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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Troubleshooting Online Rowing |
  
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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Troubleshooting Online Rowing |
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Online Rowing is a complex process that involves RowPro, your PC, your connection to the Internet, the Internet itself, the Oarbits Server, the Online Rowing Server, GMT time, and all the above for all the other people in the session.
This means there's a lot that can go wrong, and we at Digital Rowing have poured a massive amount of design and development effort into giving the Online Rowing system the robustness and real-time performance it needs to enable you and others to have a good and enjoyable online rowing experience.
Even so, sometimes it does not work as you'd expect, or there are definite problems. Some of these issues are resolved by having the right equipment and setting up and working through your online sessions correctly, as described below.
Most of the remaining issues arise out of problems with the quality and reliability of your Internet connection. These are outlined below and there is a separate Help Topic dedicated to Troubleshooting Internet Connections.
If you can't get RowPro to connect or to work properly with Online Rowing, the first thing to do is make sure you have the latest version of RowPro. To check your RowPro version, look at the Title Bar at the very top of the PC screen. To upgrade, download and run RowProSetup.exe from www.digitalrowing.com/download.
If your PM does not work correctly with the version of RowPro you're using, the first thing to do is make sure you have the latest firmware version. See the Troubleshooting Concept2 PM Connection Help Topic for details.
See the Troubleshooting Internet Connection Help Topic for solutions.
Connection quality and reliability problems are the root cause of many Online Rowing problems. See the Troubleshooting Internet Connection Help Topic for solutions.
A common problem is not seeing the sessions you expected to see listed in Session Setup. Online Rowing sessions are only listed in Session Setup / Online if:
| • | You have a connection to the Internet and a valid login in Oarbits, and |
| • | You have created or registered to join a Scheduled Row, and the GMT now is between 30 minutes before and 15 minutes after the scheduled start time for that Scheduled Row, or |
| • | You or someone else has created a Quick Row and the GMT now is less than 15 minutes after the Quick Row was created. |
RowPro uses GMT as the time standard for Online Rowing. A common problem is not interpreting GMT correctly in relation to your local time, as a result of which you turn up an hour early or late for your Online Rowing session and wonder why you can't see the session listed in Session Setup / Online.
A key point to note is that GMT stays the same all year round, however most other time zones have a Summertime or Daylight Savings Time where the local clocks go forward an hour over summer, resulting in GMT being an hour different during summer vs during winter compared to local time.
Regardless who creates an Online Rowing session, the first person to check in becomes the starter. With a Quick Row, the creator is checked in immediately and so becomes the starter.
If the starter withdraws from Check-in, another person becomes the starter. The next person chosen is the person who has the lowest ID number in the Digital Rowing system, the logic being that the lowest number is the oldest number is the most experienced person.
If you want to be the starter in a Scheduled Row, check in as soon as the row becomes visible on the list in Session Setup / Online.
By default, during an online rowing session, your Concept2 Performance Monitor shows on the bottom half of its display the position of the person ahead and behind and the leader.
You might prefer see the lines of information that are usually there when you're not rowing online. It is possible to set this in Control Center / User Settings / Session Settings so it shows the usual info rather than relative meters.
By default, during an online rowing session, the RowPro 3D Display uses Broadcast Camerawork, where the camera moves to different positions that are similar to broadcast TV coverage of an on-water rowing regatta.
This means some of the boats are out of view at times while the session proceeds. To help orient yourself, there is a course radar that shows the relative positions of all the boats in an area at the bottom right of the 3D Display.
You may prefer to see all the boats all the time. This is not possible in 3D as the camera would have to be so far back the boats would just be dots, so if you want this kind of view you'll need to change to using the 2D Display.
Normally if you need to withdraw for an online session, you can go into the next online session without any issues, provided there were no major issues like one or more of the participants crashing out in an uncontrolled way.
However if you strike any significant problems during an online rowing session that cause you to use Stop Row to exit from the online rowing session, it is a good idea to close and restart RowPro to ensure you are in a clean state for the next session.
If your copy of RowPro crashes or gives an error message, you should close RowPro if it remains open and restart it to ensure you come back in a clean state.
If you do strike problems with online rowing, please tell us by emailing assist@digitalrowing.com as we use this to help improve RowPro and the online rowing experience.
Please also contact us if you need assistance with getting going or solving problems with your online rowing.
Also, most days there is a Digital Rowing person rowing online who can give you personal assistance getting going with your online rowing.