If a stopwatch is glitching am I allowed to use my phone?

[1x1 wr holder!]

It is not rare that when I am judging that the stopwatch is not working properly. Either it won’t start, turn on, or once, the plastic housing separated and a button fell out. In this case am I allowed to just use the one on my phone? I can’t possibly see how that could allow the solver to cheat,
And it is much faster than telling a delegate, having them come over to test the watch, and then go find another one.

 

[Lucas Garron]

I always use https://inspection.cubing.net/

If you're using a phone, you need to be careful to use an app that uses monotonic time.

 

[Puzzle Maniac]

Yes, at least in New Zealand.

 

[FenTheGoat]

I always use https://inspection.cubing.net/

If you're using a phone, you need to be careful to use an app that uses monotonic time.

What is monotonic time

 

[Cubinginatree]

It is not rare that when I am judging that the stopwatch is not working properly. Either it won’t start, turn on, or once, the plastic housing separated and a button fell out. In this case am I allowed to just use the one on my phone? I can’t possibly see how that could allow the solver to cheat,
And it is much faster than telling a delegate, having them come over to test the watch, and then go find another one.

Yes, one time at a comp the delegate forgot the stopwatches and all the kids had to borrow a phone to judge.

 

[Justincubes]

What is monotonic time

Taken straight from google:

A monotonic time is a time where we want to ensure that the difference between the begin and end of a given routine is perfectly measured in a unity.

So it just means that it has to be completely accurate and linear.

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

we used to use phones instead of stopwatch before, but now they switched

 

[AsherJ]

I always use https://inspection.cubing.net/

If you're using a phone, you need to be careful to use an app that uses monotonic time.

monotonic time?

 

[Lucas Garron]

What is monotonic time

This means that time is counted steadily upward: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Performance/now#performance.now_vs._date.now

By contrast, there are ways for apps to measure time that can jump forwards or backwards in time at some point. This can happen if your devices adjust its clock by a few seconds in the middle of timing (which is a common thing for most computers and phones to do). Most online cubing timers have had bugs that have affected actual users due to this.

It's not hard for modern apps to avoid this, but they have to make sure to call the right API (performance.now() in the case of web apps).

 

[Tabe]

It is not rare that when I am judging that the stopwatch is not working properly. Either it won’t start, turn on, or once, the plastic housing separated and a button fell out. In this case am I allowed to just use the one on my phone? I can’t possibly see how that could allow the solver to cheat,
And it is much faster than telling a delegate, having them come over to test the watch, and then go find another one.

Yes, you're allowed to use your phone. But "I don't wanna tell the delegate" should never be your reasoning to make a decision like that as a judge at a competition. You wouldn't want to make some other decision that screws a competitor because you didn't feel like talking to a delegate.

 

[1x1 wr holder!]

Yes, you're allowed to use your phone. But "I don't wanna tell the delegate" should never be your reasoning to make a decision like that as a judge at a competition. You wouldn't want to make some other decision that screws a competitor because you didn't feel like talking to a delegate.

100% agree. I'd definitely give them an fyi to check.