MWorkman

Hey y’all I know this is a shot in the dark but I am limping along an old AMB rc3 system using Autoscore.

The RC Clubs old laptop ate it during the Covid 19 shutdown. Now I am trying to get everything back Up and running before our governor tells these guys they are free to come racing!

I have a Compaq laptop running Windows vista (same operating system as my last track computer). I have loaded the same printer. I use a Ethernet or tcp/ip cable to connect the Mylaps decoder to the laptop. I can get the loop to register a signal to the Decoder but nothing gets from there to the laptop.

I have tried going to <options>transponders>amb20>tcp/ip> search
I get “interface set none”

it doesn’t seem to be communicating with the decoder.

any input?! I would rally appreciate it!!!

thanks
missy

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Equal shot in the dark: Do you have a backup of the old computer? You can install VMware Player and restore the backup into a VM, running the whole thing on top of Windows on your new computer. Then you can tell the VM to take control of the Ethernet connection that the lap counter is connected to. That way you don't have to figure out how to reinstall and reconfigure the lap counter software.

MWorkman

I do not but I do have an old computer that it works on just not worthy of using at the track due to other issues.

But I am not technically savvy enough to understand how to do what you are talking about.... lol. Can you break it down for me please

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

If you don't have a backup of the old computer, then there isn't any point exploring the VM approach, because that requires a backup to restore into the VM. Without that, a VM would behave exactly the same as a computer with no hard drive.

Roelof

I think when using TCP/IP you do need to configure the IP settings by manual.
W/O a DNS server the laptop will take an IP in the 169.xxx.xxx.xxx range while probably the AMB decoder is in the 192.xxx.xxx.xxx range. They will never find each other.....

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah, Roelof's right. It's been too many years since I last worked in IT, and I didn't think about the IP address problem.

If the laptop and the AMB decoder aren't connected to a router, then they won't have IP addresses assigned to them automatically. Without IP addresses, the laptop and and AMB decoder won't be able to "find" each other on the network even if they are directly connected with a single cable. (that isn't a "normal" setup for Ethernet, so computers aren't configured to handle it automatically.) If you have the manual for the AMB decoder, it might tell you what IP address it will use by default, and then you can manually assign an IP address to the laptop that is equal to the decoder's IP address + 1. (e.g. "192.168.0.23" + 1 = "192.168.0.24") This is done in the network adapter's Properties window. Alternately, you might be able to plug both the laptop and the AMB decoder into a network router and have everything work automatically; I know the laptop will accept an automatically-assigned IP address from the router, but I don't know whether the AMB decoder will accept an automatically-assigned IP address.

Roelof

Do not forget the subnet mask. Normally those 4 numbers are made by only 255 and 0 but anyting in between kan make the possible IP adresses more difficult to choose.

Probably the subnet is 255.255.0.0 and then for the 3rd and 4th position in the IP you can fill in anything.

GerryH

iTrader: (26)

Everyone is on the right track, no pun intended...You can use the menu buttons on the decoder to set the IP address and subnet. See page 12 of this document: Decoder Manual. Don't need to worry about the gateway since you're not connecting it to the internet. Use something like 192.168.0.100 for the decoder and 192.168.0.101 for the laptop. Use 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask on both devices.

Also means you need to set a static IP on the laptop, via the network. Here's a walkthru here

This is exactly how we run our laptop/decoder for our parking lot races at Hobbytown. We're too far away from the store to get wifi.