Badminton peg board alternative or app

Tweeter

smallgarden wrote: »

Hows the progress going on this, fingers crossed for it to be available for next season!

Progress is good, I would have liked another one or two clubs to test it before the season ended, however I think the timing turned out to be perfect in the end.

There was minor adjustments after each club night for the first few nights, and thankfully there was one outstanding issue which I had a lot of trouble getting to the bottom of, now resolved. It's as near perfect as possible (for our club anyway).

It will definitely be ready for the new season, and as I said previously our club has already voted it in as the standard,

regards,
Mark.

smallgarden

Thats great to hear.Have you plans to make it available to other clubs or are you still figuring that out as I'd say our club would be interested,obviously depending on the cost of it

Tweeter

smallgarden wrote: »

Thats great to hear.Have you plans to make it available to other clubs or are you still figuring that out as I'd say our club would be interested,obviously depending on the cost of it

I do have plans to make it fully available. I haven't fully worked out costs as of yet (but I will be looking to make a return on the significant time and effort I've put into this). I'll probably have 2 licence types for sale, one for small clubs and one for medium to large clubs. However even the more expensive licence will still be below 50 euro (possibly even below 40) and the cheaper licence probably just over half that amount.

It wil partly depend on the costs for setting up and hosting a website where the software can be downloaded and the licences purchased online.

I am trying to make sure that the cost is low enough so as not to be a factor when a club is considering purchasing it (i.e less than the price of 2 boxes of shuttles),

regards,
Mark.

mkm_player

Tweeter, how about you make a time-limited demo like many applications are released.
Say it will work for 2 months. It will take at least that long for any club to get used to it and see whether it suites them or not. Most clubs usually play 1 or 2 nights a week - so we're talking on average 8-10 uses before they have to buy a serial# (I'm assuming that's how you are going to activate it) from you.

I am personally interested to see if I can get our club to test this system as well.

Tweeter

mkm_player wrote: »

Tweeter, how about you make a time-limited demo like many applications are released.
Say it will work for 2 months. It will take at least that long for any club to get used to it and see whether it suites them or not. Most clubs usually play 1 or 2 nights a week - so we're talking on average 8-10 uses before they have to buy a serial# (I'm assuming that's how you are going to activate it) from you.

I am personally interested to see if I can get our club to test this system as well.

You're correct and I will be allowing for this scenario. I'm putting together a website for it at the moment, where you'll be able to download a trial version. The trial period will be for 3 months, which I think is plenty of time to see if it suits a club.

As a matter of interest does anybody think the trial period should be longer than 3 months?

I haven't fully considered what to charge yet after the trial period expires, but I'm now thinking that it will be less than 30 euro and I'll try and make sure I can stick to this,

regards,
Mark.

g0g

Tweeter wrote: »

You're correct and I will be allowing for this scenario. I'm putting together a website for it at the moment, where you'll be able to download a trial version. The trial period will be for 3 months, which I think is plenty of time to see if it suits a club.

As a matter of interest does anybody think the trial period should be longer than 3 months?

I haven't fully considered what to charge yet after the trial period expires, but I'm now thinking that it will be less than 30 euro and I'll try and make sure I can stick to this,

regards,
Mark.

3 months sounds more than reasonable to me anyway! There are a lot of summer clubs running now that might be useful for guineapigs, although attendees might vary greatly from night to night.

Is your plan to "launch" it on time for the 13/14 season?

Tweeter

g0g wrote: »

Is your plan to "launch" it on time for the 13/14 season?

Yes, that is indeed the plan,

regards,
Mark.

mkm_player

Are you planning to release a time limited demo (which can never by activated to full version) or one where you can activate it by entering a serial #?

Why don't you just release the software for everyone to demo and iron out more bugs as they provide you with feedback. There is a good chance that as a more diverse group of people start testing it, they will come across various issues that may not have been caught by a smaller test group.

This will still give you 3 months to figure out the price - and the website.

Tweeter wrote: »

You're correct and I will be allowing for this scenario. I'm putting together a website for it at the moment, where you'll be able to download a trial version. The trial period will be for 3 months, which I think is plenty of time to see if it suits a club.

As a matter of interest does anybody think the trial period should be longer than 3 months?

I haven't fully considered what to charge yet after the trial period expires, but I'm now thinking that it will be less than 30 euro and I'll try and make sure I can stick to this,

regards,
Mark.

