Track data recording
 

Is there a better app out there for Android besides Torque pro for datalogging basic OBD-II data? The autocross sessions here are pretty short and probably don't need to record data, but I would like to try to dip my toe into data collection before I get to actual track time and better data systems.

I use racechrono, but primarily for timing. It can log a good amount of OBD data too.

I'll take a look at it. Thanks!

There's not really a middle ground, you either spend <$100 and it's a little janky or you jump up to >$200 to SoloStorm or AIM.

Lots to be gained in getting autox data if you want to be competitive there, SoloStorm is great.

I tried a lot of free apps and couldn’t find one that did what I wanted and went to SoloStorm and it’s awesome and also works on track.

Then once I got used to it and wanted even more data I paired the solostorm with a RaceCapture and it’s amazing.

Honestly, I am happier with Racechrono, an XGPS160 and MX+ OBD link then with my Aim. The aim has some nice features but it's buggy sometimes. I get pretty good data from racechrono. And the battery in my Solo2 died not even two years old. It was always a bit dodgy and never held a charge well even when new.

TrackAddict works quite well considering it's free.
Just pair with the proper blutooth ODBII module and an external GPS.

Just curious. What do you log with your OBD2 module and TrackAddict?

Thanks.

I like Trackaddict for the track (as far as free stuff goes), paired with a Qstarz or XGPS160 it is just as accurate as my transponder. That's what I use on my TT4 BMW for time attack.

For autocross, Solostorm for sure, with same GPS.

Add on a Bluetooth OBDII adapter if you want the extra info.

Solostorm for AutoX.

AIM Solo 2 DL for anything else.

I use an ODBlink MX+ and mainly use it for RPM and throttle position. Sometimes gear position as well.
G-force readings from the phone.
Position and speed from the external gps. A Garmin Glo 2
GoPro Hero 5 black for video with an external mic mounted to the rear license plate frame.
Data and video put together with RaceRender 3 (also free)

Here is an example of it all put together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68hG1QtTv0

Is there a real benefit of an external GPS? I would have guessed the phone's internal GPS would be fine. Or does the external GPS offer faster refresh rate than 1 Hz?

The external GPS that solostorm suggests is 10Hz refresh.

I used my phone's internal gps for a bit, then switched to an external. The phone GPS was WAY off. Speeds were wrong and lines were wrong. They don't update nearly fast enough or accurate enough. I could easily see each individual point of data collection on Trackaddict. There were large gaps between data points, made the line all angular and incorrect.

Not to waste your time, but is there a short version of why?

They capture a lot of data that you can use to help yourself go faster.

1hz phone systems are useless, and most bluetooth adapters do not have a high enough poll rate to be truly useful beyond the most basic "this is your lap time +- 1s", and "this was roughly your speed within a 1s window". Mostly useless.

I would recommend RaceCapture Track/MK2 (or MK3 now I suppose) but honestly the app and analysis is such trash and the owner is resistant to resolve actual bugs so I can't recommend them anymore.

It's a great recorder. Has always been within hundredths of an actual transponder but besides predicative laps you won't pull much usefulness out of it.

So, I think I'm jumping ship and going AIM Solo 2 DL.

@CSG Mike - any platform specific mounting solutions?

Suction cup to window. You want the unit to have a clear view of the sky to get a good GPS signal.

PM to order.

I've run a phone app to a 10hz GPS back to back with my Solo2 and a transponder. Negligible difference. Yes, running it off the phones 1hz base GPS is pointless but that is not what many of of are talking about doing.

I agree that AIM is the way to go, but the annoying part about an AIM Solo 2 DL is that you can't add other sensors that aren't made available over CANBUS, you need to go up to a MXM or something to add in say, oil pressure. Obviously, if you have an aftermarket ECU you can pipe whatever you want into a DL but it is worth noting.

Also, the Smartycam 2.1 makes it easy but the video quality is garbage compared to basically everything else out. It writes the data overlay onto the video live so it needs the hardware to handle that, Smartycam 3 is coming out soon that does 1080p.

That, however, doesn't change the fact that the poll rate from your CANBUS is way too low.

The GPS is only really good for seeing speeds and lap time. That's only the tip of the iceberg for data.

Resolution is low(720p), but the actual video is quite good, and is solid state. If you chucked the Smartycam out of your car at 180mph, it would record the entire tumble.

All you need for the real-time overlay is a Solo/Solo2 DL. Of course you can use other AIM hardware as well.

Real-time overlay is THE selling point of the Smartycam. It's invaluable when you're in a time crunch, and overlays the data precisely without needing you to sync manually.

Which adaptor? The BLE adaptors have some trouble when querying a bunch of PID's. It is not terrible when using a good one like MXLink, some guys have logged data rates as high as 50hz logging half a dozen channels. I don't log that much stuff but they are not bad for far less then an Aim DL.

I had a sour experience with Aim so I am not really that sold on them. The DL's where not available and I bought a Solo2 and I have never been happy with it. Mine has been sitting unused and needing a battery for about 8 months.

I have the OBDLINK MX. I'll start with the racechrono this weekend.

I agree, I spent the money to buy it myself. I don't think the complete package can be beat.

Just saying that the video quality can be a bit of a let-down for the total price of entry and that there is an input gate on the DL itself. If you decide you want extra input you'd step up to a MXM or dash and then you realize you need a Data Hub and the expensive AIM sensors. Most people don't need it, but when you do it is kind of an annoying surprise.

I'm 100% sure I would have recommended a DL for you, as a Solo2 is nothing but a fancy lap timer. :iono:

Have you tried reaching out to AIM for a replacement battery?

