Data Acquisition - RLC
 

Any experience to pass on with use of the RLC Track Commander or Micro Pod?

bump, anyone using them?

Not here, but I'm just starting to look into data acq. I was at an HPDE at CMP this past weekend and we were using the data from a Traqmate ($$+) for track analysis during one of the classroom sessions. Really useful, esp. when we could compare and contrast the runs from three different drivers in two different cars all at the same time.

It seems that the secret sauce in all these devices is the software. The basic units tends to be some sort of rebranded PDA and the GPS is usually an off-the-shelf unit (a $150 Garmin GPS puck in the RLC case). The PDA display is usually too small to be overly useful (for me, YMMV) beyond a in-car lap time, so post-run analysis on the lap-top would appear to be more important. I suspect that this is the reason that Traqmate has done so well - everyone seem to like their software.

The other item that can play a factor would be expandability - can you add analog inputs from things like the Tach, steering input, etc. and display (in a useful way) that along with positional/velocity data from the GPS system. That and video sync capability. This seems to separate the big boys from the midrange players.

My approach would be to see if you can get a demo copy of their analysis software and some sample data to play with. Compare and contrast with the other offerings from folks like Traqmate and MaxQData. If you like the tools and and the interface gives you the info you need, then grab it.

Personally, I'm planning on dipping my toes in the water with a cheap 5Hz GPS, a used PDA and some inexpensive shareware. I just want to see if the homebrew approach can give me the 80% solution. It may be enough to move me ahead, or maybe not.

Good luck, and let us know what you find.

-b

buy a couple books... we've been running a michron for a few seasons, and interpreting the data can get to be a big subject. people do write books about it.

um get something expandable, as the more data you have the more you will want.

A friend of mine let me use his driftbox at an event a last season, it's pretty nice and the software isn't bad.

http://www.vboxusa.com/performancedrift/

If you don't need the drift angle feature you can get the $500 one instead. You can download the software and play around with it, I think they have sample track data files on their site somewhere.

I'm a technician for Texas World Speedway's Performance Driving School, and we're running Micro Pod Lite's in all our rental cars, so I've gotten a lot of experience with them.

Setup was very easy (although we had a preset car) and tech support is amazing. The device is running a Windows Core OS, and as such is very flexible. The dash display system is very nice, I've never had a problem with reading it, even in direct sunlight.

From a racing standpoint, the lap timer seems to be very sweet. It's a predictive setup (the primary selling point for us) and it works flawlessly every time if you've been to the track before. Even if it's a new track, programming the start/finish line is very easy.

RLC just released a new Beta for their analysis software, and it's vastly improved over the previous 0.X generation.

I'm assuming you're looking for a relatively casual setup. If you want something you can analyze on Monday morning (or even after you get off track) just to evaluate your performance, you probably want something like the RLC, setup for about $1K all said and done. That would include steering angle, brake pressure, throttle position, and anything else GPS could tell you. Pretty much all you'd need to interpret your driving. But if you decide you want a full engineering system for chassis setup, to do it right you're going to want over 40 sensors, and look at spending on the magnitude of $30K.

(Note to mods: If you deem this as commercial, please delete the following comment. I'm not trying to make an advertisement or anything like that. I'm on the forum because I just bought a FB as a personal project, and noticed this thread.)

If you're getting seriously interested in an RLC system, I noticed you're in Texas. It may be worth your while to come down and race at TWS sometime, and I'd love to show off the RLC systems we've got. We've even got a Track Commander system for rental.

Thanks.

I just moved my FB from College Station storage two weeks ago, my son was running it while at TAM. Its been two years since I ran the 2.9 CCW

Just FYI, RLC just released a new version of their software that's leaps and bounds beyond the old stuff. I know some guys have been pushed away by the primitive software in the past, but it's vastly improved.

None of these have cameras though.

RLCs do. Syncs up with the rest of the datalogging and is shown in the analysis software.