RaceCapture Kickstarter

[mikeb75]

Hiya All!

The RaceCapture kickstarter site:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autosportlabs/racecapture-and-podium-race-it-share-it-prove-it

(snip)
RaceCapture is a compact device that supercharges your smart phone with performance data from your car. With RaceCapture, you can get engine stats from OBD-II, precision track mapping from the high-performance GPS module, and measure dynamic forces using the precision 6 axis accelerometer + gyro and much more - all in one simple plug and play package.

(also)
RaceCapture works with Podium, a new social network for sharing racing data with friends. With Podium, you can combine video from your smartphone with high quality data from RaceCapture and share it with friends, fans, and followers. You can compare your stats such as lap times, speed, engine data, G-forces and position on the track and get notified when your friends are racing, find out if they get a great lap time, or better yet, notify them when you set the track record!

Disclaimer:
I get no benefit from this product or company! I'm a paying customer; have purchased the RaceCapture/Pro data logger for my project build & have backed the Kickstarter campaign to support the RaceCaptuer & Podium projects. But I am looking forward to using this tech.

If you are inclined, check out the project. Thanks!

[Pearldrummer7]

This is really cool. Thinking about hopping on this and supporting them.

[Martin]

(Don't mean to stomp over this thread, just highlighting an alternative).

On Android, the torque app does most of this and more (such as error code identification and clearing etc.)

It's only a few bucks as well.

http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.prowl.torque

or

http://torque-bhp.com/

Plugins available for video capture, overlays etc. Only thing it doesn't do is allow you to share leader boards with friends.

Martin

[mikeb75]

Hi Martin,

No stompage here :) It's good to know and discuss the alternatives.

I've looked at the Torque app & Harry's lap timer and have written similar apps to log my track days. In my experience a smart phone's GPS performance isn't good enough if you're serious. All of the handsets I've worked with update GPS position 1 time per second (1Hz) and I believe the positional fix was 5M; pretty major limitation when trying to correlate position/ racing line.

IMHO, smart phone based apps are a good way to start out logging & reviewing data, but anything more serious than that and I'd want a higher performing GPS logger - which means adding an external GPS receiver which again adds cost and complexity to the smart phone solution (which already uses a Bluetooth dongle to poll ECU data). This is what makes the RC unit at the price point so attractive. Similar costs to an action cam with GPS positioning, better performance than a smart phone only (from what I understand RC still needs the smartphone for writing the log file), and includes the ECU & GPS functionality in 1 box.

Annnd... the Podium web service that AutoSport Labs is pimping (the real project of the Kickstarter campaign) (supposedly) isn't limited to data from their hardware, so I imagine you could upload a log file from the Torque (or other) app and make use of the service (that's what I'd do if I was a developer on the project :) - at least that's what the specifications I wrote a while ago for my own gratification say :p )

my $.02

Oh, and Pearldrummer7 - "Do It!" (says the evil voice on your shoulder)

[Martin]

I didn't realise mobile phone GPS was so limited in accuracy.

Good to know!

Martin

[mikeb75]

I didn't realise mobile phone GPS was so limited in accuracy.

It was an interesting discovery, when the software wrote to the log file every 500ms, but the GPS coordinates only changed every 2 log entries.

It makes sense though, using the GPS function on the smartphone was definitely power intensive, without plugging it in it'd tank the battery in about 1 hour. I'm sure more modern chipsets are more efficient or precise, just not sure they can manage both :) .

Also, looking at some outside GPS testing on smart phones demonstrates 3M accuracy (average) not the 5M figure I quoted (and looking back at some of my references...) - depending on the quality of the GPS fix & satellites :


# Event:
Circuit: Summit Point, Shenandoah
Session: 001
Vehicle: STI
# start: 10:29:43.AM
Time,Latitude,Longitude,Altitude,X,Y,Z,Speed (m/s),Heading,Lap,Accuracy (m)
<snip>
01:54.015,39.234974,-77.969167,199.70,0.06,-0.23,-0.95,18.18,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:54.513,39.234974,-77.969167,199.70,0.05,0.13,-1.01,18.18,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:55.012,39.234810,-77.969240,199.70,0.03,-0.06,-0.93,19.46,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:55.511,39.234810,-77.969240,199.70,0.05,-0.09,-0.99,19.46,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:56.009,39.234654,-77.969303,199.70,0.02,-0.08,-0.95,18.91,198.28,lap 0,3.99
01:56.508,39.234654,-77.969303,199.70,0.05,-0.04,-0.96,18.91,198.28,lap 0,3.99
01:57.007,39.234482,-77.969372,199.80,0.03,-0.03,-1.03,19.42,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:57.506,39.234482,-77.969372,199.80,0.06,-0.03,-1.10,19.42,198.63,lap 0,3.99
01:58.004,39.234319,-77.969440,199.50,0.11,0.07,-0.99,19.35,198.98,lap 0,3.99
01:58.503,39.234319,-77.969440,199.50,0.10,0.18,-1.07,19.35,198.98,lap 0,3.99
01:59.002,39.234164,-77.969510,199.30,0.04,0.06,-0.99,18.51,198.98,lap 0,3.99
01:59.501,39.234164,-77.969510,199.30,0.05,-0.07,-1.07,18.51,198.98,lap 0,3.99
02:00.000,39.234023,-77.969572,199.10,0.07,-0.02,-1.03,17.41,198.28,lap 0,3.99
02:00.516,39.234023,-77.969572,199.10,0.04,-0.14,-1.04,17.41,198.28,lap 0,3.99
02:01.015,39.233867,-77.969640,198.60,0.06,-0.08,-0.98,17.52,198.28,lap 0,3.99
02:01.513,39.233867,-77.969640,198.60,0.05,-0.07,-0.99,17.52,198.28,lap 0,3.99
...


don't get me wrong, I was a big proponent of smartphone based logging, till I had so much trouble with iffy GPS results trashing my run files.