Data Acquisition

[BRG]

5Hz GPS receiver
digital accelerometers
compact flash memory
8 12bit analogue imputs
dual rpm inputs
4 wheel/shaft speed inputs
lap beacon input
serial input for ECU/ObDii data
output to drive a dashboard
video overlay system or telemety link

I guess your right, no usefull info. can be gotten from this.

Baker  

[cornercamping]

5Hz GPS receiver
digital accelerometers
compact flash memory
8 12bit analogue imputs
dual rpm inputs
4 wheel/shaft speed inputs
lap beacon input
serial input for ECU/ObDii data
output to drive a dashboard
video overlay system or telemety link

I guess your right, no usefull info. can be gotten from this.

Baker Ê

I didn't say all that.  Sounds like it can be usefull.  I was referring only to GPS if you notice in my first post in this thread.  I would however like to see the system you sell.  Sounds interesting for sure. Maybe I'll buy one and play with it.  Maybe the company I work for may want to try some.  We are a manufacturer of these type of systems, but a little more sophisticated type systems used for various things.  Who knows, we contacted AIM for one of our apps. and we don't like to "reinvent the wheel" if we don't have to.  

[10bomb]

Sorry about that last post - didn't mean to start the pissing match.  But I still don't think you should attack Baker's product before you've even seen it for yourself.  On a good day - could probably be better described as "on a good hour"...  The satellites are always moving in and out of view of the GPS receiver.  They predict and map the satellite movements so you can plan your data logging - some days/hours are awesome with 8 or 9 satellites spread evenly throughout the sky.  But some hours are difficult to get good data because only 4 or 5 satellites are "visible" and they are close to each other.  In theory you need 3 satellites to get a position, but in reality & mathematically when you have 4 your location becomes much more accurate.  5 is better, 6,7,8 and so on.  If his system doesn't have real time differential correctioning, I'd still think it would get sub-meter at a wide-open track like Gateway, Daytona, Mid America, Topeka etc... If it does have RTDC and a base station close enough, sub-meter would be no problem.  He may have troubles on a bad day in the Kettle Bottoms at Road America - or under the trees at 3,4,5 at Blackhawk...but let's wait to see before judging.  With all the leaves off the trees -  I don't think the Kettle Bottoms at RA will be much of a problem.  But I sure am curious to learn more!!

[Protein Filled]

Hey Baker, just admit it. You and all your products SUCK!  ;D

Now, since all your stuff sucks, let me have it so I can throw it out for you! I promise to dispose of it in a good manner!

[andy342]

Brian, your email bounced for some reason.  Please contact me at:

nocrashing@yahoo.com or
aglomski@osi-ds.com

Hey Dan, how's your datalogger coming?   ??? ::)

[BRG]

My email is brgracing1@cs.com

I will try yours

Thanks
Brian

[cornercamping]

Brian, your email bounced for some reason. Ê

Hey Dan, how's your datalogger coming? Ê ??? ::)

Well, I've got a bunch of stuff done, assembled, bench tested, but not "real life" tested.  Plus, it's hard for me to work on this kind of stuff when I have my work stuff to do.  All the madness right now with automakers and such is causing me alot of work.  I haven't given up on it, just need to find some time to work on it again.

[cornercamping]

Sorry about that last post - didn't mean to start the pissing match. ÊBut I still don't think you should attack Baker's product before you've even seen it for yourself. ÊOn a good day - could probably be better described as "on a good hour"... ÊThe satellites are always moving in and out of view of the GPS receiver. ÊThey predict and map the satellite movements so you can plan your data logging - some days/hours are awesome with 8 or 9 satellites spread evenly throughout the sky. ÊBut some hours are difficult to get good data because only 4 or 5 satellites are "visible" and they are close to each other. ÊIn theory you need 3 satellites to get a position, but in reality & mathematically when you have 4 your location becomes much more accurate. Ê5 is better, 6,7,8 and so on. ÊIf his system doesn't have real time differential correctioning, I'd still think it would get sub-meter at a wide-open track like Gateway, Daytona, Mid America, Topeka etc... If it does have RTDC and a base station close enough, sub-meter would be no problem. ÊHe may have troubles on a bad day in the Kettle Bottoms at Road America - or under the trees at 3,4,5 at Blackhawk...but let's wait to see before judging. ÊWith all the leaves off the trees - ÊI don't think the Kettle Bottoms at RA will be much of a problem. ÊBut I sure am curious to learn more!!

