On my last Olympic my timing chip died during the run. The timer showed me his log file and you could see how the chip signals were already really faint at the start, kept getting weaker through the swim and bike, and then died during the run.
I’m curious how common that is. They told me it was a 1-in-1000 thing, and couldn’t really happen because they checked signal strength of all the chips prior to the race. Have you ever experienced chip failure?
It depends on the type of timing chip. Certain kinds have a battery in them and actively send out a signal to the timing sensors, and the batteries in those can die. Usually they give an error message well before they “die” so that they get removed from service before being re-assigned. At one race I help distribute that type of chip and came across many dying batteries…
They don’t use the other type of timing chips? The ones that require no batteries?
There are pros and cons to both types of chips…for example, the ones with batteries are used by the Olympics, the TdF, NASCAR, etc. ChampionChip, which does not have internal batteries, are more popular for road running races though.