mdrums

Ok..my wife got me Race Keeper for my Birthday. Sweet huh?...yep she is seriously awesome!

However, I'm not sure how to use Race Keeper and hook it up in my car.
She got me 2 camera's...both square but they look a little different...not even sure if they are HD or not? Some kind of metal mounting bracket thing....how the heck do you mount Race Keeper in the car?.... The camera are a sticky mount, do I leave them in the car all the time?...not sure what to do with all the camera wires when driving on the street????? This is a weekly street use car and track car so I don;t want it hanging out in the open on the floor.

I'm a Mac user so Race Keeper will not work on my Mac. Either I need to install Windows on my Mac or get a cheap laptop...which is the easiest to do?

HELP HELP HELP?

Badblkevo

Cheap pc and external hard drive, the videos take up a ton of room.
You can call me if you need help!
Steve@Autoquest

996toomey

You can call me if you need help with the install. It is very easy. I have the wires routed tucked in along various channels and you do not see them. I have the green unit velcroed to the floor.

Mjones runs RK on his mac with no issues if you decide to go that route.

MJones

I run VM ware fusion on my MAC and run Windowz.

You can also run Parallels or BootCamp.

RaceKeeper is supposed to be working on a Mac version, I'll believe that when I see it!

Detour

First of all, you are going to LOVE the RaceKeeper. Great data, and it can be installed to where no one will know it is in the car. I had mine put in in by Autoquest in Ft. Myers. The front facing camera is mounted behind the rear view mirror, no wires visible, and I had my 2nd cam put in the rear passenger side facing the driver, no wires, tiny cam, and it works and looks great. There is also some programming that can be done to determine how it starts recording etc. They have a very good knowledge of it, and it is not too far from Tampa.

Good luck, and once again you'll love it.

mdrums

Detour, yeah I had my RSS roll boar, harnesses and some suspension work and string alignment done at Auto Quest. Truely great guys down there!

I think I can get this installed myself...If I can hook up and install a real home theater I can do this...I hope! I'm just not good and pulling plastic interior pieces to hide wires. I don't think I want to unmount the camera's after each DE either. Where did you mount the actual RaceKeeper? Or do you just stick it to the carpet with velcro and take it out after the DE? Do you leave the camera's and GPS mount in the car?

I'm looking for some helpful idea's on where people are mounting RaceKeeper and the camera's. Plus I need to go get a cheap LapTop from Best Buy or install Windows on my MacBook Pro....not sure which is easist. I'm thinking of getting a cheap PC laptop since I use my MacBook for work.

The Greek

I will help you with the install. I did my traqmate install no problem....

AllanJ

Race Keeper is an easy-to-use system so you'll get up to speed fairly quickly. Here is their site with a bunch of instructional videos to help you get familiar with the software:

http://www.race-keeper.com/


Running the wires is fairly easy and I have the same type of cameras as you do (these are *not* HD). Here are some pics of what I did to help get you thinking of what you'd like to do.

Front main camera. I ran the wire behind the rear view mirror to underneath the ceiling trim, under the trim over to the passenger door, still behind the ceiling trim to the rear and then down and over to the Race Keeper unit. No trim needs to be removed! Just carefully stuff the wires in the gap between the trim and the car.




GPS antenna. I stuck a small piece of velcro to the speaker grill (I didn't want to hurt the leather dash) and then ran the wire behind the trim to the rear of the car.




Microphone. I ran the wires through the center console and up to the passenger footwell where I simply coiled up the leftover wire and left the microphone behind the console.




Power. Depending on what power cord you have, you can either use the cig lighter or hardwire it. I opted for hardwiring so I used the factory phone jack that is buried in the center console and grabbed (switched) power and ground from there.




For mounting, many people fasten it to the floor, behind the passenger seat and that will be fine. Being a picky computer guy, I wanted it mounted in the center of the car so I pulled my rear carpet to mount it securely. I bet I'm in the very small minority here.

I made an aluminum mounting bracket and used plenty of double-sided mounting tape to secure it to the tub (I didn't want to drill any holes in the tub).




Note plenty of velcro on top of the bracket to stick the Race Keeper unit on.




Race Keeper in place and all wires hooked up.




Missing pics - I don't have pics of the second camera (simply zip-strapped to the roll bar as a temporary measure until I decide where I finally want it). Also, no pics of the OBD-II connection, but that is simply strapped under the dash then through the center console to the rear of the car.

The Race Keeper has a TV out jack on it so you can focus the cameras and tune their position without tons of trial & error driving sessions. I'm using a 4.3mm lens for the main camera and a 2.5mm lens for the inside view. I'm using a 32" tv for testing while installing this in the garage.



Cheers,

Badblkevo

This is how we install them at Autoquest, any questions or comments please feel free to contact us.
Camera and Mic on upper cage

RaceKeeper installed in glovebox, easy to access and confirm working

oldskews4

Holy R comps, Batman!

mdrums

oldskews4, yeah Autoquest isn't fooling around!

Badblkevo (Setve@autoquest) thanks for calling me today. I'll probably get Racekeeper in my car just for the Daytona weekend next week and I'll make an appointment with you to get it professionally installed

sharkster

Your wife is pretty darned cool me thinks! And where are all our apple friends (come on we know you're here lol!)....

AllanJ

If you decide to have the Race Keeper installed in the glovebox, try to make it as flat and level as possible and secure it so it won't move around. There are accelerometers inside the box and if the box moves around then you will get inaccurate g-values (if those matter to you).

That's why folks tend to install the box on a flat, stable location like the floor.

Cheers,

mkk62

Mike. Deputy dog I believe just put one in and loves to do free installs. Give him a shout

Mike

Badblkevo

On the Race-Keeper web site there is a software file that is to zero the accelerometer, if you ever run into this issue. You download it and put it on the usb and transfer it for ten seconds.