Badminton peg board alternative or app

smallgarden

Hello,
Have you any plans on making it available for tablets,
Thanks

Tweeter

smallgarden wrote: »

Hello,
Have you any plans on making it available for tablets,
Thanks

I'll almost certainly port it to Android at some stage. I can't provide even rough dates as yet though.

I will never do a version for apple, ever (don't ask).

Although I must admit, I'm struggling to see any benefit in any way shape or form to using a version on a tablet rather than a laptop. Screen size for example, it was very difficult to fit everything onto a decent laptop screen, the same info would be lost on a tablet, and almost non existent on a phone screen.

Out of curiosity what benefit would you see in a tablet version?

regards,
Mark.

smallgarden

It was purely as more of our members would have tablets that they could bring rather than laptops, purely from a portable and practical perspective

obriendj

Hi there

I was wondering if there is an option to exclude the timer. For example if you wanted to go out for 1 or 2 sets and then as soon as its over the players would come off the court and the next 4 would go on. Rrather than having people on court for a time limit. you would need manual interaction of course.

Also if there was a way to pair people up for example if 2 players wanted to play together if they were on a team or were new.

Also is there an option for singles?

Just a few queries and maybe there are not options

Thanks

Tweeter

obriendj wrote: »

Hi there

I was wondering if there is an option to exclude the timer. For example if you wanted to go out for 1 or 2 sets and then as soon as its over the players would come off the court and the next 4 would go on. Rrather than having people on court for a time limit. you would need manual interaction of course.

Also if there was a way to pair people up for example if 2 players wanted to play together if they were on a team or were new.

Also is there an option for singles?

Just a few queries and maybe there are not options

Thanks

There is currently no option to exclude the timer, although I'm considering adding this as an option as you're not the first to ask.
However, excluding the timer would mean that you couldn't really automate anything, so you really wouldn't need software at all would you? Unless I'm missing something (I suppose it would keep track of your evenings play).

Teams can be entered into the system and a weighting bias can be attached, meaning that if players are on the same team and are eligible to play (they can't jump the queue) then they will most likely be put out onto the same court.

There is no option for singles, best thing to do here would be to mark a court as busy and then you can put out singles onto it,

regards,
Mark.

obriendj

Tweeter wrote: »

There is currently no option to exclude the timer, although I'm considering adding this as an option as you're not the first to ask.
However, excluding the timer would mean that you couldn't really automate anything, so you really wouldn't need software at all would you? Unless I'm missing something (I suppose it would keep track of your evenings play).

Well the reason I was thinking was the automated selection would generate the next 4 players as soon as the games started and then when one court id finished you simply double click the court coming off and the next foursome would be ready to go on.

I think the Automated selection is an excellent idea.

Teams can be entered into the system and a weighting bias can be attached, meaning that if players are on the same team and are eligible to play (they can't jump the queue) then they will most likely be put out onto the same court.

Ok cool. similar to putting an elastic band around the 2 pegs.

I do like the software. and will benefit alot of clubs.

Tweeter

Hi All,

new release now available with one major addition, a game based version as opposed to the existing timer version.
Details and download at the usual location,

http://www.badboard.net

regards,
Tweeter

A2LUE42

Tried it out last night on Win 8. (Not RT)

Feedback.
Some of the court selection/activation worked well with the touchscreen on the main screen
The court admin screen was overlapping with itself.
When doing the selections, it froze and had a (not responding) message at the top of the screen.
It was just slightly too large for a 10 inck Tablet.
One time it didn't make a selection, but continued as if it had, with the timer going.

Games were a bit messy and people were arriving and leaving at short notice.

Example was when picking one of the last games, one of the stronger players left, so the only person who was not selected for that game was not a suitable player to swap in.
Would it be an option to cancel/end the game selection in progress (with a pin or password to stop anyone doing it) and redo the selection after you remove/add the players that have changed, where it isn't as simple as just swapping a player in.

The biggest advantage that everyone seems to like is the ability to pick the games, but not really the timer.(as it was stalling, it wasn't showing in the best light)

The previous night it was the same players from start to end and it was quite smooth and went well. Didn't have the freezing issues.

Tweeter

Hi A2LUE42,

many thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.
I've never tested it on windows 8 and I don't have a windows 8 pc at home, so unfortunately (for now anyway) I won't be able to address specific windows 8 issues. If it starts to bring in some revenue, I'll certainly invest in a windows 8 pc and iron out any issues that may be there.

