Good, cheap, user friendly, Track app

[Brian@BMVK]

Everything I’ve tried to do with external GPS and OBDII has been problematic, time consuming, and unreliable... maybe that’s just me.

Mount up a GoPro Hero5 and click record. You can get lap times by writing down time stamps if you want.

the GoPro quick app makes it easy to trim out individual laps if you want with speed, gos path, and accel.

GoPro Hero 4, OBDLinkMX, external GPS (always plugged into a charger) and Solo Storm works great. When I was leaving the GPS to its battery alone it was very inconsistent. Since I began the practice of keeping it plugged in, flawless. Now that I've learned to use the CAN and accel data, sector splits well, it's really helpful.

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[TeeLew]

and yes, the "easy button" is smartycam + solo 2 dl, which syncs and makes everything available in near-realtime but as mentioned, very costly - and it also has HORRIBLE video/audio relative to gopro.

I disagree on the video/audio quality. It's possible you have not had an experience with a well set up system. When taking into account what it provides, the SmartyCam meets a nice price point. It's easy to spend 5x for not many more features. Having said that, for the quality, complexity & price, a GoPro is a really good option. Your lash-up in particular is pretty nice.

 

[boardkat]

I disagree on the video/audio quality. It's possible you have not had an experience with a well set up system. When taking into account what it provides, the SmartyCam meets a nice price point. It's easy to spend 5x for not many more features. Having said that, for the quality, complexity & price, a GoPro is a really good option. Your lash-up in particular is pretty nice.

possibly, but 720p/30fps is never gonna look as good on a 65" 4k TV ;)
my guess is OP is looking for a good out-of-the-box solution though, so it might be the droid he's looking for. just presenting a cheaper alternative if willing to put in a bit of work

 

[TeeLew]

possibly, but 720p/30fps is never gonna look as good on a 65" 4k TV ;)

Well, you're not wrong there, but when you have a bunch of files, you're also not stuck with a couple Tb of videos.

 

[boardkat]

Well, you're not wrong there, but when you have a bunch of files, you're also not stuck with a couple Tb of videos.

i still remember the first time i ran out of space on my 214mb hdd, and added an 850mb drive when napster came out in 98 - and promptly filled that up in a few nights due to the T1 dorm network i was on

what's a few tb these days? send it to the cloud! especially since gopro plus offers you unlimited (and uncompressed) space now

 

[ihasnostang]

i cant chime in as far as apps, but i would love to see your ecoboost go around road america.

as far as mounts go i prefer the perspective from headrest view over windshield view.

(external mic isnt plugged in)

 

[TeeLew]

as far as mounts go i prefer the perspective from headrest view over windshield view.

It's important to me to have the driver's hands in the frame. It's really tough to diagnose handing issues with just the windshield or roof-center view.

 

[Cobra99]

you could always try Harry's lap timer.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.harrys.laptimertrainer&hl=en

 

[SVO MkII]

i cant chime in as far as apps, but i would love to see your ecoboost go around road america.

as far as mounts go i prefer the perspective from headrest view over windshield view.

(external mic isnt plugged in)

Yes, I was thinking maybe I'd try using the suction cup on the rear window. However, that would be a bit of a pain to start/stop. In the "old days" my VHS camera was mounted on a harness bar in my 911, which gave an excellent view of the driver, dash, and windshield.

Assuming I can get everything to work, I'll try to post some Eco Road America footage next week.

 

[JohnD]

Track Addict/Race Render for me, works very well on a good quality cell phone. I tried Harry's, it was nowhere near as easy to use and understand as TA/RR, rather flaky actually.

 

[SVO MkII]

I used TrackAddict at Road America on 8/9-8/10. It's pretty cool. I still have to play around with it more to figure out how to save and share the video and data. Looking at the data has raised some interesting questions though.