Tweeter

mkm_player wrote: »

Are you planning to release a time limited demo (which can never by activated to full version) or one where you can activate it by entering a serial #?

Why don't you just release the software for everyone to demo and iron out more bugs as they provide you with feedback. There is a good chance that as a more diverse group of people start testing it, they will come across various issues that may not have been caught by a smaller test group.

This will still give you 3 months to figure out the price - and the website.

The trial software can be fully activated if a licence is purchased.

Release to everyone how??
Burn a load of CD's and post them??

I need a mechanism to "Release to everyone" i.e. somewhere you can go to download it. The website is very nearly complete now, and I hope to have it up (so you can at least download the trial version) within a few weeks.

If anyone would like it sooner, then you can send me a stamped addressed envelope and I'll send you a CD.

What club are you in by the way? How many courts? And how many members?

regards,
Mark.

mkm_player

Tweeter wrote: »

The trial software can be fully activated if a licence is purchased.

Release to everyone how??
Burn a load of CD's and post them??

I need a mechanism to "Release to everyone" i.e. somewhere you can go to download it. The website is very nearly complete now, and I hope to have it up (so you can at least download the trial version) within a few weeks.

If anyone would like it sooner, then you can send me a stamped addressed envelope and I'll send you a CD.

What club are you in by the way? How many courts? And how many members?

regards,
Mark.

The easiest way is to use the cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. You can upload the software and then share the link either here or your website.
The free account on any of these cloud services should give you plenty of space for your purpose. (Dropbox=2GB / Google Drive=15GB / SkyDrive=7GB)

I am actually from Canada.
We have a long running club based in a high school gym. 6 courts and about 70 - 80 members.

Tweeter

mkm_player wrote: »

We have a long running club based in a high school gym. 6 courts and about 70 - 80 members.

I'd be very interested in it being tested in this environment.
All going well, it'll be available to everyone for download within a few weeks,

regards,
Mark.

mkm_player

Tweeter wrote: »

I'd be very interested in it being tested in this environment.
All going well, it'll be available to everyone for download within a few weeks,

regards,
Mark.

Remember to promote it on BadmintonCentral.com
Good chance that you will get a lot of response from there.

Good Luck!

Tweeter

Update.

I've bought the domain and a web hosting package, so it'll be available for download very shortly now.
I'm currently doing a few improvements to the look and feel, so when I'm happy that the changes are complete and tested, I'll swith the website on,

regards,
Mark.

Dominic Lim

Tweeter wrote: »

Update.

I've bought the domain and a web hosting package, so it'll be available for download very shortly now.
I'm currently doing a few improvements to the look and feel, so when I'm happy that the changes are complete and tested, I'll swith the website on,

regards,
Mark.

Hi! Looking forward to your new website! Willing to try your software but doubt its enough for my usage. I am managing a 39 badminton court and 14 futsal pitch!

Tweeter

Dominic Lim wrote: »

Hi! Looking forward to your new website! Willing to try your software but doubt its enough for my usage. I am managing a 39 badminton court and 14 futsal pitch!

Correct, it's for badminton clubs only and not for managing large sports halls,

regards,
Mark.

Tweeter

My apologies for the delay. I developed the software on windows xp, however I had some unforseen issues with windows 7, which I've only just resolved.

Anyway if you visit www.badboard.net it's all there,

regards,
Mark.

ilikerei

Tweeter wrote: »

My apologies for the delay. I developed the software on windows xp, however I had some unforseen issues with windows 7, which I've only just resolved.

Anyway if you visit www.badboard.net it's all there,

regards,
Mark.

You are the man! That's pretty cool.

balkanhawk

Downloaded it last night and it seems very good. Great job.
I'll hopefully run a trial in our club over the next few weeks.

Tweeter

Hi all,

latest update is that I've just released a new version of the software. If you have a previous version installed I'd urge you to download and install this new upgraded version.

I developed the software on windows xp, and there has been some unforseen issues on windows 7 which are now hopefully fully addressed.

Full details on the website,

regards,
Mark.

Tweeter

Hi All,

latest version now caters for clubs with up to 16 courts, as I know some overseas players on here require this.

http://www.badboard.net

if you'd like to download it and give it a try,

regards,
Tweeter

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