data recorders

[BALS aSALT]

ok fellas, lets see who's running what. what kind of data recorder are you using and why. need to get one but don't know which one. figure i'll ask you guys and the kind that comes up the most wins, no?

[ol38y]

I'm running Daytona Sensors stuff. Mines on a V Twin but they have applications for cars also. They have a nitrous controller too. Chris was very helpfull in the set-up and gave a he#%*a racers discount.

[johnneilson]

Good question, will get Ford and Chevy answers.

It depends on several bits of criteria, I still use Pi sys1 equipment. Mainly because I have it and it works, period.

The truth of the matter is this, in todays technology, data recorders are a dime a dozen.
There are many more available now than say 3 years ago.

My criteria is as follows;
relaibility, can you trust the data?
drivers data, can the driver make a decision from the display?
software, again, can you make sense of the data or are they just pretty lines.
export of data, can the data be used in excel directly?

If I had to reinvest into data, I would go CDS, competition data systems.

PM me if you wish, or e-mail

John

[BALS aSALT]

john;
goes to show how far behind i am, my thinking is a few years behind. hell, i barely know how to turn this thing on. so i should think about one that would be a basic recorder. i am alittle familiar with the edelbrock one but not really. looked over my buddies shoulder. wonder what salt people use. he's a dragracer.

[johnneilson]

OK,
how about this, what information would be helpful to you?
speed, distance, long-accel(G), time, A/F ratio, rpm, throttle pos, steering input, lat-accel.

All of this is possible and more including predictive lap time and gain/loss (circuit racing).

A good recorder will have built in all but the AFR and drivers inputs (require external sensors).
All of these will give a good indication of a run and build up a profile of the vehicle.

By applying a little math to the raw data,you can calculate HP applied to the salt and traction figures.

John

[1212FBGS]

Ummmmm .... I think there is really only 1 place to go..... Contact Donny cummings at race pack

[WildBro]

I find AiM Sport to be the easiest to use and interpret.
Contact Scott Horner (heads up performance in Salt Lake City), he uses the AiMs on all his and his customers salt bikes. He can tell you all about them so you can compare to the others.

Bill

[DallasV]

This year was the first year we used a data recorder. Went with the Autometer/Stack multi function data logger (MFDL). liked it a lot. one of the main reasons we went with it is because of the display, which got rid of gauge cluster. All the data is displayed on an lcd dash with an analog tach. Pretty cool and easy to set up.

[johnbeck]

I love my racepack , I like the idea that there is a rep with spare parts if needed and the know how to fix or show you how to work and set up stuff at every race. Don Cummins is the man! And also co-crew cheif on the 911-511 & 811 roadsters.

[akk]

We have used race pac for the last 6 years...it has always worked...no problems. The most used data is the recordings of Exhaust Gas Temperatures (EGT). EGT recordings help diagnose engine problems quickly...we have had bad plug wires...fouled plugs...detonation and fuel injection problems. The next important data is acceleration recording....we use maximum acceleration in first gear to determine the coefficient of friction of the salt so that we can make decisions on how much lead to carry. Lateral accelerations with mile position are valuable to  determine where soft spots are and to adjust ROs' driving. The Electromotive fuel injection records engine and throttle stuff and is helpfull in diagnosing fuel problems. WE have given up on making sense of the oxygen sensor...our short zoomies give bad readings.

Akk

[JoshH]

I second AIM. They typically market more towards road racing so their not very prevalent in land speed racing. Where Racepack and FAST systems are more prevalent in street and drag racing; closer ties to LSR... The AIM systems are FAR more powerful and fairly low cost. They typically have dashes that go along with their loggers so you save a bunch of space and complexity over typical analog gauge setups. The dashes have fully configuratble displays with alarm lights, progressive shift lights, and gear indicator.

[dieselgeek]

I like the AIM dash and systems, but I am skilled electronics nerd; others' opinions have varied and I think it was because AIM can overload a guy who is new to electronic data gathering.  You first experience is an important one, so...

For Bonneville, and for an entry level user, my vote is most definitely Racepak.  Customer support is premium service with these guys, at a good price.   They work hard to supply sportsman and grassroots type racers with decent packages.  Look them up.

First and foremost, make sure you know what YOU need to see out of the data.   There are a lot of guys out there on the salt that have lots of data - and have no real idea what to do with it.   Get a buddy who is skilled at interpreting datalogs and get some pointers.

I've also made my own logging systems, usually feeding into a Megasquirt EMS variant.   This is not for the faint of heart, it's a true DIY deal, but it works very well for us.   Racepak is also awesome because they went out of their way to create a Megasquirt interface for their products.  Plug any MS variant's serial port into a Racepak equipped with the Megasquirt interface package, and you get world class logging from your Radioshack EFI.  The fact that racepak took us DIYers so seriously is yet another reason to support them. 

[DanBadger]

We are running racepac's system on the road-race car, and have nothing but praise.  It takes some bucks to get set up, but even my dad can understand and use the system.  A big jump from the first data aquisition system I ran- a tape deck with the mic lead hacked off and run in parallel with my tach.  After a 1/4mi pass, I could rewind the tape, plug the 1/8 mic plug into the headphone jack, and playback the pass on my tach.

[BALS aSALT]

holy smokes thats alot of info. thanks guys, so far it looks like either an aim or racepak. but the polls are still open and we don't have a clear winner yet. please guys...............more input.

[maguromic]

I am not advocating one over another, but you need to pick the one that best suits your needs.  Some things you might want to ask your self or the supplier: What things do you want to log?  How many channels do you need?  What is the sampling rate?  What is the sampling frequency?  Can you add more channels later?  Do you want to run a dash with it?  Do you want video with it? What’s your budget?  How easy is the data displayed?  How easy is it to setup and calibrate? How is the support? (The last few years at Speed Week I have talked to both the Motec and Pi engineers on the salt. This is great if you need help out there) I am sure others will add more to this and if you’re using an ECU, some of the ECU’s come with logging capabilities.

In our case with REMR we are going to be using a Pi Sigma – Laguna box and Sigma dash with 32 channels, eight of those channels will have aero pressure sensors on the body.  The other twenty-four channels are also all used, and you would be surprised how fast you run out of channels.  Tony