Detailed Description of tabs
Abstract
This document provides an in-depth guide to the advanced operation of the Chronocurl software, detailing the functionality of each tab in both Free and Pro versions. It covers instrument connection, practice setup, player and rock configuration, data management, and customization options, enabling users to optimize their curling practice sessions.
Summary
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Home Tab
Connect to instruments and launch practices. -
Play Tab
View results and error messages during practice. -
Practice Tab (Free app)
Set up and run the base practice.
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Home Tab
Connect to instruments and launch practices. -
Play Tab
View results and error messages during practice. -
Archive Tab
Access and manage saved practice data. -
Player Tab
Configure and select players for sessions. -
Rock Tab
Adjust diameter for . -
Practice Tab (Pro app)
Design and configure custom practices.
Home Tab
The home tab is where the app connects to the instrument(s) and where the practice is launched. In the Pro app, you also have the option to select the practice, the players, the set of rock you wish to use.
General description
Below the ribbon, the active practice is indicated (see Figure 1).
In the Free app, only one practice is available, the base practice.
Finding available instruments
While the Chronocurl(s) is (are) powered on, press the magnifying glass button at the lower right corner of the screen. Within a few seconds, available instrument(s) should be discovered (Figure 2). The instruments at the top of the list are automatically selected according to how many Chronocurls are required for the selected practice.
Renaming Chronocurls automatically put them on the top of the list (see instrument detailed view below to learn how to rename your Chronocurls), this ensures that instruments belonging to other teams are not showing up on top of your list of available instruments.
Please note that in the most recent version of the app, it is not required to pair the device from the phone/tablet Bluetooth settings.
Instrument detailed view
To view details of the instrument, press the down arrow next to the name of the instrument (Figure 3).
You can rename the Chronocurl to give it a more personalized name within the Chronocurl app, this new name is only visible in the current phone or tablet and does not change the Bluetooth device name. Renaming your Chronocurl ensures that your devices always show on top of the list of available instruments and are selected first when practice is initiated. This eliminates the risk that you will use someone else’s instrument during practice.
The Selected checkbox indicates which instrument the software is planning to use for the upcoming practice. It is the same checkbox as appears to the side of the instrument name when the Detail View is collapsed.
The Connected checkbox indicates if an instrument is currently connected to the software, this checkbox is an indicator of connection status and is not interactive. Until a practice is initiated, the instruments found in the list are not connected/sync to the app and will have an empty check box.
Selecting a practice and Active Practice parameters
Pro feature
The Chronocurl Pro app allows you to design an infinite number of Practice. (See how to configure a practice below). The Active Practice is indicated at the top of the screen, right below the blue ribbon.
To see the details of the Active Practice, press the down arrow to reveal the parameters (Figure 4).
Select a practice by swiping left and right until the correct practice is displayed.
Practice
Name of the practice.
Display
Lists the values that will be displayed for the active practice - in this case (Figure 4) two values will be displayed: Hog to hog split time (HH) and the speed of the stone at the first hog-line represented as a back-line to hog split time (BH). See Table of available units for full description.
Line
Where to install the instruments for the Active Practice - in this case, on the first hog (H) and on the far hog (Hf).
Select Players
Input the names of players during multi-player practice. This function is useful to do post session analysis of the results as it assigns a name to the shots. If no player is selected, the software registers all the shots without assigning a name. We recommend having no player selected if data analysis is not performed after the session. See PLAYER SECTION on how to setup
Select Rocks
Select the curling club and sheet for your current practice. If no rocks are selected, the device uses the default settings. See ROCK SECTION
Initiating a practice
After discovering available instruments and selecting a practice (Pro app), a green Play button appears (Figure 2). Pressing the Play button will immediately initiate the practice and move to the Play tab.
For the Pro app, it is good practice to confirm that there is enough Chronocurl available to perform the Active practice. Comparing the number of icons in Line in the Practice Parameters (Figure 4) with the number of available Chronocurls makes this task easy. If there are too few instruments available to start the practice, an error will be generated (Figure 5).
