Leese Racing » data acquisition

Racepak Success!

Leroy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:05:15 +0000

With the manifold temp, water temp, driveshaft rpm, engine rpm and other internal sensors all wired up and fired up, we hit the record button on the new racepak system while the car was in the garage. Unfortunately, I had failed to put the terminator cap on the VNet line and so we saw nothing. Once we got that installed and after about an hour of playing around with the software, and transferring the memory chip back and forth, we finally were able to do a live-telemetry session.

Success!

Turning on the car and watching the live data come in, especially when we put the car in gear, was awesome. It was so great to see all the sensors working and pulling in data while it ran in the garage. In two weeks, we’ll put it on the trailer and head over to mason dixon dragway where we’ll actually capture this data during real runs. Looking forward to getting some insight into the car’s performance.

We are probably going to record everything that happens with the run from the time I turn it on in the staging lanes, until I return down the return road. It will be interesting to see driveshaft RPM during the burnout and watch how temperatures change during the course of the run from the time it starts until we go through the traps.

We’ll keep you posted on how it all goes.

Racepak Install … winter time blues

Leroy — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:58:51 +0000

Since our most recent dwelling doesn’t have an attached garage, it is very difficult to warm the building and/or work in the building during the winter. With the “storm of the century” bearing down on us, I’d have to leave all my heaters on for two days to get it comfortable enough that my back wouldn’t seize up as soon as I get under the car.

That said, I did do some work on installing the unit in the car and got together a plan for installing the driveshaft sensor and the EGT sensor. We already have one EGT in the #2 cylinder (it is a separate unit) and I am going to install without a bung, the racepak EGT in the #1 Cylinder. I decided to go with a non-bung install and instead use a hose clamp / set screw collar combination to save time and possible damage to the headers. Its also easier to move the EGT to another cylinder and simply cover the existing hole with a piece of tin and another hose clamp. We have done this on other sets of headers so I know it can be done without any leaks (although I wouldn’t have believed it if we hadn’t done it before)

So we are getting closer to the first event and I need to spend probably another 30 hours in the garage to get all the things ready that I want to be ready for race 1. It should be a very nice spring.

Racepak install Pt 1

Leroy — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:48:34 +0000

Here’s a picture of the kit of parts we ordered.

I did some tweaking of our wiring and got a switch and wiring hooked up. Once we get the unit installed we’ll have power for it. Decided to wire it to the network on the car that has power to the switch 100% of the time. The other network only has power when the main toggle is switched and that network is only for use while running the engine. We want to be able to power this even with the engine off so we can hook up the computer and what not.

I’m very excited to get it setup and hooked into the MSD. Then we might tackle the driveshaft sensor and the location of the unit.

RacePAK arrived!

Leroy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:17:55 +0000

I’ll post some pics once I get them from the camera in the garage. I got a chance to sit down with all the documentation and look at all the sensors. Crazy to me how light weight the whole thing is – and there are almost no moving parts – especially in the main computer – nothing rattles or bounces. All circuits and flash drives – I don’t imagine it will get beat up too much.

Looking forward to having it on to see what is really going on with the main components of the car. Should be illuminating.

Also worth noting is that it cost roughly half of what it originally cost to back-half the car. Wow. But then again, that WAS 20 years ago.

Bummed

Leroy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:54:49 +0000

Well, I was going to be pretty excited to get my new RacePak this weekend. I was led to believe the kit that I ordered would be tested and packaged to be sent by the beginning of this week, giving it plenty of time to get here all the way on the right coast – Maryland. Too bad, so sad. The reason it was going to be cool to get it here was that my crew chief and I were going to setup a plan of attack for the winter and how it should be setup/laid out in the car. Installing the system requires bracket mountings, electrical wiring routing updates and many more customizations I’m sure we’ll discover in the coming weeks. If it can’t get here by tomorrow, I guess we’ll just have to wait until December (hopefully it arrives by then)