Nur93

Here is this years first 4 laps at Nur in my brand new GTS. Film is from 4th lap.

I am happy in the way the HD2 put it up.

ProCoach

Firmware update to be released shortly will add more capability, clear up a few bugs and enhance this great tool! Met with Julian Thomas, MD and founder, in Detroit last week and had a great discussion with him. Exciting plans, now that it's out!

Thanks for posting!

ShakeNBake

Firmware fixed my audio issues.

rennlistdavid

Hello,

This is a long shot in an old thread, but I am wondering if anyone has had the Vbox have "blank lines" (see photo).

One of these is normally "TRACK SELECT" and is empty, but you can still go into it where all you can do is go BACK.

Getting paranoid that I won't be able to select the Track (Willow Springs) in 7 hours.

6 hours ago this menu was available and had 3 tracks in it. 6 hours ago, the car was a few miles away getting the Vbox installed.

Does this menu only appear when you are close enough to a track to have something in it? (Please say yes.))

Also, if that's true - that's really bad UX design. This seems like some sort of bug.

I have a support ticket request in, but with the weekend and time zone differences I'm not very optimistic. I also emailed Peter. Just thought I would cast a wider net because I'm at a loss and out of time to figure it out.

I don't think anything is wrong with the Vbox itself. I was able to use the Laptimer to create a Start/Finish line and run 2 laps around my neighborhood and that created a proper .VBO and video file that played back in Circuit Tools just fine. No other errors. CAN data looks good with ShakeNBake's scene, Peter's scene, and my own scene which is just a lightly edited version of ShakeNBake's scene.

-V

ProCoach

DV, I love your enthusiasm, but it's going to be fine.

You are testing around your city block in an artificial way.

There is a database of half a thousand tracks in the OLED.

When you are within 3km of a known start/finish coordinate, your track choices (like FOUR for THill or SIX for Reno-Fearnley) will be displayed. Then you choose.

This is so that tracks with multiple configurations allow the selection of the one you're driving for that session or period of time. When there's one choice, no need to select. Just GO!

You and I have spent hours together the last few days, getting you up to speed, solving your install shop's issues and every issue that has been raised so far, ably monitored by Bryan, the support engineer at Racelogic USA. We are GOOD to GO! <grin>

Have fun! Looking forward to the results from today. Take a deep breath! <big grin>

ShakeNBake

Yep, as long as you are not trying to override the map chosen by the unit, it will all be done automatically.

The only times I have ever experienced an issue is a) on a track where the configuration changes enough such that there cannot be a single shared start finish line for all configurations, and b) The track is brand new and not in their DB yet.


Another thing to note - holey cow you wrote that at 1am and peter replied at 5am.....that is some serious customer support.

ProCoach

We've created a monster! Hahahaha!

rennlistdavid

Just to follow up, those "blank" menus filled out with the SELECT TRACK option that I was expecting when I got to Buttonwillow.

The default track at ButtonWillow was Streets of Willow and not "Big Willow" (the main track). More on this in a follow-up post.

Frankly, it's just bad software design that menus would disappear. I would expect the OLED to always display the sub-menus in MENU and then within those menus say "No Tracks Available" or be blank with only the BACK option.

If you wanted to remove sub-menus where nothing could be selected because it's contextual, then the way to do this is to remove the line entry entirely. In that screenshot above, you can actually "select" that blank space.

I'm writing up my "Day 1" impressions. Spoiler alert: For all it's quirks, I am absolutely in love with it.

-V

ProCoach

rennlistdavid

Hello-

I just bought, installed, and ran one track day with the Racelogic VBOX HD2 and Laptimer. These are my day 1 impressions. If you own this product, you have more experience than I do and might want to go ahead and move on to the next post.

To contextualize my total experience, I’ve been circuit driving for less than 6 months and have about 7 track days/weekends worth of experience. I am new to the hobby/sport.

Before this install I was using a GoPro Hero Silver, Harry’s Laptimer Grand Prix, as well as a Bluetooth GPS and a Bluetooth OBDII sensor. I’ve also used the Porsche Track Precision App & Trackaddict with various degrees of success.

I have no experience with AIM/SmartyCam and similar, more competitive, products.

Before I tell you about my Day 1 impressions, please indulge me for a moment so I can give credit where credit is due.

I primarily made this nearly $3,400.00 purchasing decision on the strength of ShakeNBake’s video review.

Please note that I have never met ShakeNBake in person. But, I won’t lie, I was very “turned on” by his GT4 Scene for Vbox Video. (Vbox Video is the Windows app you use to configure how you want your overlays to look. More on this later.)

I bought the hardware (which comes with the software) from Peter “ProCoach” Krause.

