Team Fisher House Racing

Ok, so that last blog wasn't very positive so this one is more positive!  We are officially Team Fisher House Racing and I think the car looks great with the Fisher House logos.  The announcer at VIR also really talked up Fisher House so it was great to see the car get some positive attention.

 

 

We also have a donation page now so I ask everyone who reads this blog to please make a small donation to Fisher House.  If I can achieve my goal of raising $5,000 this year then I think that it will really show that racers are great people that can really make a difference where it matters.  And  remember, 96% of the funds donated to Fisher House go to their programs -- it doesn't get any better than that!  Thanks for your support!!

http://www.teamfisherhouse.org/site/TR/Event/General?px=1004842&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

VIR April 2013 -- Lessons Learned

Well, I really want to stay positive in this blog but VIR just wasn't a very positive experience.  I actually wasn't going to post anything about it but then I realized that other racers thinking about racing these cars at a professional level (or even at a club racing level) can learn from my trials and tribulations -- and unfortunately my mistakes.

First, I was behind the eightball a little bit in getting the car ready for VIR and in order to make it I ended up working on the car every night after work and at least 10 hours each day of the weekend for about three weeks.  Needless to say I was pretty much exhausted before I even got to VIR which was probably not a good thing.

Two weekends before VIR I felt some play in the left rear and it seemed like it was a bad bearing.  A very knowledgable buddy of mine felt it and he thought so too so we decided it was best to build up a new upright (the upright is basically the "corner" of the car that the wheel and the suspension pieces mount to) with a new bearing.  I had everything I needed but you don't just slap an upright together in an hour so it took a little bit of time to transfer some items from the upright on the car to the new upright going on the car.  After the new upright was assembled and installed I should have felt for play again but it was now the weekend before VIR and I still had lots of things to do and I didn't think about feeling for play again.  My wife, Terry, and I arrive at VIR Wednesday evening and it is time to get some test sessions in on Thursday.

The car feels terrible.  It is pushing like a pig and we end up making some changes and although the car felt a little bit better it is still not up to snuff.  After the 3rd out of 4 sessions, I was changing tires and when I felt the left rear I again felt play in it -- too much play for me to go out in the 4th session.  So I end up taking things apart and I see grease coming from the new bearing.  Not knowing enough about symptoms related to bad bearings on these cars it seems to me that this bearing is bad and again others verified that this was plausible.  Unfortunately I didn't have an upright fully assembled to stick on the car but I did have a spare upright with a bearing in it.  So with a lot of help I went about rebuilding that upright so that I could stick it on the car.  It took a while but that evening I got it on the car and went to put the caliper on and it wouldn't fit with that upright.  You see, not all uprights for these cars are the same and if the ears on the upright are a little too thick then the caliper wont be centered on the brake rotor.  So now the frustration is really starting to set in and what was supposed to be a fun weekend is not so fun anymore. It is also getting late on Thursday and I know Terry isn't having fun either so I figured it was best to leave the track and go get some dinner and some sleep.

Friday morning we get back to the track early (6:30 am) and I remember my mistake of not feeling the wheel for play after changing the bearing at my house so I go ahead and feel the wheel for play.  Guess what -- there is still play!!  ARGGGHHH!!  However, this time I see what it is.  It is a bad rod end that is about 2 feet from the wheel itself.  I have a spare so that is very easy to change but now I have gone down a path that has cost me lots of time and I'm not out of the woods yet because the rear caliper still isn't fitting.  I do have an idea though.  I check out the left front upright and it looks like it will work with the rear caliper so I come up with the idea of swapping the left front with left rear.  That will still take some time and there are only two test sessions on Friday.  One at 11 am and one at 5pm.  I know I will miss the 11 am session but I should be able to make the 5 pm session so I get to work.  I get the two uprights swapped and guess what -- the caliper still doesn't fit.  Double ARGGGGHHH!!!    At this point I'm ready to pack it up and go home -- and so is Terry.  The only option that I know of at this point is to somehow get the ears of the upright milled so that the caliper will sit centered on the rotor -- not very feasible at the track.  I walk away from the car for a little bit and come up with another idea -- get the caliper ears milled.  This is much easier and there are race shops around VIR that just might be able to do it.  I end up going to TMI who are located on the track property and they make the Ariel Atom track car.  They have the caliper milled in less than an hour and I get everything together and make the 5 pm session.  Unfortunately I had spent so much time on these problems that I didn't spend any worthwhile time with data or trying to figure out what to change on the car to make it handle better.  I was hoping that getting rid of the play in the left rear would greatly help the handling but no such luck -- the car still pushed like a pig.

