A few thoughts and questions

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11-25-2015
aaronc7

A few thoughts and questions

Had a track weekend and finally got to put TrackAddict and a few other loggers/apps to use. Tried a couple different setups and I keep coming back to TrackAddict- I really like how easy it is to use and how it just works- really no quirks or bugs. Usage was completely seamless- set everything up while staging, then it auto starts when you start to move-- perfect. I also have RaceRender Ultimate 3 and it of course works seamless and flawlessly with that-- saves a lot of hassle and time.

Just have a couple questions/thoughts on some features.

1.) I got some wonky decel g-force readings. Kind of all over the place, sometimes it even showed heavy braking as acceleration. I'm thinking this is probably related to my mounting solution and how stable or unstable it is? For TrackAddict logging, I used this mount, specific for my phone: http://www.amazon.com/LG-VS980-Navig...ds=lg+g2+mount . Here's a quick video - braking, right turn, left turn, braking: https://youtu.be/OfJg3SnHzyw?t=10s .

I have a really solid ProClip mount in my car, but the problem is it angles the phone towards the driver. As I read in the documentation (and I even tested it out to confirm), with that "yaw" present the G force readings are all out of whack. Are there any plans to add a feature to "calibrate" the accelerometer to account for this and then save that calibration? I think that would be a useful feature for me and maybe others- that way you don't have to worry about being stopped when starting recordings and ability to point the phone towards the driver for easier reading. I always have the mount/phone in the same place, so after this initial calibration I wouldn't have to ever worry about it again.

2.) I saw some discussion on the old forum about integrating some of the enhanced PIDs from HPT into TrackAddict? Any updates on this? I am running Android and my car is a 2003 Corvette Z06. I have an EFILive Autocal- but same principle-- I'd love to be able to log some of the enhanced parameters such as accel pedal position (rather than TPS), oil pressure, EGR valve volt
age (I have a wideband wired into this pin). I did a couple sessions logging OBD data separately with the AutoCal, but it does make syncing up the video/data more of a pain. I like keeping things as simple as possible.

3.) Late post edit: Just thought of something else- with a pre-CANBUS car, logging rate isn't nearly as quick. Logging 3 PIDs I get around 5-6hz which is pretty good, but it would be nice to be able to log other params such as coolant temp, IAT, oil temp, whatever at an intentionally slower rate. Maybe once a second or even less, so it won't have a big impact on your "primary" PIDs. Just a thought and figured I would throw it out there. I'm sure you have lots of ideas and it's just finding the time and resources to get it all done.

Thanks for the awesome free (on android anyways) app!
11-30-2015
Weston@HPTuners

Quote:

Originally Posted by aaronc7

1.) I got some wonky decel g-force readings. Kind of all over the place, sometimes it even showed heavy braking as acceleration. I'm thinking this is probably related to my mounting solution and how stable or unstable it is? For TrackAddict logging, I used this mount, specific for my phone: http://www.amazon.com/LG-VS980-Navig...ds=lg+g2+mount . Here's a quick video - braking, right turn, left turn, braking: https://youtu.be/xIIYMnRpBQE?t=10s .

I have a really solid ProClip mount in my car, but the problem is it angles the phone towards the driver. As I read in the documentation (and I even tested it out to confirm), with that "yaw" present the G force readings are all out of whack. Are there any plans to add a feature to "calibrate" the accelerometer to account for this and then save that calibration? I think that would be a useful feature for me and maybe others- that way you don't have to worry about being stopped when starting recordings and ability to point the phone towards the driver for easier reading. I always have the mount/phone in the same place, so after this initial calibration I wouldn't have to ever worry about it again.

YouTube is saying that video has been removed, but I normally wouldn't attribute yaw to causing bad accel or decel readings; yaw would typically only impact left/right lateral acceleration. When G-force data comes out way off, the usual suspects are:

1) The phone's mounting to the vehicle is loose, wobbly, or subject to excess vibration
2) If you started the app recording before you mounted the phone to the windshield, or otherwise made a mounting adjustment after starting recording
3) If you started the app recording before it had a good GPS signal and the vehicle was stopped
4) Some issue with the device itself

The simple way to address #2 and #3 is to mount the phone to the vehicle first, start the app and let it sit on the "Setup" screen while the vehicle is stopped, then you should see the GPS icon turn green. At that point, the accelerometers will be automatically calibrated, and you should be good to switch to the "Record" screen when you're ready to start driving. It performs the automatic calibration when it sees that the vehicle is stopped (for which you need a good GPS signal), and only if you haven't started recording yet.

Quote:

2.) I saw some discussion on the old forum about integrating some of the enhanced PIDs from HPT into TrackAddict? Any updates on this? I am running Android and my car is a 2003 Corvette Z06. I have an EFILive Autocal- but same principle-- I'd love to be able to log some of the enhanced parameters such as accel pedal position (rather than TPS), oil pressure, EGR valve volt
age (I have a wideband wired into this pin). I did a couple sessions logging OBD data separately with the AutoCal, but it does make syncing up the video/data more of a pain. I like keeping things as simple as possible.

Yes, that's a big project that is coming along nicely... A bunch of behind-the-scenes work has already been done for this effort, and the v3.1.3 app update will start transitioning in the use of a new data logging format that's meant to better accommodate this and other future features. There's still a bit more work to do before the option of HPT PIDs are offered, but some other tasks are now out of the way, so that development should be able to get some more focus this winter.

Quote:

3.) Late post edit: Just thought of something else- with a pre-CANBUS car, logging rate isn't nearly as quick. Logging 3 PIDs I get around 5-6hz which is pretty good, but it would be nice to be able to log other params such as coolant temp, IAT, oil temp, whatever at an intentionally slower rate. Maybe once a second or even less, so it won't have a big impact on your "primary" PIDs. Just a thought and figured I would throw it out there. I'm sure you have lots of ideas and it's just finding the time and resources to get it all done.

That is also in the future plans... It should help a lot with making the most of the available bandwidth.
11-30-2015
aaronc7

Thanks Weston for the reply and update!

I setup the app as you described, while stopped, hit record before moving, etc. I'm going to be out of town for a few weeks but will do some testing and try to recreate my accel/decal g force issue then.

Thanks again for the awesome app and support.
12-14-2015
aaronc7

Back from work trip. Tried to get an example of the wonky g-force readings. I didn't get the car out on any big open roads, so just got a little straight accel/decel action within the residential area here. The braking moves at around the "8 o'clock" position while accel is around 5 o'clock... not only is braking is the wrong general direction, but seems odd they would be 90 degrees off. In the video I just brake.....accel a little bit, then brake again. Also including a few pics of my mount setup as it was- this setup is very sturdy...NOT the same one I used as mentioned above, but both seem to show decel in the acceleration direction. Phone was mounted before the app was started/recording started. Car was stopped when recording began (I cropped that bit out in RaceRender) and I had my XGPS160 (good gps lock, thing had been on for 10 mins at that point) and OBDlink MX connected on the entire time. I basically acted like I was staging... stopped....set everything up, hit record, waited for it to display 'waiting for movement', and then i took off.

Bunch of time until my next event...none of these things are show stoppers, just hoping to get them sorted before for the best data possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHMT3sXKp0A

http://i.imgur.com/ybs3Jhdh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JkFHQZNh.jpg