meshO Manager

Appearance

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 help 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. You can also take radio punches from other timing equipment over SIRAP instead of, or as well as, Prime (see Punches from another system). See How meshO Manager works.

Switching meshO Prime on ​

meshO Prime is switched on in two places:

  1. For this computer, in Settings → Radio punches → meshO Prime: Use meshO Prime for radio punches. It is off on a new installation; turn it on here, or in the welcome tour's meshO Radios step. It is also the default for new events. While it's off, nothing in Manager offers Prime at all — no Devices page, and no Prime switch on an event.
  2. For each event, in Event details → Radio controls (the Event details button on the dashboard's event header). Under Radio controls source, switch on meshO Prime.

An event only uses Prime when both are on. The live radio views (Radios, Tracking, Live view) appear under Event live once it is, while the event is running.

The rest of the Radio controls tab appears once the event has a source (Prime, SIRAP, or both):

  • Start codes, Finish codes and Check codes — the codes your start, finish and check units punch as, so Manager classifies those punches correctly. A code can only be in one of the three. See Controls and radio controls. These codes are only for the start, finish and check units; to have a numbered control act as a course's start or finish instead, see Starting or finishing at a numbered control.
  • Forward radio punches — send punches on to other timing software (Prime only; see Radio punches).
  • Auto-mark controls as radio controls — on by default. When a radio punch arrives for a course control, Manager marks that control as a radio control, so it appears on the leaderboard, Commentary and the other live views without you ticking each one.

Connecting Prime ​

Plug meshO Prime into the Manager computer with a USB cable. Manager finds it automatically — there's no COM port to choose.

To prepare the radio hardware before the event, open the Devices page: the device icon at the top of the events list. It's only there when meshO Prime is switched on in Settings and no event is live. It shows Searching for meshO Prime ("Plug a meshO Prime into this computer over USB") until the unit is detected, then a Connected chip with Prime's serial number and firmware.

The Devices page lists every unit Prime can hear right now — Prime itself and each meshO Control and meshO Athlete — with its Serial, Kind, Radio address, Battery, Firmware, Listening, TX power, Auto-standby and Last seen. The list starts empty each time you open the page and fills as units answer; a unit that's switched off or out of range simply isn't on it. It has two modes:

  • Manage — act on one Control from its row's menu, or tick several and use Action on all of them at once:
    • Identify — the unit announces itself (a beep or a flash of its light), so you can find it in a box of identical ones.
    • Listen for radio punches / Pause listening to radio punches… — pausing saves battery on a radio left out long before the start; the Control stays on the network. Starting an event sets every radio listening again.
    • TX power… — from Lowest to Full. Lower saves battery, higher reaches further. The level resets to full on every restart or wake-up, and most deployments don't need to change it.
    • Enable auto-standby… / Disable auto-standby — with auto-standby on, a Control that can't hear Prime for more than 5 minutes goes to sleep, waking every 10 minutes for about a minute to look for it. Use it for radios put out well before Prime is running. While asleep it can't take punches, so allow up to 10 minutes for it to reconnect. The setting survives power cycles.
    • Calibrate battery offset (zero current)…, Deep sleep… (until a time you choose) and Power off… (on newer boards).
  • Firmware — see the firmware each unit runs, update Prime over USB, and stage a Control or Athlete image on Prime to push to units over the radio network (Stage new image…, then Update… on each unit, or several at once). A unit restarts after an update and takes a minute or so to reappear.

If an event goes live while the Devices page is open, Manager takes you to that event's dashboard: radio maintenance and a running event don't mix.

Watching the radio network during the event ​

Once the event is live, open Radios under Event live. It has three panels:

  • meshO Prime radio status — Serial number, Radio address, Firmware version, PCB version, Last seen (and how long ago), Punches (Received / Stored / Unsent), Control count, Uptime, and Location (GNSS) when Prime has a GPS fix. If Prime isn't connected it says so.
  • meshO Athlete — one row per tracker: Serial #, Radio address, Battery, Location, Location time, Firmware, PCB Ver. and Last seen.
  • meshO Control — one row per Control: Serial #, Control # (the control code it is reporting punches as), Battery, Location, Location time, Listening (Active / Paused), TX power, Auto-standby and Last seen.

Click a unit's battery for its battery history, or its location to see it on a map. Each Control's row has an actions menu — Identify, Listen for radio punches / Pause listening to radio punches…, TX power…, Enable auto-standby… / Disable auto-standby, Power off… (newer boards), and Delete…, which removes the unit and what Manager has recorded for it.

For an at-a-glance version, the Radio controls tile on the dashboard shows Prime's state, a punch-activity chart for the last 30 minutes and a coloured dot per Control: green when it was heard in the last two minutes, orange when it's been quiet for two, red after five, grey if it has never been heard. The arrow at the top of the tile opens the Radios page.

To see the network on a map — where the Controls and trackers are and which links are working — use Live view. To plan where the radios go before the event, see Radio placement.

Battery and other alerts ​

The Radio controls tile lists these against each Control. Manager also posts them to the messages panel on the right of the window, and the serious ones — a critical battery, a lost connection, no location — as alerts in the Alerts panel:

AlertWhen
Battery lowIts battery is at 25% or less
Battery criticalIts battery is at 5% or less
Connection lostIt hasn't been heard for five minutes (a warning after two)
Weak signalIts link back to Prime is poor (on the tile only)
No locationIt has been on for five minutes without a GPS fix

Treat a battery or connection alert as an early warning: change or move the unit before it costs you punches. Once the condition clears, the alert goes. Dismissing an alert in the panel stops it flashing; a fresh one appears if the condition changes again.

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 during a live event, a full-screen meshO Prime connection lost notice covers the event pages while Manager waits for it to come back. Reconnect the cable — or unplug Prime and plug it back in — and Manager picks it up again automatically. Dismiss hides the notice if you need the screen in the meantime; it comes back if Prime drops out again.

Punches Prime has received but Manager hasn't are kept in Prime's memory, and you can ask Prime to resend them. See Recovering missed punches.

If Prime isn't found at all, click Diagnostics on the dashboard's Radio controls tile. meshO Prime connection diagnostics lists the serial ports this computer can see and what Manager found on each. A port In use by another program is held by other software — close other timing software. Opened, no response means the port opened but nothing recognisable answered. No serial ports detected means the operating system doesn't see the USB device at all: check the cable.

Punches from another system (SIRAP) ​

If your radio controls are another manufacturer's, or another timing program is already collecting punches, Manager can receive them over the network using the SIRAP protocol:

  1. In Settings → Radio punches → Radio punch listening, set the Listen port.
  2. In the event's Event details → Radio controls, switch on Accept SIRAP punches.
  3. Point the other system at this computer's address and that port.

SIRAP punches appear on the Radio punches page and count exactly like Prime's. The dashboard's SIRAP punch listening tile shows whether Manager is Listening and how many punches it has Received. Radios, Tracking and Live view are Prime-only, so an event using only SIRAP doesn't show them.

Practising without a real event ​

For practice and testing, Manager can replay a captured event through the same path — see The event dashboard.