Config”. SI-Card11 feedback signals are powered by battery. Power consumption is very low. Based on calculations there is enough power to activate up to 30,000 flashing cycles.

Answered: Do the SI master units work with Windows 8 (64-bit) ?

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 11:17:45 +0000

Yes, that should be no problem. SportIdent supply drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of both the USB station and the RS232-USB adapter they recommend.

See the SPORTident UK site here for both the driver and the installation instructions.

We have it working fine with MEOS on Windows 8.

Answered: Can I convert an o-cad 10 file into an o-cad 8 file without having o-cad?

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:54:22 +0000

Yes, you can use Open Orienteering Mapper.

It will now import OCAD 10 files.

You can then do a Save As and save as type OCAD. This currently saves it as an OCAD 8 file.

Disclaimer: It looks as though it does a pretty good job to me, but I only spent 5 minutes trying it to answer the question.

Answered: Is there any way to save the map in Routegadget onto your computer?

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 11:17:58 +0000

Yes - it turns out there is. It is a bit tricky, but there is a way to get the same graphic file that the program uses.

Load up the RouteGadget page that you are interested in in your browser. Save the web address.

You now need to look at the underlying html for that page. Either right-click and use "View Source", or try saving the page using "Save As" from the file menu. All browsers should be able to do this, but the mechanism may vary.

In the source, search for the string <param name="karttaid" value=

The value in that line will give you a number, something like "28" (I'll use 28 in this example).

Assuming that your original RouteGadget page was at this address:

http://routegadget.bigfootorienteers.com/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=31&kieli=

Then the map image will be at this address:

http://routegadget.bigfootorienteers.com/cgi-bin/kartat/28.jpg

Right click or use the "Save As" command to save the image.

(Many thanks to Scott Collier who posted this trick on NopeSport)

Answered: How do I alter the calculated course length in Purple Pen ?

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:11:22 +0000

This isn't currently possible in Purple Pen.

There is a list for support, suggestions and general bug-reporting - see this mailing list. Someone asked the same question in the past - see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/purplepen/message/9 for example. It's probably worth asking the author (via the list) about implementing this in the new 2.0 release.

Workaround - maybe specify the shortest length in the "Class list/secondary title" part of the descriptions if it's critical.

Answered: How can I customise the English control descriptions in PurplePen?

Mon, 06 May 2013 07:06:50 +0000

Only the feature descriptions can be changed, but usually this is all that is needed.

Click on the Event menu then on Customize Description Text.

You can now alter the description for any features that need to be localised - eg select the fodder rack symbol, then click on Change text... and set it to something that makes sense - eg "tucker rack".

Every occurence of fodder rack will now be changes to tucker rack in the text control descriptions.

Answered: How do I load club data from Eventor into Excel ?

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:12:58 +0000

Assuming that you have Excel installed and access for setting up events in Eventor, you can take these steps:

You should see a label Event administration on the left-hand side.Click on it to open up the underlying menu, then click on Data Exchange.
From the page displayed, choose one of the club databases and choose XML format. Right click the appropriate link and save the file.
Open the file in Excel - depending on which version of Excel you have the open command may be hidden:

2007: Click the big round button in the top left, then select Open...
2010: Click the File tab, then select Open...

If offered a choice, open the file as an XML table - that seems to make the most useful info mor visible, ready for some cu and paste action.

(thanks to Juffy for most of this).

Answered: How can I run OCAD or PurplePen on the Mac ?

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:13:17 +0000

The most popular way to do this for free is using VirtualBox from Sun.

You can use that to run a virtual PC which has Windows on it and then install OCAD and/or PurplePen on the virtual machine.

The steps are:

Install Virtual Box and create a new virtual machine
Install Windows on the new virtual machine (use the key from your old Windows machine if is no longer in use)
Install Windows software on the virtual machine

There is plenty of good help about how to do this on the web, not specific to OCAD or PurplePen, but which will nevertheless help.

There is other software available for doing this, both free (VMWARE) and commercial (Parallels), but the Virtual Box approach seems to be the most popular at the moment.