There is an option from the administration menu to undo the current selection so that it can be redone, called "Stop And Undo Stats". Have a look at it, as it may address the issue you describe below.

Try the latest version (released last night) if you'd like to be able to give players more freedom to make their own selections.

thanks again for the feedback,

regards,
Tweeter

Note: You can swap around players who are already on court, just drag and drop, e.g. drag a player from court 2 to replace a player on court1.

Tweeter

Hi All,

a very important and significant update for all clubs using the timer based simulation.

When I first started this project there was a very heavy emphasis on the social side of the selections that the application made which is by and large absolutely fine. However now and again in the interests of preventing the same players playing each other all the time the occasional bad mismatch was happening e.g. level 2 versus level 9 which is not ideal. I've decided that it should be possible to make the social aspect a secondary consideration to a grade mismatch (if required), giving a more balanced level of skills for this occasional scenario.

You can now set a maximum acceptable grade spread as the primary consideration when the system is selecting without compromising fairness, i.e. all players will regardless get an equal amount of playing time, guaranteed.

In hindsight (isn't hindsight wonderful) I should of had this in the system from the beginning, however it's there now, details and downloads are available at the usual location,

http://www.badboard.net

kind regards,
Tweeter

smallgarden

I was just wondering if it's possible for the app to pick players at the one minute warning mark which would allow those off to check if they are on the next round and coming off and going on would be much quicker and smoother. Apologies if this exists in the app already

Tweeter

smallgarden wrote: »

I was just wondering if it's possible for the app to pick players at the one minute warning mark which would allow those off to check if they are on the next round and coming off and going on would be much quicker and smoother. Apologies if this exists in the app already

Hi,

I don't understand the question unfortunately.
The one minute warning mark is specifically there to let players know that the next pick has been made. Is this not happening for you?

I can PM you my phone number if you'd like to discuss it, just let me know,

regards,
Mark.

smallgarden

Sorry I'm not operating it so didn't realise that's what the one minute warning meant. I had tried it at home but there was no minute warning when I tried it. Thanks

Tweeter

smallgarden wrote: »

Sorry I'm not operating it so didn't realise that's what the one minute warning meant. I had tried it at home but there was no minute warning when I tried it. Thanks

No problem at all, and no need to be sorry, I'm happy to help if I can.

If you're trying it again at home you just need to use the Auto Pick option. When on Auto Pick, it will give the one minute sound and do the next pick,

regards,
Mark.

marky023

Hey Mate,

I'm also an avid badminton club organiser / player.
Came across your software. Gave it a shot - had a few critical bugs that I emailed via your website.

On version 2.0.5.0
1) Court 2 seems to always be unset (not available or unavailable) - it never keeps it status. Why only court 2? Probably some operation by index bug.

2) Making a player who is already in a Ready and Waiting group unavailable results in duplicating the player and just odd behaviour - workaround currently is to never hit the unavailable button when they're in ready and waiting. If they're ready and waiting and they need to go. Just replace them with a player in the available list.

But apart from that it seems to get the job done. It's awesome and achieves in successfully taking the human component of the peg system out of the picture. We'd be more than interested in purchasing the software and get it out to most clubs out in my area in Sydney Australia.

I'm also a software engineer by profession - i'd be willing to volunteer to fix / implement stuff in it if you're open. I code in .net at work but have written both android and Iphone apps for fun.

I know for our club a feature that would be really good is if the software could also take attendance on the session and we can export that report to a simple csv (for $ collection and reconciliation etc). I.e a player attended / paid, as opposed to being just available or unavailable (you're unavailable if you're injured or left early) - but we should still mark you as having attended.


Thanks,
Mark

Tweeter

marky023 wrote: »

Hey Mate,

I'm also an avid badminton club organiser / player.
Came across your software. Gave it a shot - had a few critical bugs that I emailed via your website.

On version 2.0.5.0
1) Court 2 seems to always be unset (not available or unavailable) - it never keeps it status. Why only court 2? Probably some operation by index bug.

2) Making a player who is already in a Ready and Waiting group unavailable results in duplicating the player and just odd behaviour - workaround currently is to never hit the unavailable button when they're in ready and waiting. If they're ready and waiting and they need to go. Just replace them with a player in the available list.

But apart from that it seems to get the job done. It's awesome and achieves in successfully taking the human component of the peg system out of the picture. We'd be more than interested in purchasing the software and get it out to most clubs out in my area in Sydney Australia.

