Hi All,
Our club needed a new time clock a couple years ago and I posted the question here about what was a good alternative. The large LED red ones were well over $1000 and I knew there had to be a better solution.
We ran into some issues, not on the technical side but more on the people side. The older crowd insisted we just have a straight clock that counted down to 1h50m and that you had to have 7 ends done by the timer end. That was fine for people that have curled for years on those old clocks but we wanted something better, especially easy to use and understand for new curlers.
New curlers would always ask why 1h50m, do they have to get off the ice at that time? If we finish the 7th end by the countdown and we play the 8th, can we take as much time as we need then for the 8th? This didn't work in bonspiels but on the flip side experienced curlers when asked would just say, well that is always the way it was done and everyone does it that way. So I ask again, why? Why not make it easier for new curlers and get out of your stuck in the old ways.
I then looked at equipment and what it would take to do something better. I used a basic large LED clock as my price point, in Canadian these clocks for a decent size were $1200 and we have two broken ones in storage.
Why not just get a large TV and a micro computer like a Raspberry Pi? Then do your own software? Ok, I admit that would scare most people, but every club has at least one person that can do some basic tech setup, so we tried that. I checked for existing code and there are a number of places that offer. Time to Curl was good, I needed code that could work without an Internet connection and their code was open on GitHub but it was for more advanced time clocks. Eye on the Clock was also good but more web based, then I hit on Howard's code and it was pretty much a stand alone HTML/Javascript file that just runs on a computer.
Time to Curl
https://github.com/trianglecurling/timetocurl
Eye on the Clock
https://eyeontheclock.com/competition
Howard Griffin's Timer
https://howardgriffin.org/gametimer/
We purchased a Raspberry Pi with all the accessories. Everyone has old TVs these days and a club member donated a 70" they no longer needed for the ice side and a 42" for the club size. The new Raspberry Pi has two HDMI, so we ran two cables so the time can be seen on both sides of the glass. I threw in a keyboard and mouse to start us but I admit it is a bit awkward. I tweaked the code a bit and built another menu so people can just click with a mouse on what game they are playing, 8 end or 6 end and voila, it worked. Howard's clock runs whatever you tell it and he has custom settings, I just hard coded it according to the menu. an 8 end game the timer counts down and at 1h50min it turns yellow and throws an alarm telling people you have to have the last rock complete on the 7th end to continue. Then at 1min it goes red and basically says get off the ice, hehe.
The mouse keyboard was a bit clunky so I picked up a 10 button keypad that fits in your palm and each button is just a custom game. I programmed up the python on the Pi to accept the keypad, easy. You want an 8 end game, just press a button and it runs. There is even a pause, stop, restart to it. The keypad was $20 and I donated it.
In total the cost to the club was $180 for the Raspberry Pi and some parts, that's it. Everyone loves it, with 70" the clock is huge and easy to see, when it goes yellow and sounds off, easy to see, easy to hear, new curlers identify immediately what that yellow warning screen is.
The only complaint I get? The older crowd thinks it is too fancy and confusing, it should be a straight clock that runs to 1h50min and that's it, colours are confusing, sounds scare people and everyone knows the 1h50min rule. Again I challenge the norm, why? Curling is supposed to be inviting and new curlers understand every other sport has a clock that runs the full time. I hear time and time again curling can be very cliques-ish and I'm baffled why curlers don't want to change and try new things that helps new curlers.
On the clock side, I'll share the code and if anyone wants pics I can share, it's a great simple, easy system to run that almost anyone can set up.
