We’re all familiar with the “Black Box” used on commercial aircraft, the flight data recorder which captures the minutia of each and every flight on the off-chance that it’s needed in the event of an accident. But even in less dire circumstances, the complete record of the aircraft’s performance versus what was commanded of it by the pilot can be used to fine tune performance or detect faults before they become serious.
As a data engineer for professional motorsports, [Jussi Luopajärvi] knows similar recorders can be just as useful for vehicles stuck here on terra firma. His entry into the 2019 Hackaday Prize, TestLogger, aims to bring that same kind of technology to the world of RC racing. The gadget allows the driver to easily record a wealth of data about the vehicle during races, giving them valuable insight into the vehicle’s performance.
So what kind of variables are there to record on a 1/8th or 1/12th scale car? Don’t be fooled by their diminutive wheelbases, the modern RC car relies on an impressive amount of technical wizardry that benefits from a close eye.
Right now, [Jussi] says TestLogger can record not only obvious elements like battery level and throttle, but also more esoteric variables such as steering input, individual drive wheel speed, angular velocity, and even g-force in three dimensions. There’s also support for a trackside IR beacon that allows TestLogger to record lap times.
All of the data is stored on TestLogger’s SD card in standard CSV files, which makes it easy for us hacker types to parse and analyze. But for those who are more interested in driving than delimiting, there’s also a very slick website that will let users upload and compare their data. This complete user experience gives TestLogger a very professional feel, and we can’t wait to see where [Jussi] takes it from here.
With powerful microcontrollers available for a song, we expect this kind of detailed data collection is only going to become more common.
In b4 “it’s not actually black”
Quadcopter flight controllers have been doing this for a long time. You could actually just take a quad FC, fiddle with the mixing and PID values, and use it in a car. You could get electronic stability control for “free” (easy drifting).
I want to make a G-value and roll gauge for automobiles. Does anyone have the same idea?
Look up the Torque App. I know it will do G-Force in more than one axis, so it can probably do roll, and it can export data. With an ODBII adapter it can do a whole lot more.
I checked on my app and it has G-Force both by individual axis, and a cool “Radar” tracking graph. And it has separate Pitch and Roll gauges. Oh, and there is a Free version of the App.
RaceChrono is nice app for it, it even support diy sensors and gps :)
This is amazing and something I have considered taking on myself. As a former DAG and someone that works in motorsports I love this! It is perfect! Well done sir!