As long as you connect to the car's wifi Access Point you should be good to go

 

I've been using the Track Connect app as my main lap timer and video recorder at track days. I love the information I can get from it, and I like the UI a lot. It's also cool you can export to Circuit Tools / other analysis apps.

But it's buggy. It crashes occasionally. It only exports video with data overlays in kph and not mph. I wish it was better because it has so much potential.

 

Connecting to the access point is easy but does not guarantee it will work, and then it asked to connect to the phone as a access point... ??? Add to that it looses connection easy, doesn't survive the car turned off between lapping sessions...

I don't know why they didn't set this interface via a USB cable, solid with no interference, but I guess every body else want wireless connections.

 

Are you running Apple or Android?

 

Apple.

 

As per Porsche including CarPlay in the PCM this implementation is slightly easier to get running, and shows on the PCM, no need once set up to play with the phone.

I have Android Auto, too bad it doesn't connect with PTPA the same way...

 

Getting the phone to connect is finicky. Once set up, it’s great (when it doesn’t crash).

I’ve also had best luck with I define my own track using the map interface and driving it for a lap or two.

 

Yep, I had it connected and ready to drive and make my own track a couple of times, then it seemed like instead of wanting to connect with the phone via the PCM name and password it wanted the phone to be the host with it hotspot...

The worst thing was it was track day, no time to play as I didn't go to the track to tap on phones and PCM's, I went to drive and I thought I had it ready the day before at home. I am going to try again but here at home, get things set up and drive around the block(track) to see if I can get it to work.

 

Westcoast - I also have Android and am having trouble getting the app to export video with the overlay. Most of the time when I export, the overlay doesn't show at all, but on some exports the overlay appears and disappears over the course of the video!

Check out this example. The overlay is absent until 1:13 when it just shows up for the rest of the video. I have other videos where the overlay comes and goes over the course of the run. Any ideas what might be causing this? Also note that the speed shown is in MPH, so I guess that's good for a start...



UPDATE: I just exported the same file, same lap, from the app again, trying from a different export point in the app. This time the overlays shows for the first minute and then disappears. So it's different on every export! WTF???

 

For clarification, do you mean that the app only exports with the overlay when the settings are set to show speed in KPH, or do you mean that even when you set the speed to show MPH, it exports in KPH anyway?

 

@mgordon18 Cool that you have gotten this far! I am still trying to get there...

• So can you confirm that the phone needs to connect to the PCM hotspot as opposed to the PCM connecting to a hotspot provided by the phone?
• Does the phone need to be connected to the internet via cellular connection or does it matter?
• Does Porsche Connect need to be running in the background as the app is asking?
• What phone do you have, ie Android software level?
• Any additional tips for getting connected?

Thanks!

 

I set mine up by connecting the phone to the car's wifi signal. The wifi network was called: "My_Porsche_197***" (with the stars being 3 more numbers that I don't feel the need to post here!). UPDATE: The 6 numbers are just the last 6 of my VIN. So for me it was 197231.
The wifi password will be "GTx"+ your VIN. It's literally "GTx" - NOT "GT4."

I don't think it matters.

I don't think so? I don't recall dealing with Porsche Connect. Don't forget - I have a 981 GT4.

I have a Pixel 4XL with the latest Android software (possibly even later than latest - I work for Google. )

Mine worked pretty much right off the bat. I just had to make sure the key was in the on position and my phone found the wifi signal. I used the directions I found here:
https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4-spyd...ision-app.html

As far as it working on-track, I'd say it's a little hit-or-miss. A few sessions I went out and the app didn't catch the starting line and never began recording data or video. And I'm having these annoying export issues with the overlay. But the overlay works nicely in the app on the phone, so it's not too bad.

I may end up back with Harry's Lap Timer, though. We'll see how the Porsche app performs at Watkins Glen in a few weeks.

How far in the setup did you get?

 

Need to try this next time I'm at a track.

Does the app use your phone camera for the video? Or can you integrate it with a GoPro video? I don't believe there's any inbuilt front-facing camera on the car, but I would love to be wrong about that.

mgordon18's video shows the overlay blocking out most of the view of the track. Hopefully there's a way to move or remove some portions of the overlay?

 

I use my phone for the video, mounted with a suction cup RAM mount on my windshield. I think there's a GoPro/external camera ability, but I don't know how it works. This was my first time trying the app and didn't realize the overlay was going to blot out the whole bottom 3rd of the screen. Next time I will adjust the framing so the bottom 3rd is looking at the dashboard and the road starts about 1/2 way up.

 

Hey Mike thanks for all of the details, I tried this again today and ignored the message about the Connect App in the background, also the help screens that seem to take me down the rabbit hole! I just needed to focus on what was needed not what the help screens were suggesting.

So connected to the PCM via it's hotspot, created my own track by driving around the block and it worked perfectly. I choose the option for start/finish at the same place (in front of my house), made a couple of laps of the block and annoyed the neighbors to create a video with data.

Next up that GoPro!