We put new tires on for the Saturday morning qualifying session and although the problem was a little better it still wasn't where it needed to be so I never did get a good time.  I didn't qualify last but I was in the back for the afternoon race.  More changes were made for the race but there was unfortunately a pretty big wreck which I narrowly avoided (but at least I avoided it!) which caused a long full course caution period along with a short red flag period. As a result we only got a few green flag laps.  I could tell that the car was still pushing and getting worse.  Plus my fuel pressure light started coming on pretty consistently and I knew I had plenty of fuel so that was something else I needed to address.

The qualifying session on Sunday wasn't until 1pm so I changed the fuel pump in the morning and we made a lot of setup changes for qualifying.  The car was finally feeling better in qualifying but on my 4th lap my left front tire suddenly blew.  I managed to keep it on course and I wasn't too far from pit lane so I got it in there using the three good tires.  It turns out that a nut had come off somehow (they are supposed to be locking nuts) and the left front lower a-arm dropped onto the wheel and milled it down until it got to the tire bead which blew out the tire.  I'm sure I could have fixed it before the 4 pm race but I was frankly really ready to go home at that point -- which is what Terry and I did.

So, even though the car didn't get balled up in a crash it was still a bruttally difficult weekend and certainly not much fun.  To be honest, most of the problems were my own damn fault.  But it isn't helpful to dwell on such things.  It is helpful to learn from the experience and that is what I am doing.  The main thing that I have learned is that these cars are much more labor intensive than the FVs that I raced for 14 years and therefore it is really a necessity to have a mechanic/engineer with you to help out when there are mechanical problems and to decide what setup changes to make -- at least in the F1600 Championship Series. 

The big teams that we are competing against are absolutely top notch with really quick kids (17-20 years old) that are looking to be professional race car drivers.  I'll give you an example of just how good these teams are.  One of the kids hit a deer in the Sunday 1 pm qualifying session (yes, a deer -- it happens more than you might think and the gruesome pic is below) and it tore up the right rear corner of the car.  The race was at 4 pm and the team had that corner rebuilt and the car entered in the race -- fixing something like that by myself would have taken me a good part of a day.  The kid started dead last and finished 2nd.  Wow, just WOW!  Oh, and btw, the track record was broken by one of the youngsters over the weekend as well.

So I have definitely dived into in the deep end of the pool by entering the F1600 Championship Series but I don't have any regrets even with all my problems.  I'm not looking to win a race but I am looking to improve and learning lessons from VIR will only help me to improve.  I think if I can just have a weekend where all I need to do is focus on driving the car then that should help a lot.  Therefore, I am hiring someone to help me for Road Atlanta which is May 9th to 11th.  Unfortunately spending money on a mechanic/engineer was not part of the budget for this year and it may mean that I do only three out of the six F1600 races but I know it is the right thing to do.  Road Atlanta is right around the corner -- please send good vibes my way!!  :)

Fisher House Press Release

Here is the press release announcing the partnership between us and Fisher House.  Hopefully we can raise a lot of money and awareness for them!!

http://www.f1600series.com/news/633-phillips-fisher-house-foundation-set-for-partial-season.html

The 2013 Season

I haven't posted in a while because I have been heads down getting the car ready for the 2013 season.  I will again be competing in the F1600 Championship Series (www.f1600series.com) and the series kicks off at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) next weekend (April 11th - 14th).  My wife, Terry, and I will be there and we are really looking forward to it!  The series announced that there will be a Master's Class which means that old guys like me (over the age of 40) can compete for points separate from the overall points distributed throughout the field.  Right now there are 28 entries for VIR and half of those are Masters entries.  Here is a link to the entry list:  http://www.f1600series.com/drivers.html  Believe me, most of the Masters drivers are renowned competitors and it definitely won't be easy to get on the Masters podium.  And frankly, my only focus is to do the best I can and continue to improve and learn about the engineering aspects of this car.  I also really hope that I have worn out the bad luck that I had last year!  It doesn't look like I will be able to make all six race weekends but I'm planning on attending four out of the six race weekends.

The one thing that I'm really excited about is that Terry and I will be raising money for the Fisher House Foundation (www.fisherhouse.org).  Fisher House is a fantastic charity that helps our wounded/ill military personnel and their families.  They have several programs but their main program is building houses near military hospitals so that families of hospitalized military personnel can stay in the houses free of charge for as long as they need to.  Be sure to check them out and stay tuned for a press release announcing this partnership!

