Possible API for external devices that start and stop the match timer.

[thomasjosif]

Our school has been using your software for well over a year now, using it to run our FLL Qualifier here in Canada.

Something that we do differently than others is that we have custom controllers to help start and stop matches, as our line of sight from the scoring table and the field can be obscured at times. The system works as follows:

• The Head Ref would press the "Ready" button which changed an indicator to let the scoring desk know that the referees were ready.
• The Scorekeeper would then press the "Match Start" button to change the state to "Prestart" which flashed the indicator green, letting the M.C. know to count down the match.
• The M.C. would then count down the match, and the scorekeeper would press the "Match Start" button once more to start the match automatically.
• At any point during the match, the Head Referee could press the "E-STOP" button, which would stop the timer immediately.

How we're currently interfacing with the timer is very hacky. We use Arduino's mouse library to control the timer through the web interface manually. We were hoping an API could be implemented so we could control the timer through an API, rather than using our current method.

Here's an image of our controllers

Thanks,

Thomas

[taltaub22]

So I will refer @2roy999 as he allready implemented a remote control for the timer with a rpi to guide you about this.

But just so you know, you can use the clock API just as the clock client uses it and call it yourself

@alanggreen

[alanggreen]

@thomasjosif please email me at agreen@firstinspires.org. We use Slack for discussions and I want to send you an invitation

[2roy999]

@thomasjosif The program already has it's API, and it's very possible doing what you describes. You would need to take in to your account few things:

• The program is built out of several modules, each one has it own responsibility and API.
• You will need to work with the authentication of the program.
• There is no document describing in details the whole API, so you will need to take from the source codes of the modules.

Also you may also take a look on a proof of concept I which does something similar to what you want to do: https://github.com/2roy999/fll-buzzzer-server. If you have more question you can contact me in the salck channel (user: roysh9).