The Lane Malfunction feature is primarily used with Timing Consoles that are able to send backup times to MM - namely the CTS 5 (Software Version 3.1 or later) and CTS 6, the Daktronics 6000 and 2000, and the Omega ARES 21 Bi-directional Timing Consoles.
When a lane has a bad pad touch and backup buttons are being used, MM will let you know whenever any Pad Time is .31 or more seconds different from the Official Backup Time. The Official Backup Time is the middle button time if there are 3 buttons, the average if there are 2 buttons and equal to the button time if there is only one button.
•An Official Backup Time that is 0.31 or more "faster" than a pad time is highlighted in yellow and a "y" is displayed in the far right column of the Run Screen. This indicates that there may have been a late touch.
•An Official Backup Time that is 0.31 or more "slower" than a pad time is highlighted in blue and a "b" is displayed in the far right column of the Run Screen. These lanes default to being unchecked for use since these often times will not be adjusted.
•If there is a pad time, but no Official Backup Time, then the entry is highlighted in blue indicating that one should check the watch time for that lane to confirm that the pad time is a good touch.
•If there are two backup times and one is within 0.30 seconds of the pad time, one is more than 0.30 seconds from the pad time, and the Official Backup Time (the average) is more than 0.30 from the pad time, then the lane is highlighted in green and a "g" is displayed in the far right column of the Run Screen. These lanes default to being unchecked for use since these times usually will not be adjusted due to the inaccuracy of the two button times.
•Any backup time that is dark pink is a time that is more than .30 different from the pad time.
MM will display a Time Adjustment Window if you click the Calc button, press Ctrl-K, or click on the "b", "y", or "g". A sample table is shown below.
This window shows the Primary time (usually the Pad Time) as well as 1 or 2 or 3 button backup times for all lanes.
•To the right of the button times is the Button Calc column and which shows the Official Backup Time. If there are 3 backup times, the middle time is used. If there are 2 backup times, the time is calculated using the rule you choose in the Backup Times Preference in the Run Menu. The choices are to average and truncate to the nearest thousandth, average and round up to the nearest hundredth, or use the slow time.
•The Difference column indicates the difference between the Button Calc time and the Primary time.
•The Adjusted column shows the Official Calculated Time. In most cases, the Adjusted time is calculated using the FINA rule which uses the Button Calc time with no adjustments. After April 30, 2016 on, only US Masters, US Colleges, and US High Schools use the old USA Swimming rule which adds the average differential of the non-malfunctioning lanes to the Button Calc time.
•The Adjusted HPL column indicates the adjusted heat placing.
•The Adjusted PL column indicates the adjusted placing.
•By clicking the Accept Adjusted button, the Adjusted time, Adjusted HPL and Adjusted PL will replace the Pad Time and placings for all lanes where an adjustment was selected. Click on the Reject Adjusted and MM will not alter the previously entered time for the lane.
•Click on the Create Report icon and MM will create a one page report of these backup and adjusted times for your records.
Example of Time Adjustment Screen for FINA rules:
Example of Time Adjustment Screen for Old USA Swimming rules:
If you think the pad time for a given lane is good, but the backups are not, uncheck the "Use" box for that lane. Since a blue indicator means the backup is slower than the pad time (which usually means a late button), when the Time Adjustment window is displayed, the blue rows are not selected since in most cases this time should not be adjusted to the slower time. If you still want to use the adjusted backup (for example, in relays, sometimes a pad is activated early when a swimmer is exiting the pool), then click on the Use column for a given lane and MM will display the adjusted time. For example, clicking the Use check box for lane 1 below would cause MM to calculate a Button Calc time and a Difference amount to be used in the Adjusted calculations.
