I am looking for peoples opinions on data acquisition devices for use during auto-x and HPDE events.

Traqmate and MaxQData seem to be the most popular. Are there any other systems.

I really do not want to link it to a camera, just to have the data available to review after I get off the track.

 

The sky is the limit here only limited by budget. On the inexpensive side is the Performance Box. Great tool and great price. I've been using a Racepak g2x going on 2 years now and frankly if I had to do it over again I'd have gone with other systems. The data is fine, the workflow to use the data sucks. More than once I've been tempted to toss it and pickup a Performance Box, it's a lot easier to use trackside.

Traqmate is really nice as well, Stack has some really neato displays if budget will allow. AiM has a GPS based logger that also plugs into the CAN bus, spendy but really nifty.

 

What data do you want to record?

I started with the camera positioned where it can see the speedo and tach. The speedo is easy, seeing the tach is a little more difficult, that's a pretty good start. I've been trying to use the iPhone to show gs, the iPhone is mounted so the camera can see it, so far with not much success.

There are iPhone aps which can record gs and GPS position, I've been experimenting with them, but the GPS on the iPhone sucks, it needs an external antenna. The other thing I'll want to do is tie up the video and the data from the iPhone, I'm not sure how I'll do that. That's pretty cheap because I have the iPhone already.

I'm also getting an OBD-II interface that the iPhone can read from (it connects via Wi-Fi), I'll see if that works for me.

 

Thanks gnatster, I had not heard of Performance Box. That looks interesting and the price is right.

Btwyx, I was thinking of recording lap times, speed, braking, acceleration, and lateral G-forces. If I could also get the actual line around a track that would be a plus.

 

You can get lap times from the camera by counting frames in your movie editor. That's what I do. As I said, I can get speed from the speedo in the camera frame.

If you have an iPhone (like I do), you can get the rest with the free ap "Rev Lite". The full Rev ap and the Wi-Fi ODB reader would also get you speed from the ECU (or any of a lot of other parameters.)

The iPhone ap "g-Tac pro" can also do all of that except lap times, but it relies on getting a good GPS signal to do speed and line, which I don't get. Its only set up to record one lap, but they say they're going to do multiple laps in future.

The ap "Track Day" is supposed to do lap timing, but I've never got a good enough GPS signal for it to work correctly.

 

I've Traqmate for a year now. Very easy system to use at the track and good data analysis SW. You can also do video integration all from the same SW(if you get the TraqStudio). In addition to the driving dynamic data, I also record my oil temp, oil pressure, water temp and boost.

You can check out some of my video/data integrated video here.

Highly recommend it.

 

I've been practicing with Rev and the OBD module, here's an example of the result: http://homepage.mac.com/barryt/.Movies/Qtest3.mov

I won't get to use that on the track until next month.

 

After see one of Btwyx Track Day video at Laguna Seca I went and ordered the KiWi WiFi OBD-II device. They were back ordered but are supposed to be shipping this week. Once I get the KiWi in, I download the Rev Ap.
Btwyx, is there anything currently within Rev that will indicate you lap times as they occur?

 

Not that I'm aware of. I avoid live lap timing, that will void the insurance.

Edit: There are several other aps which claim to do lap timing, I have Track Day which didn't work very well when I tried it. I suspect this is because the GPS sucks. There are also Harry's GPS Lap Timer and Track Stop Watch

 

I like that track...

What kind of street tires you running? Noisy but I like the humm they make.. Or am I hearing something else, like when your slowing a little going thru the chicane out back....

 

Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec. The track surface of Pacific Raceway the track in video is super rough so the tire noises are much louder than typical.

 

Here is a test run of my Innovate setup.

 

I use a traqmate myself. they seem to be the standard at most driving events and most races. you'll see some racers with stacks but they are way out of my range. with a stack you can add all kinds of inputs. with the traqmate you calkn really do down and dirty lap comparisons with someone elses laps. In my opinion this is how you learn and/or get better. If i can see where someone else is on/off the gas or brake where i'm not and they have a faster exit speed that's what i need to try to make my laps faster. The ability to zoom in on a specific track section with other peoples lap data vs. yours is a great tool for being a faster driver.

quick summery: you can make the same mistakes over and over and you don't know it til you see someone else faster than you with a new line. think about it like this... are you going to get better at basketball playing with people you're better than or will you get better playing with people that can bring you up to their level. just a thought.

 

That's a cool setup but I find it too busy looking at all the gauges..

Neat tho...

 

I've been using traqmate for a while. as with anything you need someone who's really good at it to show you the fine points of where you can pick up little tiny bits of time. But it's user friendly and I love it so far. I have issues with the software and overlaying onto video every now and then. It just claims not enough available memory and seems to be regardless of what computer I try it on.

