Westcoast

I highly recommend trying this setup at home first, you need to be familiar with the connection process so that it is from memory, trust me in a hurry when your run group has been called to the grid is not a good time to figure it out...

As for the PCM hotspot, it can be the default one that is shown on the screen, there is no need to change it to anything in particular, once it has connected to the phone you can have it reconnect automatically if you like, either way it will remember the password, mine does and it is the default settings.

The phone records the video, so have a good mount, if the phone is big and it bounces about so will you video! Frame it as Mike suggests if you don't want the overlay to be in the way, you can choose sound or not recorded from the phone too.

So the GoPro, apparently, but I am just getting to this, I don't know if it has to be a certain model or above (I have an old Hero3), I don't see a spec for this, but it is in the settings menu in the PTPA app:

mgordon18

Congrats!

Let me know how the export comes out. Do you get the overlay or not?

donR

I've been using the PTPA for over a year now and I'd have to say it can be temperamental.

The best solution I've found is to use a stripped down Iphone or Android phone, make sure everything else is turned off, e.g., text messages, updates, blue tooth, other apps, automatic backups, mobile data, etc. Ialso sometimes helps to remove and reinstall the software occassionally if it starts playing up.

Most of the time it now works. I find using the phone camera/video a bit jumpy and it does not seem to sync perfectly with the PTPA data. Best solution is using a GoPro and mount it on the rear cross bar using one of the 3M sticky mounts (hypersmooth should be turned off), and sync data later. I also set exposure comp to -1.

I also turn off advanced timer features as that seems to overload the app, although I haven't tested it again recently. Turning off video and using external camera instead also frees up phone resources.

You can connect an external camera like a GoPro and the PTPA will start the camera automatically but I find its best to manually start before you go out for the session, it makes no difference and one less thing for the app to do, which seems to help. I also often restart the ap between each session for a fresh connection to the PCM.

Importing the GoPro video later is the only option with an external camera and it is a bit of a pain. It does not sync up automatically like when you record simultaneously with the Phone camera/video but the PTPA seems more reliable and does not crash as much. The PTPA also adds +11 hours to the time stamps so the times don't correspond either! Although this may be different depending on where you are.

Later, you need to import the video manually from the App by clicking the respective session and then the "+" button under Video Material, or copy the the video file into the PTPA folder. Once synced (you can adjust down to 1/10 sec) it will overlay the car metrics graphic quite nicely when you click export video, either for the full recording or individual laps. I use the time on the PCM, which his displayed at the end of each lap, and the steering wheel position to sync near perfectly.

What I'm using now is a stripped down Iphone 8 running PTPA, and no other apps, along with my GoPro 7, here is an example of the end result, you can see the App automatically switching on the PCM once I cross the line and gives me a nice numerical graphic of whether I'm ahead or behind my best time, during the session which is nice. That day I did six sessions and failed after 3 laps in only 1 of the sessions, ran to the end in all the others which was 8 or 9 laps.

Westcoast

OK, everything looks good on the phone with the overlay, and I am trying to export it, selected that option and the app created a MP4 file that appears to be too big for an email attachment, so I am trying to find it on the phone so I can copy it off...

And as for the Hero3 GoPro and control via the PTPA, it seem that the app is looking for it via a Bluetooth connection, the Hero3 uses WIFI for that, maybe the newer GoPro's have the option of BT?

Fast-Eddie

I'm using Android and a GoPro Hero-4 Silver edition... while the Hero-4 has BT it will not pair with my Android phone no matter what I tried -- pairing natively, via the GoPro App, or with PTPA. So I can't blame PTPA for that if I can't pair the camera to the phone natively.

I really REALLY want PTPTA to work consistently and export video overlays, but it has given me fits. I really want to have the extensive data and ability to export VBO to Circuit Tools, preferably with video. BUT....

