Looking for a physical Shot Clock

[mr.f]

Hi,

I am new to the forum, but could not find anything regarding shot clocks at all. Might introduce myself officially if this is adequate as well

I am german, president of a small Snooker Club and in my thirties.

For over year now, we play little Shootouts every now and then, one tournament (internally) already. It is quite fun and faster to realize than bigger tournaments. Shotclock was always done via an app from Google Play Store, nothing is available for IOS users. Therefore I thought it would be good to have a physical shotclock in the club, for everybody to use. I did not find anything to buy though.

Does anybody here might have a good idea? I am good with woodworks, but electronics would not bea easy to create myself. Thought shortly about a raspberry pi, but this is a lot of work to initially start with.

Intended would be a standalone solution with a display and speaker, maybe possibility to connect a TV (HDMI) as additional display for tournaments. Reset button, Restart Button and a Pause button plus On/Off is sufficient. The build-in display (or two) would be sufficient in a very simple way, just needs to display time (10/15 seconds + frame time) and maybe colours (green/red).

Any idea? Solutions somewhere, I did not find?
Thanks a lot!

mr.f

[Cue crafty]

Hi there and welcome.

Just a thought, and I haven't researched the idea but could a digital chess clock work as a solution? Plenty on Amazon..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0779QHH...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[John Flaf]

Welcome to the forum mr f. Great call CC, thats thinking outside the box.

[mr.f]

Hi there and welcome.

Just a thought, and I haven't researched the idea but could a digital chess clock work as a solution? Plenty on Amazon..

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0779QHH...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

thanks for the idea!

We tried that in another way, and it is not easy to use:
normal scenario: 1:1 and a ref. the ref needs to watch the game far closer than in normal snooker, due to check for last ball rolling (--> restart 10/15 second timer). An with this, the ref needs to check for the clock as well, which is really not easy. especially the 10 seconds are so fast, the ref already has hard time to correctly press the buttons.

Therefore I'd prefer spending money (and time/effort) to create something "perfect" rather than optimize the imperfect some small amounts.

[Cue crafty]

Delphi

Felix a Couple of other forum members were looking at adapting shot clock apps on here a week or so back, so maybe they will be able to advise on any progress soon.

[Delphi]

My software is in progress still, hope to finish it off next week in vacation time, need to add score enterings, it's not much yet right now; still looking for a mp3 with the voice that shotclock changes from 15 to 10 seconds.

[mr.f]

My software is in progress still, hope to finish it off next week in vacation time, need to add score enterings, it's not much yet right now; still looking for a mp3 with the voice that shotclock changes from 15 to 10 seconds.

Hi, sounds nice. When you say software, what's it written in? And will it be published, e.g. as webversion? That would be sufficient for me, to have it available somewhere via internet access. Than we could just use a tablet.

A friend of mine used to create a scoreboard online, I used that regularly back, when we did not have digital scorboards in the club (https://www.ackroyd.de/snooker/). Very simple, yet includes everything necessary for a quick game. But he does not have time to set up a shot clock in Javascript. And more convenient would be a solution with a physical button, that can be pressed (e.g. Space-Bar or an external button via BT). So the ref can fully concentrate on the game.

anyway, if there is already a thread for that, could you link it? I did not find anything. Thank you!

[Delphi]

what's it written in? Delphi
And will it be published, e.g. as webversion? No, Windows executable, application you would run on a laptop.

Basicly our club chairman asked me if i could make it, we haven't sit together to talk about details yet but i have a base already.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1131...ew?usp=sharing

[itsnoteasy]

Basicly our club chairman asked me if i could make it, we haven't sit together to talk about details yet but i have a base already.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1131...ew?usp=sharing

Put me down for it when it's completed. That's if it's for public sale.

[mr.f]

Put me down for it when it's completed. That's if it's for public sale.

Minor Update from my side:

Since we have a Shootout Competition on Sunday, I wanted to have something to work with. Therefore I grabbed my very basic understanding of coding and put together something that works in a browser. Unfortunately the "Pause" functionality is not working and some minor fixes would need to be done in case I find the time (and knowledge), but the thing itsself is running and working and consists only of open source data.

In case you want to use that (only working in browser, only 16:9 or similar resolutions), I can adapt it to your clubs name and logo. Currently it looks like this:


There is a lot of room for improvements, main topic is the missing "Pause" logic and the possibility to pause/restart the Shotclock with e.g. space bar (press and hold for "stop shotclock", release for "start shotclock"), this would make it possible to keep the eyes on the table.

Feel free to give me feedback.

[mr.f]

it does include sound btw:
"15/10 seconds shotclock now in operation"
last five seconds
shotclock to 0
frameclock to 0

[mr.f]

edit: link is now permanent

Pause function is working, using keys to stop and start the shotclock is working as well:
https://snookershotclock.netlify.app/

If someone wants to have this with their logo, feel free to tell me. We'll find a solution.