Buy from Peter if you are interested in this product. While I have no specific complaint about Racelogic/Vbox email customer support (they were involved on 3 separate occasions) it was Peter who held my hand the entire time.

You should know I am not affiliated with ProCoach. We’ve spoken briefly on the phone when I turned over my credit card information. I know him from the same threads you’ve probably read as well as a massive email exchange.

As I unboxed the product and set it up on the floor, I emailed Peter every step of the way. I was asking dozens of mundane and not-so-mundane questions.

I was quite nervous. The product was ordered on a Monday. Delivered on a Thursday. Installed on a Friday. And used at the track the following day. One and a half days is not a lot of time to familiarize yourself with a new (and complex) product.

Peter and I exchanged no less than two-dozen emails over a 2-day period from the moment the product was delivered, installed, lightly tested, and used (successfully) at the track. He never gave up on me once. He was convinced that I could be using it right away. He was right. The experience exceeded my expectations.

So let me just say it one more time. Buy from Peter. It will cost you the same, you will be supporting a Rennlist vendor, and you’ll get great support.

Now my Day 1 impressions, which are not a substitute for ShakeNBake’s more thorough video review.


Vbox Video HD2
The Vbox Video HD2 box is very solidly built. No complaints. The connectors for all the various components (cameras, GPS, power) work exceptionally well. Line up the red dots and push them together. I could imagine if you were sloppy or in a hurry that there is some risk to bending or breaking a pin, but this didn’t happen to me.

I personally wish the heat sinks were on the bottom of the unit as opposed to the top. I installed mine under the passenger side glove box. This means it’s mounted upside down. This has no impact on the performance of the unit. Nor does it make it less usable as the unit only has 1 physical and racing-glove friendly “REC” button.

I could have probably fabricated some sort of tray to set it upright, but in the end, given my short install window, the installer opted for super high-quality double-sided tape. The unit remained in place through 4 sessions that were on average 25 minutes each of some reasonably hard driving.

Vbox LapTimer
I am very glad I got this. I’m not sure how you can have the Video HD2 without it. It’s basically a requirement since it is the primary interface to the Vbox Video HD2 on the track. You’ll use it to set up the basics like MPH vs KPH and make a track selection.

When you are done with that, you’ll probably use the Laptimer or Predictive Laptimer.

The OLED display is plenty bright and I wasn’t even using the brightest setting.

Cameras
I found the HD cameras to be nearly as good as my GoPro. Here is some video reference. The video quality is down-sampled to 720p, but was recorded at 1080p.
I wish the FOV was adjustable. I am using 1 of the cameras as a driver camera, pointed at me. The field of view for that type of camera isn’t ideal but you can see your passenger (in my case, coach).

GPS
Worked great. No errors at all. Mine is installed on the dash near the center. Roof mounting was not an option in my installation.

MIC
I mounted my mic near the mirror because I wanted to be able to hear the instructor and myself on video. I’m sure there are more ideal places for the mic. My location was a best guess and it worked out.

Sound quality seems to be what I would expect.


By day, I am a professional software designer with 23 years of experience. Most of that is with user experience and interfaces, so I tend to be more critical than most other people.

CIRCUIT TOOLS
I am under qualified at interpreting the data at this point having only 1 day of experience under my belt.

This is the main software for lap analysis. The side by side / lap comparison is every bit as good as everything you have read.

I love that I am able to take the SD card out, stick in my computer, and look at video with the data overlayed on top within mere minutes.

Before the Vbox. I would spent hours after a track day dumping video from the GoPro to the computer, then loading it back to my iPhone, to then attempt to re-sync it to Harry’s, then rendering the video out of Harry’s (very time consuming on even the very best iPhone) and then back to the computer so I could see it.

I ran into one really obnoxious bug was when I was doing session maintenance by moving video using Circuit Tools from the SD Card to the computer. Circuit Tools would report that it couldn't delete the video from the SD card and asked if the card was locked. (It wasn't and it deleted the session and video from the card anyway.) I had a small heart attack the the session was lost but it did transfer it to the Documents folder and the session was still available.

I WILL NEVER GO BACK. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT LIFE CHANGING TIME SAVINGS.

I now spend time at the actual track in-between sessions looking at the video and data and learning how to be a better driver.

I have a top of the line (late 2016) Macbook Pro. Circuit Tools for Mac has fewer features, but it’s fine for the basics. The video playback performance is better than the PC version. However, this is not that unexpected because I am running Parallels Desktop. This runs Windows 10 as virtualized software on top of the Mac OS. I don’t have an equivalent PC, nor do I have Bootcamp, to cross compare the performance.

