Problems with 4.0

[mrblog]

The update to 4.0 happened to me in the middle of a track day and that was very unnerving. But so far I not been able to record a session successfully since the update. In one case, it starts but the the video goes black after a 30 seconds or so. In the other, it just never started recording.

Also, when I transfer via Wifi to Race Render, the speedometer is now very low resolution updating only every many second intervals, not continuous. This wasn't the case before.

Luckily the old version successfully recorded the first three session of that day, but I'm worried at the next track day, it's not going to work anymore.

I'm using it with Kiwi3 and no external GPS. Anyone else having luck with the Track Addict v4.0?

[Weston@HPTuners]

The update to 4.0 happened to me in the middle of a track day and that was very unnerving. But so far I not been able to record a session successfully since the update. In one case, it starts but the the video goes black after a 30 seconds or so. In the other, it just never started recording.

Can you tell me what phone model you were using? The changes made to the actual underlying recording process in v4.0 were pretty minor (and many things there didn't change at all), so I wouldn't expect the update to be the cause here, but I will investigate further just in case.

When users report video recording problems, it's usually a case of insufficient recording space available, a problem with the SD Card or storage space write performance (this one only applies to Android), another app or process interfering with the camera or app, or some phones can just get into a weird state and need a reboot. In the case of running out of storage space, the video space indicator at top left can be helpful, however there is some possibility that pending system or app updates have allocated space that still appears to us as free space.

Also, when I transfer via Wifi to Race Render, the speedometer is now very low resolution updating only every many second intervals, not continuous. This wasn't the case before.

This is most likely a GPS or OBD data issue. We haven't changed anything related to how we sample or record those two, although if your phone is running out of space (or if something else is hogging the phone's resources excessively), then I would theorize that could be causing the app to miss or skip some data samples. You should see similar issues with the data in TrackAddict though.

The main difference with RaceRender is that it will use the OBD speed by default (if present), while most of the stuff in TrackAddict uses GPS. So, if there's an issue with the OBD data, then you might try changing RaceRender to use the GPS speed instead, by double-clicking on the data file in its "Input Files" list and setting the Vehicle Speed selection to "Speed (MPH)".

[mrblog]

Can you tell me what phone model you were using?

It's an iPhone 6S iOS 11.2.? at the time (now on 11.3).

This is most likely a GPS or OBD data issue. ...

The main difference with RaceRender is that it will use the OBD speed by default (if present), while most of the stuff in TrackAddict uses GPS. So, if there's an issue with the OBD data, then you might try changing RaceRender to use the GPS speed instead, by double-clicking on the data file in its "Input Files" list and setting the Vehicle Speed selection to "Speed (MPH)".

I'll try that but the odd thing about that is the RPM, which is from OBD data, seems fine, smooth, not the many second update intervals of MPH.

Nothing changed about my setup between when it worked and stopped working. TrackAddict literally updated between sessions. And I haven't been able to record a session since. The phone has 24GB free. Maybe it's a coincidence and the phone just needs a reset, but I'm worried about the next track day. I'll have to do some testing again around town.

[Jerrh]

I'm an old and slow learner who just runs a few autocrosses a year. Last year I could walk a car-link past the start and accurately set the Start point and a car link pass the finish line to set the end. I haven't found out how to do that with the new version this year. My cell phone is mounted behind me too far to reach from the drivers seat. From grid to the start line maybe 100 feet or so and I probably have to start and stop 2 or 3 times before reaching the grid. The new user interface is great. I just need to find how to do my way of setting start and end points.
Thank you for your thoughts.

[Jerrh]

Sorry I found how to set start and stop points in version 4 while walking. Please ignore this previous post.

Thank you for a great app.

I'm an old and slow learner who just runs a few autocrosses a year. Last year I could walk a car-link past the start and accurately set the Start point and a car link pass the finish line to set the end. I haven't found out how to do that with the new version this year. My cell phone is mounted behind me too far to reach from the drivers seat. From grid to the start line maybe 100 feet or so and I probably have to start and stop 2 or 3 times before reaching the grid. The new user interface is great. I just need to find how to do my way of setting start and end points.
Thank you for your thoughts.

[Z_06]

I am using Track Addict v4.03 on an iPhone 6s. Ever since my upgrade to this version, Track Addict has not worked correctly, with the problems ranging from loss of lap counter, loss of WiFi signal from OBD port (2008 Corvette Z06), improper rotation of video recording (will not show landscape), and complete refusal to record a session. Please give me my old version of Track Addict back! Version 4.03 absolutely sucks!

