Lap Timers - Educate Me

[rolker]

Dan,
For what it's worth, I've got a GPS TraQr from MaxQData (link is in the attachment). Cost was $250.

It's a GPS reciever that downloads to your PC to give you just about any data you want from your run (speed, acceleration, est hp, etc..) in addition to lap times. The Word attachment is a screen shot so you can see what I mean.

In the screenshot, the Red line represents lap 3 and the blue line represents lap 4 and shows my speed around the track. I have the front straight in the "cross hairs" and it shows my max speed at 100.0 mph for lap 4 versus 97.6 for lap 3. You can see from the graph that my laps 3 and 4 were pretty consistent except for turns 6 & 9 where I held better roll speed on lap 4 - this difference is the primary reason for a nearly 4 second improvment in my lap times.

As a newbie this data is very useful for me to analyze mistakes and recognize improvments so I get the most out of limited track time.

I'm using a $80 gps logger that happens to be the same used in the MaxQData system. It didn't come with lap analysis software so I wrote my own. The advantage of a gps unit is that a lot more than just lap times are stored and you can much better analyse you session after the fact. You don't get a real time display, but I'm happy to just look at the data at the end of each session anyways.

Another advantage of a gps logger is that I can create virtual replays of sessions or races from the data. I'm actually in the process now of rendering a movie of Saturday's race 8 with Gunner's data as well as mine. You could be in there too if you had a gps logger as well!!

["Dangerous" Dan K]

I'm using a $80 gps logger that happens to be the same used in the MaxQData system. It didn't come with lap analysis software so I wrote my own. The advantage of a gps unit is that a lot more than just lap times are stored and you can much better analyse you session after the fact. You don't get a real time display, but I'm happy to just look at the data at the end of each session anyways.

Another advantage of a gps logger is that I can create virtual replays of sessions or races from the data. I'm actually in the process now of rendering a movie of Saturday's race 8 with Gunner's data as well as mine. You could be in there too if you had a gps logger as well!!

Seems very cool, but 1) I don't have the slightest idea how to write software & 2) I really, really want a display of last lap when I'm on the bike. That's the #1 reason I'm thinking of doing this. I'd like GPS to analyze different sections later, but a heads up on my last lap when I'm out there is the big payoff to me.

My cell has GPS... wonder if I could hack that to get data for you to include me in the virtual races? Eh, even if it can be done I'm sure it's over my head.

[rolker]

My cell has GPS... wonder if I could hack that to get data for you to include me in the virtual races? Eh, even if it can be done I'm sure it's over my head.

What kind of phone? Is it an iPhone? And do you usually carry it with you when racing? If you can get it to log data, I'd be happy to look at it!

["Dangerous" Dan K]

What kind of phone? Is it an iPhone? And do you usually carry it with you when racing? If you can get it to log data, I'd be happy to look at it!

Sprint Treo 800. No, I don't carry it, but I could attach it to the bike if there was a point. I'll google trying to get it to log data later on. It's got plenty of memory, a micro SD slot, and pretty good GPS, I don't see why it wouldn't.

[BMFR6]

Sprint Treo 800. No, I don't carry it, but I could attach it to the bike if there was a point. I'll google trying to get it to log data later on. It's got plenty of memory, a micro SD slot, and pretty good GPS, I don't see why it wouldn't.

will that be the most expensive thing on the bike?

[rolker]

This should do the trick on a Windows based phone.

http://www.ilaptiming.com/

In addition to giving you lap timer functionality, it logs the data in NMEA format, which I can use!

["Dangerous" Dan K]

will that be the most expensive thing on the bike?

Damn close, and it was free!

This should do the trick on a Windows based phone.

http://www.ilaptiming.com/

In addition to giving you lap timer functionality, it logs the data in NMEA format, which I can use!

Sweet, I started looking and found 100 freeware options. I was about to ask what format you use. For $10 I'll buy that if you can use the data.

[gixxer72]

Sounds good.... Like I said, it's a little busted up, but I'll price it accordingly. Just gotta confirm it actually still works

I'll let ya know.

Great, thank you!!

["Dangerous" Dan K]

This should do the trick on a Windows based phone.

http://www.ilaptiming.com/

In addition to giving you lap timer functionality, it logs the data in NMEA format, which I can use!

Well shit... internal fatal error, program is shutting down. I'll have to try to find something else that uses NMEA.