First, this is purely for autox, not for track use at all. There are a few threads in other subforums, but most have other goals and some are messing with fields I'm less sure we need to bother with. My experiences on here are going to be from a 718 GT4 manual point of view. YMMV. I'm still a new user with the DSC. That said I got a class from someone pretty experienced with it and I'm comfortable enough with traditional shock tuning for autox with double adjustables I figured I'd share with those interested. If you want track advice on is, please start another thread, probably in another sub-forum that would be focused that way. I won't be posting how to install the software, connect to your car, etc as that is covered better in other threads elsewhere in Rennlist.

That said, the DSC tuner is fairly intuitive in terms of software. Once you know we are only going to be touching the velocity table and probably only in "Chassis Sport" it becomes a lot easier. I was taught and agree with the idea of making multiple maps, labelled and organized properly that detail what they have over the base GT4 map from 9-02-2020. Below are the screens that are relevant to me so far. First is to make sure you are making edits for Sport not Normal:


Once you've set that, you can then move to the Velocity tab:



From there, you can see we basically have triple adjustables. I feel like, so far in limited events, the medium and high speed are pretty good so I'm only changing low speed for entry and exit phases of the corner. The key thing to note here is when you change a cell's value, you must click the update button or you lose your entry and it defaults back to whatever is on the map for that cell. We are editing the "calibrated at" box, positive means more damping, negative values mean less. You have to change each cell one and a time so dont forget to mirror LF to RF and LR to RR unless you like wonky handling. Once you have made all your changes, be sure to save-as and name the file appropriately. Hopefully this helps someone who was looking GForce tab thinking how in the world do I properly edit this.

 

Thanks for starting this thread. This was going to be the next think I was going to experiment with on the DSC box.

Since you have experience with multi adjustable motorsports shocks, do you feel the adjustments you are making on the velocity tab mimics adjustments on manual shocks? I am really curious about hysteresis in that the software has to read the wheel height sensor, interpret the speed and then make an adjustment for that given shock speed mid stroke. Im guessing its making multiple shock adjustments for each stroke both in compression and rebound. Even a good mechanical shock has some delay. The PID tuning must be complex on these babies !

 

So far in limited testing at the same track autocrosses the net result is the same. 5% is like 2 clicks on a typical shock like an MCS 2way, 10% is like 4-5 clicks. Right now its just simple trial and error with no science other than seeing if its repeatable. This weekend is the first event at a site I've not run the GT4 at yet, so it will be interesting to see how I can dial in the car between the rear bar and DSC like I would for Lincoln in September.

 

Thanks, that sounds promising !

 

What do those other tabs do? Can you set different settings based on calculated dynamic / input event?

In the past, I've argued against shock tuning boxes in Street for two main reasons:
1. They have greater capability than even the most expensive doubles, so we're adding an additional allowance.
2. I prefer Street to be the closest we can reasonably get to a driving only competition. Adding in a damper programming competition is outside of the core values.

However, I'm also trying to be realistic about:
1. Where the future of the enthusiast car, the typical enthusiast, and tuning is going.
2. The difference between the ultimate potential of the best possible passive shock vs the best possible tune on adaptive shocks on the clock.

Have you gone so far as to connect a laptop between runs and tweak?

I have a fairly "dumb" (accelerometer based, not position based) adaptive suspension on the Civic and the combination of response and stability in transitions feels like witchcraft.

 

The other tabs are force tables while under certain G loads or brake pressures. Since they don't really address specifically rebound or compression I don't see much point it touching them since I feel like the car is planted already.

As you might know I've served on several AC's for the SCCA. The problem to me is cars with mechanical shocks get an allowance, why not those with dynamic shocks? Cost isn't the issue, in fact it works the other way as a donor MRC or active shock is usually as much as any good double adjustable shock and would just get chopped up to put a conventional shock in its place making the endeavor VERY expensive. Street has it's problems, but this allowance isn't one. If you want to really look at something, look at the issues with wheels/tires IMO.

Yes I have swapped tunes between runs. takes a couple minutes. I prefer pre-canned with the adjustments made than updating cells under pressure. I have 4 prepared for this weekend depending on how the balance of the car will go.

 

This seems like a great thing to do in Street Mod. Not Street.

Street should be OE dampers and exhaust, warts and all, no reason to treat them as consumables in 2021. The trick shock allowance in general is pretty stupid and I can't believe we still haven't taken it back yet. e-shock tuning is just a CRAZY dumb allowance for the supposed lowest prep class.

 

Take this bad discussion somewhere else.

 

Lol Fehr with the hand grenade.

Perhaps I'll just lurk and move any further questions to PM, Tom.

 

I'm mixed on this issue. I understand the genesis of the rule for aftermarket shocks, but the reality is that opened the door for some very expensive one off shocks becoming a huge advantage over competition whereas it costs $1200 for a DSC controller to turn the ***** on OE mag ride dampers. Cost of entry is low,

 

Well I appreciate the guidance on this thread. I’ve had a dsc in the past and am looking at getting another one for my 718 cgts.

somewhat related but I believe it is SS classed and if I go beyond the normal allowable a I can’t figure out what the next class becomes. Any idea?

 

Neither ST or SP allow any aftermarket eshocks, it must be OE only. You'd go straight to SSM. Be careful of mods at that point- electronic shocks are explicitly banned from Prepared (including OE), and electronic everything is banned from most of Mod, so if you exceed SSM, you'd skip right past XP and DM and end up in AM.

I really don't understand SCCA's handling of eshocks.

 

It's not classed in STU on purpose, SP it would be in SSP but yet to be classed so you'd have to ask the SEB to do so. I'm guessing something horrible like E Mod otherwise and XP.

Actually XSA is the answer. Good luck with that PAX though.

 

It is of my opinion that when tuning DSC with OEM dampers for AutoX the minimum damping command should be stiffer to make up for hysteresis(reaction time of the OEM dampers), especially during the quick side-to-side transitions. DSC do offer ultra-high performance electronic Spool valve dampers that react 17x faster than OEM dampers with zero lag to compression stroke load. Anyway, the OEM dampers are still very good, just have work within their physical capability, which is to stay ahead of the lag time by not letting the OEM damper take a softer command that takes longer time to recover than the driving motion event. This can be done in the DSC software by one of the following settings: at the low end of Shock Calibration, Default Rate, Sensitivity, or G Rate Max.

In case you haven't seen, please checkout the latest DSC tuning tutorial video from the DSC Youtube channel. It is an hour long video and gives a good overview.

 

Thanks. The issue with the GT4 tune is more about its transitional balance than its actual damping when in Sport suspension mode. There is a lot of dialed in understeer in entry and exit phases of the corner. Is the best way to adjust that balance in the Velocity tab as I've been taught or is there another or even better way to adjust that?