Trackaroo Trackmaster questions/advice

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Jul 02, 2013 2:09 pm

I am going to be spending all day at the Nurburgring in a track car on the 13th of this month. In addition to a GoPro camera, I just recently bought the Trackmaster application so that I can do some data logging. Ultimately I am more interested in speed and timing values. I am less interested in G-circle, or accurate track overlay. I am likely to use the GPS on the phone (Google Nexus 4) and not an external bluetooth GPS receiver.

I have a few questions about using trackmaster and I am also looking for tips and suggestions.

Questions...

1. What do people do to mount their phone? Given I am not particularly interested in acceleration data I am thinking I really don't have to worry about the position it is mounted. I am thinking more about being able to access it while in the driver seat, having a good view of the sky and I don't want it to roll around the car. Any suggestions for mounting? I know I can do a windshield suction clamp, and maybe that is the best thing, but I am trying to travel light. I will already have a suction mount for the GoPro. As it is a rental car it is a big unpredictable as to what my mounting options might be.

2. Is there a way to force, or change the schedule for syncs to MyTrackmaster.com? I did a test drive around the neighborhood this morning and have two sessions on the phone right now, but it looks like it has it's own schedule for doing a sync. If I go into Sync settings, it says the last sync was on 7/2 2:50 AM and that the next sync will be on 7/2 8:50 AM. Both are in the past (?!) and while I see some of my data on MyTrackmasters.com (vehical setup), I don't see any session data. The two sessions were created at around 8:30 AM, however I didn't have network access at that time or until later in the day so the app wouldn't have been able to synch until around 9 AM or a bit later.

3. Given that a lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife during tourist days is not a true lap (you have to pull into pit each lap), I can't set it to do continuous laps. Rather I have to trigger the start some other way. I am also curious about capturing my "bridge to gantry" time (time from a "bridge" over the track near the start to a "gantry" over the track near the end). I can set segment times with the bridge and gantry being the start/end using google maps, but I am a bit concerned about given the potential for GPS error that it may not really trigger at the right places. So I might put a short segment between pit exit and bridge and between gantry and pit entrance. The entire point of this is that I ultimately plan to sync up the data capture with the GoPro video (and using some video overlay software) show a complete lap with accurate (relatively) BTG timing. I suspect that I might have to chop the head and tail off the raw data when I feed this into the overlay software. Anyone have experience with doing something like this?

Lastly, I am curious about any general comments, tips or tricks that I should be aware of regarding Trackmaster.

Richard

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Using the internal GPS will just give you a general lap time idea that is +/- 2 seconds, everything else is garbage. If you just want to do it on the cheap, just start the app to start recording at the first pass of the split marker, and just put it in your pocket.

This is what laps look like at 1Hz: http://www.mytrackmaster.com/#SessionEd ... lvbhjh1AMM

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Jul 02, 2013 4:00 pm

Thanks for the reply. I saw another thread (maybe yours?) that talked about the sampling frequency and issues around that. But right now I just can't justify buying the external bluetooth. Especially as I just bought two new unlocked smart phones, two new cameras (GoPro and point an shoot), hotel rooms in London are crazy expensive, etc.

Regarding my "sync" issues. It appears that the app on the phone is on a 6 hr sync schedule and short of maybe doing a shutdown/restart (which I haven't tried yet) there is no way to force a sync. It ended up syncing at around 2:30 PM and it did upload my two laps around my neighborhood.

If I was to try to capture X,Y acceleration, is there a cheap way to lock down the phone short of a window suction mount?

Richard

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

I mounted my phone on the dash, and it said I was pulling 1.4Gs of acceleration with the external GPS. I don't trust the accelerometer at all.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

For something to be accurate for speed I think you want a suction cup mount. Or at the very least, bring a couple of zipties to mount the phone to the dash vents.

Considering you'll be touring and probably using the GPS, I'd suck it up and bring a mount. I always travel with my Arkon 410 and dash vent clips. Has fit every rental car I've had. Arkon comes with a suction mount too, which is more sturdy.

http://www.amazon.com/Arkon-SM410-Unive ... =arkon+410

I have one of these in every car, and have run VIR with it with a suction cup windshield mount running Racechrono.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:37 pm

Ok, I just ordered the Arkon mount. Amazon Prime is my friend.

I REALLY hope to have some great video to show when I get back.

Richard

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