Fully automatic timing for your meet
A GPS-disciplined FAT system for high school and club track & field — macOS-native, built around a shared GPS-PPS timebase and a hash-chained audit log behind every result.
$2,500 — quoted and invoiced per meet
What a fully automatic timing system costs
The $2,500 system is one-time, quoted and invoiced against your meet's requirements — this page does not sell the hardware online. Request a quote below and we will follow up with a written price.
TrackPhase FAT Pro (macOS license)
$500 / year
Annual subscription — buy online
Buy FAT Pro — $500/yearFAT Pro is a separate annual software license and is not included in the $2,500 system price. The free build of TrackPhase FAT certifies at Open tier only; Pro raises the ceiling to Electronic, Photo Finish, and Championship tier when the matching hardware is on the meet network. Full FAT Pro details, requirements and activation.
What's in the system
The $2,500 system ships at Electronic tier — the hardware floor for reference-grade timing accepted for personal-best logs, club records, and conference results. It is available now for pilot deployments.
- Operator station — any Apple silicon Mac running TrackPhase FAT. Electronic-tier certification needs a FAT Pro license.
- Pi 5 hub on its own dedicated FAT-Timing Wi-Fi access point.
- Pico 2W start node with an electronic contact closure and a microphone input.
- Pico 2W wind node.
- Area-scan finish camera — a Pi HQ camera over CSI, or any UVC USB camera on the Mac.
How the timing works
Every node shares a single GPS-PPS-disciplined timebase — the GPS constellation disciplines a u-blox NEO-M9N receiver's PPS output, which in turn disciplines the clock on each Pico 2W node. The system is designed to a ±5.5 µs timing budget (a design calculation, not yet an independently validated measurement).
Start capture fuses an electronic contact closure with an operator-armed press into a single start event. When the two sources disagree beyond tolerance, the hub raises a Disputed Start state instead of silently guessing, and surfaces each source's evidence to the operator.
Every session is written to a hash-chained audit log (fat_audit.jsonl) and closed out with a signed meet sign-off pack. No dongle, no COM ports, no Windows box.
How it compares to FinishLynx
Sourced from FinishLynx's own FAQs, support pages, and pricing pages.
| FinishLynx, as documented | TrackPhase FAT |
|---|---|
| Windows-only — FinishLynx's own FAQ says it is not compatible with Apple, iOS, Android, or Linux. | macOS-native app. |
| USB-to-serial and COM-port issues documented in FinishLynx's own support pages. | No serial port by design — node discovery is architected on Bonjour/Wi-Fi. |
| Requires a Keylok USB hardware dongle, with a separate dongle for ResulTV and NetExchange. | No dongle by design — licensing is a signed certificate in the macOS Keychain. |
| Missed-start recovery is manual — a one-shot resend, or a manual-start key press and a hand-timed image event. | Electronic-contact and operator-press signals are fused into one start event; disagreement raises a Disputed Start state instead of guessing. |
| Public pricing tops out at listed packages ($5,375–$25,000); anything else is “contact us.” | Price is published on this page: $2,500 per system, $500/year FAT Pro license. |
What it does not do yet
TrackPhase FAT is available now for pilot deployments at Electronic tier. Three-source start fusion (folding in the microphone input as a third start source, with a rolling pre-trigger audio buffer) and the Photo Finish tier are on the roadmap and not yet shipped.
Not approved by World Athletics. TR26 approval for sanctioned competition requires independent ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory validation of the timing chain; that validation is pending and no approval has been granted. The system is not currently approved for World Athletics sanctioned competition at any tier.
Ready to time your meet?
Tell us about your meet and we'll follow up with a written quote.