Colorado Time Systems Otter Scoreboards

Otter is a line of LED numeric scoreboards from Colorado Time Systems (CTS) built around a 2.4 GHz radio, so that a board can take its data over the air rather than over a cable from the timing console. Boards are made for swimming, diving and water polo, in an aluminium case with plastic covers over the digits, and can be installed indoors or out.¹²

What sets the line apart from the LED-R boards is that the radio is part of the board: the antenna is a certified patch mounted inside the case, where it cannot be knocked about.¹² A swimming board can therefore be driven straight from a Dolphin wireless watch system with no external adapter, which is the arrangement the Dolphin article describes.¹

Role in the timing system¶

An Otter board is a display, as every numeric board is, and the shared background on that is on the scoreboards overview. Two things here are its own. It takes data from more kinds of source than a cabled board can, whether a CTS console over a cable or over the air, a Dolphin system directly, or a RoadRunner timing system on the track version.¹² It also sets its own brightness, from light sensors spread across the face.¹

Only one source may be feeding a board at a time. CTS sets the precedence: a console wired to the board overrides anything arriving by radio, and Dolphin or RoadRunner data overrides data sent through a wireless adapter.¹

Naming and models¶

The Otter name appears in the guides only in passing. Both cover pages describe the product by function, as a scoreboard with 2.4 GHz integrated wireless, and both identify it as a multiline scoreboard; the model numbers carry an MS prefix to match.¹²

Variant	Guide	Model numbers
Swimming and track	F1004	MS-0149 to MS-0152, MS-0155 to MS-0157
Diving	F995	MS-0111 to MS-0113, MS-0165, MS-0167
Water polo	None published	Not stated

Swimming boards come in 5, 6, 8 and 10 lane widths.³ Diving boards are built for 3, 5, 7 or 11 judges, and show the diver and running total, the difficulty, the dive number and the round, with the larger models adding an award, a leading diver, or the top three divers with their totals.⁴ CTS’s diving product page lists a partly different set of model numbers from the guide, including two PA numbers it does not explain, and omits two of the guide’s; neither source accounts for the difference.⁴²

The water polo boards are the loose end. CTS advertised them in 2015 alongside the swimming and diving versions, with the same 2.4 GHz scoring, and listed a wired option from a System 6 and an optional external horn.⁵ The manuals index carries no Otter water polo guide today.⁶

Wireless operation¶

Every board holds a wireless scoreboard adapter and is addressed by a channel and a PAN ID. The transmitter and the board must agree on both. Channels 0 to 11 and PAN IDs 0 to 15 are valid, and both are set on one bank of DIP switches, the first four positions for the channel and the last four for the PAN, on the board CTS calls control board A. A second switch bank on the same board is not to be touched, because the display stops working properly if it is.¹²

Reaching those switches means taking the end cap off one side and sliding out the second weather cover; on a diving board the digits over the control board come off as well. CTS advises setting channel and PAN before the board goes up on the wall.¹²

Factory defaults differ by what the board is expected to talk to. The internal adapter ships on channel 7, which is what a Dolphin base or a RoadRunner PCIF is matched to; for a Gen7 timer the board’s default is channel 6 with PAN 0, and the same pair is the default for a WA-2 adapter driving a swimming board. A diving board leaves the factory on channel 8 with PAN 0.¹² Where a console has no radio of its own, a WA-2 or WA-3 adapter provides one.¹²

Power-on routine¶

A board tells the operator how it is configured every time it starts. It lights its LEDs, shows each digit’s location number, then its firmware version, then cycles at least three times through its address, channel and PAN, written in the form A01, C08, P00. On a swimming board the sequence runs on lanes 1, 4 and 7; on a diving board it runs on the top line and the first two judges’ digits.¹²

One code is worth knowing: Err1 means the coin cell on the main control board is nearly flat and wants replacing with a CR1632, CTS part R-420-014.¹²

Ambient light sensors¶

The boards carry several light sensors rather than one, so that a shadow falling across part of a board does not dim all of it. The count depends on the board’s size, and each sensor governs a block of the display: the topmost, to the right of lane 1, covers lanes 1 to 3 and the event and heat line; the sensor by lane 5 covers lanes 4 to 6; the one by lane 7 covers lanes 7 to 9; and the one by lane 9 covers lane 10.¹

The feature is switched on from the console rather than on the board. On a Gen7 it is a setting on the scoreboard tab of the swimming software; on a System 6 it is reached through the hardware page of the swimming setups, where an intensity value of 2 hands control to the sensors and any higher value takes it back.¹