Play tab
The Play tab displays the results of the current practice as well as error messages. N/A is displayed when there is no ongoing practice. The results displayed in the play tab can be configured in the Practice configuration tab.
After initiation of the practice from the Home tab, the display automatically switches to the Play tab which displays “GO”.
The automatic calibration sequence then starts. A warning signal is sent to the user where both the laser and the button of the lower right corner of the app starts flashing for a few seconds (Figure 6). The players should clear the laser path clear before the end of the flashing sequence to insure proper calibration of the system.
When calibration is complete, a yellow Pause Button (Figure 7) will appear and the laser will remain on continuously. From that moment the system is armed and any cutting of the path will register a shot. The calibration sequence will occur between each shot, and will be preceded by a countdown, the preparation time, (Figure 8) displayed on a black button, which can be configured in the Practice tab. During the preparation time, the lasers are off and players can travel freely through the ice.
To allow passage of players or move stones through the path of the laser without registering shots while the system is armed, the system can be paused by pressing the yellow pause button (Figure 7).
The pause button is also use to end a practice. When the pause button is pressed, two buttons appear (Figure 9): a green play button and a red stop button. The green play button resumes the practice where it was stopped. The red stop button stops the practice. A confirmation screen then appears (Figure 10) to make sure the button was not pressed by mistake.
Archive tab
Pro feature
The Pro app allows you to save and export the results from your practice.
All practices are saved in the archive tab. From that tab, the user can consult current and previous practices. The results can be shared by email as CSV file format.
Consulting a saved practice
Practices are saved in the Archive tab in chronological order (see Figure 11). To open a practice, tap on the desired row to open it. The list of shots will appear (see Figure 12) and will display all rocks and units that were displayed for that particular practice.
Deleting practices
To delete practices, tick the checkbox for each practice to be deleted and press the red garbage can button at the lower right of the screen. A confirmation screen will appear, click yes to delete forever (See Figure 11).
Exporting practices as TXT file
The raw data for all your practices can be exported via email in a TXT file. In order for the Chronocurl app to send the results by email, an email client must be installed on your phone or tablet.
To export one or multiple practices, tick the checkbox for each practice you wish to export and press the blue envelope button at the lower right of the screen. If your email client is configured properly, an email window should pop open with one or multiple TXT files in attachment. Enter you email address and click send. (Figure 11)
TXT file structure
The TXT files are tab delimited and should be recognized automatically by Excel or Google Sheet. The first columns contain the values displayed by the app during the practice. The subsequent rows contain the raw data used to generate those values. Interpretation of the raw data goes beyond the scope of this manual. Please contact us directly if you would like more information.
Player tab
Pro feature
The Player tab is your hub for organizing multi-player sessions with ease. Effortlessly add, edit, or remove players, assign colors for quick identification, and link each shot to a specific player for detailed post-practice analysis. This feature streamlines team management and ensures your data is ready for advanced review and performance tracking.
The player tab allows configuration for multi-player practices. This setup is useful when several players are practicing on the same sheet and when results need to be separated for analysis later. Note that the creation of players is optional.
Adding a new player to the players list
To add a new player, press the blue Plus button at the lower right of the screen. A screen will appear where you can add the player’s name and initials. You can also select the color of the player’s dot by pressing the dot and selecting a color. Note that the process to modify a player is the same.
Deleting a player from the players list
To delete a player, check all the lines that have to be deleted and click the red garbage can button at the lower right of the screen.
Adding or removing players from an active practice
Prior to initiating a practice on the Home tab (Figure 4), click on the pencil next to Select Players. The list of available players (Figure 14) will appear, check/uncheck players to be added to the current practice. The details of the active practice will now reflect the number of players (Figure 15).
It is not necessary to select players in order to use the app. To remove one or all players, press on the pencil button again and deselect the players to be removed from the active practice.