1. I only get data in metric (KMH, Bar, Centigrade) although my car is set for Imperial (I even reset all those fields on PCM)
2. Overlays with external video are exceedingly difficult to synchronize as mentioned before - you need to get close, then with and internal camera view, sync up the real and virtual steering wheel, or sync via the audio throttle blips to the virtual tach.
3. I was only able to get overlays for the last 4 laps of any given session -- I could view the overlay in the app on my phone, but exporting would only overlay the last 4 laps.
4. Using the phone's internal camera is unworkable; it bogs and freezes and makes the video unviewable (I even replaced my SD card in attempt to correct - but no luck).
5. For some reason, I only have about 11 "pre-defined" or "official" tracks in the app, and ALL begin with the letter "A"?? - I have deleted the app, cleared the cache and data a couple of times, but have not resolved this either.

Does anyone have a contact at either Porsche or the developer, where they will work with us and troubleshoot problems? Harry Schlangmann of Harry's Laptimer was always easy to reach and would fix reproducible problems.

mgordon18

I share it to my Google Drive account and it ends up in the cloud. Then I download it to my computer from there. Otherwise, it should be in Download/Porsche Track Precision App/export

Let me know if you get the overlay for the whole video.

Westcoast

HA, HA! that what I am trying to do now, send it the Drive on my Google account, it must take awhile, it is still not there... I will update you as soon as I see it somewhere other than the phone!

Westcoast

Thanks for the BT information, I have yet to find something that states what GoPro camera would work with the app, most people seem to leave this out when they post about such things, a little more information goes a long way! I am planning to buy a more modern camera "IF" it is listed or confirmed to work with the app, otherwise the Hero3 works just fine.

Sorry to here about the data, Metric is just fine for me, I am conversant in both, but you would think this should be a setting somewhere?

mgordon18

Depending on how big the file is, yeah. My full session (25 minute) file was over 1GB. Still takes a bit of time to upload a gig to the cloud.

Rock on...

Westcoast

It seems to have transferred fine and the overlay is there as well, so that is working. Interesting that the video resolution chosen on the app is full HD (1080P) yet in the file now on Google Drive the max resolution is only 720P?

mgordon18

Congrats!
Interesting! I wonder what the differences are in your setup vs mine. What kind of phone do you have? Maybe I just need to kill ALL other apps while exporting. I also have another phone sitting around somewhere, I think. Maybe I can use that as a one-app-only phone and that would work better.

Westcoast

I am running a Galaxy S9+, it is at Android OS 10, during the transfer I changed nothing on the phone, emails and texts were coming and going during the transfer as well.

Is the PTPA the same version for both of us, mine is 3.2.1 What is strange is that you see it when running on the phone but not when exported?

mgordon18

I've got 3.2.1 also. And yeah - it's super weird. The overlay shows on the phone in the app and then disappears when I export it, or comes and goes on the exported file - and not even consistently. I just tried exporting one more time, this time with a freshly restarted phone and no other apps running. Next step is to reinstall the app and try one more time.

EDIT: On reinstall, it apparently blew away my videos, or at least deleted them from within the app's UI... so... I guess I'll try later. The videos are still in the file folder on the phone, but not showing in the app. This is an extremely disappointing app.

Westcoast

Well that is a real bummer, I haven't had that yet, hopefully never! Today I am going to see if I can get this running on my ROiK-MIB2 box, it would make it a lot easier for use in the car, just need to figure out either an external camera (GoPro) or something to the Android Box...

Westcoast

Well, a step or two forward and another brick in the wall...

Although the app works on my Galaxy S9+, the windshield mount leaves a lot to be desired, the phone shakes a fair amount and the reflections are not very welcome, an external camera would be better... I took some footage with my GoPro but don't see how to integrate this with the recording I made on the phone? Is there no manual for this app? We know that the app can control an external camera, but which models, so is there a FAQ?

I loaded the app onto my Android Box, essentially a tablet running 8.1.0, the app says OS 6.0 and up. I can get it running even create a track and have it record data, all the cool things (no camera on the Android box, yet), but the app crashes when I try to go into settings, every time, no luck here!

So, I have reached out the support email listed in the Play Store and hope to get some answers...