Using the software for ringing "distanced"

Start the interface first - if it needs setting up, follow the instructions, and set the target program to the one to be used.

Then start the target program (and in the case of ringing room that you are in a tower and NOT in the comment box at bottom left) and make sure it has "focus" (i.e. is the program on top) and that it works using keyboard key "j" input.

Then try using the bell, which should now work.

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Questions and Answers:

Q1.  Can you give me some tips as to how I can improve my performance, please.

I practise on Abel at 3 hr speed, but even then my striking is appalling.

Part of the problem of course is that I was taught to ring a mini-bell (<20lbs) at a sub-2 hour peal speed, and always below the balance. 

I find it very difficult to judge how long the bell needs to be held on the balance.

A1

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Stopping and waiting on balance does not really work.  

What one has to do is to ring in such a way that the bell is always moving.  It is the same when you ring the trebles of a heavy twelve - top class ringers have the bell always in motion.  They pull very gently so the bell goes around slowly.

So the first step is to learn to make the bell go around slowly by pulling more gently.

But there is a second step, that makes the bell feel larger and heavier and the wheel bigger..

With a mini-bell you can't let the bell go a long way over balance without having problems with the clapper.

But a dumbbell has no clapper so provided you don't go as far as allowing the sensor to activate, you can "over ring" a dumbbell, and for slow speed ringing there is a big advantage in doing this. 

Once you go beyond balance the bell starts to feel heavier, and this helps with feel and control.  That sense of weight reaches a maximum at 90 degrees beyond balance and then reduces (back to nothing at 180 degrees).  

So if you use this larger arc, you get a longer rope pull, and more graduation in the possible lower ringing speeds you can achieve.  Effectively the wheel on the bell has got a lot bigger, so it feels like a heavier bell, and therefore one you want to ring more slowly.  

And you don't have a stop and wait stage in the cycle.  

You may have to adjust the rope (longer tail, and perhaps sally point set lower) to be comfortable doing this.

See how you get on with that, in the first instance.

A third stage is to change the weight balance of the dumbbell so its natural speed of turning is slower.  To do that you add extra weight to the wheel on the opposite side to where the "bell" is, and possibly reduce the weight of the "bell".

There is quite a useful discussion of these issues here, which details how I needed to alter my dumbbell to suit "distanced" ringing.

Richard Johnston 22/9/2020