touch pads

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:35:47 GMT

Just as a rough ballpark starting point, touchpads run around $1000 each. Plus or minus. Depends on the size of the pad, how many you're buying, what your discount setup is, etc. (Let's put it this way... pools like Indy and other high profile pools are going to pay less for their equipment, because the manufacturers want to see their equipment used at that pool. It's advertising.) Now, more and more, relay takeoff pads are being used more and more. Those are also around $1000 each, +/-. And as others have said... doesn't make the pool illegal. Most pools are built to allow touchpads at both ends... so if you have touchpads at only one end, you're swimming "too far". :-) -Rick I think the Colorado timing console costs ~$5000 by itself. I found a price sheet for various Colorado pieces at the place below: www.walterswim.com/2006_p55.pdf A pool would need the console, the starting system, at least one pad per lane (probably a spare too), and cables.

RE: touch pads

osterber — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:25:24 GMT

Colorado and Omega are the leading manufacturers. ... and Daktronics. They're making a pretty solid move into the aquatics timing areas. (They have been an industry leader in video/matrix display systems for some time.) -Rick

RE: touch pads

osterber — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:23:19 GMT

RE: touch pads

Midas — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:36:58 GMT

Agree, all you have to do is flip a little deep with your feet angled slightly down and VOILA you miss the pad. Paul Disagree. Two feet is more than a "little" deep. How the heck to you get you legs that far under water when you're swimming at the surface? In any event, you may have a problem with your split times on turns but it is pretty darn hard to miss that pad on your finish. Just remember to finish by touching the wall and not grabbing the gutter... And given that there's always gonna be backup timers, don't even sweat it. (Though amazingly they don't appear to have backup timers at the Olympics.) You will get a time!

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:48:33 GMT

Touch pads are Evil. There should be a different category of records for swim meets that use pads as they reduce the length of the event by approximately .005 yards (or .0044 meters) for every length. That's just absurd. With touch pads it shouldn't be advertised as a 100m SCM Freestyle, it should be 99.9824m. Bah. Wrong... As part of hosting a sanctioned meet, USMS requires that the pool length be measured. The thickness of the touch pads must be taken into account. If the touch pads are in place, a 25M pool must measure a minimum of 25 meters from touch pad to wall. If the touch pads are not in place when the pool is measured, the pool must measure at least as much longer as the thickness of the pads. I have measured many of the pools in our LMSC over the last several years. None of them have come up short, or even close to it. In fact, I've been surprised at how "long" many pools are (as much as a couple of inches, in one case). Anna Lea

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:40:32 GMT

Touch pad location varies depending on the pool design. The typical high end pool has a gutter flush with the top of the water and the pad is also flush with the water. On other pools - with a flat wall - the pad can be several inches above the water depending on the bracket design that holds them to the wall. Most pads are not slippery. Like others said - I find they have better traction than tiles. The touch is missed sometimes in backstroke, and fly/*** when the swimmer touches the lip of the pool (if present) above the pad. But the plunger or backup timer exists for this purpose. The timing system knows how many touches are expected and will notify the operator when a touch was missed. The operator will manually enter a touch which doesn't affect the final time but at least one of the splits will be wrong. Colorado and Omega are the leading manufacturers. I think they start at $10,000 or so and go up depending on how many pads (6-8 lanes), scoreboard, etc.

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:47:06 GMT

Colorado Timing has photos and diagrams of touch pads at their web site: www.colotime.com/.../Touchpad standard.pdf I see they're quite large and advertised to have no dead spots. Does anyone have any idea how much they cost? Just curious.

RE: touch pads

pwolf66 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:05:24 GMT

Jayhawk: JOKING!!!! Paul

RE: touch pads

pwolf66 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:06:31 GMT

No it's not. :-) I swam a meet last weekend the must have missed the touchpads a few times as a few splits were missed in both my 500 and 1650. I think hit the outer frame a few times (yes, I probably flip turn a bit too deep). Agree, all you have to do is flip a little deep with your feet angled slightly down and VOILA you miss the pad. Paul

RE: touch pads

pwolf66 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:04:47 GMT

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 14:00:58 GMT

Originally posted by msgrupp 13. they fit over the edge of the gutter and go down about 2-3 feet so IMPOSSIBLE to miss hitting them. No it's not. :-) I swam a meet last weekend the must have missed the touchpads a few times as a few splits were missed in both my 500 and 1650. I think hit the outer frame a few times (yes, I probably flip turn a bit too deep).

