Tire Temperature System

[mikes603]

Made this system (I'm an EE) for my FRS and Lotus, and other HPDE guys I know. It's to know when your tires are up to operating temp. I thought I'd try and get some feedback here to see what people thought.

Here are the features of the kit:

• Four IR sensors
• Narrow 10deg sensor field of view for sampling tire sections
• Large 1 1/12 by 2 1/2 inch display
• Weather resistant; sensors can get wet without being ruined.
• Removable lens cap if they need cleaning or replacement
• Extra protective lenses
• Does both fahrenheit and celsius
• You can adjust the emissivity of each sensor (different materials reflect light at differing rates)
• Quality harnesses
• DC supply is designed for difficult automotive environments with large current dumps and voltage spikes

The installation is straight forward. You drill a small hole in the wheel arch for the sensor to poke through. Top center is best to account for changes in tire angle.

I'm aware 3 sensors per tire would be needed per corner to monitor camber load. But that's another kit--one with no display and CAN support for data-logging--and not this one, which is aimed at being sub $1k.

If anyone is interested just send me a PM or email me at mikes at ntisys.com

[7thgear]

can you just re-route to a windows based software?


I'd be interested in this but I wouldn't really need it real time, just something to look at after a few runs as a logging fashion.

[DocWalt]

Very cool!

[stugray]

Cool! ( I mean HOT!)

Two things to consider:
1 - Any lens caps will throw off the measurements because the sensor will average the temps between the lens and the tire

2 - Different tire compounds can give very different IR signatures, so make a calibration mode where you measure the tire temp with a thermocouple probe, and set the "baseline temp" that way.

I have always wanted to make an IR line scanner over each wheel.
Then as the tire rotates, you get a complete temperature map in near real-time.

You would see flat spots, or incorrect suspension setups that way.

What temp sensor is that?
Arduino based?

[mikes603]

Originally Posted by stugray

Cool! ( I mean HOT!)

Two things to consider:
1 - Any lens caps will throw off the measurements because the sensor will average the temps between the lens and the tire

2 - Different tire compounds can give very different IR signatures, so make a calibration mode where you measure the tire temp with a thermocouple probe, and set the "baseline temp" that way.

I have always wanted to make an IR line scanner over each wheel.
Then as the tire rotates, you get a complete temperature map in near real-time.

You would see flat spots, or incorrect suspension setups that way.

What temp sensor is that?
Arduino based?

1) The lens is made of a special plastic made for just this application, it has a passband of the IR freq range used.

2) "You can adjust the emissivity of each sensor (different materials reflect light at differing rates)"

[stugray]

Originally Posted by stugray

What temp sensor is that?
Arduino based?

Guess it's a secret.....

[renfield90]

Originally Posted by stugray

Guess it's a secret.....

He's not selling it for free so yeah. As an embedded engineer, if that were mine I wouldn't be saying either.

[plucas]

So awesome dude!

[robot]

Any plan to do inner middle and outer temps? Then you could see how your alignment is holding up. I've considered building something like this in the past but never got down to doing it.