If you have a data system in your race car then you really
need to take John Block’s (www.auto-ware.com)
online seminars. John is an engineer that
has A LOT of experience performing data analysis for professional race
teams. John offers a basic course and an
advanced course. They are 1 hour a week
for 5 weeks and I believe that they are only $125 for each course. John also allows you to re-take a course at
no additional cost. I actually re-took
the advanced course after I had started using some of the principals taught
which helped me better understand what John presented. You can’t beat that!! Chances are that if you haven’t taken his
courses then you aren’t getting the most out of your data system.
Bob Knox is another data analysis expert and he has a book
out called “A Practical Guide To Race Car Data Analysis”. Bob has tailored this book for the amateur
racer so it is easy to understand and as a result I have referred to this book
quite a bit. It costs $100 and it can be
found on amazon.com. Definitely well
worth the money.
Ok, here are some basics.
A data system is simply a small computer that is gathering information
from various sensors. The G (lateral,
longitudinal, and vertical) sensors are built into the main unit and the other
sensors are manually installed. Since
the Honda Engine has an ECU, I’m able to get a lot of information directly from
the ECU which is great because you only have a certain number of “channels” to
use to gather data. Generally you hook
up one sensor to a channel but with the ECU interface it is possible to get
lots of info through one channel.
Now, here is the real power of the data system. Not only do you have the raw data from the
sensors, you can create virtual sensors by creating what AIM calls “Math
Channels”. Math Channels are simply
formulas that use data from the installed sensors, constants (such as your cars
wheel base), and/or data from other Math Channels. Some Math Channels can be quite complex but a
lot of them are quite simple. For
example, I have two wheel speed sensors installed on the two front wheels. Obviously there is a chance of me locking up
one of the wheels under braking and although I want to know about this, I also
want a smooth speed trace so that I can see how fast I’m going anywhere on the
track. Therefore, I created a “Selected
Speed” math channel that simply says: use the average speed between the left
and right front wheels but if one wheel is locked up then use the other wheel
speed instead. Obviously the formula
looks very different than what I just wrote but in order to write the formula
you have to be able to describe what you want it to do. Here is the formula:
IF(LT(LFspeed,.97*RFSpeed),RFSpeed,IF(LT(RFSpeed,.97*LFspeed),LFspeed,(LFspeed+RFSpeed)/2))
The AIM syntax is a little different than what would be used
in Excel or most other software programs that I have used before but once you
get used to it isn’t difficult to understand.
If I saw this formula for the first time then this is how I would
describe what it is doing.
If the Left Front Speed is Less Than 97% of the Right Front
Speed than use the Right Front Speed. However,
if the Right Front Speed is Less Than 97% of the Left Front Speed than use the
Left Front Speed. If neither of those
two conditions are true than take the Left Front Speed and add it to the Right
Front Speed and divide that total by 2 to get the average.
Hopefully all of that makes sense!! J What I really hope is that you can see the
value of using the math channels feature of your data system. I’m not going to show all of my math channels
but I have over 50 and I will say that you can learn about all of them by
taking John Block’s courses and purchasing Bob Knox’s book. There are very few products that I
shamelessly plug but these have definitely helped me a great deal and deserve
the plug. Although, I shouldn't be giving it because I know I'm helping my competitors. J
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