1 ea. 6 ft. USB cable.
1 ea. intall manual
What? no software? you will receive a email from
Corespeedway with the link to the most recent software package.
1 file name Coreinstall.exe (5.2mb) and the latest Windows USB
update Drivers (387 kb)
Transponders: as many as you order.
Additional recommended hardware:
2 ea. ferrite rings for USB cable and Computer Power Cable
(recommended by Core)
1 ea. USB Extension cable. (Trust Me you will need this) I got
the 10ft. one.
the front as possible. (we used a small piece of velcro)
Install Software and Hardware as per provided install manual.
Connect hardware to Computer with provide USB cable (and the
extension is you have one).
Start the Corespeedway Software. That's it.
Don't forget the Manual it's in the install directory called
Core_manual.pdf (this will help you a lot).
At first the software was a little confusing, but once you get use
to how it is laid out it's really very simple.
See pictures to the right for reference.
First of all the software is very customizable. What you see in
our screen shots is our customized theme. You are able to
change just about everything. Themes can be changed on the
fly by setting the themes in the setup screen.
You will need to copy the default theme folder and rename the
new folder. Font styles and colors are changed in the .themerc
file in the theme folder. To change the Graphics you will need
some photoshop skills. You are able to add you custom logos
and text by making changes to the big_frame.jpg file.
I am using a widescreen laptop and these are the settings that I
needed to make for all the Racers and Graphs to show correctly.
Using the system is really easy. Start up the software, set a car
with a transponder in the loop and hit scan. The software will
read the transponder. Double click on the default car picture
and you are ready to set up the car.
You will need to complete all fields in order to save the
information to the transponder.
For Custom car pictures you will need to have you picture in the
corresponding directory under
C:\Program Files\CoreSpeedway\lib\cars in the following format:
Manufacture-model-color.jpg (200 x 80) and
Manufacture-model-color-x1.jpg (100 x 40 for the half size
picture)
You can customize a little more here with some sound clips for
that individual racer. You have three different clips. (Name, Best
Lap, Takes the Lead). You can be really creative with this one.
Enter all Racers in this manner.
Setting up your Race. You have 2 options. Timed or Total Laps.
One thing to remember is to set your minimum lap time so it is
below what the best possible time for the track you are running
on.
Results won't be saved until you complete the race criteria. So if
you stop in the middle no data will be saved.
Now you are ready to race.
Everyone lines up in their starting positions, you will hit the
space bar to start the race.
The software will count down from 10 (depending on what you
set it to 1-10) and a horn will sound to start. You will hear a
beep when the cars cross the antenna loop so you know that
the car registered the lap. Note: if you have some sound clips
and they play you will not hear the beep when a car passes the
loop, they will continue after the sound clip.
Around and around you go, catch me if you can. When the time
limit or lap limit is met you will hear a "car done beep" and the
remaining cars will need to finish their current lap.
You can then view the stats for the current race. There are a
couple of different graphs and charts that you can view. Race
stats screen, Racer stats screen, and the web stats screen.
(see pictures for samples)
Everything seemed to have its place, there wasn't a lot of
useless extra features thrown in. Just a no nonsense timing
package. It does exactly what it was designed to do Count Laps,
keep times and gives you the information you need to help
improve your racing performance.
Is it worth purchasing? In this users opinion. Absolutely
Is it affordable? I pre-ordered from Corespeedway (so it was
for me). I'll hold off my judgement until I see published prices
from Kyosho.
Ease of use? All things considered, Yes. For those that are
computer illiterate, just stick to the default settings. It won't be
long until you learn the software. It's that easy.
There are LOTS more features than what I reviewed. You will
have to get the system to learn about them, if you have already
purchased it, then I hope this helps.
Brian Stanley 8-28-2005
Salt Lake Mini-Z
