Data Logger Questions

Jeremy Ellison · **Joined:** Fri May 13, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 186

So I'm thinking about investing in a data logger for autocross. I've started noticing that what "feels faster" doesn't always show up as such on the clock. I investigated some of the smartphone based ones (even tried logging the data of the iPhone myself) and they are hopelessly imprecise. I'm currently looking at the DL1 by Race Technology, but was wondering if anyone had any feedback/thoughts on a good (cost effective) data logger. I'd like to be able to check out their software before purchasing too, but I don't see any sample data on their site, which I found kind of strange.

I guess my question is, if I get the base model DL1, and plug in the ODB2 interface, is this enough to get me started? Will I regret not getting the more accurate GPS or the live processing model, or other features in 6 months? Is there another, significantly more awesome, data logger I should be looking at?

Also, are there any that work with OS X? I've pretty much resigned myself to dual booting into windows for analysis, but if this isn't the case, that would be awesome.

In other news, I took home the win in STR at the TSCC event on sunday

my first open class win!

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 2:06 pm

We have a club sponsor, Marty Howard, who has his own datalogging software/hardware that you might want to look into. RaceChrono:

http://www.mh-motorsports.com/

Gwen/Chris/Keith have used it so they may be able to chime in

. The demo was awesome and is what I will likely be getting when I pull the trigger.

By the way.....do an Evo school. You will very quickly find that what feels fast is infrequently what is fast on the clock

.

Jeremy Ellison · **Joined:** Fri May 13, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 186

Thanks. I'll definitely check out Marty's RaceChrono. I hadn't come across it in my searches but it looks very cool. Being able to do analysis on the device would be neat. I like the idea of "try before you buy" that he offers by renting them out for a week or 2. Seems like a very good sales tactic. My only concern is that from what I can tell, it is GPS does not have/come with an accelerometer, so i'd be a little concerned about how well it translates from a track to the much smaller, tighter, corners of autocross. Maybe someone who's used one can chime in here?

I eventually found some test data for the DL1 and it looks like there is a bunch of recordings on Marty's site for the RaceChrono, so I should be able to get a feel for the software and data they both record.

Turns out they are doing an Evo school at the end of the month in VA. I'd love to go, just need to see if I can make it fit my schedule. I've got the itch, now I just wanna go faster

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:45 pm

RaceChrono does have a bluetooth accelerometer if I'm not mistaken.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Tue Jul 12, 2011 9:48 pm

Nevermind, the GPS takes 3 data points (at the given sampling interval) and calculates the approximate instantaneous radius of curvature and using that and the translational velocity can determine the centripetal acceleration.

As accurate the GPS is, this calculation is damn sufficient

.

Stacy King · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:01 am

For the money, it's hard to beat Marty's RaceChrono stuff. Very easy to set up and use, and Marty's personalized service goes a long way in value as well.

You don't get the polish, eye-candy, and some of the features that you would from say, a Traqmate, but you're also talking a significant difference in price. The RaceChrono has some convenience features that others don't have as well... portability, no wires, multi-function touch-screen display, etc.

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:03 am

glad this has been brought up cause I def need something like this for "frank"

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:34 pm

If you have an iphone/Ipod touch, there is Harry's Lap Timer. $15 for teh app and $80 for a 10hz GPS and soup

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

Ryan Holton wrote:

If you have an iphone/Ipod touch, there is Harry's Lap Timer. $15 for teh app and $80 for a 10hz GPS and soup

When it works

- I still need to debug mine some more.

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 4:46 pm

dont tell my wife she says i should have got a iphone anyway over my droid and this just makes it that much more so....

Jeremy Ellison · **Joined:** Fri May 13, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 186

Ryan Holton wrote:

If you have an iphone/Ipod touch, there is Harry's Lap Timer. $15 for teh app and $80 for a 10hz GPS and soup

Woah, hadn't seen that one. Looks like if you jailbreak you can use the same bluetooth GPS as Marty's setup uses. May have to look into this as I am most likely switching to an iphone 4 at least for the time being. Has anyone that has used this had good success with it? The idea of analyzing it on the iPad seems kind of cool..

jeremy gast wrote:

dont tell my wife she says i should have got a iphone anyway over my droid and this just makes it that much more so....

Seems like because it supports bluetooth out of the box (not requiring a jailbreak like the iphone), there aught to be some good options out there for Android. I have yet to find anything that looks promising however.

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:22 pm

This just got posted to the Harry's Lap Timer Forum. Several autocrossers were involved with beta testing and tweaking V14.