One of the data points that is monitored and available is "Engine Coolant Temp" (ECT), at least that is how it is labeled in Track Addict. At no time during any of the sessions over two days, did the factory coolant temp gauge move far to the right, nor did I receive any sort of warning for excessive coolant temp. However, looking at the ECT data from Track Addict my coolant temp hovered in the 230s every session. I can watch the data real time as I lap the track, and the ECT value moves from high 220s to mid 230s, engine continues to receive full boost, no intervention from the ECU, etc. This seems odd to me.

My question; Is it possible that there is a "translation error" between the factory OBD II output and the Track Addict app, and what is being shown as ECT is actually Cylinder Head Temp (CHT)? My CHT does hover around 230 during hot laps, but again, the factory coolant temp gauge stays pretty close to the middle of the gauge all day long. Anyone have any similar experiences with Track Addict?

 

[NightmareMoon]

Anybody tried SoloStorm in Circuit mode?

I got two days of really good data out of SoloStorm at the last couple of autocrosses (for the first time). Super helpful to be able to quickly compare runs in grid between runs, and it stopped me from chasing ghosts and actually knowing where the time went and why run B was faster than run A. Track Addict and Harry's are fun for quick video uploads with 'overlays' and maybe catching gross errors, but they're not very useful for meaningful data for driver development.

 

[SVO MkII]

I used TrackAddict at Road America on 8/9-8/10. It's pretty cool. I still have to play around with it more to figure out how to save and share the video and data. Looking at the data has raised some interesting questions though.

One of the data points that is monitored and available is "Engine Coolant Temp" (ECT), at least that is how it is labeled in Track Addict. At no time during any of the sessions over two days, did the factory coolant temp gauge move far to the right, nor did I receive any sort of warning for excessive coolant temp. However, looking at the ECT data from Track Addict my coolant temp hovered in the 230s every session. I can watch the data real time as I lap the track, and the ECT value moves from high 220s to mid 230s, engine continues to receive full boost, no intervention from the ECU, etc. This seems odd to me.

My question; Is it possible that there is a "translation error" between the factory OBD II output and the Track Addict app, and what is being shown as ECT is actually Cylinder Head Temp (CHT)? My CHT does hover around 230 during hot laps, but again, the factory coolant temp gauge stays pretty close to the middle of the gauge all day long. Anyone have any similar experiences with Track Addict?

I installed the Torque app on my phone so I could compare what the app displays as coolant temp versus the factory gauge. As I suspected with Track Addict, the Torque "coolant temp" tracks precisely with the CHT gauge in the car, not the engine temp gauge. Once the Torque app showed about 170 deg, the factory engine temp gauge stopped moving (I have a 160 deg t-stat installed). But the Torque displayed coolant temp and the vehicle displayed CHT continued to rise in precise unison (I was just idling in the garage). I was a bit surprised to see these values rise all the way to 215, then falls back to about 185, and repeats. I'm trying to reconcile how this is working with a 160 deg t-stat? Anyway, I feel a bit less concerned now that I'm pretty certain those 230+ temps at the track are really CHT temps, not overall engine coolant temps.

 

[Dana Pants]

I installed the Torque app on my phone so I could compare what the app displays as coolant temp versus the factory gauge. As I suspected with Track Addict, the Torque "coolant temp" tracks precisely with the CHT gauge in the car, not the engine temp gauge. Once the Torque app showed about 170 deg, the factory engine temp gauge stopped moving (I have a 160 deg t-stat installed). But the Torque displayed coolant temp and the vehicle displayed CHT continued to rise in precise unison (I was just idling in the garage). I was a bit surprised to see these values rise all the way to 215, then falls back to about 185, and repeats. I'm trying to reconcile how this is working with a 160 deg t-stat? Anyway, I feel a bit less concerned now that I'm pretty certain those 230+ temps at the track are really CHT temps, not overall engine coolant temps.

when parking, temperature is managed by when the cooling fan turns on. A thermostat won’t change that.

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