I'm also a software engineer by profession - i'd be willing to volunteer to fix / implement stuff in it if you're open. I code in .net at work but have written both android and Iphone apps for fun.

I know for our club a feature that would be really good is if the software could also take attendance on the session and we can export that report to a simple csv (for $ collection and reconciliation etc). I.e a player attended / paid, as opposed to being just available or unavailable (you're unavailable if you're injured or left early) - but we should still mark you as having attended.


Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark,

many thanks for the interest.
I'll send a proper reply via the email that you sent me via the website and address your concerns.
Quick question for you, are you using the timer based simulation or the game based simulation and which version of windows are you using?

And many thanks for the offer of help, if I get stuck I'll give you a shout. And I'll make sure these issues are fixed asap for you too,

regards,
Mark.

marky023

Some other things while I play with this a lot more:

1) On the playing report you display the same pair twice incorrectly
i.e say a & b vs c & d play.
On the report it will display and export as: a & b vs a & b

2) The court 2 not keeping its desired state bug does not seem to happen on BadBoard Tennis. Only on BadBoard Badminton.

3) If you make a court unavailable whilst players are on it - it doesn't release the players until you hit the game finished button. Which is a bit odd coz you don't know where the players have disappeared to.

4) It can get into a really bad state if it can't create a match up. Example, if you have 1 lady on a waiting queue, and only mens remaining in the available list. This scenario will prevent you from queuing more groups under that lady's current waiting group. Workaround is you drag 3 guys in.

5) Sometimes I can get into a state where a player is unavailable and available. If I click on the make player unavailable button - he stays on the available list and adds himself to the unavailable. If I keep clicking on it then the unavailable list just grows with duplicate entries of the same person. (Similar to making a player unavailable while they're in ready and waiting) You really gotta make sure that a person can only ever be in one list. A player should never be in two lists at the same time.

Apart from that - looks awesome.

Mark

marky023

I'm on game based.

Tweeter

marky023 wrote: »

I'm on game based.

Hi Mark,

can't tell you how relieved I am to hear that, was getting really worried as no one else is suffering these issues.

You're the first person to ever provide any feedback for the game based version, as we use timer based at our club (and all licenced clubs to date), when I wrote the game based simulation, I was never able to test it properly in a real life scenario.

Huge huge thank you for taking the time to bring these issues to my attention, I really appreciate it, and will get to work on them straight away and get a better realease to you as soon as I can, and in the meantime if you find anything else that needs attention, then please let me know.

I'll send you an email later which you can use instead of posting here if that would suit you better, I don't mind either way,

thanks again,
regards,
Mark.

marky023

That's great m8,

Just get me on the email. You should have it from the email I sent via your website.

All the clubs here in Sydney Australia do their sessions all under games (no time limit). So would be really good - if you could iron those issues out. Pegging is such a burden in many of the clubs here. A solution such as yours would get some quick sales.

Again if you need a hand with the software - just let me know.

Mark

marky023

Oh Wow! Just gave time-based a go.
It's very very stable!

If you could allow the same system rules and %report in game based - you're onto a winner.

Thanks again,
Mark

Tweeter

marky023 wrote: »

Oh Wow! Just gave time-based a go.
It's very very stable!

If you could allow the same system rules and %report in game based - you're onto a winner.

Thanks again,
Mark

Thanks, I'll certainly throw in the percentage report.
I'll talk to you more via email about the system rules. I'd be very interested to hear what extra rules you'd like to see in here, having no experience with game based playing I had to guess a lot of what is currently in it,

thanks again for your valuable feedback,

regards,
Mark.

PS. Here's a link to an article on our club by badminton Ireland which gives the system a lot of praise,

http://www.badmintonireland.com/news/78269/St-Brigids-Badminton-Club

Tweeter

Hi All,

just to let you all know that there has been a significant improvement to the selection algorithm for clubs using the timer based version. I would urge all clubs to upgrade to this version at your earliest convenience.
Full details and download are at the usual location (or if you've a web connection, you'll be prompted to upgrade when you run BadBoard),


http://www.badboard.net

kind regards,
Tweeter

Tweeter

Hi All,

David Yammouni of the Melbourne Smashers Badminton club has made two superb videos which give a great overview of both modes available within BadBoard. You can view these here,

http://www.badboard.net/video.aspx

enjoy,
Tweeter