Quote:

Dear friends of LapTimer,

This is just to inform you that LapTimer Professional and Standard have been submitted to the AppStore for approval. I expect it to be available in 1 week (only in case Apple is approving without change request). New features / changes include the following:

- Introduced an Assistant View guiding through standard workflows: setting user preferences, loading a predefined track, defining an autocross track, ...
- Added 'Easy Mode' for users not wanting to see most important views and functions only
- Added another view for analyzing your data recordings: lap to lap / sector to sector comparison
- Further enhanced sensor support: improved Sensor List, added OBDKey, ElmCANII, and XGPS150 (NMEA) support
- Allow accent characters everywhere
- Improved Maps View and unified it with display used elsewhere (e.g. labels are positioned, trigger driving directions)
- Improved track set conflict management: allow automatic resolving
- Improved vehicle settings (drive ratios, setting rpm, power, torque)
- Added max rpm value and shift gear flash threshold to vehicle settings
- Added GPS / OBD indicators to speed displays
- Further improved skins, especially day / night
- Improved hand movements to 'feel like in your car'
- Removed Set button to work around a common problem from misplaced triggers
- Added new trigger types to be functional more complete: Standing Start and Cancel triggers
- Full autocross support using standing start triggers
- Cancel trigger to automatically cancel recordings when leaving the track
- Improved management and display of large POI sets (e.g. speed trap databases)
- Added several additional buttons to lists and details views: show in map, solve conflicts, load track, etc.
- Video overlays can be generated without all timing information now (includes date)
- Video recording works counterclockwise AND clockwise now
- Video recording can use front camera now (to show the driver)
- As soon as space on device is less the 99 minutes, remaining time is shown in Video View
- New Pop Up View implemented to show various information (similar to GPS source pop up)
- Reimplemented diagram views to use Pop Up to show legend
- Show conflicting track sets in POI List
- Improved Add On List performance (it is large now, >270 tracks available!)
- Reworked the search bar behaviour to match the standard iPhone style
- Improved DashWare export
- Added video overlay synchonization to Expert Settings
- Improved Timer View with third mode: show lap and lap gap in large letters
- Turned off GPS fix compression when OBD is active
- Added an option to use calculate GPS speed
- Prepared everything for upcoming iOS5
- Refactored several areas of code to be fit for future changes ;-)

- Tons of smaller functional enhancements, and several smaller bug fixes

KendtEklund · **Joined:** Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:29 pm **Posts:** 1204

Ryan Holton wrote:

This just got posted to the Harry's Lap Timer Forum. Several autocrossers were involved with beta testing and tweaking V14.

Quote:

Dear friends of LapTimer,

This is just to inform you that LapTimer Professional and Standard have been submitted to the AppStore for approval. I expect it to be available in 1 week (only in case Apple is approving without change request). New features / changes include the following:

- Introduced an Assistant View guiding through standard workflows: setting user preferences, loading a predefined track, defining an autocross track, ...
- Added 'Easy Mode' for users not wanting to see most important views and functions only
- Added another view for analyzing your data recordings: lap to lap / sector to sector comparison
- Further enhanced sensor support: improved Sensor List, added OBDKey, ElmCANII, and XGPS150 (NMEA) support
- Allow accent characters everywhere
- Improved Maps View and unified it with display used elsewhere (e.g. labels are positioned, trigger driving directions)
- Improved track set conflict management: allow automatic resolving
- Improved vehicle settings (drive ratios, setting rpm, power, torque)
- Added max rpm value and shift gear flash threshold to vehicle settings
- Added GPS / OBD indicators to speed displays
- Further improved skins, especially day / night
- Improved hand movements to 'feel like in your car'
- Removed Set button to work around a common problem from misplaced triggers
- Added new trigger types to be functional more complete: Standing Start and Cancel triggers
- Full autocross support using standing start triggers
- Cancel trigger to automatically cancel recordings when leaving the track
- Improved management and display of large POI sets (e.g. speed trap databases)
- Added several additional buttons to lists and details views: show in map, solve conflicts, load track, etc.
- Video overlays can be generated without all timing information now (includes date)
- Video recording works counterclockwise AND clockwise now
- Video recording can use front camera now (to show the driver)
- As soon as space on device is less the 99 minutes, remaining time is shown in Video View
- New Pop Up View implemented to show various information (similar to GPS source pop up)
- Reimplemented diagram views to use Pop Up to show legend
- Show conflicting track sets in POI List
- Improved Add On List performance (it is large now, >270 tracks available!)
- Reworked the search bar behaviour to match the standard iPhone style
- Improved DashWare export
- Added video overlay synchonization to Expert Settings
- Improved Timer View with third mode: show lap and lap gap in large letters
- Turned off GPS fix compression when OBD is active
- Added an option to use calculate GPS speed
- Prepared everything for upcoming iOS5
- Refactored several areas of code to be fit for future changes ;-)

- Tons of smaller functional enhancements, and several smaller bug fixes

PLEASE let him have this ready by VIR

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:44 pm

Its ready right now, I just downloaded it.

Jeremy Ellison · **Joined:** Fri May 13, 2011 5:01 pm **Posts:** 186

So I tried out Harry's Lap Timer over the weened at the Triad event. I have an iPhone 4 and just used the internal sensors with the phone mounted to the windscreen. The timing information is definitely not 100%, but it's a good start. My faster laps definitely showed up faster than my slower ones

. Here's the video with the Lap Timer overlay for anyone who's interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiDfxWc4Acg

The interface for Lap Timer is a tad overwhelming. I have a hard time figuring out where various controls and views are hidden, but for $20 I'd say it's worth it. You can compare things like lateral Gs between runs, which is cool. I was unable to figure out how to compare different sections of the course (for instance, I wanted to isolate the sweeper and compare different approaches for just that section). I put down waypoints, but couldn't figure out any way of using them for analysis. Maybe some more tinkering will reveal a way.

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