Data Analysis Part 3 -- The Car

The only way I know of to monitor what the car is physically doing on the track is to have shock sensors installed.  If you have been following this blog then you know that I installed some relatively inexpensive rotating pot shock sensors.  So what kind of data can you get out of these sensors?  The answer is A LOT!!  When you think about it, the shocks are constantly moving.  Every time the driver hits the brakes, applies throttle, or turns the steering wheel the shocks are moving because weight is being transferred from one part of the car to another.  But not only can you tell how much each shock moves, with math channels (formulas) and some constants you can figure out the ride height of the car at each of the corners, the corner weights of the car, the roll of the car, the pitch of the car, etc.  Speaking of roll, ride height, and pitch, here is one of the user profiles that I use that I picked up from John Block's course.

The top left XY Plot compares the front roll (red) with the rear roll (blue).  As you can see, there isn't a big difference between the two.  The top right XY Plot compares the car's pitch to lateral Gs.  Since the relatively flat line shows that the pitch of the car is not that sensitive to lateral Gs.  I suspect that this chart can be very different for a closed wheel car such as a sedan.  The bottom left and bottom right XY Plots compare the front and rear ride heights to lateral Gs.  The graphs look very similar but they actually end up looking that way in exact opposite ways and I have shown this by adding some arrows and descriptions of what is happening.  As you can see, as the driver gets on the brakes the front goes down and the rear goes up and then as the driver transitions from braking to accelerating while entering the corner the data points are generated on the bottom side of the front (red) XY plot and on the top side of the rear (blue) XY plot.  Then as the driver begins to accelerate the Lateral Gs are at their max and as the driver unwinds the steering wheel the data points are generated on the top side of the front XY plot and on the bottom of the rear XY plot.  What these plots really show though is that the front ride height is a little more sensitive to lateral Gs (the ride height changes more) than the rear.  It also shows that max Gs happen at the lowest ride height so the lower that you can run the car the better.    Btw, I don't think the ride height measurements shown above are accurate.  I made a lot of changes to the car on this day and I didn't stay on top of my constants as I made changes.  In this case that doesn't matter because you are really just looking at the shape of the graphs.

If the driver is doing everything that he can do to keep the car as fast as possible but isn't happy with how the car is handling then he needs to figure out what to change on the car based on what the car is doing at what point in the corner (i.e., entry, middle, exit).  The data can confirm or contradict what the driver thinks is happening.  If it is determined that a change to the car needs to be made than the driver or engineer need to figure out what to change.  I personally use a pocket setup guide if I'm not sure what to change.  The fact is that different combinations might need to be tried and it isn't necessarily an easy process and I certainly can't go into all the different options here.  However, another thing that can be looked at if shock sensors on the car is shock histograms. 

These graphs show the percent of time that each shock is in high speed bump (compression), high speed rebound (extension), low speed bump, or low speed rebound.  The low speed percentages are shown in the shaded areas and those are more important than the high speed percentages.  The high speed percentages come into play when the car is going over bumps and the shocks are moving very quickly.  But the low speed percentages come into play when the car is cornering.  The theory is that the more equal the bump percentages are equal to the rebound percentages and the more equal the histograms are equal to each other than the more balanced the car is going to be.  That may or may not translate to faster lap times because the driver may like a car that is not 100% balanced and as a result may be faster.  Either way, a change in the bump or rebound on the shocks can be made and the change can be verified by looking at these histograms. 

Another important aspect of having shock sensors is that you can see whether or not there is a problem with one of your shocks or any other component of your suspension that is causing that corner to not work smoothly.  Below are shock scatter XY plots which compare the shock length to the shock velocity.  These should look like a shotgun blast pattern as they do below but if there was a problem with one of the corners then you would see vertical lines going through them.  This could save you a lot of time when trying to figure out why the car isn't handling right.

Staying on the topic of diagnosing problems or potential problems, you can also look at what the engine is doing and what aspect that is always important is oil pressure.

The XY plots above show how the oil pressure changes based on Lateral Gs, Longitudinal G's, and RPMs.  As you can see the oil pressure in the Honda Fit engine stays above 60 psi and below 80 psi no matter what is happening -- which is fantastic!  I can tell you that certainly was not the case in my FV motor.  You can also look at fuel pressure, water temp, air temp, etc.

Again with the help of math channels, it is possible to keep track of the amount of time or miles on the engine or really any other component (such as brake pads) which can help determine when to perform maintenance.  For example, during 2012 I know that I have put 811 miles on my engine and 445 of those miles were at wide open throttle. 