Use the race capture with solostorm or circuit storm. A+ accessible data analysis instantly after your laps.

Edit: oops, didn’t see the user name, you clearly know this already and have your reasons for jumping ship. :beer:

I don't think there where any available and I was impatient and got the non DL.

I sourced a battery for it but I have some weird issues with my Solo2 that were kind of annoying. Every time I start a session it would always change the timing setup between predictive and rolling randomly. I also was getting glitchy data when I would port to race studio.

Just for track use, or are you going to try and use the solo for autox too? I still can't find anything better than the SoloStorm for autox and I don't love the platform either.

For mounting, just as an idea, I have the solo suction cup mounted to my windshield right above the dash on the driver left side by the mirror with a Ram mount. And I have a Smartycam mounted in the rear of the car with the LegSport Camera mount bar. Smartycam cables are tucked under the door sill panel and up along the rear seats.

My car is far from an autox legal car anymore lol

I'll still use my GoPro and Sync video afterwards. All I want is meaningful analysis and lap data after sessions. Racecapture's app is actually really terrible. And I never enjoyed Solostorm for lapping

No argument, the racecapture app is terrible. I'm sure some people have figured it out, I ain't got time for that.

We’ll at that rate, just get a Solo/Solo 2 DL and you can match it to your GoPro in RaceRender. The Garmin does nice quick analysis, but it’s mostly surface level. Really need the aim to dig further.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned "log brake pressure" on this thread yet.
That's one of the most important data channels I've used.
Reading and understanding that data channel helped me unlock the last second or two of my lap times.

The only useful way to read that data channel is by listening to the CAN ID 0xD1 (decimal 209).
RaceChrono can do that, RaceCapture can do that, AIM does that.
TrackAddict? I've yet to see anyone set it up to log the brake pedal. Heck, people can't even set up the accelerator pedal correctly.
Garmin Catalyst? Can't log either pedal, yet still costs $900+.

That looks like a very limited set of data compared to what RaceChrono can do with the same adapter.
Furthermore, your throttle channel is not set up correctly (doesn't go from 0 to 100%)

Here's my recent video with RaceChrono data.
Notice how high is the refresh rate of all the data channels, and the range of values from the throttle pedal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKPPTQNzw4s

On the topic of AIM vs phone apps.
I use RaceChrono for AutoX. I can exchange data with a friend parked next to me in the paddock in between each run (~5 minutes between runs), compare and discuss our data, and come up with a "strategy" for the next run: where to push, where not to push. It's all super quick and easy when you go over the initial learning curve.
I also use RaceChrono for track days. I can review the data from my track session as soon as I shut down the engine.
No laptop needed.
I don't think you can do any of that with an AIM ...without a laptop?

With an "off the Amazon shelf" external GPS I am getting lap times consistently within 0.1s of a second of the official transponder-based timing. What were you doing wrong? :iono:

Which year is that?!
When using OBDLink MX+, RaceChrono gets 40+ updates per second for the brake pedal data when logging all the essentials: accelerator and brake pedals, steering angle, rpm, speed, and temperatures.
That's all the data most people need, right?
You can add more channels (wheel speeds, etc.) and still have 30+ updates per second, which is plenty for almost everybody.

I wasn't sure if I could log brake pressure with the obdlink. I failed in trying to get racechrono working as I was in the staging lane. It didn't pick up the obdlink MX that I had set it up to pair to so I gave up and just focused on driving. I'll need to set it up better before the next event.

Same here. I haven't messed with getting brake pressure logged yet.

What's important to one person may not be important to another. You find in data what you look for. That's just how biasing works.

In your case, it's valuable because you've been clued in via many signals, both human and vehicular, that braking was a major area of concern for you.

I thought you had to read CANBUS to get brake pedal pressure on the twins and the ODBLink MX+ doesn't do that?

Please correct my errors. TrackAddict does a great many more data channels then I routinely use.

Good news:
OBDLink MX+ can listen to the data on the CAN bus, and RaceChrono supported that for at least a year now.
Other proper implementations of ELM327 should also be able to read from the CAN bus, although "other proper implementations" are getting harder to find.

You can find the recommended CAN IDs and RaceChrono-style equations here:
https://github.com/timurrrr/RaceChro...can_db/ft86.md
That GitHub is about my DIY CAN bus reader I've used since mid-2020; but the info on that specific page applies to MX+ too.

My gf has been using MX+ for about a year on her ND Miata in CAN bus mode (not OBD-II mode!) and the only issues she had were due to bad equations we've used and had to refine over time.

You've also made some (biased? you seem to like this word) assumptions here,
and then proceed to ignore my factual argument against your earlier misleading (incomplete? or even incorrect?!) comment :iono:

True, but ...

... but among over a dozen novice/intermediate drivers that asked me to look at their data, in many cases I saw similar issues in braking as I had when I started looking at my own early data:
a) not generating consistent braking pressure when heel-toe'ing
or
b) jumping off the brakes abruptly instead of trailing

I don't think it's an effective use of our time to argue about whether the brake pressure is one of the most useful data channels.
Ultimately it's my opinion that it is, and it's your right to disagree.
It's up to the reader if they agree with my opinion or with your arguments against my opinion. We're just two dudes on the forum, and the hundreds of other readers of this forum thread should use their own intuition and do their own fact checking when drawing any conclusions.

Precisely, proving my point about biasing. You find what you look for.


Useful or not is up to you, and what you're trying to accomplish. It's neither here nor there.


Fact remains unchanged that polling rate is lacking.

yes, and you can see brake pressure data!