I do have a high-end PC/Windows machine at work and will check it out on that and report back.

In the end, I used both the MAC and the PC version depending on what I was trying to do.

It takes mere seconds to export your laps to put into your video editor of choice (Final Cut is mine) or share on social media or upload to YouTube.

VBOX VIDEO
This Windows-only software is how you configure your Scene. That is to say, what you see rendered in real-time on your videos. I haven’t had much time to dig deep here. The interface is a little esoteric and doesn’t follow Windows GUI best practices, but it’s not hard to use at all.

I’ve managed to do basic editing of other people’s scenes, save them, and have them work on the first try.

It works a lot like other image manipulation software: select an object and modify its properties. I am pretty into it. I like this kind of thing. Remember my comment about being “turned on” by ShakeNBake’s GT4 scene?

This was a big selling point for me. I really love the way the Porsche Precision Track App looks (like a GT4 dash, stick, and pedals), even though it falls short in so many other areas as a track day analysis tool. With the VBOX Video software you can customize your video overlays to look like limited only by your artistic and technical ability. It also comes with plenty of generic overlays that work fine if you have neither artistic or technical.

LAPTIMER/OLED SOFTWARE (really, Firmware)
I’m still mad at this thing. I posted about it above, so won’t re-hash it again. Having menus disappear on you shakes your confidence in the product.

There are COMMUNICATION ERRORS when you attempt to re-load a scene.

It’s buggy and needs improvement. Period.

To be fair, none of the problems with the firmware impacted my ability to get and analyze my session data.


Create a procedure for yourself to manage your SD card. Bring more than 1 SD card with you to the track.

At the end of session 3, I took the card out of the Vbox. My hands were full, so I put it down on my track bag (or thought I did). I got distracted talking to someone while torqueing my wheels.

I never found the card and I tore apart my track bag, tools, and car. I spent over 20 minutes looking for it.

Fortunately, I had a spare (a spare provided by Peter, btw) so I was able to capture my 4th session. I’m still a little annoyed that I lost that SD card and not because I care about the cost of an SD card, but because the card had my session data on it.

I was also running a Transponder so at least I know that session wasn’t anything to brag about.


It’s a good product that will be great when they iron out some of the bugs. I am happy with the purchase decision. For me, it’s worth every penny. I can’t recommend that everyone drop 3 grand on their telemetry. If you have the means and are serious about learning to drive, it’s a fantastic investment.

Thanks for reading! And thanks again to ShakeNBake and ProCoach for helping the rest of us figure this out.

-rennlistDavid

ProCoach

BOOM!

And thank YOU!

It's been a pleasure and looking forward to continued improvement, both for you and for the hardware/software/firmware.

cetom

i may have missed it , but does this system do anything different than race-keeper . i mean i know there are some differences but RK also gives great video synced with data . thank you

ProCoach

Yes, while the concept is the same, the execution and the practical results are quite different. The quality of video is quite high in both and the prices are similar.

I'll write up the differences and post in a separate thread. TomW is the most heads up user of the new R-K HDX2 and he's posted a review of his experience in this section.

The HD2 has an advantage over the HDX2, in my opinion, in packaging (smaller, more symmetrical box, MUCH smaller cameras and pliant cabling), 1080P picture in picture natively, performance measures recorded onto the video (R-K is added in the software), better sound (a biggie), OLED display option (the LineSnap predictive is unmatched), MUCH wider custom CAN templates (R-K is limited to the generic OBDII), completely custom graphics (R-K is light on choices) as well as the fact that the HD2 works in Apple OS natively and even on iOS devices (which no other systems now do).

Pretty big differences. R-K is good for some very specific applications and has good MoTeC interface...

pvgolfer

Hey @rennlistDavid. Nice meeting and talking to you at Willow... I'm the guy who checked out your nice VBOX HD2 installation, and also helped you look for your memory card. I'm glad you found it - thanks for posting your videos.

I have the VBOX Lite system which only does SD (not HD). Check out the video I've posted from the weekend in the GT4 forum. I use a custom GT4 scene - check with Jacy and Peter to see if they can hook you up with a custom scene for the HD2 system...

https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/9745...l#post13957961

rennlistdavid

Oh wow @pvgolfer. How nice to put a Rennlist name to a real person. I must of read dozens of dozens of your posts when I was researching my car!

I never did find the SD card! But now I have 4 new high-quality SD cards.

I do have that custom GT4 scene. I ran it for the first 2 session and then switched to that version. I promised Peter I would try his as well.

I'm still working with Racelogic and Peter offline to try and figure out why my OLED has those 2 blank menus and if it's an actual problem or not. As soon as I got the car home and put it away, the menus disappeared again.

-V