E30M3

Has anyone seen or install this yet?

I know from personal experience with 997 and 991's that DSC makes a great product..

https://www.dscsport.com/porsche/#964

pp000830

Seems like a lot of complexity to add to a 993 for the incremental advantage of dynamic adjustment of strut dampening. I wonder what the cost differential between this kit and conventional struts with manually settable dampening is. Then one has to factor in reliability and service replacement cost when they are worn.
Andy

TheOtherEric

Wow, that's cool as heck! Kudos to them. But it doesn't look like the shocks have onboard accelerometers or position sensors on each piston, which means the controller doesn't know what's going on, and thus behaves passively (without feedback). They even state you can use any springs you want, so without onboard sensors any pre-programmed damping settings are totally useless. Real-time-adjustments are only useful when you have some target/goal, something to minimize, etc., and for that you need shock sensors. Am I missing something?

So color me skeptical, especially at a price of $10k+.

SpeedyC2

This may answer some of your questions:

FAQ on DSC

(No affiliation, I was just going through the website.)

TheOtherEric

Thanks. I read that, plus some youtube videos (SEMA 2016 interview was good). And everything I posted above looks correct. This system is essentially a dude twisting the 2 ***** (rebound & compression) on normal adjustable shocks in real-time, based on factors like speed, steering angle, etc. For example, the controller says "brakes were applied, so turn the front rebound ***** 3 clicks." I wouldn't call that "smart" or "active" since it gets no feedback and there's nothing to optimize. Ultimately, the user still has to decide what baseline settings he wants, based on his feelz. Sorry, that's not good enough IMHO. They're about halfway there. It'll be transformative when they get the rest figured out!

Andy Hodapp

If thats true I'll gladly build one for someone lol. Just need some PSS10s, some servo motors and potentiometers, throw an accelerometer or two in there and a Raspberry Pi. I've written a lot more complex code than that!

DD GT3 RD

SpeedyC2

I'm not disagreeing, just trying to understand. The system is described as "active" in many locations, but I guess it's more marketing than fact? (I agree with you a system should have feedback to be considered active.) Still, it does note the program predicts the response needed, which sounds kinda of active... It appears the setup is user tunable, but it's not necessary to do so as it comes with specific software for each car.

I remember when DSC first came out a number of years ago and a Boxster was driven around VIR (I think by Randy Pobst, or maybe Mike Levitas?) with the system turned off/on and it was reported the laps times were significantly faster with the system on.

Regardless, it's too expensive for me. Seems like a step in the right direction, though, and I'm impressed they have spent the time to adapt it to older cars.

TheOtherEric

When they call it "active," they seem to be referring to two things:
1) It "predicts the response needed" by analyzing the inputs like brake force, g's, steering angle, etc. The processor runs that thru your mappings then calculates the desired shock setting. I'd call that "real time" not "active."
2) Some newer cars have ride-height sensors (i.e. damper position sensors!) that the system *might* be using in those calculations (I don't see any evidence that they are). But 993s don't have that. I'm not even sure can-bus gives sufficient data rate to properly use that.
Sounds like the customizability might depend on the product (?). The fully tunable setup gives an incredible level of customizability (see video below). But ultimately, the user sits in front of his PC and creates mappings to adjust settings (for each type of input, like g's) based on how he feels. Is that really the best? It's certainly not scientific, and not something you can optimize. But is it better than "dumb" shocks? Almost certainly.