meshO Manager

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Connecting meshO Prime and radios ​

Audience: Timing operators setting up the radio network before and during the event.

meshO Prime is the hub of meshO's own radio system. You plug it into the Manager computer over USB, and it collects radio punches from meshO Control units out at the controls, plus location and status from any meshO Athlete units competitors are carrying. Those punches drive the live picture — Leaderboard, Commentary, Tracking and Live View — long before a single card is downloaded at the finish, and also helps you keep track of who is still On Course.

Radios are optional. Without Prime, Manager still runs the whole event from card downloads at the finish; you just don't get the live radio picture. See How meshO Manager works.

Connecting Prime ​

Plug meshO Prime into the Manager computer with a USB cable. Manager finds it automatically — there's no COM port to choose. Open the Devices page (the device icon on the events list, before an event is live): it shows Searching for meshO Prime until the unit is detected, then Connected.

The Devices page is where you prepare the radio hardware ahead of the event. It has two modes:

  • Manage — see the Prime and every Control and Athlete unit it can reach, set TX power, calibrate the battery reading, power a unit off, and other functions.
  • Firmware — view the current firmware version installed, and upgrade the devices firmware if a new version is available.

Turning radio punches on for an event ​

Radio punches are enabled per event. Open Edit event details (the cog on the dashboard's event card) and go to the Radio Controls tab:

  • meshO Prime — switch this on to collect radio punches from Prime. The live radio views (Radios, Tracking, Live View) only appear once it's on.
  • Forward Radio Punches — send punches on to another system (see Radio punches).
  • Accept SIRAP Punches — receive punches from an upstream system instead of, or as well as, Prime.

This tab is also where you set the Start / Finish / Check unit codes so Manager classifies those punches correctly — see Controls and radio controls.

Watching the radio network during the event ​

Once the event is live, open the Radios page (under the live section of the event navigation). It shows the health of the whole radio network:

  • Prime unit status — serial number, firmware, last-seen time, uptime, the number of controls registered, and a punch tally (Received / Stored / Unsent).
  • meshO Control units — one row each, with the control number the unit is assigned to, battery, location and last seen. While the event is running you also see whether each is Listening (Active / Paused), its TX power, and Auto-standby.
  • meshO Athlete units — battery, location, last-seen and firmware for each tracker.

Each control's row has an actions menu — Identify (blink its LED to find it), Listen for radio punches / Pause listening, TX power, auto-standby, Power off and Delete.

For an at-a-glance version, the Field Units Status card on the dashboard shows a punch-activity sparkline and a coloured health dot per control (green = reporting, orange = quiet for a few minutes, red = silent, grey = never heard from), and flags low batteries and other alerts. Click the card to jump to the Radios page, or Diagnostics if Prime is not being detected.

Recommended hardware: use SRR units (e.g. BSF8-SRR / BSF9-SRR) for the start, finish and check so both manual (contact) and contactless (SIAC "air") punches are captured and broadcast live. Require a punch at the start (not a Beacon Start); a Beacon Finish is fine. See Safety check.

When Prime drops out ​

If the USB cable is pulled or the connection resets, the Devices page and the Field Units card go back to Searching. Reconnect the cable and Manager picks Prime up again automatically. See Radio punches.

For practice and testing without a real event, Manager can replay a captured data file through the same path — see The event dashboard.