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2Timer Help

Practical guides for humans, with structure that is easy for AI systems to parse.

Getting Started

Purpose

Walk through creating your first meet, loading participants, and confirming your timing setup is ready before race day.

Prerequisites

  • A desktop or laptop with a modern browser (Chrome or Edge recommended for File System Access API support).
  • 2Timer Manager open at manager.2timer.app.
  • Optional: participant file (CSV, semicolon-format .txt, or RunSignUp export) and timing hardware directory accessible from this machine.

Step 1 — Create a Meet

From the home screen, click the sport card for the meet you are running — Running / Road Race, Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, or Outdoor Track & Field.

If your starting point is an existing file instead of a blank meet, the same card grid also offers:

  • From .2T File
  • Import HyTek File

For a full comparison of those starting paths, see Starting a Meet.

The new-meet wizard prompts for:

  • Sport — Running, Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, or Outdoor Track & Field. This controls time mode (gun-only vs. chip time), default display columns, and which features are available.
  • Genre — Refines the sport further (e.g. Road, Trail, Scholastic, Collegiate, Obstacle). Genre controls which default columns appear in results (team, age, city, grade) and sets scoring defaults for XC.
  • Name, date(s), and venue — Used in reports and exports.
  • Placement settings — Overall place by gun time (typical for road races) or chip time. Group place defaults to chip time and can be changed independently.
  • Timing — how you will time the meet. The step lists your timing systems for that sport, then Hand timing (a hand-held watch or 2Timer’s stopwatch), then Another timing system with every other one this browser can run. It chooses what you chose or used last time for that sport; the first time, nothing is chosen and the button that moves on is Skip for now, which leaves the dashboard to ask later. A timing system you choose is set up with the meet, paused, so on race day you only press Start. One that needs something only the meet can give, such as the folder MyLaps saves reads in, is not set up: the meet opens with Finish connecting and the system, and its form has everything 2Timer remembers filled in.

If you are creating a T&F meet, the Rules step is also where 2Timer can start you with a Seeding profile, which gives the meet discipline-based default seeding behavior from the beginning.

Save the meet. You will land on the meet dashboard, which always shows the next step; see The Meet Dashboard.

Step 2 — Add Events

Go to Events in the meet navigation. Each event needs:

  • Event number — Used for ordering, imports, and FinishLynx exchange. Keep numbers consistent with your HY-TEK or FinishLynx setup.
  • Name and distance — Displayed in reports and results.
  • Gender — Male, Female, or Mixed.
  • Division (optional but recommended) — Group events under divisions for structured reports (e.g., Varsity Boys, Open Women).

For Track & Field, choose the correct discipline — Dash/Run, Hurdles, Steeplechase (outdoor only), Race Walk, Relay, Horizontal Jump, Vertical Jump, Throw, or Multi-Event — so seeding, scoring, and display work correctly. The discipline is the family the event belongs to, not the event name: the 100m and the 5000m are both Dash/Run, and shot put, discus, javelin, and hammer are all Throw.

For multi-round events (prelims through finals), add rounds in the event editor and set the max entries per heat for each round.

Step 3 — Import or Enter Athletes

From the meet dashboard, choose Import… and pick the source card that matches your data:

  • Spreadsheet — Flexible headers and delimiter detection. Maps columns to athlete fields interactively. Handles .csv, .xlsx, .tsv, .html, and pasted text.
  • Hy-Tek meet file — For .hy3, semicolon-delimited .txt, and recognised record .csv exports. Brings in divisions, events, athletes, teams, and entries.
  • RunSignUp roster — A one-time import of a RunSignUp participant CSV. For live or repeatable sync instead, add RunSignUp as a registration platform on the meet’s Connections page (see Systems and Connections).

After import, check the summary counts and resolve any warnings (missing bibs, duplicate chips, unrecognized event references).

Use Athletes for roster cleanup and Entries to confirm each athlete is actually entered in the correct event. See Athletes and Entries.

For scored XC or T&F meets, do not treat team assignment as a cosmetic detail. Team codes feed:

  • team scoring
  • relay display
  • league-based report splits
  • double-dual league tools
  • team-lane seeding setup

If a team should remain in the meet but not count toward team scoring, mark it Unattached on the Teams page.

Step 4 — Assign Chips (chip-timed events)

If your timing system uses chip-to-bib mapping (e.g. disposable shoe tags that are not pre-mapped):

  1. Go to Chips in the meet navigation.
  2. Import a chip assignment file from your chip vendor, or enter mappings manually.
  3. Each chip ID must map to exactly one bib number.

Many rental chip systems provide a CSV with chip ID and bib pre-mapped; the CSV importer handles that format.

Step 5 — Configure Markers

Markers define the timing points in your course (start, finish, splits). Each marker belongs to an event and has a read window that sets the earliest and latest valid time for a read to be accepted.

  1. Go to Markers in the meet navigation.
  2. Create a Start marker for the gun time source and a Finish marker for the primary result.
  3. Set the earliest and latest valid finish times to define the read window. For a 5K, for example, that might be 10 minutes through 90 minutes after the gun.

The read window is the first line of defense against stray reads. See Markers and Reads for details.

Step 6 — Connect Timing Hardware

If you answered the wizard’s Systems step with your timing system, its connection already exists, paused and marked Set up automatically: press Start on the dashboard on race day. If the dashboard says Finish connecting and your system, open it: its form has what 2Timer remembers filled in, so add what is missing and press Create Connection. Otherwise go to Connections and use Add a timing system. A timing system of yours that is Ready is added in one click, paused; any other opens its form:

  • FinishLynx — Choose the FinishLynx preset to import LIF/LFF and export PPL/SCH/EVT.
  • IPICO — Use the 3-location preset and assign start, split, and finish marker IDs.
  • MyLaps — Point to the folder where your decoder writes timing files.
  • ChronoTrack — Point to the SimpleClient Auto Save folder, set the timing date, and map point names such as start and finish to markers.

Start the connection. Incoming reads appear on the Reads page in real time. See Systems and Connections for full setup details.

Step 7 — Test Before Race Day

Run a brief test with sample data or live hardware:

  1. Manually trigger a test read or use a test chip near the reader.
  2. Open the Reads page and confirm the read appears as Used or Pending.
  3. Check Entries for the affected event to confirm the entry updated.

If reads land with an error status (e.g. No Bib, No Marker), review the relevant marker assignment or chip mapping.

Setup details that are easy to miss

Before race day, also verify these sport-specific details when they apply:

  • XC meets: scorer/displacer settings and any ghost-runner rule your meet uses
  • T&F meets: seeding profile, event round counts, team scoring ladders, and scorer caps
  • Team-scored meets: Unattached teams are marked correctly
  • Team-lane meets: each team has the intended Lane Slot
  • Conference or head-to-head scoring meets: leagues are set up, or Generate Double-Dual Leagues has been run when appropriate

Verification Checklist

  • Sport and genre are set correctly (controls which features and columns appear).
  • Every athlete is linked to the correct event.
  • Bib numbers are unique within the meet.
  • Teams that should not score are marked Unattached.
  • Chips map to the correct bibs (if chip timing is used).
  • Each event has a start marker and a finish marker with sensible read windows.
  • A test read appears as Used in results.
  • The timing connection is started and logging incoming reads.

Metadata

  • Last Updated: 2026-09-09
  • Document Version: 0.7
  • Status: Active