Saw this at a tradeshow today: http://www.flir.com/flirone/explore/

I immediately thought about using it for checking tire temps at track days. They said $350, shipping in June. Android version is in development.

 

IR and thermal imaging are two different things.... IR does not show heat

 

why not just use a non contact thermometer? They are accurate to a tenth of a degree and cost much less than a FLIR

Um, no, FLIR = Forward Looking Infra Red......thermal imaging uses the IR radiation (heat) coming off an object to construct an image....

 

I don't see any mention of price anywhere on that.

You can already get a low rez IR camera for your iPhone. I've used it to check tire temps. Its a bit flaky though.

 

Their press release is saying "under $350", so expect it at $349.

 

The thermally emitted radiation of an object does tell you its temperature. And objects at temperatures you normally come across are emitting IR.

 

Yes, I had seen your post about that a while back, and thought about building it. I certainly have the skills and tools to deal with DIY HW and SW. But your report on it being flaky put me off, and it looks like it is currently sold out. Price on the website is $160.

Anyway, FLIR is a great company with quality products, and after playing with the FLIRone I was impressed. I'm waiting for the Android version.

 

The problem with the non-contact IR thermometers is that while you might think you're getting the temperature at the point where that little laser dot is, you're actually getting an average temperature across a much wider area that depends on how far away you are from what you're measuring. It's a cone - at a few inches distance the area is maybe the size of a dime, at 10 feet it will be a circle foot or more in diameter. It depends on the lens in the device. So they are useful for getting an overall reading, but not for showing the gradation over a surface.

Btwyx's picture shows why a thermal image is of interest. Also if you watched any Formula 1 last season, there were a few races where they had IR cameras in the cars and showed how the tires heated and cooled in real time, you could see the outside edge heating up first and to the highest temperature.

I admit, this is only for people who are OCD or gadget geeks. (Guilty on both)

 

I have both an IR pyrometer (ie non contact thermometer) and the IR camera. If the IR camera worked, it'd be a lot easier than the pyrometer to get tyre temperature profiles, which is basically what I'm looking for. With the camera you can just look at it and get a pertty good guess as to the profile, takes 10 seconds. With the IR pyrometer you have to take several readings, I take 4 or 5 per tire, which takes about a minute. Then you have to interpret them. Its easiest to see the profile on a graph and transcribing the numbers into suitable software (like Excel) takes another few minutes. Multiply that by 4 tires and its difficult to do under time constraints, like between autocross runs.

I've been using the pyrometer because the IR camera is so flaky, but its not convenient.

 

Thermometer (penetrating probe is way more accurate, BTW), will only show you tire temps after the last turn before you stopped. Interesting, but not all that helpful. A real-time camera, in theory, would show temperature changes and ranges throughout the course.

On the other hand, what are you actually going to do with this information? If you are not prepared to change suspension settings at the event, between runs, this is all extremely cool data-overkill

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Tire pressure changes between runs / lap sessions are easy. Camber changes too assuming camber plates.

My first track day in the R56 the tire expert guy said "do this" and I didn't get any explanation why. It was probably optimized for keeping a newb out of trouble rather than performance. Second track day I did some experimentation but didn't have any data other than the seat of my pants to evaluate if it was better or not. The way I look at it, with all the real time datalogging available using my cellphone and an OBD2-BT adapter, and cheap IR cameras becoming available, why not? These are capabilities that not too many years ago only the top racing teams could afford, but on a beer budget.

 

A friend who races (not MINIs) has IR sensors recording his tire temps (3 for each tire) in real time feeding into his data system. Its very helpful for him to optimise his setup, and he does change his suspension between sessions. I'd like a system like that.

 

i like this feature...

"Play Hide and Seek like never before."


oh, wait a minute....