Garys program and excel

[BlueBoy]

Can anyone give me any advie in the following area

I am getting to grips with the excel link using VBA modules in my workbooks. One of the issues I have is that if I have more than two pages open in BA I start to have problems - a bet will be stuck with PENDING in the bet ref on excel. Also the list of runners in BA will start jump to another page ran randomly.

Is there a practical limit to the number of pages I should have open in BA

Is it better to have two sessions of BA running at once.

Should I have one workbook with all my worksheets in it or a seperate workbook for each sheet.

As regards refresh rate will the link run more reliably with a slower refresh rate

Any Help would be appreciated.

[bolpx001]

I usually will have up to 12 pages open in BA and each page will log to an individual excel sheet. The excel file runs a VBA macro is triggered by changes in 6 of the 12 sheets. If I wanted I suspect I could monitor all 12 sheets in excel. I have in the past as tests run two copies of BA updating each one updating 6 sheets in the same excel file with no problems. The only issues I have found with the software is that my internet bandwidth usage is through the roof and sometimes betfair returns and unexpected code and my bets don't bet backed or layed. It is not a serious issue but it is annoying. I am trying to figure a way around the problems but my efforts so far have been unsuccessful. All in all I am delighted with the software, it is excellent.
Hope this helps
paul

[BlueBoy]

bolpx001

Thanks for your response. I am glad to hear the program would appear to handle the sort of data I would like to throw at it although I have not yet overcome my problems in this area.

I seem to get a lot of the unexpected errors you refer to.

Despite my problems I agree with you that the software is excellent.

Thanks again

[bolpx001]

Hi BlueBoy

sometimes betfair returns and unexpected code and my bets don't bet backed or layed. It is not a serious issue but it is annoying.

I think I have identified the cause of this. As far as I can see the BA and Betfair cannot handle certain combinations of odds and odd pence. In order to isolate my different types of bet I add different pence amounts to the bet so I might end up with say 25.53 bet on leggs11 in the 2:30 The 25 pound part is the bet, the 50pence refers to the betting bank and the 3 refers to the method of bet selection. I don’t thing BA and Betfair can handle the 53 pence bit for certain odds.
Hope this helps
Paul

[bolpx001]

The other thing to watch if you are throwing a lot of data at it is bandwidth of your broadband connection.
Paul

[BlueBoy]

hello bolpx001

Thanks again for the response. I have been aware of problems mentioned in past threads re odds not being handled properly - my own programs calculate odds and could potentially fall foul of this.

I think I read a comment from gary that his sofware now handles these situations - I hope he may see these post and make a comment.

I do place bets with odd pence in the stake so I will monitor the occasions when problems occur to see if there is a link

As regards bandwidth I probably do make a lot of use but I dont know exactly how much and at what point you reach critical levels


Cheers

[markw996]

Can you give an example of a particular stake & odds that BA won't accept?

Mark

[bolpx001]

I changed all my bets to whole numbers but am still getting "Error Placing Bet - Unexpected response from Server" And it is driving me crazy. I suspect my original theory was wrong
Paul

[GeorgeUK]

There have been some problems using round() in excel. What about using roundup or down?

Could this be the problem?

[markw996]

bolpx001,

When you get the error, try formatting the cell with the stake in it (p column) to a number with 20 decimal places.
That will tell you whether or not it's a rounding problem.

Mark

[bolpx001]

I doubt it is a rounding problem as I use VBA for nearly everyting including populating the cells in excel. My betting amounts are hard-coded at the start of the routine. I will however check this out, as suggested, and report back.
Paul

[BlueBoy]

bolpx001

It sounds as though we are troubleshooting similar problems. Although I havent any definitive answers I would make the following points

1. Do your problems increase the more markets you have open in BA?

2. Do they increase if a market has a large number of selections e.g a golf tournament as opposed to a soccer match?

3. Does increasing the refresh rate have any effect ?

I see my problems when 1 and/or 2 are present

On another point - in your VBA routines are you aware of the way BA sends data to excel and accounting for this in your chage_event routines etc.. This has been mentioned on previous threads. You may be aware of this but if not you can find your vba spending lots of time doing unnnecesary processing.

I hope there is something of use in the above - if we keep plugging away at this we will hopefully find a solution before we do our 'eads in.

Maybe other forumites or gary will see this and come up with the magic bullit.

Cheers

[Dai_Young]

Blueboy -- Like you I only get the 'unexpected response from server' error in large markets (Newcastle manager, golf outrights) and then only very occasionally. The problem seems to get worse at busier times of the day (mid-afternoon on Saturday for example) therefore I still believe it to stem from difficulties with betfair servers first identified around 2/3 months ago after the 'colours' upgrade.

When I get the unexpected response message my bets are still going into the market but I am left with PENDING messages in the bet ref column, is that everybody elses experience? I've played around with the refresh rate and that doesn't seem to make any difference.

Having said all that I do believe the problems have gradually eased during the past month. For instance I ran a triggered betting sheet on the US golf win market (140 odd runners) last week and didn't encounter a single 'unexpected response' error.

[markw996]

Hi, I'm glad it's not just me with the PENDING errors then!
It happens to me 2 or 3 times a day (I think more so when stakes are under £2.00) even though I ONLY ever have one tab in BA open at any one time....

I got mixed up and thought you had rounding problems as I never bother look at the error messages within BA
(just the effects of them my spreadsheets)

When I get the unexpected response message my bets are still going into the market but I am left with PENDING messages in the bet ref column, is that everybody elses experience?

My experience is that my bets don't actually get through to the market, although I better check on this asap!

I have been forced to add a separate routine into my autotrading spreadsheet that checks the Bet Time in the R column and compares it with the actual time in cell C2. Every time the spreadsheet calculates, If Q column is PENDING and C2 is 5 seconds more than R column, then it clears the Bet Ref & the Bet Time (effectively re-placing the bet).

Annoying because I can often lose out on 5 seconds of all important action in a fast moving market, but at least I can be fairly assured that my trades always get closed out

As a side note, what is the maximum amount of time people find that BA takes to place a bet? i.e. would it be safe to reduce my calculation to 3 seconds instead?

Mark

[markw996]

My experience is that my bets don't actually get through to the market, although I better check on this asap!

Funnily enough, it's just happened not 20 minutes later in the 16:05 at Epsom!

My bets DEFINATELY do not get through to the market when this error occurs

Mark