Again, everything I have touched on in this blog regarding data analysis is really just scratching the surface of what can be done with data acquisition and the more you use it the more you will figure out different aspects that can help.  Does it take a lot of time?  Yes.  But I hope that I have shown that it is worth spending the time with it.  Most of the time that I spend with it is done at home in front of the TV.  However, I have also taught myself quite a bit by using data acquisition when I'm on iRacing. 

The point is, use the resources that are available to you and the more resources that you can use the better off you will be.  At the very least, take John Block's courses (www.auto-ware.com) and read Bob Knox's book!  Both John and Bob also have software that have been extremely helpful to me.  I have been using John's Tire Analysis software and Bob's Stars program.  The Tire Analysis software helps me determine what setup changes to make based on tire pressures and temps and the Stars software helps me keep track of the setup changes and determine what gear ratios to use. 

Data Analysis Part 2 -- The Driver

I think that there are two groups of race car drivers – the ones with natural god given talent and those that need to learn the proper driving techniques in order to be fast. I would venture to say that less than 1% have the god given talent and the rest of us need to rely on our ability to learn to get the job done. I’m definitely part of the 99%. Also, I’m very consistent in almost everything I do but unfortunately that means that I could consistently be doing something wrong and not know it until someone (or something) points it out. That is where the data system comes in. Analyzing my data has pointed out some things that I should have been doing differently in order to go faster and as a result I believe that the earlier a driver’s techniques are analyzed the better the driver will be.

For example, below is a screen shot that shows some different traces over a given lap at Summit Point Raceway. The 2nd trace is speed and one thing to look for (especially with a new driver) is whether or not the valleys (where the driver is going through the corners) are pointy or curved. They are curved in the pic below which means that I was carrying decent speed into the corner and gradually picking up speed as I go through it. If they were pointy (which mine used to look like) then that could mean that the driver is too focused on braking as deep as he can and fighting the car to the apex which ends up slowing the car down too much. After he gets the car slowed down and into the corner then he mashes the gas to get the car back up to speed again. The result is that the driver who brakes a little earlier than the really late braker and is smoother (and quicker) through the corner is going to turn the better lap time.

Another basic thing to look at is the braking technique of the driver. The proper braking technique is for the driver to brake as hard as he can while the car is going the fastest and then gradually release the brakes as he approaches the corner. Easy to say but not as easily done. When we brake on the streets it is the exact opposite. As we approach a traffic light we initially brake lightly and then brake harder until we bring the car to a stop. So, for most of us that is ingrained in us. When looking at the front brake pressure line in the pic below, my braking technique is not that good and it is something that I continue to work on. When I hit the brakes for Turn 1 ( the first braking point in the chart) my braking technique was a little better because you can see that I hit the brakes hard initially but I eased off of them a little too quickly and had to get back on them again. But the braking for Turn 5 (the one that I have circled) is much worse – I didn’t get on the brakes hard enough initially and then had to increase the brake pressure as I approached the corner. The reason why this is not good is because every time you hit the brakes, the gas, or turn the steering wheel you are transferring weight from one part of the car to another. If the driver can minimize this weight transfer then the car will be more balanced, will feel more comfortable, and will most likely be faster as a result.

The chart below shows a couple of other tidbits of information as well. One, coming out of Turn 6 the car got loose and I have circled the two things that tell me this. I lifted off the throttle very quickly and my steering wheel went the opposite direction very quickly. And two, not long after that corner there is a big lift off of the throttle but my steering input didn’t change. This tells me that the car was probably had understeer through this part of the course. Either of these conditions could be caused by how the driver is driving the car or the set-up of the car but the point is you can’t begin to fix the problem until you know that there is a problem. The driver may or may not remember but the data doesn’t lie!

In the AIM data system, a User Profile is a set of saved charts that can be quickly recalled every time that you open a data set.  This means that you can quickly look at certain bits of information without creating charts every time which saves you tons of time.  Below is a pic that shows a User Profile which I recall almost every time I look at data.  (Btw, on the left, you can see all the User Profiles that I have saved.)  The purple line in the top graph shows the longitudinal Gs and the red line is a math channel called Combined Gs which combines longitudinal and lateral Gs.  This is a great way to see how well the driver is transitioning from braking to turning.  Ideally the car should be slowed down to the point where it will get through the corner at the limit of grip and the car should still be slowing down a little bit as the driver enters the corner.  So you should see the Combined G line "springing" off of the Longitudinal G line.  If the Combined G line is falling off the back side of the Longitudinal G Line then the driver is over slowing the car.  I have highlighted examples of each below.

