Hardware
Currently 3 Arizona MicroChip PIC based processors are used in each Butler unit although this will reduce to 2 at production. The communications are handled by one dedicated PIC. All RAM and I/O is provided onboard by these processors. 6K of program code is used. Currently remote firmware updating ( over the radio link ) is provided for, however this may be withdrawn at production.
Each Master unit also contains 2 PIC processors with one dedicated to communications. Non volatile RAM is provided for safe storage of results during an event in case of power outage etc. Communications with a PC is provided by an RS232 link running at 9600 baud. Currently to support some legacy scoring applications a keyboard interface is also provided although this should not be required at production.
Master+ units (if ever produced) would contain much more RAM, another PIC processor (a biggie), a parallel printer interface, the keyboard interface and a large LCD display. The current Master+ suggestion would in fact be a PC !!
Capacity
The base capacity for a network is currently 255 Butlers (ie 255 tables) . In addition the Butlers can be allocated to one of upto 256 sections allowing for a maximum theoretical event size of 65280 tables. Each Master in any section beyond the mandatory first unit decreases the available Butlers by 1.
Radio bandwidth capacity is exceedingly low and practically will not become saturated.
Power
In each Butler an onboard 9V battery supplies power for an estimated 3 months of use in an average club. The Butlers' have full 'sleep' modes allowing for minimum power usage. They are woken either by keypad activity or remotely by radio.
Master units have a small mains power adaptor provided.
Radio Link
Two way radio communications is implemented using an advanced digital packet based network and is fully error checked. Range is typically 30 metres indoors ( from Butler to Master ) but maybe considerably more in an open environment eg a large hall. This has proven more than adequate in typical Bridge clubs. Should additional range be required then an extra Master maybe used to act as a relay. ( It maybe possible to utilise other Butlers as relays dependent on codespace at production ).
Each Master may contain one, or two radio transceivers, the latter option allows for usage in hostile environments where radio reflections are causing nulls in reception.
The transmission rate is circa 40 Kbps with each result taking around 50 bytes to action. A quick calculation will indicate some 100 results can be collected per second although other overheads will reduce this perhaps by an order of magnitude. Radio bandwidth will not be an issue here.
Bluetooth (TM) is also being considered.
Licensing
As the product use radio communications it will be required to conform to licensing regulations in any county where it is installed. The standard product will be available in two variants and will be licensed for operation in Europe, UK and the USA.
Operation will be either on 418 Mhz for USA / UK (FCC / MPT1340) or on 433.92 Mhz (ETS 300-220) for Europe, and also now the UK. A version maybe made available at 900 Mhz as well.
Display and Keyboard
The Butlers utilise a 2 line by 20 character LCD display. Backlighting maybe provided but currently as most Bridge environments are well lit it has not been seen as necessary. Battery life is significantly reduced by backlighting of course.
The keyboard on current units is a 24 key (6x4) membrane keypad, although only 20 keys are used.
Aside from the native PIC code there is a controlling application written in Visual Basic and running under Windows 95 / 98 / NT. Windows 3.1 / 3.11 is not currently provided for but should be at release.
This application communicates with the Master & handles provision of the movement information, the club membership list, results transfer and some network housekeeping.
Currently it is possible to remotely update the firmware in the Butlers and Masters from a disk supplied although this is unlikley to be available at production due to commercial issues and also the use of one time programmable PIC's.
The controlling software creates on the PC a tab delimited file matching the results so far received from the field. An additional movements files also read by the software and provided to the Master to manage the movement. In a software managed movement eg Swiss this file has to be continually updated after results for the round are received. It is hoped that existing software developers will be keen to support the file formats specified allowing real time updating of their scoring program and movement transfer to Bridge Butler.
A workaround is been 'kludged' to allow some current Windows based scoring programs to be used with Bridge Butler. The Visual Basic application can simulate keystrokes allowing the results to be 'auto entered'. A much neater approach would be direct support of the file formats but I have a great shortage of information (and time) to develop this. The movements information has been captured by intercepting the printed slips output to update the movements file.
UKUSA provides a basic scoring and movement management program. This should prove adequate for most Bridge Clubs but will be inadequate for larger or complex competitions. I would hope to license a more capable product from a developer to include with Bridge Butler.
Software Developers - please fill in the enquiry form contact me by email ButlerDev@ukusa.co.uk or phone 01484 412922 if you are interested in the above.