Timing technology company Race Result has adopted the RAIN XPLORER Reader Checker, a system from CISC Semiconductor that identifies whether its UHF RFID readers are functioning properly in the field before each marathon or race. The handheld device can be deployed onsite to quickly confirm that timing equipment along a course is operating properly, within a matter of minutes. Race Result’s personnel use the mobile checker and distribute it to some of the company’s key clients and distributors that manage its readers, while CISC sells the devices directly as well. Distributers employing the technology can confirm the proper functionality of readers before sending them to timekeeper companies for use during athletic competitions.
The checker plugs into the four ports of a reader, and its four corresponding LEDs indicate if there is a problem reading tags at any of the ports, says Josef Preishuber-Pflügl, CISC’s executive VP. A green light means the system is working properly, while red identifies a problem. If the red light shines, users must then investigate what is causing that problem or replace the reader so the system can properly work for the race. The types of failures identified by the checker include the wrong output power, sensitivity issues, the wrong frequency for the antenna, read-rate failures, or air-interface parameters that might be incorrect for a specific geographical area.
CISC’s RAIN XPLORER Reader Checker
Race Result’s goal is to detect performance problems before the readers are put into use. Operational problems can occur during shipment or between multiple uses, according to Nikias Klohr, Race Result’s CTO. The company is among the top providers of RFID-based timing systems for sports events worldwide. Before the pandemic, its technology was already in use at about 15,000 competitions. The firm provides reader hardware, software to manage the collected data and bibs containing passive UHF RFID transponders, to be worn by athletes.
Race Result first started working with UHF RFID in 2009, Klohr recalls, and the technology became predominant in the sports market for timing purposes around 2012. For the past ten years, the company has been building and selling its RFID race-timing equipment with its own RFID readers, or third-party standard readers with custom firmware and settings. The races for which its timing gates are installed involve many kinds of sports, including bicycling, running and triathlons.
Timekeeper companies that employ the technology use the tag-read data to provide race organizers, participants and audience members with time results. Most recently, the London Marathon used the technology, with every single participant wearing a bib containing a UHF transponder, and with timing systems deployed throughout the city. The system typically can capture the time at which a tag was read at a finish line or other point within two-tenths of a second.
Josef Preishuber-Pflügl
An application typically leverages floor antennas over which athletes pass on the track. For time-keepers, there are challenges around ensuring readers operate properly. Setup times prior to marathons, for example, can be very short, Klohr notes, and event managers face a high cost for every hour or half-hour in which the public area is closed down. As a result, he says, “You need to set it up quickly. Typically, you may have half an hour before the runners come, and you have half an hour after the last one is finished to take it down again.”
In addition, the wear and tear on readers can be significant in this kind of outdoor environment. If readers are used multiple times, there is the potential for one to become inoperable, without timekeepers being aware of that fact. There are other challenges as well, unique to the racing environment. RF transmission can be difficult around the human body, for instance. The starting point is especially challenging due to the high density of people within a tight space.
The readers need to be able to capture RFID tags reads at the rate of several hundred to 1,000 per minute as participants cross the starting line, and a loss in reader sensitivity can mean tags will be missed. Race timing, however, is not a business with room for errors. “It’s absolutely critical that we have the highest read rate possible,” Klohr states. The final score results from the net time in which the start time is deducted from the finish time, he explains, so accurate reads at the starting line are essential.
“If you buy a reader from any of the major reader manufacturers,” Klohr says, “in most cases the new products will work well. But sometimes they don’t.” For that reason, he adds, Race Result introduced a CISC testbench product several years ago to test every reader that is put into one of its timing systems. “It’s a lab device and quite comprehensive,” but it ensures that no reader is sent to a customer from its German manufacturing facility without first being tested. The company also provides a rental pool of equipment that is used and returned. “When it comes back, we put it through testing again. The application is quite harsh, so it can happen that a reader fails.”
Nikias Klohr
That in-house testing isn’t always enough, the company reports. A reader can be damaged in transit, for instance. “The problem is that for the layman who is using the equipment,” Klohr says, “it’s almost impossible to know whether the reader is still performing or not.” The only thing users can do, he adds, is connect the reader and hold an RFID label or chip in front of the antenna to see if there is a read captured. In many cases, a single, stationary tag can be read, while a large number of moving tags cannot. “We came to the conclusion that we needed some solution to make it visible for us—and our customers and our distributors—whether a reader is still performing in spec or not.”
The battery-operated reader checker is about the size of a person’s hand and comes with four leads that plug into the reader’s ports. Inside the device, Preishuber-Pflügl says, is a tag emulator that can be configured to have special characteristics, according to a user’s specific needs on any of four channels. It can be configured according to the variable strength of the signal coming back, so it can challenge the reader with a very weak signal or a stronger signal.
Readers behave differently if multiple ports are connected, Preishuber-Pflügl says. Therefore, the multiplexing rate can be tested as a reader undergoes every available UHF channel. “That’s important,” Klohr states, “because if you look at the application of a finish line of a marathon, you only have a limited time to capture that person—and if the reader stays on one antenna for too long, you may not capture the runner.”
Race Result is currently using the device when its own employees are in the field, and it also provides the system to some distributors. The device is robust enough that users can throw it into their toolbox or carry it around in their cars, then use it out in the field. “This is completely different from the lab equipment that you would normally see,” Klohr says, “where you have an expert and you have $20,000 worth of equipment which you would never take out of the lab.”
Some companies have already been using the tester, Klohr reports. Commonly, they may be providers of dozens of timing systems at different locations in Sweden, Germany and the United States, for instance. Prior to a race, these companies send the tester around and test all systems. Since the solution’s launch, he says, Race Result has discovered a handful of readers that required replacement prior to a race, “so it’s actually already starting to provide a benefit.”
Claire Swedberg has been covering RFID technology for RFID Journal since 2005. She also contributes to magazines on subjects such as electrical installations and alternative energy. She is the author of five historical nonfiction books, and teaches an adult writing class.
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