So, how accurate is the geocode software provided with these applications?  Where'd the map come from?  Did someone actually pay to have the race tracks geocoded  ???  Again, I'm not knocking anyones products, becuase I haven't seen them and have no experiance with anyones product other than I've tinkered with AIM's MXL or whatever it is.  That and some PI stuff.
The reason I'm asking about geocoding is because of the accuracy of the "track map."  The company I work for uses Navigation Technologies spatial mapping servers to decode our NEMA data and map it on our web interfaces for our customers, and we spend alot of $ doing it. Our customer base is mostly insurance companies, the feds (criminal prosecution), media companies, and large fleets like armored car, luxury taxi, ect.
Recently, we had an application in Puerto Rico.  The problem was that nobody had accurate geocode for the entire island.  After discussing all aspects of having the entire island geocoded, we discovered that the cheapest we could find to have the island geocoded ourselves was somewhere around $4 Mill and it wasn't worth it. That being said, I wonder exactly where these track maps came from.  For arguements sake, lets say that the accuracy of the GPS data was within a meter, you still need accurate geocoding to map it.  Did someone pay to have the track geocoded and put into a database?  See what I'm getting at?

Again, not knocking anyones products.  Just questioning the GPS portion of this type of application.  I do believe that based on what I've read about BRG's product, it's more than capable of doing what it's intended to do. In all reality, it's probably more data than any of us would ever need.

[cornercamping]

Wanna hear a funny story about GPS.  A few years back, we have this armored car company we do business with use one of our units to do "real time" tracking of a armored sedan.  This company builds things like Level 4 ballistic VW Jetta's that executives drive.  These things look 100% stock, and are "low profile" armored vehicles. Executives like Bill Gates buy these things for around $180K to keep a low profile because nobody pays attention to a VW Jetta.  Little does anyone know these cars can take grenade blasts and AK47 rounds like it's nothing and keep driving.  So, we have one of our units on one of these things somewhere in Brazil.  We don't know what they are doing, but they want to track it "in real time."  So, we have a GSM modem in there, and we stream every GPS tick back to our servers using a "dial up" type connection from the wireless modem.  Inside this unit is a 12-Channel DGPS reciever, and every second our webiste is refreshing the webpage as the NEMA data comes in, and the Navtech Servers are updating our database.  So, these guys are watching this thing move as "live" as it's going to get.  There is some latency between the cell network and us, and we have a DS-3 hook into Navtech updating data.  Then, about 20 minutes later, some guy calls from Brazil and starts going off in another language.   Come to find out, the GPS data is off, and the driver of the car is saying they are in one place and the map shows they are 3 blks over.  So, they're freaking out because they don't know if something is going wrong, or if the driver is setting something up and lying about his whereabouts, or what the deal is.  The driver didn't know we had a tracking unit on the car.  So, after the ordeal, we ask to see the unit and I plug into it and download all the NEMA data from memory because the unit logs as much as possible and then starts to overwrite it's memory when it gets full.   I spend 3 days looking at this stuff and trying to figure out why was it 3 blks off.  I couldn't come up with anything.  A month later, I ask the guy about the location.  1 word: Glass.  The entire area has glass buildings and it's a small city.  The glass in the buildings caused the GPS to be off, from what we are assuming, and to this day, they have yet to tell us exactly what was going on down there that they needed "real time" data.  
We still send them units all the time, but now we make them sign a hold harmess agreement on the GPS portion of our products, because we have no control of the accuracy. I guess maybe you just had to hear the guys voice calling from down there to get a kick outta this.  He sounded like they had a billion $ in cash in the car and he was really sweating it.  ;D

[G 97]

Wanna hear a funny story

NO!