Toes to the Edge

Just a quick update. The first release is feature-complete. At this point I am just waiting on the voice vendor to complete an evaluation of the demonstration/trail mode. ErgMate will ship with a high quality voice that is a marked improvement over MS-Mary, Mike, or Sam.

While I’ve not posted any updates in some time (that’s what having a baby will do to you), I have been busy incorporating feedback from the early beta testing. The biggest new feature is a wizard that allows one to create new sequences by simply answering a few questions. You also can now row to music from your iTunes collection in addition to files on disk.

It’s coming! Beta testing revealed that new users can use a hand getting started. There’s going to be a wizard to help new users create sequences.

I was going to post a screen shot of the flow, but that’ not very exciting, so instead here’s a screenshot of the latest version. The icons to the left of each clip indicate the type of trigger that causes that particular clip to play. Rulers represent distance, while the clocks represent time. For example, the first power 10 is triggered based on some time from the end of the row. The chain indicates a simple trigger that plays the clip immediately after the clip before it finishes.

Now that our local ergatta is over, I was able to work on and release a new Beta version of ErgMate.

The first official release will be soon. The program is stable and I am mostly tweaking it and the documentation.

Changes since the last release:
o tweaked power 10 timing - it now calls the stroke number just before the catch in a more reliable manner
o added power 10 / 20 clips that count down ( counting up was already present )
o added heart-rate monitor support
o added ability to select different voices for each status clip
o improved the quality of voice clips
o cleaned up MP3 tag display
o cross-fade works better when sampling clips
o added ability to change sound drivers

Just finished wrapping up the first Beta Version. A little more testing and a few additions to the help file this evening and ErgMate will go beta tomorrow morning. I am stoked. There is a preliminary screencast showing an overview of the application coming too.

Since the last update:
o simulated erg disconnects and closes when connecting to a real erg
o added reset that works with real erg and simulated erg
o updated MP3 tag reading to support ID3v2 tags
o names of state clips are now editable
o fixed README file viewing when setup runs
o cleaned up overall look and feel
o added help file and About box with credits and revision information
o created a screencast

The Beta release is so close I can taste it. My goal is to get the first release to those of you in the Beta program sometime this week. I’ve entered feature-freeze for the first release, which means from this point forward I am just testing and refining ErgMate instead of adding new functionality.

Although intervals are not yet directly supported, you can calculate the start and stop times by hand and configure ErgMate to work based on those times. I did a series of 1 min on / 20 seconds off and then 40 seconds on / 20 seconds off intervals last week. The music would switch from a fast-paced driving tempo to 20 seconds of relaxing ( Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb - appropriate isn’t it? ) during the rest period.

One change in the way clips are played is that if you schedule two clips to play at the same time on the same channel, the 2nd clip will wait and play immediately after the first. Previously the 2nd clip would be skipped if another clip was playing when it was triggered. That worked well for clips scheduled to play every so many meters or seconds, but one-shot events could sometimes be missed. Let me know if you have any opinions on this.

o added preliminary support for PM4s
o fixed bug in real erg slide ratio calc
o tweaked power 10
o added final ergmate icon in different sizes
o created the setup program
o clips now queue up so that if it is time for a clip to play, but one is already playing on the channel, it will wait and play when the first clip is finished
o sample power 10/20s can now be listened to from the edit dialog
o integrated main menu cut/paste/copy
o started work on the screen cast
o added warning dialog when corrupt sound files are selected
o added firmware version checking

Well today I did my second 2K of the season. I knocked 9 seconds off the season’s baseline, but the really cool thing is that it was the first full row I’ve done with ErgMate enabled. The rows have all been simulated until now.

Ergmate played a sequence I call ‘Old School’ as it replicates the old erg tape I used for 2.5K’s back in college.

The music channel was configured to play 3 songs in order ( Welcome to the Jungle, Push It, and Cult of Personality)
and cross-fade to the guitar solo portion of a Metallica song at 210 meters to go. Yes, definitely some old-school music.

The coxswain and coaching channels relayed information throughout the piece. I tend to need a bit of inspiration around 1100 meters remaining, so ErgMate played a clip of a real coxswain saying “Long and Strong.” 750 meters to go is the wall in a 2K erg test, so the coxswain called a power 10 at that point. It also called a power 20 for the final sprint starting at 230 meters to go.

Every 100 meters the coxswain called the split, and the coach announced the estimated finish time every 60 seconds. It called meters at 1000, and 500 to go to note milestones in the piece.

This test revealed a couple of needed tweaks to the program, but all-in-all it worked pretty well.

The final application icons are not in place, but the program configured with this sequence looks something like this (click for full-size):

The holidays were insanely busy and lately I’ve been working on a talk for Code Mash, so I haven’t had much time to devote to ErgMate since the last update. Today I was able to spend some time on it and accomplished the following:

o on clicking the erg-icon it will scan the network for ergs and connect to the first one found
o ErgMate now waits for the user to begin rowing before starting - it used to start as soon as it connected to the erg
o added two new clips: Estimated Meters at Finish (for fixed time rows) and Estimated Time at Finish (for fixed distance rows)

The first beta release won’t be long.

ErgMate is coming along nicely. The two biggest changes are the new ‘Power 10′ clip. This clip calls a build-up over 2 strokes then calls a power 10. It adjusts the timing so that the number is called just before you take the catch.

How do you prefer your coxswains to call a power 10? Specifically, what timing do you like of the stroke number call-out and the catch?

The second major change is that now preferences, such as window sizes and positions are automatically saved and restored for you. It is probably something that you won’t notice in an obvious way. Instead, the program will just ‘fit’ better.

Since 11/18:
o the simulated erg now contains number of strokes and it simulates the stroke-state (drive-recovery-drive..)
o preferences are automatically saved and restored
o new clip - Power 10

It’s been some time since I last reported the state of ErgMate. It is coming along very well. I had hoped to release the beta this weekend, but there is still some work to do before it’s ready for initial testing. ErgMate has a simulated erg screen so you can test the sequences. This week involved a lot of work on making the user-interface work well as well as some refactoring of the erg simulator classes. You’ll like it when you see it!

Since 10/26:
o tweaked slide ratio voice
o added slideRatio to simulated erg
o added popup menus
o refactored drag and drop
o added split clip
o added cut-n-paste
o refactored simulated erg - now supports set distance and set time rows