cstreit

That reminds me of a story. When I was racing vintage, we played a little trick on the local hotshoe. We secretly registered another transponder under a fictitious car and name then installed it in his car a bit in front of his official one.

He kept thinking he qualified first but Johnny "Speed" Smith was always a few hundredths faster that him Drove him NUTS trying to find this guy in the paddock to suss him out.

Professor Helmüt Tester

I call "bull****". If it's in the same chassis, regardless of where it's located, it's going to turn the same lap times as any other transponder on the chassis.

Bob Rouleau

I agree with Helmut. The transponder measures elapsed time from the time it passes the grid wire until it passes over it again. The time should be identical for two transponders placed even five feet apart from each other on the same car.

DogInBlack

Good call Professor!

wanna911

Would have been funny were it true, but I call b.s. too.

Greg Smith

HAHA, somebody got caught...

ltc

Well, maybe a little......

http://mylaps.com/general/usedtransponders.jsp



AMB i.t. has been listening to your comments about the recent changes to MyLaps.com.

MyLaps.com is a service that AMB offers to racers and time keepers who use our equipment, including the personal transponders. The number of daily page views keeps doubling each year, along with its registered members and archived data. As a consequence of this growth AMB, over the years, has invested heavily into additional servers, software engines and support, to ensure a reliable online service for its customers.

For instance, recently the site’s entire user-interface was rewritten to retain the rapid response time it was known for and continue to deliver accurate results. Comments from thousands of users were cataloged, analyzed, and prioritized for inclusion in the new version. This resulted in the inclusion of more advanced search algorithms and the possibility to filter results for country and sports, to name a few improvements.

As a result of the success of MyLaps.com, the costs of maintaining it have risen dramatically. However, AMB is committed to continue offering its MyLaps.com site as a free service to all original owners of a personal transponder for as long as they use it.

Recently AMB has decided to make the process of re-registering a personal transponder from its original owner to buyer of a used transponder more difficult. Reasons for this decision are the following:
• Complaints of previous owners: They no longer had access to their data after re-registration
• Inability to erase old results: Owners of used transponders have been disappointed to find out that with the current structure of MyLaps.com it is impossible to erase the old race results from the period before they owned the transponder.
• Unknown transponder history: One never knows where a transponder was used, how it has been charged or what hardships it has endured, possibly resulting in a poor perception of AMB quality if the transponder does not work correctly.
• Access to technological improvements: Our transponders may look the same, but we are constantly working to improve our products, and our new transponders are better than old ones.

Even though worldwide a very small percentage of transponders are re-registered, we understand that this might have caused some dismay among those that obtained a used transponder recently. In an effort to address your concerns, AMB is investigating a method of modifying MyLaps.com by which transponders can be re-registered for a fee, while addressing some of the drawbacks of the previous method. In the mean time, the following applies:
- One can still benefit from all the advantages of MyLaps.com with a used transponder. The only drawback is that it is not under the new owner’s name, and other personal data.
- If you have a used transponder, trade it in. We are offering up to 40% off for a new one with the warranty and your own account on MyLaps.com.
- If you are selling your race car, but will get another one, keep the transponder, it is yours after all.
- If you sell your race car with the transponder, give the new owner your login information.
- If you buy a race car with a transponder, get the previous owner’s login information or benefit from the trade-in offered.
- We realize that in special cases a more tailored solution is warranted so feel free to contact an AMB representative by phone to discuss your situation.

Call us today to trade in your old transponder for a new one. Until the end of 2008, all orders placed through our webshop will be shipped free. Logon today to take advantage of this offer and set up your own account on MyLaps.com.

We appreciate your loyalty and all of your suggestions and look forward to providing your MyLaps.com results for years to come.

cosmo

Thats nice , it is now 2009. Thanks anyway.

Brian P

Am I the only one who thinks the old design was better than the new design?

Examples:
1) The new site never remembers who I am no matter how many times I log in and click the "Remember" checkbox.
2) I often can not find fellow racers via a search. For example, I often race against Louis Betstadt. As far as I can tell, there is no search that will bring his results up.
3) There are no more trophies for being the fastest in a session.

So, in my mind, they have spent the better part of a year cataloguing results from users and rewriting the website to make it worse and now they are using the rewriting of the website as an excuse to charge more money to the racing public... Hey, I'm not against them trying to make more money, but at least make the experience better instead of worse.

As far as the complaints about not being able to change results after you sell a transponder, that's a pretty weak excuse. If it took more than a week for some database programmer to handle that scenario, then the guy should be fired.

mikew968

It does seem to me that they definately have costs associated with maintaining the service of MY laps. How do they recover that cost? Does the organization like PCA or NASA pay a monthly or per event fee?

Jarez Mifkin

They should be devoting some of the overpriced monopoly on transponders that they have towards it...

I do love the service though. It would be even better if PCA would use the live timing feature that Mylaps offers, to quote a couple of replies above me..it is 2009.

dp35

I recently bought a used race car with a hardwired transponder on it. I have data acq in the car that tells me all of my lap times, so I'm not sure if MyLaps has anything to offer me. I do not have the prior owner's MyLaps login info, and not sure if I can get it or not.

Is it worth the $53 to re-register my transponder to my name on MyLaps?

Bryan Watts

Are you racing? Probably not if you're just running track days and DE's, as it's hit or miss as to whether they even use a timing system.

dp35

Yes, planning to race SCCA and NASA.

paradisenb

They told me I could re-register my used unit for $50. I called before I bought the unit. It is worth it to me. I am waiting till I get back on track to make sure it works before laying out any more $$.