Data Acquisition and Engineering
After working together at the 3 Grand-Am Continental Sports Car Challenge events Prey Racing contested in 2009, it was a no brainer that the team would again choose Gorman Motorsports for its data acquisition support in the squads “run for the front” campaign this 2010 season. We originally contacted Gorman Motorsports because of their deep knowledge and expertise integrating with Porsche cars. Since that time, it has become obvious this is an understatement. They’ve clearly helped make our #86 Boxster a tool of information that we can consistently use to move our development forward at the pro level. I’d recommend them to anybody trying to advance their program, knowledge of car, and speed at any level.
Gorman Motorsports is very honored and excited to be supporting Mercer Motorsports at the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill, Dec 3-6 2009. We optimistic for the first effort for Mercer Motorsports, with a very strong crew, and driver lineup. We will be providing Porsche GT3 Cup data acquisition services using the MoTeC ADL data acquisition system.
We previously announced it, and now it’s available. The new Chasecam Data Module is a very exciting new product from Chasecam. The data module allows capture of data right onto the Chasecam CF card, to be interleaved with the video using Dashware. This new module is a leap forward in combining data and video. Previously you would have to purchase an entire data logger just to get simple data on your overlay, well, no more. The pricing of this unit at $450 is extremely aggressive. At this time, this is the *only* unit on the market offering integrated data and video with the ability to also see the data trace and not just overlaid information on the video. Data acquisition combined with video just got a whole lot less expensive folks!
The new Chasecam Data Module is available in our store now. The unit comes with Dashware 1.1 with Analysis so there is no extra software to purchase.
Gorman Motorsports was very proud to be part of this effort, running MoTeC data, fuel strategy, tire data, and video for the event.
The results from Saturday and Sunday’s race are online.
From a technical perspective, the device is impressive. Using h.264 video as well as 720×400 @30 fps results in stunning clarity. The device records onto SD media and can take cards up to 16GB. Record time is greater than 10 hours on a single card.
The SmartyCam comes in two basic flavors; Standalone and Slave. Both units have the tri-axial accelerometer as well as integrated GPS for position and speed data. The Standalone version is just that, a simple all-in-one logger. The unit has an included rechargeable lithium battery so you can install it w/o any external cables. The slave unit is designed to be used in conjunction with an existing logger or dash. In this configuration the SmartyCam can share it’s GPS data with the dash and the dash can share it’s logged channels with the SmartyCam over the CAN bus. The SmartyCam can be connected via the Data Hub if needed as well.
In either configuration the included Smarty Manager software allows for full customization of the displayed dash as well as configuration of channels being presented when running in slave mode.
We now have the SmartyCam in our store. Check it out here. Check out the user manual as well.
Here is a sample video from the device:
Here are some pictures of the device:
The software can be downloaded from here:
Pro: mi2_pro_1.05.0013.exe
Standard: mi2_std_1.05.0012.exe
The new features and improvements are:
New Features
1) Feature Activation
The MoTeC Activation System allows certain features in i2 Pro to be enabled through the use of an Activation File. Customers can purchase an Activation File through the MoTeC Dealer Network. An Activation File allows particular features to operate for an amount of time, typically one year. i2 will give the user notification before any feature expires. An Activation will only operate on one physical computer.
New Activatable Features
2) Open MoTeC Standard Log Files in i2 Pro. Allows i2 Pro to open Standard Log Files, which are files that were created on hardware without the Pro Analysis upgrade.
3) Import from Pi ASCII Dataset. Allow the File Conversion Wizard in i2 Pro to convert from Pi Toolbox Versioned ASCII DataSet Version 2 files to MoTeC Pro log files.
4) i2 API. i2 Application Programming Interface – requires i2 API Feature License. The i2 API is a software object that allows you to access and manipulate i2 and Log File data from tools including Excel, Matlab, VB, C#, etc.
Functionality of the i2 API includes:
- Load any kind of MoTeC Log File (.ld file).
- Read Log File data including channels, ranges/laps/beacons and details.
- Create new Log Files and channels.
- Export Pro Log Files.
- The i2 API can be used from any language that supports COM technology.
- To use this feature, purchase an i2 API Feature Licence from your MoTeC dealer.
5) Ignored Beacons. i2 is now aware of beacons that are logged within the Beacon Ignore Time. They are displayed as Ignored Beacons and laps are not generated from them. (TT 1507)
Please upgrade your Manager Software to the latest version to enable this feature.
Changes In This Release:
Added: User Adjustment of Videos Automatically Aligned with a VSM. (TT 2026)
Improved: Video Playback though the use of high quality codec. (TT 2020)
Fixed: i2 problem filtering alias channels (TT 1498)
Fixed: Filter of channel causing data offset in i2 (TT 1664)
Fixed: Channel Report bug with logged channels from 32 bit advanced math (TT 1885)
Fixed: Sort order when sort by sample rate in the channel editor is used (TT 1893)
Fixed: 32 bit condition channels get displayed as N/A (TT 1943)
Added: Switch for channel report to ignore interpolated data in i2 (TT 1905)
Added: GetValue(t) function to Maths Plugins and i2 API. Obtains a channel value interpolated at a time t.
Fixed: File open dialog has a long delay when displaying a folder containing many large log files (TT 2247)
Fixed: i2 crash on open log file (TT 1690)
Fixed: i2 crashes when exporting a Channel Report.
Fixed: Downloading device from “i2″ doesn’t load data afterwards.
Fixed: i2 doesn’t create telemetry track maps if the directory hasn’t been created.
Added: Ability to take derivative of a channel WRT another channel.
Fixed: i2 downloads from ADL3 instead of ADL2 when selected. (TT 1875)
Fixed: Get log data from i2, selecting ADL2 opens ADL3 manager. (TT 1995)
Fixed: Fastest Lap time is updated consistently and shows up in the file open screen correctly. (TT 1762)
Fixed: Trusted Laps settings are saved. (TT 1765)
Fixed: File > Get Logged Data caused crash if wrong device is selected.
Improved: i2 now notifies the user when it runs out of memory allocating a channel and write a note in the View | Messages window.
With Kenny working on our data and video we were able to collect and analyze a mountain of data. I’d recommend his services to anyone in the paddock. He did a fantastic job and we were lucky to have him with us this weekend.
Gorman Motorsports supported the San Diego BMW CCA chapter at Buttonwillow Raceway last weekend to teach our class; “Data Acquisition using Traqmate and Traqview”. It was an exciting event with an unprecedented 29 drivers collecting data over the course of the weekend. With Traqmate Basics being used in each car, students had real world data to compare against instructors and other students for driver improvement.