The chart in the bottom middle is another very important one because it quickly shows what the driver is dealing with in regards to understeer and oversteer.  This is an X/Y Plot and Lateral Gs are on the X axis and Steering is on the Y Axis.  So one side of the chart is left hand turns and the other side is right hand turns.  If data points are showing up below the main line on the left side of the chart then this is understeer and if they are showing up above the main line on the right side of the chart then this is also understeer.  And likewise if they show up above the main line on the left and below the main line on the right then this is oversteer.  The reason why this happens is because if a driver enters a corner and continually puts in more steering input as the Lateral G's increase then he/she will reach a point of diminishing returns and the front tires will not turn the car like they should thus -- resulting in understeer.  If a driver enters a corner and the back end of the car begins to rotate more than the front then the driver will have to turn the steering wheel the opposite direction in order to catch the back end. Therefore the lateral G's would still be increasing but the steering input is decreasing, thereby showing the oversteer in the chart.  Again, these conditions may or may not be caused by the driver.  I actually like a car that has a little bit of understeer and what is shown in the above chart is what I like to see but I'm making this statement based on what I feel in the car and after looking at hundreds of charts from my data.

The XY plot on the bottom left has Lateral Gs on the X axis and Longitudinal Gs on the Y Axis.  This is basically showing what is known as the traction circle.  Again, there should be a smooth transition between braking, accelerating, and cornering and this chart highlights the smoothness of those transitions and whether or not the driver is getting the most out of the car.  It is really a half circle because the G forces from accelerating aren't nearly as great as the ones experienced in braking and cornering.  This chart isn't a very good example of what it should look like because there should be fairly straight lines in the center that then curve to each side of the char where the Lateral Gs are the greatest.  So, a half circle with a line going from to the top to the bottom would be ideal.

The XY plot on the bottom right has Lateral G Velocity (a math channel that is the derivative of Lateral Gs) on the X axis and has Steering Velocity (a math channel that is the derivative of Steering) and this shows how busy the driver's hands are.  In looking at the chart above, there aren't any lines shooting out from the center so my hands weren't especially busy -- which is the way I like it.

In contrast, below is a pic of the same chart from a lap where the car was loose and I was not happy with the handling.  And btw, the lap was 1.5 seconds slower than the lap above.  Later I had discovered that I had a setup issue which was that one of my rear wheels was slightly toed out.  Notice that the chart in the bottom center shows that the oversteer condition was only present in left hand corners and there is more understeer in right hand corners.

Btw, any data system worth its salt when generate a track map that you can look at.  I know the lines generated from driving Summit Point so well that I don't have to look at it but here is the map generated by the AIM software. The software will come up with its own corner numbers based on what the car is doing but I have changed those to reflect the actual corner numbers at the track.

Another extremely useful tool is Split Times.  The pic below shows all my times from the session with my best time being a 1:16.12.  However, it also combines all my best segment times (shown in blue) and combines those to come up with my best theoretical lap time, a 1:15.384. It is impossible to match all of those segment times because chances are if you are much faster in one segment there is a good chance that there you are going to be slower in another.  However, it does give you something to shoot for.  The other measurement that is a little bit more useful to me is the best rolling lap.  This is highlighted in yellow and it starts a lap from somewhere other than the start finish line and combines the segments across two laps to give you your best time.  It is possible to have your best time equal your best rolling lap but it isn't very likely.  My best rolling lap was a 1:15.983 which was only a couple of 10ths off of my best time so that is totally achievable and definitely something to shoot for especially since I should get faster with this car.  In fact this chart has given me some very good insight about how to get into the 15s.  If you look at corners 6 through 9 (the carousel at Summit), my segment times were the fastest on the first lap shown.  So I obviously did something different on that lap then I did on any other lap.  I was able to figure it out using my data but I'm not sharing it.  :)

Everything that I have discussed so far still fall in the category of "the basics" and that is really all I can do in this blog.  There is just so much to it that anyone that wants to learn more than what I have discussed needs to go to other professional sources, such as John Block and Bob Knox.  I do plan on doing one more posting on data analysis and I will discuss some of the things that I look at to see what the car is doing but it will probably take me a little while to get that published.  I hope these posts are getting those racers that are following me to want to learn more though!  Btw, I'm always happy to answer any questions!

Data Analysis Part 1 -- The Basics

I have been wanting to write a post on data analysis for a while now but there is so much to it that I have had difficulty figuring out how to approach it.  There is no way I can cover everything so hopefully these posts give a basic understanding of what can be accomplished with data and just how important it is for getting the most out of the driver and the car.  Plus, there is lots more detailed information out there already if you know where to look. 

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