Can I suggest a method of distributing this sensitive data?

Why not set up a very simple website using a CMS (Content Management System) like Joomla or Mambo? These systems have secure user databases built in and any number of 'admins' can authorise/deauthorise users to certain parts of the website.

The best part is systems like Joomla are free! I used it build our team website and it took me a about 20 hours to build in total and I knew nothing about how to build a website.

Only issue I'd see is the data can get to be pretty enormous.. given that it does come on multiple DVD's. Might be better for physical media than just web-hosted.

Maybe have a choice? Teams who still want hard copies of the data can indicate this. Those who are happy to download can indicate this. two DVDs is just over 9GB. Alot, but not prohibitively massive if you can get someone to host it for you.
I'd second a call for joomla or similar. Might not be as perfect as a specifically written system, but alot of the hard work is done already and saves a lot of time. Easy to maintain as well because of the good UI.

Hey guys,

I've tried to email Edward Kasprzak but I think he is busy at the moment, so maybe one of you guys can help me out.

Essentially, we dont have a faculty advisor as we are independant of the university. A member of staff has kindly offered to let us put his name down on the TTC application form, but would like to know what is expected of him in advance.

Could anyone let me know what the Faculty advisors contact details will be used for? Is it just to check that we are who we say we are?

cheers,

B

> Could anyone let me know what the Faculty advisors contact details will be used for? Is it just to check that we are who we say we are?

From memory, I think the only time the TTC contacted a faculty adviser was if we were unable to contact the team otherwise...some FSAE students actually graduate<grin>. Your "reluctant staff member" might have to update email for your team contact, nothing more.

Please send TTC membership emails to Dr Kasprzak and cc to me-- doug . milliken at gmail

New topic: It's nice to see the recent posts on ways to improve the TTC data distribution-- please keep the ideas coming.

-- Doug Milliken for the TTC

Hi Doug,

thanks for your reply - the staff member is actually not very reluctant at all, however it is the situation with the department that makes it hard for it to be 'official'.

I'll get the form and cheque together and let you know when it's on its way.

cheers,

B

Anyone know if the aligning torque MRA expansion ever got fixed?

First I put on my MRA hat (and put the TTC hat to one side). Thanks for your interest in the model we donate, I'm curious how your team would like to use it--can you give a little detail?
To your question, no, we have not updated our tire model, too busy with regular work. Current plan is to do everything at the time of Test #4. I believe that the aligning torque problem is with the data files, some work correctly and some don't (but that is only from memory, I didn't check archives).

Back to the TTC hat, there is some activity starting up for the next round of testing, but still no hard dates.

-- Doug Milliken

Hello:

I have just submitted the registration form. I was wondering if anyone knew the average turn around time for the whole process of acquiring the tire data?

I was hoping for an electronic means of payment to speed it all up.

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Anvit Garg:
I have just submitted the registration form. I was wondering if anyone knew the average turn around time for the whole process of acquiring the tire data?

I was hoping for an electronic means of payment to speed it all up.

It's often less than a week in USA, longer to other countries depending on airmail time and my availability--I travel a lot for business. It will probably take you significantly longer to figure out how to use the data (weeks, months) than it does to deliver it!

Since we are all volunteers running the TTC, one goal is to minimize our personal time, thus my request for USA checks whenever possible. For example, wire transfers (bank-to-bank) often take longer overall because of the lack of documentation or other reasons.

As noted earlier in this thread, Dr. Kasprzak is very busy, so I suggest that you cc your registration form to me when you email it to him, doug dot milliken, gmail dot com.

-- Doug Milliken for the TTC

The load control on some of the runs is REALLY bad.

Please be more specific. Need a file name. I would like to take a look at this. Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by jrickert:
The load control on some of the runs is REALLY bad.

I believe this was only during Round 1 of testing. This issue was resolved for later rounds. Remember, the normal loads are a lot smaller then what Calspan normally tests. But yeah it was pretty bad. I think i remember it being off +/- 75-100lbs

Round 1 and 2 are both really bad. Even a few runs from 3 are messed up. If you plan on overlaying graphs of different tires under the same conditions its pretty much impossible without some curve fitting etc. I would suggest that round 4 go back and redo some of these tests. On the up side it gives a wide range of normal loads to look at.

> The load control on some of the runs is REALLY bad.

Some quick comments:

* Unlike data that comes in textbooks, tire data is messy. The real world is often messy, and if you plan a career in engineering I suggest you get used to it. This is why there are many different schemes to model experimental data.
* Even tire data with good test control is normally modeled, so that intermediate conditions can be predicted. Can't remember the last time that we used raw tire data directly.
* Some of the TTC data is a little harder to model than normal. As noted earlier, the FSAE load range is much lighter than most tests run at Calspan which makes it a challenge for the machine operators. This is why the TTC organizers and other volunteers have provided "canned" models that you can use to get started.

-- Doug Milliken for the TTC

I have been playing around with the MRA model so far and have had some luck with producing plots that match the raw data.

As judging is concerned, do the judges expect you to construct your own models/curve fits?

We are new to all of this and the "rawness" of the data is intimidating!

How is the progress for an alternate forum dedicated to TTC subscribers?

quote:

As judging is concerned, do the judges expect you to construct your own models/curve fits?

I can't speak for other design judges, maybe some others will add their thoughts? In my case, I expect you to be able to defend your design and engineering decisions.

For example, if you choose to model the tire data in-house (a tough project) this will consume some of your total time for engineering--I might ask if this was a good choice vs. using your engineering time/budget on some other aspect of your car. Going the other way, if you choose to base your car design on one of the "canned" tire models, I might ask if you made any checks against the raw data (not too time consuming) to convince yourself that the model was working correctly.

See RCVD Chapter 10 for some more detailed thoughts (written about 15 years ago).

Progress on setting up a TTC private forum will continue to be discussed in this thread. We are still looking for someone to volunteer to help out. None of the current TTC organizers have time or resources to set this up ourselves.

-- Doug Milliken for the TTC

quote:

See RCVD Chapter 10 for some more detailed thoughts (written about 15 years ago).

I am interested in helping set up a secure forum.

All we need to do is install that vBulliten php code on donated web space, I believe it is secure and widely used. This wouldnt change the medium of distribution, but would allow free chat regarding this data.

My only question is: could google catch the posts and cache them? Is there a way to prevent that? I ask this because if you search on google, it will display hits that actually search the FSAE forums.

I cant be the only one helping though because I am apart of the Army national guard and might have to leave for a while, so maybe we can get a couple more people and start making this happen.

WSU can host a forum for discussing TTC stuff in private.

Over the summer we set up a private forum for our team, one of the options is if you want to allow the search bots in, disabling this makes it so that nothing in it will turn up in Google or any other search engine.

I've been looking at the Milliken data and I was wondering is there a way to input your own numbers?

Like, let's say I'm looking at the longitudinal force for a specific tire. Is it possible to input my own normal load, mu, etc??

Any help would be great.

Thanks,