Installation¶

CTS ships a mounting kit chosen for where the board is going, and lists three: MK-21 and MK-21-CAFL for a wall, MK-22 for a pole, and MK-23 and MK-23-CAFL for a corner.¹² The company’s own marketing adds a portable caddy and a vertical beam to the list of places a swimming board can hang, and says boards ship in one piece.³⁴

The rest is the facility’s responsibility. A structural engineer signs off on whatever the board hangs from, the owner answers for local electrical and building codes, an outdoor board needs a receptacle rated for the weather, and the disconnect switch goes where the National Electrical Code says. Dimensions, attachment points and weights come from installation drawings on the CTS website rather than from the guides, and the board is not to be connected to live power while it is being put up.¹²

Cabling has its own rules. Runs are supported at least every 6 ft, or every 3 ft where conduit is used, and are never spliced. An RS-485 cable is not bent tighter than a 1.2 in radius, an RS-232 cable not tighter than 1.0 in.¹

Connections and time of day¶

Both jacks sit on the underside of the board. A Gen7 timer connects to the quarter-inch RS-485 jack with an R-015-674-xx cable; an older console connects to the quarter-inch RS-232 jack with an R-xxDC cable.¹²

A board with nothing to show falls back to the clock. After 30 seconds without data it displays the time of day in lane 1, taken from the console: a Gen7 passes on the time from its laptop, and a System 5 or System 6 sends it over RS-232 or through a WA-2 or WA-3. The time-of-day scoreboard module has to be left at its default definition, 16, for this to work.¹

Where several boards and clocks share a channel and PAN, one is made the leader and the rest followers, after which the leader distributes the time to them. The designation is made from a computer, through a CTS firmware utility, with a wireless adapter or a tabletop controller attached; a board shows Lead or FOLL for a few seconds as it is set. The time can also come from a controller rather than a console: a tabletop WTTC-1 or a handheld WHC-1 overrides the leader and every follower.¹

Specifications¶

Type	Wireless LED numeric scoreboard
Digit height	5 in (12.7 cm), red4
Enclosure	Powder-coated aluminium with plastic digit covers13
Radio	2.4 GHz, internal certified patch antenna12
Channels	0 to 11, with PAN IDs 0 to 1512
Power	320 W supply, 100–240 V at 50/60 Hz, 4 A maximum12
Diving board sizes	4 ft to 5 ft 10 in high, 3 ft 5 in to 4 ft wide, about 4.25 in deep; 50–70 lb4
Ingress protection	IP231
Safety and emissions	ANSI/UL 48; CAN/CSA C22.2 #207; FCC 47 CFR 15 Subpart B Class A; ICES-00312
Backup battery	CR1632 coin cell, CTS R-420-01412
Status	Current6

Part numbers and accessories¶

• Swimming and track boards, MS-0149 to MS-0152 and MS-0155 to MS-0157; diving boards, MS-0111 to MS-0113, MS-0165 and MS-0167.¹²
• MK-21 and MK-21-CAFL wall mounting kits, MK-22 pole kit, MK-23 and MK-23-CAFL corner kit, each shipped separately from the board.¹²
• R-015-674-xx, the RS-485 cable from a Gen7 timer, and R-xxDC, the RS-232 cable from an older console.¹
• R-420-014, the CR1632 coin cell on the main control board.¹²
• A WA-2 or WA-3 wireless adapter, where the console has no radio of its own.¹²

See also¶

• Scoreboards: the shared overview of numeric, matrix and video boards
• LED-R and the mini LED scoreboard: the cabled numeric lines
• Dolphin Wireless Stopwatch Timing System: the watch system a swimming board displays without an external adapter
• WA-2 and WA-3: the adapters that give an older console a radio
• Colorado Time Systems: the manufacturer

See everything tagged Scoring.

References¶

Footnotes¶

1. Colorado Time Systems, Scoreboard for Swimming & Track With 2.4 GHz Integrated Wireless, Installation and User Guide (F1004 Rev. 202605, ©2026). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷ ↩²⁸ ↩²⁹ ↩³⁰ ↩³¹ ↩³² ↩³³

2. Colorado Time Systems, Diving Scoreboard With 2.4 GHz Integrated Wireless, Installation and User Guide (F995 Rev. 202605, ©2026). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³

3. Colorado Time Systems, Benefits of the Otter Electronic Scoreboards for Swimming (CTS marketing copy: lane options, enclosure, mounting). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Colorado Time Systems, Otter Diving Scoreboards (judge counts, what the boards display, sizes, weights and model numbers). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. Colorado Time Systems, Complete Timing, Scoring, Training and Display Solutions catalogue (2015), Numeric Scoreboards section. ↩

6. Colorado Time Systems, Manuals (Otter Diving Scoreboard User Guide F995; Otter Scoreboard for Swimming & Track User Guide F1004; no Otter water polo entry). ↩ ↩²