Home - lawrencebillson/parkrun GitHub Wiki

What is it?

This project uses OpenWRT on a small wireless router (Kingston MLWG2) to process parkrun results. My wife hated not being able to do parkrun results from her iPad at the cafe and bugged me into doing something. This is pretty much the minimum viable product.

Here's a photo of one from Kingston:

New: initial support for the Kingston MLW221 is being added! Details here.

What parkrun timekeeping/barcode stuff does it support?

parkrunPortable has been tested with:

• Opticon OPN-3002 barcode scanner
• Junsd model JS-9006P stopwatch
• Generic USB HID barcode scanners - you can scan tokens straight into parkrunPortable without an Opticon scanner. Details here.

Can I do parkrun results on my iPad/iPhone/Android/Mac/Commodore 64/Windows 10 PC?

Yes, as long as it's got wifi and a web browser. Apple iPhones and iPads will need a better browser than Safari, but that's all pretty easy.

How do I use it?

Bronwyn Bell has written some great run director instructions here: User Instructions

A list of recommended web browsers is here.

Who uses these?

There are at least 5 'in the wild' that I know about. There's a list here.

How do I get one?

If you want to have a go and you've got the appropriate skills, take a crack with what's in the repo. I can't really offer remote support. Instructions are here.

You'll need a Kingston MLWG2 - these can be had from eBay for AU$65-75. Make sure it's an MLWG2!

Help! I can't make it work!

You can post an 'issue' in the issues section. parkrun folk are friendly - we'll try and help. Please, include a good description of your problem and a cut/paste of any error messages. Screenshots can be helpful.

Another alternative is to find a nearby friend with UNIX command line skills.

How do I know I'm getting the right Kingston thingie?

Check that it matches the photo above - you want it to have a black top and bottom with white edging. Check that it's listed as being an MLWG2. That's the badger!

Can you sell me one?

Contact me and we'll chat. I'd rather you spend an hour making your own - that way you can help out all of your friends from nearby parkruns who are super jealous of yours!

Can I use the MLWG2 for all of those great features I see on the Kingston website?

Nope. It's a single-purpose parkrunPortable appliance when the installer has finished with it.

Can I use a Kingston MLWG3? Some other device?

I've started considering future platforms for running this for when the MLWG2 is (eventually) discontinued. Join the discussion here:. Because it requires a custom kernel module, it's much easier if we stick to similar hardware.

The Opticon barcode scanner's kernel module was removed from OpenWRT for some unknown reason. It's relatively straight forward to cross-compile a Linux kernel and create a package for the driver. It's just not the sort of thing a muggle would consider doing.

I hack Linux Kernels all day - What could go wrong?

The MLWG2 was chosen, in part, because it has enough flash space. Many OpenWRT compatible devices won't have enough flash.

Also, it's kind of tricky. There are some notes in the /tmp of the repo that remind me how to do it. There are some manual install instructions if you want to start getting creative as well.

Can I just run it on my Linux computer?

Sure; this was originally developed on a BeagleBone. You'll either need to use it from the command line, or figure out a way of getting the CGIs to run. The kernel modules you'll need are pl2303 and opticon. Most Linux distributions have those installed. If you plug the barcode scanner and it shows up in 'dmesg', you're most of the way there.

Why is the code written in a mix of Bourne, Perl & Python?

It's a minimum viable product. I've been very lazy with my coding - note the lack of error handling, logging, exceptions, etc.

Can I help?

If you're interested in taking over support let me know. I'm happy to do little bits and pieces on it, but as you can probably tell, I'm not really a programmer.

License and credits

parkrunPortable is free software - go nuts. It's based on some excellent work by:

• The OpenWRT crew - great work! License details here: OpenWRT License Page
• Fazal Majid for his cs1504 script - this is used to download the barcodes
• The parkrun crew for the logo that I hastily remixed for local conditions (added a koala)
• Dominic Watkins - for testing and updating instructions