If you're already using Webscorer online registration and you're collecting entry fees, there's no extra cost for GPS timing - it is included in the standard reg fee of USD $1 per participant.  If you're creating a registration for the GPS timing only, then the cost is USD $1 per participant.  You can make the registration free for the participants, and pay the fee after the reg closes.

Q2. If I have my online reg on another platform, can I still use GPS timing on Webscorer?
Yes, but your participants will effectively have to register twice - once to pay the entry fee on the other reg platform, and then to register for the GPS timing on Webscorer.  This additional registration is required to uniquely connect each cell phone transmitting the GPS coordinates to a racer.  Racers create a Webscorer account at registration, and type in their first name & last name.  This account is then used to sign in on the app to connect the racer's phone with the event.  The GPS-only registration can be short & simple - you'll need to ask only for first name & last name and the race distance (if it is a multi-distance race).

Q3: Is there a fee for testing this feature?
No.  You can create the online reg for free and test it with up to 5 participants before the fee payment is triggered (in other words, only events with 6 or more registrations require payment).  There is no requirement to have a Webscorer PRO timing subscription - in fact no Webscorer timing is required / assumed for this feature to work.  You can optionally use the free Webscorer app to time the race with up 5 racers if you want to compate the accuracy of the GPS timing feature to manual or chip timing.

 

Q4: How can I create a GPX file for the race course?
The Webscorer app has an option to "Create GPX file for course".  You'd take your phone along, tap "Start GPS tracking" at the start line, traverse the course - and then tap "Stop GPS tracking" at the finish.  If your event offers multiple distances, then a separate GPX file is required for each.  Once recorded, you'd transfer the GPX file to your laptop via GPS archive and upload to your event by clicking on the "Course map" menu button in reg setup.  If you already have a GPX file from Strava or similar mapping app, you can use that file instead.

Q5: What are the requirements for app permissions on the racers' phones?
The racers must allow the Webscorer app to use the phone's precise location.  On iPhones, there's no requirement to enable the Webscorer app to run in the background - but obviously the app must be left running (and not be "swiped up") after starting the tracking.  On Android phones, there's a popup when you first tap "Start tracking" that's asking the app to run in the background - this must be allowed.  The phone screen can be turned off / the phone placed in "standby", similar to when using other tracking apps such as Strava.  The phone's "Cellular data" setting must be left on.

Q6: What happens if there's no cell coverage in some sections of the race course?
Obviously, there will be a gap in getting the GPS timings from the app during this time.  However, as long as the device's location service is providing accurate GPS coordinates to the app, the app keeps recording the coordinates and will send all missed GPS updates when the cell coverage resumes.  The racer does not need to do anything, these steps are fully automated.  If the finish line has no cell coverage and the racer stops tracking right away, the final GPS coordinates may not be sent to the website.  The racer can resend the coordinates by navigating to GPS archive on the app - and tap to repost the tracking data.

Q7: How does the app determine when the phone reachers the timing point?
The organizer specifies the timing point coordinates on a map plus a radius (in meters) to accommodate for inaccuracies in GPS and the variance of the racer's chosen path along the race course.  When the app recognizes that coordinates received from the device's location service are inside the radius, it will start tracking these and will select the closest coordinate to the specified timing point while the racer's phone is inside the specified radius.  At the finish, the app will select the first coordinate which is inside the radius since it's possible the racer will stop the tracking on the phone before exiting the radius.  This means that the times for the finish will be recorded (too) early, but this can be adjusted by placing the GPS coordinates for the finish to be after the actual finish line by the amount of the specified radius.

Q8: How accurate is GPS timing?
On all iPhones and on most Android phones, the app receives GPS coordinates from the device's location service once per second.  So at best, the accuracy can be +/- one second, which is similar to RFID chip timing.  However, this can be affected by several factors.  Some Android phones provide location updates are slower intervals, e.g. once every 5 seconds which obviously impacts the timing accuracy accordingly.  We've also seen cases where certain Android phones stop providing GPS updates for several minutes - for no obvious reason, then resume.  This could result in such a phone completely pass a timing point without ever getting recorded.  The GPS update frequency for a given phone can be checked by recording a GPX file on the app, and then open the GPX file in a text editor to check the frequency for the time stamps for each recorded GPS coordinates.

Q9: Are the coordinates coming from GPS satellites like Strava claims in their support articles?
The only way for an app to get the location of the device is to ask for the coordinates from the device's "Location service".  This is to allow the user to control who get access to the phone's location - the user can deny access to the phone's precise location when asked by an app.  Both the iOS and Android use a combination of known cell tower locations, WiFi hotspots and GPS satellites to determine the location.  Since cell phones are constantly pinging for available cell towers, so this is the least expensive way (in terms of battery usage) for the phone to triangulate its position.  The location service will use GPS satellites only if it cannot locate at least 3 cell towers or WiFi hotspots.  

Hence this Strava article is either misleading or outdated.  There is no way for an app to force (modern) phones to use GPS satellite coordinates only.

 

Q10: Does the racer need to stop the tracking after crossing the finish line?
No.  Unlike when using GPS tracking only, the GPS timing feature will automatically end the tracking on the app when the racer crosses the finish line.  The results are posted live as they happen, so the only manual step the racer must do is to tap "Start tracking" anytime before the start of the race.  After that the phone's screen can be turned off, and the phone can be put in a pocket or back pack.  Cell signals (which are used for obtaining the phone's location most of the time) do not need clear view of the skies, similar to special GPS satellite tracking devices.

Q11: Once the race is underway, how can I find the results page?
The results page gets auto-created when the first racer passes through the first timing point.  The results page can be found on Organizers / My results as well as your public Organizer page.  The results are also searchable via the "Find results" page if your registration was set to "Visibility = Public".

Q12: When using GPS timing, will GPS tracking also work?
Yes, the GPS tracking feature is automatically enabled when GPS timing feature is in use.  So you'll get a separate tracking page for the racer locations plus the GPS-timed results page with split times.  Refer to the GPS tracking article (link above) for details how to locate the GPS tracking page.

Q13: Is it practical to time a paddling race with GPS timing if the finish line is arbitrarily wide?
It depends.  The wider the finish line, the less accurate the timings will be.  You can increase the radius of the GPS timing points to any number - but this will simply create a wide arc in front of the finish line which is then used as the GPS finish.  When the racer first enters the GPS radius, that's what's used as the finish time.  You could compensate for this by placing the finish timing point some distance after the actual finish line, make the radius large which will reduce the angle of the arch.  Be sure to test this before your event.

Q14: If the timing data is missing some splits, how I can correct the results afterwards?
You can view all the timing data sent by the app by navigating to the results page, and click on the "Download taps recorded" menu button (you must be signed in as organizer to see this button).  You can also view the GPS tracking data for each racer by navigating to the tracking page which includes the the time stamps sent by the racer's phone at each interval specified.  Finally, you can request the racer to send you the GPX file which gets automatically recorded by the racer's phone - and can be located in "GPS self-tracking / My GPS arhive" on the Webscorer app.  This includes the location data recorded every second, as received by the device's location services.