SSScore at speedskydiving.app has some issues working at the Hohenems drop zone hosting the event because mobile and WiFi connectivity is erratic at times. Here are some pro tips to ensure that you can analyze your speed track files without issues.
Problem: speedskydiving.app seems “frozen” or reports a connectivity error
SSScore (the application) requires constant communication between the web browser and the server. That’s because all calculations and graphics rendering are done on the server itself, and only the results are shipped to the browser. Spotty connectivity drops the data after a short time because the browser components can’t reach the server.
Solution
Click the Clear button a few times before uploading your track files. Watch the top-right corner of the app, and wait until the three dots appear — that means good connectivity and the server is ready to process track files.
If the application fails to respond, hit the browser’s reload button, re-enter the DZ name or its elevation (412 m), and upload the track files for processing.
Problem: uploading files from the FlySight itself results in a hung application
This is more of a FlySight problem, but it impacts the user experience in SSScore. The reason? The FlySight versions 1 and 2 have a very slow file system. That’s why it takes a while to upload the files to your personal device or to speedskydiving.com.
Solution
In general, the best way to deal with FlySight track files is:
- Copy the files from the FlySight to your current device (computer, iPad, iPhone, whatever)
- Process the files from the device itself (e.g. upload them to speedskydiving.com or use FlySightViewer or whatever)
This sample image shows that the files were copied from the FlySight and renamed in the local computer (a MacBook), and then uploaded to SSScore for processing.
Pro tip: delete old files and directories on the FlySight
FlySight uses an old, legacy file system called FAT that’s inefficient at handling large numbers of largish files. The more old files kept in the device, the more sluggish the FlySight will become. A good solution is to delete old files and directories off the FlySight often to ensure the fastest possible data access (we’ll talk about FAT file system fragmentation and what to do about it another time…). Make it a point to delete and flush any FlySight files and directories older than a month. If you really need to keep them for historical perfromance analysis, copy them to your device and keep the copy there. Modern computers and most tablets and mobile devices have more robust file systems, and often offer built-in backup solutions for your data.
Conclusion
Please don’t hesitate to stop by the United States delegation tent and tell me if you find any issues using speedskydiving.com or the SSScore implementation. I’ll be happy to either tell you how to solve them, figure out a workaround, or open a feature request or bug report and implement what you need. The Germany delegation, for example, already asked for a couple of features that will become available next week. Now, #gofast #havefun and #safetythird