I-Cards working yet? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Just Paul
- Start date
I was just going through some stuff getting set for Chicago, and found my I-Card.. I have not heard if they got them back up going yet????
The latest I heard at St. Louis was that everything was ready to go but either the fee had not been settled or the check hadn't been written - not sure which one.
At this point, it's ready for someone to write a check from what I was able to gather.
vegasnitro
Nitro Member
Same thing we heard at Phoenix ... and Gainesville ...
Too many to list here
Nitro Member
I thought I saw one in use @ Milan
"Dr. Dirt"
Nitro Member
It's an innovative device that sends out incremental times on each run that can be received by a "Game Boy" hand held device for comparison and informational reasons. If you go big like I did, you can even get a USB device to communicate with your laptop and save all the runs for all classes for some interesting (and very useful information.)
This is all predicated upon the parent company continuing to pay fees to the NHRA for the opportunity to broadcast such results to their customers-which, hasn't happened this year at an NHRA event that I'm aware of.
I believe I'm at fault for this whole debacle. Every time I subscribe to something that requires a purchase, they go broke and my equipment is instantly obsolete. Oh, by the way, does anybody want to purchase an ICard USB in excellent working order?
It's a NEAT gizmo that plugs into a Color Game Boy just like a game ! And it displays all the times from reaction time,60 foot time to the 1/4 mile ET & Speeds !!
But NHRA wants $$$$$$$$$$ to "enhance" the fans enjoyment !
Is their a subscription fee now for iCard?
When they introduced it, I took one look at their plan and wondered how they were planning to generate cash flow after everyone who was going to buy the iCard USB had done so.
After everyone buys the device, it's hard to generate the cash you need to operate. They needed to set it up in a way that they could charge a per race or per season fee and block reception so that only people who paid the fee could get the data.
Jim
I think the concept was,the cards were only good for that race and you had to get a new card for each race. Heck,I didn't even have a gameboy,much less a card.
"Dr. Dirt"
Nitro Member
You crack me up Jim! Although, they may be in negotiations to purchase them as we speak.Is this a VP product?
This debacle is a shame because this information is completely beneficial to anyone wanting such and the broadcasting of the info is negligible as I understand it. The real problem, as I see it is that darned sanctioning body want their financial participation? Sound familiar?
Bob
Nitro Member
Contractual agreements were, how shall I put it, ignored early on. Even as measures were taken to trim the costs of providing this service at the races (having other entities set up and monitor the system at the events instead of having an iCard employee travel to each event), contractual agreements continued to be ignored. Even if the sanctioning bodies were to provide the actual data feed for free, the systems don't set up and monitor themselves. Someone has to do that, and they should be paid for it. I guess iCard could do a permanent installation at every track and just have someone turn on the laptop (and hope the laptops last forever), but that itself would require quite an investment in time and materials. I just don't see that happening.
I think the concept was,the cards were only good for that race and you had to get a new card for each race. Heck,I didn't even have a gameboy,much less a card.
I think the original idea was that you would rent the cards at each race. But then they started selling the cards and the USB device, so that nixed the ongoing rental revenue.
Jim
I was told by a guy Very close to the deal that the Icard can be brodcast with a code that you would have to get(pay for) at each race. I would think that could take care of the problem.... Any takers????
I don't see how you could put a code into a Color Game Boy or the iCard
What it needs is a SPONSOR to cover the costs...