[majormojo]

I'm also experiencing problems with the latest 4.x version. Just started using TA again after winter off-season and the new version is not working

- Fails to start recording session
- Doesn't recognize or count laps

I ran 4 race sessions yesterday and TA did not record any of them, although it displayed live timing data (which was often wrong, missing laps).

From a previous day, I ran 4 race sessions:
- One is missing
- ~30 min session recorded a 5 min outlap and a 24 min in-lap. It recorded about 1.5min of movement, then no GPS location changes are shown. G-force data is still recording though, so something is messed up.
- ~30min session says "no timing event detected". Map shows about 25sec of movement, then none for the rest of the session.
- ~30min session same as above but stopped recording after 4.5 mins.

I only record data, no video. Using an external GPS (Dual XGPS16) via BT on an old iPhone 4S. Worked great with whatever version I had last season.

Also the new recording display is a step backward from the previous IMO. The plain white on black numbers were easier to read than white on blue and the big green recording button is a big waste of space on a small screen. What I'd really like is just a simple B/W display of current lap time, the Red/Green predictor bar (larger) and my session best lap time. That's all there is time to view when racing. The predicted lap time and other info on the new display is too small and un-readable to be useful.

I'd really like to be able to go back to whatever was the current version last summer, it worked flawlessly for me, and I love the integration with RaceRender.

[Weston@HPTuners]

Version 4 was primarily a cosmetic refresh and didn't really change lap timing, GPS / OBD connections, or video and data recording, aside from adding some new functionality that should not impact the operation of the existing stuff. The guts of it that runs everything did not change very much at all. Inevitably, every time that we have a noticeable version change, we get reports of it breaking X,Y,Z which turn out to be an issue that would have behaved the same way prior to our update. I don't mean to sound dismissive, but I want to be accurate as to the actual cause of any problems, and not limit my search for causes to just what changed in version 4.

Most of the symptoms described here are very much fitting of a GPS issue, which also happens to be the primary cause of user-reported problems in general. In this case, it could also be the connection to the external GPS. I know there have been a few issues with iOS 11 specifically, and Apple broke some stuff for us around 11.1 or 11.2, which I had to quickly resolve at the time. Everything tested ok then, but I've made myself a note to take another look through all of this with the XGPS160 and the latest iOS version and some previous ones, just in case there's an issue for us to solve there, or in case the fix did something less desirable on older versions...

In the meantime, please make sure you are optimizing your GPS reception conditions by mounting it where it has a clear line-of-sight to a large area of the sky, with no metal near or above it. Being a software product, we can't do anything to help GPS hardware reception, but you as the user can... Actual reception performance will vary depending on the GPS hardware, vehicle, placement in the vehicle, your location, weather, etc. So, what works on a clear day at a big open track may not work as well when placed in a different location in the car, during thunderstorms, or at speedway oval (ie a bowl-shaped track, surrounded by metal fencing, big metal grandstands, tall buildings, etc). But, all is not lost in those cases... changing your placement in the vehicle can make a big improvement even under difficult conditions.

As for the change to the recording screen, that was a matter of debate internally when we did it, and I agree with your desire for a simple high contrast display. It's a compromise that enables a clean display of more data, and a better indication of current status, while still aiming to be readable quickly at a glance, and also being able to scale well from the smallest up to the biggest phone and tablet displays. It works well on the typical semi-large phone size that most people have these days, but isn't optimal on the smaller screens. This is something that we'll likely continue to tweak for the sake of readability while driving, and may offer some more options for that in the future too...

[majormojo]

Hi Weston,

Thanks for the response. As a software developer myself, I'm sympathetic to your predicament re: upgrades and the huge number of variables in platform, hardware etc. The phone I'm using is very old and is stuck at iOS 9.3.5, so my issue is probably not related to new updates from Apple. I track a Miata and the GPS is in the back window - no metal above and no reception problems in previous seasons. Still, I will check for firmware updates and any other reports of iOS issues with the XGPS160. It's possible the issues are unrelated to the latest updates, but I had a couple of previous seasons with the exact same configuration and it all worked flawlessly.

The one that puzzles me most is the sessions where I had real-time data onscreen, but no session was recorded/logged. I'd say that about 70% of the time I had accurate laptime and speed data displayed, but no session recording. Others I had speed and other data showing updates, but no laps counted just one long lap.

Regarding the screen display, one thing that would be helpful without a layout change is to have one or more of 'best lap time' 'predicted lap time' or 'delta to best lap time (+/-)' available for display in the Data A, B, C blocks on the left side. My use case is basically to help me know if trying something different (line, braking, etc) is faster or not.

Cheers