Data loggers who, what

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:37 pm

Who here has a data logger they are using?
Post model, GPS? how long you have had it, proficiency with it.
I'd be willing to host a get together to share information, but we'd need someone with more experience than I to lead the group.

Us:
DL1 w/GPS
just got it
complete novice

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 2:42 pm

MaxQData
Had it about 1 month and have used it at 1 event
Complete novice

The only thing that I have found out so far is:

I need a better mount for the Pocket PC
I had a max speed of 56.1 mph on my 3 run on Sunday
and my speedometer in the Miata is about 5mph off.

Methinks Jim F is the guru that can shed some light here.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 3:55 pm

Traqmate
Bought it in spring of 2006
Intermediate user...but have never yet used it for autocross purposes

There's actually a handful of folks over on rr-ax.com with considerable experience using data loggers. Kirk Knestis (DL-1), Jeremy Lucas (DL-1), Scott Giles (Traqmate). I think there's some MaxQ users over there too.

At the events Eric's driving my car at, I'm hoping to get some usefulness out of the Traqmate. Data acquisition, once you've learned some of the basics, is a seriously powerful learning tool. I can't wait to use it at the Evolution Extreme school.

DickRasmussen · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:41 pm

GEEZ since 1998 for AFTER event run analysis (with or without codriver). Useful tool for comparing segments, whether a shift helped or not, etc.

G Analyst prior to GEEZ.

Recording Stack tach for guick "do I shift" decisions between runs.

Considering MaxQdata for when I get active again but suspect that for me there really won't be enough "free time" between runs. Plus given my years of experience I usually know where I can "execute" better (i.e. everywhere

) as I learn the course and what the car can do.

"Technique" comparisons are usually something I save for practice events.

Ditto for chassis setup decisions since there are too many variables in a typical event (not the least of which are course cleanliness, tire temp, and driver learning curve)

Dick
CM 85 (new slicks on order for Greenville!!!!

)

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:45 pm

Racepak G2X
Had it close to a year.

Been in Adam's car most of that time. Might have to put it in the Subaru for the next rallyx just so I can play with it.

Total n00b when it comes to reading the data.

Ash Nelson · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:17 pm

Are you guys picking these data loggers up online, or locally, through the club, or what?

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:40 pm

Traqmate-got it @ Christmas. Bernie got some sessions at VIR in Feb and we used it at NCR and L’burg.
Complete novice at more than just the obvious results. We’re studying the manual. Open for all the help we can get.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:41 pm

Adam and I got ours through our website. RacePak is one of our advertisers. But I think that most have bought them from the web.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:55 pm

Todd Breakey wrote:

Racepak G2X

I looked real long and hard at the G2X. Very nice system, and I talked with their guy at length about it. In the end, the Traqmate won me over mostly because of the local support. Glenn, the company owner, races in SeDiv with us and is literally right down the paddock if I've got a question. The Traqmate is also dead nuts simple to use, IMO anyway.

Ash, I bought mine through a buddy who got a dealership thing going with Traqmate.

Hey Gwen - one thing I strongly recommend to get your feet wet with the Traqmate is to go to their website, and download some of the data files that other people have uploaded. Then you can play with data other than your own. Lots of data files out there for Road Atlanta, so you could concievably lay an ITA car over top of a SM, and so on.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:59 pm

Ash Nelson wrote:

Are you guys picking these data loggers up online, or locally, through the club, or what?

Bought mine direct from MaxQData. Got my Pocket PC from ebay.

Ash Nelson · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:15 pm

Karl Shultz wrote:

Ash, I bought mine through a buddy who got a dealership thing going with Traqmate.

Looking at the Traqmate website it seems you can hook up the tach to the thing. Does your friend offer installation?

Does the Traqmate use a PocketPC? I can't tell from the site... I have a PocketPC that I don't mind dedicating to this.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:15 pm

DL-1 for autocross and two AiM systems for the road race cars. I've used a Traqmate for road race when I have rented from OPM (several times) and have used a Geez cube in the past.

IMHO, the DL-1 is superior to the Traqmate, but in a lot of ways that a lot of people may not care about, particularly for autocross. I'm not sure it's worth the extra cost for most, but it's additional inputs and more extensive software are really nice if you're into looking at more than just driving. I believe the best value for the money for autocrossers is probably the MaxQData, though. I haven't seen one, but from what I've read and heard it sounds really well done.

Dick, apparently you'd be surprised just how easy it is to look and compare segment times and line choice with the MaxQData between runs. I *could* do it with the DL-1, but it would be a little more of a rush and fiddling to be pulling the data card, copying files, loading up, etc. With the MaxQData you are storing to the PDA anyway, so you just grab it and start looking at data. (You can even store straight to a laptop in the car for even more in depth analysis, but that's got the obvious drawback of having to strap a laptop down safely somewhere.)

--Donnie

JamesFeinberg · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:41 pm

I have a DL-1 I picked up just before the first RallyX of the season. I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert but I am a huge nerd (don't tell anyone!) and have a fair bit of experience with much older/cruder systems along with some home-built stuff.

The feature set is what attracted me to the DL-1. It had a combination of features that were hard to match in the other products and coupled with the recent upgrade to 10Hz GPS data, it was hard to resist. While the software is one of the biggest positives of the package, it is also clear that it was written by a bunch of engineers. That may be good or bad depending on your perspective but it definitely isn't the most intuitive package if you don't think like an engineer. It could use some key feature enhancements and it crashes more than I'd like but it is definitely usable and very useful.

I have zero experience with the other products mentioned here but I'd be willing to help out however I can if somebody is having trouble interpreting their data. While I'm an amateur at data analysis, I'm an expert at waving my hands around and making stuff up!

Edit: I bought mine directly from the factory but if I had to do it over again, I would have gone through Jeremy @ FastTech mentioned above.

Jim

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:23 am

Ash Nelson wrote:

Looking at the Traqmate website it seems you can hook up the tach to the thing. Does your friend offer installation?

Does the Traqmate use a PocketPC? I can't tell from the site... I have a PocketPC that I don't mind dedicating to this.

Scott lives in the Cincinnati area now, so even if he does do installs, he's not exactly local. To my knowledge, he's never played with any of the stuff that gets an input from the tach.

Traqmate does not use a pocket PC - all the data is stored on the "display," which you then plug into a USB port on a PC running the Traqview software, and everything just sort of works. IIRC you're limited to something like 10 hours of data stored at one time.

Back in the day before honda-tech.com's road racing forum imploded, there was a lot of good discussion. Links:

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1316991

Post-implosion:
http://www.roadrace-autox.com/bbs/forum ... ightmode=1

Gwen Habenicht · **Posted:** Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:43 am

Ash Nelson wrote:

Looking at the Traqmate website it seems you can hook up the tach to the thing. Does your friend offer installation?

For what we're using it for the install is a no brainer. Make sure the unit is level and secure, plug in to cig lighter, attach display unit and attach antenna. Poof, you're good. We take our laptop to download data if the unit is full. So far, we've not had to download @ an autoX. ( I downloaded data @ VIR from each session while Bernie was in class.) For hooking up to tach you'll need the add ons, extra cable, understanding of your ignition and your tach, etc.

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