Chronocurl Free Practice tab
The free version of the Chronocurl app allows you to measure the speed of the stone and display one unit at a time.
Selecting a unit
The practice tab in the free version of the Chronocurl app allows you to configure directly the practice (Figure 16). To change the display units, in the Main Display box, click the Pencil icon. The unit selection wheel will appear (Figure 16 right). Select the desired unit by scrolling up/down and confirm the unit by pressing on it.
Adjusting Preparation Time
The preparation time is the amount of time the system remains un-armed after a shot has been recorded by the instrument. It allows for the player to come back to the hack without triggering the laser. Use the slider to adjust the preparation time between a minimum of 5s and maximum of 60s by increments of 5s.
Chronocurl Pro Practice Tab
Pro feature
The Chronocurl Pro app is very versatile in what it can achieve and sometimes contemplating infinity can be a bit overwhelming. The practice tab allows you to create and configure any number of custom practices according to your needs. This section will help you go over some of the possibilities.
General overview
The practice tab contains the list of all configured practices (Figure 17). We created several practices for you (see Pre-configured practices for the description) and you can create as many new practices as you need.
Deleting a practice
All practice, including the preconfigured practices can be modified or deleted, please proceed with caution as there is no undo once a practice is deleted. To delete a practice, select using the checkbox and press on the red garbage can button on the lower right of the screen (Figure 17).
Creating a new practice
To create a new practice, press on the Plus button at the lower right of the screen. The Practice configuration window will appear (Figure 18).
Naming the practice
Choose a good name for your practice as you will have to find it later from the Home tab. Tap on the Practice Name box and type the name of the practice, press enter/done on your keyboard.
Active practice Checkbox
The active practice checkbox, is an indicator that the practice is selected in the home screen. This indicator comes in handy when several practices have the same name and you have to configure it on the fly. The check box can’t be checked/unchecked, to change the active practice, refer to the Selecting a practice and Active Practice parameters section.
Display Section
You can display up to four different values in the Play tab during a practice and a minimum of one value (Figure 18 shows the four available display slots boxed in red). In the illustrated case, only one value will be displayed during the practice (all secondary displays are greyed out), the characters will be bigger than if multiple values were displayed. Depending on the size and orientation of your screen, the disposition of the values in the Play tab will vary. The Main display will always be on top and of predominant size, it will also be the only value that will be read out loud by the software if Voice Result is selected (see below).
To add or modify a value press the Pencil of the desired line. A selection wheel similar to Figure 16 will appear and allow you to select a value. To select a value, scroll up/down and press the desired value to acknowledge.
To remove a value from a secondary display, select the crossed-circle icon from the Selection Wheel (Figure 19). Please note that the main display has to contain a value, hence the crossed-circle icon will not be displayed in the Main Display selection wheel.
Adjusting the preparation time
The preparation time is the amount of time the system remains un-armed after a shot has been recorded by the instrument. It allows for the player to come back to the hack without triggering the laser. Use the slider to adjust the preparation time between a minimum of 5s and maximum of 60s by increments of 5s.
Target
To set/modify/delete targets, press the Pencil icon next to the Targets line.
The windows that open (Figure 20) allows the user to define almost any recursive list of target weights. These target weights are associated with the Main display unit, so the user needs to select the correct value range for the unit selected. For example, hog to hog split for a take-out practice would be in a range between 7s and 12s whereas a backline to hog practice would be from 3.5s to 4.3s. Keep in mind that although only one value is
Up to eight different values can each be repeated up to 7 times. The value of the target is set using the keyboard and the number of repetitions can be set using the repetition selection wheel (Figure 21).
The software operates line by line until a line with 0 repetition or the end of the list is encountered. For each line it will request the Target weight for the number of times indicated in the Repetition column.
To remove the Targets definition from a practice, just set the repetition to 0 for all the lines.
