Mark Buckley-Sharp

Design of a Scoring Machine (Multi-Judge Scoring of Photographic Competitions)

Summary: There is a requirement for recording and totalling the scores from multiple judges in many federation, national and international photographic competitions. To meet this requirement there have been several designs of hardware made in the past. As these age, their maintenance has become either difficult or impossible, and there is a need for an available design which can be simply made. My design replaces all the bespoke hardware by readily available standard components, and transfers the functional complexity to software which can be run on any standard computer system.

The hardware design and all versions of the software are copyright. They are licenced for free use by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain, its member federations, and its affiliated photographic societies.

Hardware: Download the Design Specification (pdf 45KB)

Software: The handset decoders send a standard ASCII character for each button pressed on a judge's handset. The character may be decoded into judge and score by any suitable software. Software has been developed to run using VBA code in MS-Excel and in MS-Access. Copies of this software, and of the instructions for use, are available on application. [E-mail:]

Pictures of the scoring machine hardware

Exterior of handset with 5 buttons. Handsets may be made with only 4 buttons (scores 2-5). In this illustration, the cable is centred. An offset grommet is now recommended. This style of grommet is no longer available. Use a simple grommet with a cable tie inside to lock.
Interior of handset. Switches 1-3 have diodes brought together for a common wire, as do switches 4-5. Here the diodes sets are on opposite sides, but this is not required. The strain relief core has been moved out of the way.
Exterior of decoder fully socketed for 8 handsets. The computer cable socket is accessed through a cutout. The box may be fitted with fewer sockets. Eight is merely the maximum to prove the design concept.
Interior of decoder, showing the Audon board mounted. Cable runs are tagged, and wired to the strip connectors. A slave keyboard input socket is opposite, but an access cutout is optional.
Exterior of decoder for only three judges. Three judges is the most common requirement for photographic events. A smaller box is feasible only because this version uses a decoder board stripped from a standard USB keyboard. For smaller numbers of handsets, such as three, it would also be possible to hard-wire the handset cables into the decoder box, and save the cost of plugs and sockets.
Complete Three-Judge Scoring Machine kit. Aluminium ‘flight’ case, containing: - Decoder base unit for USB connection - Handset (blue) with 2m cable - Handset (red) with 4m cable - Handset (red with 6m cable - Printed instructions - CD with software to use with MS-Excel and copies of instructions. One Only. For Sale to a PAGB Federation or Club: £100 (ex-delivery)
How does this design differ from some other current designs?	A design for Western Counties Federation uses handsets where each has its own keyboard decoder with USB lead. By wiring each handset uniquely, three handsets can be connected through one USB hub. Each key gives a unique character (by score by judge) and the same software decoding method is used as for the handsets shown here. Commercially available USB numeric keypads can be connected through one USB hub. The judges must limit themselves to the valid numeric scoring keys, depending on the competition format. Two methods have then been used to identify the judge for each score. 1) The USB address of each keypad is identified by a specific software module, which must be installed and integrated with scoring software. This method has been used with the PhotoComp scoring system (Philip Stapleton), and with the ImageCompPro scoring system (from version 18) (Roy Moore). 2) Five non-numeric keys ( / * - + . ) are available to be assigned each to one judge, and the judge prefixes the numeric score by their own identifier. This method has been used by the Ivybridge scoring system (Derek Rayner)