 

Is there anything out there that can tap into an existing onboard GPS system, such as the OEM BMW system?

 

I have recently ordred the kiwi wifi and obd2 gauge from PLX Devices, I already have IPhone and have purchased the dashcommand and Rev applications, any Ideas as to Extra sensor set ups ect. Thanks

 

What would you find helpful? The things I find most helpful are the driver inputs, so I can work out what I'm doing. The ECU is giving me throttle position, and I can synthesize gear from speed and revs, and I can see steering angle by looking at the video. The thing I'm missing is a brake force sensor. I have to imply how hard I'm mashing the brake by the deceleration.

If you really want to get fancy you can get very fancy. A friend who races seriously (not MINIs) has ride height sensors to calculate downforce, and real time tire temperature arrays which help with suspension geometry.

 

My latest acquisition is a TomTom Car Kit for the iPhone. The main advantage of this is it provides much better GPS accuracy than the built in GPS. I still haven't had any luck playing with the GPS lap timers available though. One promising looking thing is Rev 2.0. It now has a "track day" mode where it records ECU parameters on a GPS track and can play them back or export them. It looks like this could be really useful with a the car kit, which also may provide a more stable mount than I've been using.

It looks like Rev 2.0 should also do lap timing, but it doesn't, you can manually hit the button to time a lap, not really very handy. The developers say they're looking into lap timing.

Now I need something to take the data exported from Rev (GPS + gs + ECU data) and do something interesting with it. I may have to write myself an ap, like I did with the data I'm currently using.

Here's an example movie of what I'm currently getting, this time at Infineon: http://btwyx.com/Movies/InfineonOctBesti.mov

 

Pretty cool.....

 

I posted this over in the Photography and Video section, but it seems directly applicable to this thread, so I'll re-post it here:

I've been looking for some kind of simple in-car solution for video and datalogging at the track for several years. My wish list looks like this...

• Solid-state video recorder (no tapes or discs)
• Multi-camera
• Integrated hardware
• GPS speed/position logging
• OBD II data input
• Easy to set up and use

For a long time I couldn't really find a package that would do all this. Some of the products COULD do it, but they were not well-integrated, and/or the video overlay process was cumbersome and time-consuming.

Then I went to Audi School (see this thread for my report on that), and I got to keep an on-track DVD of my own driving that was very cool. I started looking for the manufacturer of the hardware the Audi school uses, and found that they were right in the same town as my shop! Woot!

One thing led to another, and we got a Race-Keeper package bolted into our track car. (Sorry, it's not my MINI.) We used it for a two-day track event a couple of weeks ago, and I was delighted. It was very simple to install -- took about 20 minutes. It checks off all my wish-list items, and the software is easy to use. We even set it to automatically switch recording on when the car is rolling, and off when the car is stationary.



It got to where we were getting back to the pits, immediately popping the CF card into the laptop sitting on the roof of the car, and watching the laps we just did, minutes after getting off the track. We had a crowd gathered a few times. And of course there were TWO of us driving, so we've had a lot of interesting discussions about our two different driving styles.

So anyway, I really like the system, and we've picked up the product as something we're going to sell. But I'm just happy that finally someone put a video recorder/logger that's all integrated and isn't a bunch of piled-together pieces that are messy/difficult to use.

Here's a one-lap video I took. This is me driving at Summit Point, WV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2_nYfS1Cc

If you want more information about Race-Keeper, find it HERE.

Thanks,

Dan
Mach V

 

Hi Mach V Dan,

With the OBD2 input of Race-Keeper. Which data stream are you collecting through OBD2?

Thanks

 

I've been contemplating which system to go with as well. Traqmate is definitely one of the top ones out there in my opinion as I have seen the results from Pure13 after a number of track days. However, another option I found out there is from R.L.C. Racing. http://rlcracing.com/track-commander.htm It has a great display and is compatible with ChaseCam's video system if you want complete video integration without having to worry about syncing video and data. Has anybody had any experience with them? I know Grassroots Motorsports had an article recently about it and are using it in their MINI project club racer.

 

It gets throttle position, RPM, and vehicle speed.

--Dan
Mach V

 

They are also coming out with a fairly nice lap timer display using an iPod Touch or iPhone including being able to set start/finish as well as showing current RPM's, along with changing the background color based on RPM's, i.e. yellow when you are getting close to your programmed shift point and then red when you are at your programmed shift point.

A race shop near my has also recently started carrying it, they demoed it at a recent track day. I was pretty impressed and will probably be purchasing one in the near future.