Data Aquisition

[Paul V.]

To anyone that can help,

We are looking at implementing a data aquisition system for our '05 car. The problem is that there are a lot of choices, and most of them are quite expensive. What would you guys recomend for systems and components for a budget under $1000?

I was thinking,
1 10 bit daq recorder with at least 8 channels 200 Hz max sampling
2 2 axis accelerometers
1 gyroscope
1-4 500 lb load cells
1 rotational potentiometer for St. Wheel

Do I need wheel sensors, or shock position sensors of some type? We're quite new at this so any help is appreciated.


Paul Vaughan
Univ. of Ala. Huntsville FSAE

[Paul V.]

To anyone that can help,

We are looking at implementing a data aquisition system for our '05 car. The problem is that there are a lot of choices, and most of them are quite expensive. What would you guys recomend for systems and components for a budget under $1000?

I was thinking,
1 10 bit daq recorder with at least 8 channels 200 Hz max sampling
2 2 axis accelerometers
1 gyroscope
1-4 500 lb load cells
1 rotational potentiometer for St. Wheel

Do I need wheel sensors, or shock position sensors of some type? We're quite new at this so any help is appreciated.


Paul Vaughan
Univ. of Ala. Huntsville FSAE

[Colin]

You defiantly need wheel speed and I would recommend both front and rear, really useful for understanding what's happening on acceleration run's you also need it for track distance for mapping out a track in conjunction with your g-sensor.
It's really useful to log all your engine stuff like RPM oil pressure and water temp I especially like using TPS data for comparing drivers.
Shock positions are useful for tuning but need to be logged at a decent frequency (< 200 Hz ) you usually do that with pot's either linear or rotational on the bell cranks. Linear are better but are more expensive.
IR temp sensors are also good for tire temps and can be used for other applications like diff temps
The amount of sensors you want never ends so it's all about how much cash you have. My advice is sit down with your team and find out what data they actually want and what they can use to make your car go faster or prove/disprove a design. All the data in the world is useless unless you know how to analyse it.
Good luck

[Charlie]

When we were getting our feet wet we bought a DL90 from here: http://www.race-technology.com/ It was a nice little unit, pretty much all integrated which is good, but also if you upgrade to a higher-end unit you have to pretty much start over.

One issue we did have with the DL90 is the GPS did not respond fast enough to get an accurate track map; our car was just too quick in transistions and tight corners. It worked great for Baja though http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif The DL1 they have now, has a much higher GPS sample rate and should work though!

But for us I think it worked out well. Like Colin said data is useless unless you know what to do with it. The DL90 gave us a chance to see data for cheap, which made us realize we better start to figure out what the hell to do with it. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

As for sensors I would say I want wheelspeeds before load cells. And the DL1 will come close to what you want for $900.