Answered: Is it worth changing to OE2010?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 09:55:26 +0000

Why not look at some other solutions, MEOS has integrated Eventor support and most new products also support the XML formats used by newer entry software and results/analysis software.

I can't see the value of staying on OE2003 if it's a bit ugly to use with your other software. There is plenty of choice these days , both free and commercial. Ideally you need a piece of software that works for all the events you stage most years, including any weird events like a mixed score and line event, relays, a billygoat, chasing starts... now that's a big ask.

Answered: What mapping software can I use for free ?

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:15:46 +0000

There are at least 3 free solutions:

1. OCAD6 from OCAD. An early version of the popular software, it is provided as freeware by OCAD. It probably looks a bit dated, but was useful in its time and is still an option for beginners.

2. Open Orienteering. This is a new open source orienteering mapping project that looks very promising. It can open OCAD 7 and OCAD 8 files, and save to them. Whilst it is still very much in development, its usable.

3. O-scape is another open source orienteering mapping project. It provides an extension to the popular open source Inkscape vector graphics software. Brooner interviews the author here on Nopesort.

Answered: How do you check whether a competitor has punched an SI unit ?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:34:22 +0000

If you aren't running OE, then you can download the unit's punches using SI-Config.

Open a download unit with SI-Config and put the unit to be interrogated upside down on the unit (use the coupling stick if you have one, otherwise just line the holes up).

Read the unit in SI-Config.

Use the menu command Commands>Read Out Station.

You should see a list of all the cards that have been to that station since it was cleared.

If you can't spot the competitor's SI number quickly, save the file using the menu command Commands>Ascii interface, then open that file in another program like notepad or even Excel and use the Find command to see if the number is there.

Answered: What should I consider when buying a new laptop ?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 02:31:24 +0000

The majority of sport software will run on a computer that was built in the time of the ark. ONSW has a computer that was bought in 2006 and it is still useable.

So the processing speed , memory are not that important. I would suggest that you have 2-3 usb ports. You need one for the master unit and one for say a printer and then depending if you come from the age of the dinosaur, like me, a usb to connect your mouse!

Answered: What is the maximum number of controls an SI stick can punch ?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 02:27:21 +0000

The number of controls held by an SI Stick depends totally on what version your stick happens to be.

The capacity is detailed in thefollowing specification sheets

look at for most recent models (11 and above)

http://www.sportident.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=349&Itemid=2564&lang=en

and for earlier models (5-10)

http://www.sportident.com/images/PDF/1_si_base_products/1_control%20cards/SPORTident-Cards-overview_en.pdf

Answered: How do you load results from OE2003 to Eventor ?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:54:22 +0000

Eventor has an option to upload data from a spreadsheet. In Data Exchange, click on the drop-down in "Upload result list".

That area you paste into requires the data in a different column order to the OE2003.csv, but as you are probably aware, as soon as you put data into Excel, it messes up the times.

There is a web-page at http://sportident.itsdamp.com/oe2eventor.php which has been (freshly) written to get around this problem. Just paste the OE2003 ouput into here and it should create the data to paste into Eventor.

Answered: How can I open an OCAD10 file in OCAD 8 ?

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 23:01:58 +0000

The short answer is that you can't.

The only way I know to do this is to send the file to someone with OCAD 10 or later and ask them to open the file and save it as an OCAD 8 file, then return it to you.

Answered: Why is sportident printer kit just printing one line of garbage for each download?

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:53:38 +0000

The printer expects the download/printer SI unit to talk to it at a speed of 4800 baud. Check that you haven't set it to a faster speed by accident - use SI-Config to check and alter the speed.

Answered: Why don't SI10 and 11 work properly with my results software ?

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 22:44:11 +0000

New SI cards require new software on both the SI units and for results processing.

When the results software (Or in this case, but it could apply to other software) reads the card data, that data will probably be laid out in a different way to other cards. If the software hasn't been updated then it will usually choke in some way.

If you have the master (download) units(s) running with extended mode turned on, try turning it off - you do this with SI-Config. I think that makes the data from the new cards look like SI6 cards or something similar, that the software can cope with.