Figure 20 shows an example configured for a Back-line to Hog-line split time, this is the Crescendo Practice which will be covered in the Pre-configured practices section of the Manual. The Crescendo Practice request from the user to throw the following sequence of shots of increasing speed:
- The user is asked to throw a 4.0s back-line to hog-line draw two times (Target: 4.0s; Repetition: 2x)
- Then, the user is asked to throw a 3.75s back-line to hog-line draw two times (Target: 3.75; Repetition: 2x)
- Then, the user is asked to throw a 3.5s back-line to hog-line draw two times (Target: 3.5s; Repetition: 2x)
- Then, the user is asked to throw a 3.25s back-line to hog-line draw two times (Target: 3.25s; Repetition: 2x)
- When the system encounters a line with 0 repetition in Row 5, it automatically loops back to the first row (and request 4.0s twice…).
The cycle will continue until the practice is ended.
The process will be explained with more details in the Pre-configured practices section.
Voice Result
To have the result associated with the Main display spoken out loud, select this box. Keep in mind that media volume of your phone has to be turned on and that “do not disturb” features from your phone/tablet may deactivate the audio.
Side by side mode
Experimental feature
The side by side mode is an experimental feature. Please contact us with your questions and comments.
In side-by-side mode, it is possible to use multiple instruments distributed on two sheets while using a single phone or tablet although it is not recommended on smaller displays. This is an experimental feature.
Rock tab
To measure the speed of the curling stone, your Chronocurl uses the amount of time the laser beam is cut and the diameter of the stone. To have accurate values which are reproducible from one set of rock to another, it is important to measure and enter the circumference of the stones in the app.
Surprisingly, the WCF rule for what is an approved stone is pretty relax:
Excerpt from the 2022 WCF rule book (Link)
A curling stone is of circular shape, having a circumference no greater than 914 mm. (36 in.), a height no less than 114 mm. (4.5 in.), and a weight, including handle and bolt, no greater than 19.96 kg. (44 lbs.) and no less than 17.24 kg. (38 lbs.).
A maximum circumference, height and weight are defined but no minimum in terms of dimensions. This is quite practical in a sense because it allows to reshape stone until they reach the minimum weight. Another surprising thing, is that there is no requirement from the WCF to have stones of matching weight or diameter so long as the stones are smaller than the maximum values and heavier than the minimal weight. So bottom line, if a curling club breaks a stone, any legal stone can be used to replace it.
Warning
We strongly recommend to measure and set the default rock diameter for all clubs where you’re practicing with your instruments.
Measuring stone diameter
To measure stone diameter, we recommend using a flexible tailor measuring tape along the running band of the rock. As long as the circumference of your curling stones are within 0.5 inch from each other, the difference in measured speed is negligeable for most curlers (<0.05s on back-line to hog-line split).
Default Club setting
The default club setting is used for all practices where no Club is selected when starting the app. The Free app uses that mode exclusively. The diameters can be entered in cm, inch or foot by selecting the right unit from the drop-down menu.
Creating a new Club in the Pro App
Usually rocks from a single club will have matching diameters although that diameter will vary from one club to another. For that reason, it’s possible to add and infinite number of new clubs. To add a new club, press the blue plus button. It should immediately open a window to enter club information. To delete a club, check the corresponding box and press the red garbage can button.
![]In Figure 23 we added a new club where stones are smaller, 32.8in. In this setup, all stones from Small Rock CC have the same diameter
If your club has stones of different diameter or if your team requires an additional level of precision, the Pro app offers an additional feature to set the diameter of individual stones.
First create a new club as explained previously. Set the most common circumference from that club as it will be applied to all stones for which no value is entered. Press the blue Plus button to add as many sheets as needed. The color of the stones can be adjusted by pressing the colored circles. In Figure 24 we’re setting the Red 4 stone to a diameter of 34.1 inch whereas all the other stones in that club have a diameter of 34.76 inch.
Warning
Keep in mind that setting individual stones for a practice make things more complex for the end user. The software will call for a particular stone to be thrown and will use the specified diameter to make its calculations. The software cannot tell if you’re throwing the right stone or not.