Pulsar Digital

Live race results preview

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ArenaLink

The Problem

At a Junior Arena League event, every race result had to be processed manually. A volunteer would read the timing printout, locate the correct rows in the Swim England scoring spreadsheet, validate the times for timing errors, and key in the results for each of the four lanes. With 66 races on the card, that process would have taken an estimated 4 to 6 hours across the event.

What Was Built

ArenaLink watches a network share for timing system output files. When a race finishes, it detects the new file automatically, parses the lane times and results, and displays them for the volunteer to check. Sound and colour alerts flag anything that needs a second look, such as a backup time being used in place of the touchpad reading. Once reviewed by the volunteer, results are written straight into the Arena League scoring spreadsheet with a single button click, the whole process taking around 15 seconds per race. If a new race finishes before the last one's been confirmed, it queues automatically so nothing gets missed. It was designed specifically for non-technical volunteers to operate on race day, no technical knowledge required.

The Outcome

Deployed and used live at a Junior Arena League event. 66 races processed in 15 minutes of total automated time, compared to an estimated 4 to 6 hours manually. That is a time saving of over 90 percent. Volunteers were freed to focus on the event rather than the paperwork.

Tech: Python, openpyxl

"This was our first time hosting the Junior Arena League, and Lee's tool meant we didn't have to log race results by hand. It picked up the timing data automatically and filled in the scoring spreadsheet for us, race by race, in seconds. We ran the full 66-race meet with it and it just worked, freeing people up to actually run the event."

Sue, Winsford Amateur Swimming Club

How the generator works

Hy-Tek Entry File Generator

Winsford Amateur Swimming Club

The Problem

Entering swimmers into galas meant manually keying data into Team Manager Lite, a slow, error-prone process that consumed 6 to 12 hours of staff time per event depending on entry numbers. That is time a small club's support staff simply should not be spending on data entry.

What Was Built

An automated entry file generator that takes Swimming Events CSV exports and Swim England ranking data as inputs and produces the required .hy3 and .cl2 entry files along with a PDF entries report, in seconds. The manual work is replaced entirely. The only time required is the initial data gathering, roughly an hour, and the generation itself is near-instant.

The Outcome

Used successfully at two galas with no errors reported by meet organisers on either occasion. What previously took up to 12 hours now takes under an hour end to end, a time saving of over 90 percent.

Tech: Python

"Entering swimmers for galas that use Hy-Tek software used to take us the best part of a day. Lee built us a tool that takes our swimmer and entry data and produces the files we need for the meet automatically, in minutes, with no errors. We've used it at two galas now without a single issue, and it's given our volunteers hours back that used to go on data entry."

Sue, Winsford Amateur Swimming Club

System dashboard preview

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HCC - Highbury Command Centre

Internal - personal infrastructure tooling

The Problem

Managing a network of 30+ systems individually means logging into each one separately to check status, apply updates, and diagnose issues. At any kind of scale, that becomes a significant and repetitive time drain, and things get missed.

What Was Built

A single web-based dashboard that provides centralised monitoring and management across all systems on the network. Updates, diagnostics, and status checks that previously required logging into dozens of machines individually can now be handled from one place. This is internal tooling built to solve a real operational problem, included here as a demonstration of capability and approach rather than a client project.

The Outcome

Hours saved each week on routine infrastructure tasks. More importantly, nothing gets missed, visibility across the entire network from a single interface means issues are caught early rather than discovered late.

Tech: Python, web stack