ProCoach

That’s too bad. I wish there was a”killer app,” too.

Part of the difficultly is that the more parts a driver uses to collect the information, the more of a PITA (and ultimately, the reason why some folks get frustrated and quit using them altogether) it is to use.

As an early dealer of R-K, I was really happy to see all of the video and the data on ONE “chip” or SD card.

After years of downloading video from one camera and data from another logger, then marrying them together just to see what kind of throttle amount or engine rpm I was at any given time (Traqmate, MoTeC, Dashware, RaceRender, CDS all required this), the idea of plucking the card out and opening a file, having the data (squiggly lines) and the video auto synced AND WITHIN THE SAME WINDOW was a game changer.

Even better was side-by-side video comparison. The Race-Keeper, with the support of Steve Hoelscher, made great strides towards this, but I always had terrible audio, or forgot to “zero the accelerometers” so the friction circle was wonky. Still a PITA. When Steve left, I stopped selling the R-K stuff, even though had it worked right, the new HDX2 high-def would have been really nice.

The AiM stuff is good, reliable, has great support, but they are the last one to the table (eventually, it’s coming) with the ability to sync video with data. Still going to require clumsy downloading of the video from the card and data wirelessly then pointing the computer to each file, but at least they’ll be able to do multiple laps side by side with the data.

Not sure if you’ve seen the VBOX in action, but for people that don’t want the navigation of the computer, multiple mouse clicks and more a moment or two to access the information from one SD card source, this is the best solution. The best part is that the software, like Comparo with a few lead steps, tells you where to look for opportunities for improvement. That saves time and helps people improve more quickly, with less risk.

Glad to answer more questions from you or anyone else on the pros and cons of these various tools, but I can assure you that this stuff is a LOT easier to use than it’s ever been. More reliable, too.

Matt Romanowski

Steve, formerly of R-K, is working on a system that would be a video based data system that has some potential, but it won't be ready for a while. He has the prototype at PRI but they have a special application that they are focusing on right now before heading back to the data system for Motorsport.

He AiM solution for video data will most likely not take any special pointing or linking of files. It will only be downloading data as normal and putting the video in a predefined folder and it is automatically linked for analysis.

ProCoach

Certainly no shortage of options in an already crowded marketplace. Steve’s a great guy, but it’s a tough market to crack. Ease of use has to be front and center.

AFA the AiM, the implementation of the video within the analysis window will still be a multi-step process, with downloads from multiple devices/media, then combined in RS3 Analysis.

In this regard, it will be just like MoTeC, Traqmate and all the other post-processing third party apps have used to combine files generated by different devices for the last fourteen years.

The sync is not an issue with the clock info on the files, but it’s interesting that other systems have been doing this for a long time without that embedded information.

Can’t wait. It is closer than it has been in a long while.

Matt Romanowski

What is coded and done right now, it's download data and copy video file to a predefined directory or folder. Open analysis and they are linked. I believe this is how it will continue in production and the next version of camera.

ProCoach

Yes, like it used to be with the Gen1 SmartyCam (the one that saved the compressed data files on the microSD card) for unpacking later.

Still not likely to be from the same media...

Matt Romanowski

No. You will use RS3 to download your data. You will then copy from the SD card to a folder on your computer. RS3 Analysis the automaticly knows what goes together. Email me if it still doesn't make sense so we don't take this thread further off the rails.

ProCoach

Yep. Two separate “downloads.”

More steps...

Not quite as convenient as bringing in both the data and the video for the old stuff in RS2, though.

groundhog

Interesting read - I used the PTPA for the first time last week. I had very few problems.

However, there are some misconceptions in this thread

(1) The system in the car records at 10Hz - the iphone is used to run the software so the fact the iphone has a 1Hz GPS is not material
(2) Strangely, Ssports chrono data read out from the USB port in the car is restricted to one reading per second
(3) . It was a simple matter to set the start/finish point for a track not in the database . It might be worth checking start stop points in the Porsche data base are correct e.g. look at the satellite image.
(4) . The only bug I found was actually in Circuit tools - for some reason it doesn't like the video output from PTPA however, this may be to to the inaccurate representation of the track I was on in the CT database e.g. had a .cir record for the short track and not the long track.
(5) . In terms of video recording I use the Iphone mounted to the back of the passenger side sun visor using rubber bands . This is often better than rigid mounted systems and provides a great "drivers eye view" and is generally without significant vibration.


Circuit tools data display

Circuit tools data display

PTPA graph

PTPA graph

PTPA custom graph

PTPA graph

Video view

Overall I found the system very useful - in fact you can check out your data in pit lane between sessions - this is very meaningful particularly as you can see where you're rapidly losing or gaining time e.g. display delta t.

FourT6and2

The older version of the app worked great with my .2 GT3, except that when you exported video it would have a weird rhythmic ticking sound. The fix for that was to export video without data. Then with data. And then overlay the audio from the first video, onto the second. Annoying.

Now with my GT3RS and the new version of the app... well, it's a POS. The functionality of the app while in the car is fine. GPS times laps automatically and all that. Great. Connectivity with the car is still spotty. And exporting video with data overlay is almost impossible. The app just crashes every other time. It took me about 15 tries to get it to start to export. And then when I finally did... the speed is in KPH and not MPH! What the hell, Porsche! Watching the video in the app, it's in MPH. But when I export, it's in kilometers.

Also I can't for the life of me get a clear video that isn't all jittery and shaky. I've tried every combination of focus and stabilization settings. But it may be a hardware and/or mount problem.

aryork

I used the older 2.x version of the Track Precision App with an iPhone 11 Pro and a 981 GT4 this past weekend with decent results. I am still only getting 1 Hz data, so seeing the driving line overlay is useless. A friend also with a GT4 had the new app version (3.x) and tried to get it to work, but it never did. Seemed like it never got triggered to start, but the app said it had a GPS signal. It also successfully connected to the car's wifi. A mystery.

I was amazed at how different the new app looked. Totally different - someone posted about it a while back and suggested Porsche went backwards (thus, I never upgraded).

One thing I noticed moving from an iPhone 8, is that a lot of my older TPA data did not come across from the iPhone 8 to 11. Some did, but not all. Strange...

aryork

The new overlay has that large steering wheel, and it gets in the way of the view! What the heck is with that? I like the old overlay, but need to point the camera down more to get the gauges out of the way.

ProCoach

That will help a lot!