What is it all about? 

Richard Johnston 13.6.2020

This group started because Sue Marsden suggested trying to get 6 ringers together to ring on dumbbells.

Richard Johnston, who wrote the communication software, suggested that we start with four, as getting everyone's setup to work easily with each other may take a bit of experimentation to get the timing and speed right, especially if the dumbbells are not all the same design. 

Dumbbells can range from real bells in church towers down to a weighted small bicycle wheel that is like a mini-ring bell, so they do not all work at the same speed. 

The initial Zoom meeting held on 12 June 2020 discussed the best ways of achieving our objectives of ringing together.  We each spoke about our installations, and then discussed the possibilities for improving the ringing experience by altering the sensor systems, and software.  The need for this arises because existing systems were mainly designed to work with simulator software like Abel, and for individual use the simulator proves the user with information about what the other "ringers" are doing.  When ringing with real ringers, ideally they need information earlier than a simulator program does.

We also considered what platform to adopt for ringing. 

The simplest is ringingroom, which being browser based is computer type independent, and can be used with existing simulators without any alteration, and the decision was made to use that initially, and later in the meeting rounds were rung on 4.

But in the longer term something better is needed, and Richard Johnston presented a proposal to use Muster and Abel - configured in an unusual way, which can improve the visual experience and make it closer to normal ringing, but this needs changes to the way the dumbbell communicates with the computer, and various options were discussed.  Some present expressed  enthusiasm for developing technical solutions.