Interesting and Inexpensive Data Acquisition
 

Check out Race Capture Pro

Currently in development, and partially crowd sourced.

Looks to be pretty capable, considering the $299 price tag.

It'll be interesting to keep an eye on it and see if it gets developed/funded. For now I'm going with an AIM Solo for its ease of use and in-car screen all for a reasonable price.

The AIM solo had so much potential but their predictive timing functionality and display leaves MUCH to be desired. They could have done just a couple things different in how predictive timing is handled and they would have had HUGE hit at that price point.

While not cheap by any means, the best bang for the buck out there is still the traqmate with the newer traqdash module...

Traqmate is great, but also nowhere near the price point of a Solo (when paired with the traqdash), nor the ease of use. While my use has been limited so far, I've found that on my "home" track with sectors setup on the Solo that the predictive timing is pretty useful and the display easy to read with a quick glance.

I'm in a HPDE setting so I'm not out searching for ultimate lap times, but it's great to have the immediate feedback that the sector timing can give you. I can try something different thru a corner and then check the Solo after that corner and see how I compare to my previous laps instantly.

Even without the traqdash i found traqmate's older display much better in terms of predictive.

All i really want are a set of 4-5 green LEDs and a set of 4-5 red LEDs If one green LED is lit i am beating whatever lap i have it set up to compare to (best of session, personal best, etc) one light slightly ahead, more lights, more ahead, one red light slightly behind, more red lights more behind...that way i dont even have to glance down, it can be done via periphery. So i can get the info in a corner rather than waithing for a straight to glance down. I know exactly where i am losing/gaining by the foot.

When did you try the Solo? I had a Solo DL last summer for a while before putting an MXL Pista in that car and it worked great. Display was fine, predictive was good after putting the latest firmware on it...

I tried it early last summer. Sold it immediately. If i recall correctly in "speed/race mode" it would show you your predictive time, rather than +/-. So, not only did you have to look down at numbers in monocolor, but you would have to compare the current predictive lap time vs your best sort of doing the math in your head. Sure i could figure out if i was ahead or behind on a striaght but getting the exact time difference was not easy. I want a clear, color, +/- display. The only time it would show plus minus is in the consistency mode (or whatever it was called) and it would only compare with your 2nd lap, or first lap at speed. Also the instructions were terrible.

Like i mentioned I would much prefer exactly what traqmate has done with their traqdash. Color, +/- digital time, with a sliding color bar.

Ultimately what would be awesome is something that works exactly like the iRacing predictive functionality even with just red and green LEDs in conjunction with a +/- readout where you can have it compare versus, optimal lap, optimal sector, best sector, best lap, best session lap, with the red/green color sliding bar etc...

If they just added a row of red and green LEDs to the top of the AIM solo it would be MUCHO more useful to me.

I might give this one a try next year.

LT-Q6000

Every time I've used the Solo it was setup to show +/- readout compared to the session best lap, but also with sector times shown as well, which is how I found it most useful. Remember that I'm using it in a DE setting so if I get caught in traffic and know that I'm -1.5 secs off of my best lap, I can still easily tell if I took a sector better if when I get out of it I'm only -1.3 secs.

I would love it to behave just like iRacing as well, but I have yet to see one that can replicate those features.

I looked at the LT-Q6000 which is really interesting, but I have at least some exposure to the Solo and I believe it currently offers better support which is why it won out for me.

I've been using the XT Racing GPX Pro for a few years. The unit is pretty basic, but for post analysis I've found it really useful. Capturing GPS position makes it a lot easier to compare laps too as you can plot the data along position rather than time. When plotted against time I often have a hard time comparing the last few corners of a lap. But when plotted vs. position it's a lot easier to see the speed and throttle position to know which line I was on, and if I was able to get on the throttle earlier or not.

Still, the GPX units are quite a bit more than the unit in the link. I'll have to check that out further.
-Dan