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 13:46:53 GMT

Touch pads are a God send in backstroke starts since they are usually far less slippery. If you find some pictures online of the end of races you'll be able to see them. They are hard to miss.

RE: touch pads

ande — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 09:44:43 GMT

Touch pads are flat on the wall. You can't miss them. They tend to grip better than most walls. You have nothing to worry about. Ande Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming I know that sounds dumb, but I have never been to a competition and I have no clue what touch pads look like, how much room they take and how low below the water they are situated...Also, can you somehow miss the touch pads when you hit the wall or not press hard enough on them and not stop the clock?And how is it doing turns with touch pads on the wall?Are they not an unwelcome thing to land your feet on at turns?

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 16:55:55 GMT

I've also found that I can get a little bit of a bounce from the pad. They sometimes work like a spring board.

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 10:26:51 GMT

I run the automatic timing for my granddaughter's team. If you don't hit the pad hard enough you might not stop the clock, but it is a rare occasion that an older swimmer doesn't hit it hard enough... the most trouble comes with the younger swimmers and, as Dorthy said, back and fly events. I wouldn't worry about not hitting them hard enough. There is a button on the console called split arm. If for some reason you don't hit the pad hard enough during the event the timer, who is watching the swimmers as they come to the wall, can enter a touch for you. However, the timer can not enter a finish for you (have to keep things honest, ya know). And again as Dorthy said, there are stop watches and buttons for back up times. (We have two stopwatches and a button for each lane) If a swimmer doesn't touch hard enough on the finish it shows up on the timing console and the console actually asks if the button time should be used. I make notes on the sheets that go to the clerk of course about button times/watch times, etc. The one thing that gets to an automatic timing device operator, is a swimmer who hangs onto the pad after finishing the race. Take a breath or two then get out of the pool as quickly as you can. My advice, just swim, have fun and pretend as if they aren't there. You will have enough to think about without worrying about that. However, if the pad seems to be floating away from the wall you might want to tell an official or get the timing operators attention. Some air can be bled out of it. But most of the time that kinda thing is discovered during warm-up. Lainey

RE: touch pads

michaelmoore — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 08:34:52 GMT

One other reason the pads do not register, is a defective pad, or bad connection. michael

RE: touch pads

michaelmoore — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 05:33:03 GMT

3. they fit over the edge of the gutter and go down about 2-3 feet so IMPOSSIBLE to miss hitting them. They can be missed. Sometimes with very wide lanes the pads move to one side and the swimmer hits the wall on the other side. The pads go down about 30 inches, so that if a swimmer makes a deep turn, the swimmer will miss the pad. In long races, the 500 and longer, you will see the referee, the starter and the person who is taking care of the automatic timing system checking their lap totals for each swimmer, so that swimmers get the proper credit. michael

RE: touch pads

Rob Copeland — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 05:30:05 GMT

Colorado Timing has photos and diagrams of touch pads at their web site: www.colotime.com/.../Touchpad standard.pdf Some of the older pads can be slippery, especially for backstroke starts. However properly installed modern pads have better surfaces than the typical wall. And while they are sensitive to most touches, they do require some amount of pressure to activate them. My advice is to always touch below the water surface near the center of the lane. I have run the timing at many meets and the most common problem is with people who grab the top of the wall at the finish or backstrokers who whack their arm on the top of the pad. In these cases what sets the pad off is when the body bumps up against the wall a second or 3 later. Good timing console operators will be looking for these late touches and will take the backup button time.

RE: touch pads

Former Member — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 05:28:28 GMT

1. take up very little room in the overall length of the pool--they are figured into the actual distance. 2. you will find the surface on most to be a little rough--meaning your feet can not slip the way they do on tile. 3. they fit over the edge of the gutter and go down about 2-3 feet so IMPOSSIBLE to miss hitting them. 4. they appear to be about 4 feet wide (at least the systems I've used). 5. the pressure of either your feet or your hand is enough to trigger them. 6. Do a search on "touchpads". I believe one of the systems is by a company called "COLORADO".

RE: touch pads

dorothyrde — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 05:18:04 GMT

Depending on the touch pad, some are a little slippery. If you come over the top of the bad, more into the gutter, there is a chance you will not trigger the bad at the finish. This happens a lot on butterfly. I run the computers at age group meets, and we get the most bad touches on butterfly and backstroke. That is why there are hand times and back up buttons. If you somehow don't trigger the bad, a time from back up will be used.