jhenson29

I thought GPS needed a clear view to the sky? If so, even if there is an OBD dongle that has GPS, it may not be the best option. Not my wheelhouse though. Just what I’ve read.

ProCoach

Typically the phone apps need three components, the GPS amplifier cradle, a BT OBDII dongle and the phone. Also, the OBDII is polled so slowly, there's huge lag in throttle reporting. Also, no brake info.

steveP911

See what ProCoach said above. Have you looked at the app's website which lists the compatible devices?

https://racerender.com/TrackAddict/docs/Interop.html

Skid

I wonder why Garmin Glo and Glo2 alone can’t get 10Hz through to TrackAddict? The TA page referenced above says 10Hz for Android but just 4Hz for iOS. And Garmin’s website states iOS won’t support a 10Hz update rate to _any_ app. TA recommends XGPS160 for iOS…. Is it confirmed the XGPS160 can in fact get 10Hz through to an iPhone?

I am going to get one of these external GPS units and it will do double duty to run Navionics to my iPad on a sailboat. Update rate is clearly not as big a deal at 7 knots but really would like to have 10Hz for track purposes.

ProCoach

The XGPS160 is the most popular that I've seen used with iOS devices. I'm pretty sure 10Hz comes through, but it's been a long time since I tried to use a phone app.

steveP911

Of course I can’t verify the actual update rate within the system, but the TA app does post the rate at the top of the session stats. Usually 10.0 Hz but occasionally 1.0 Hz if I mess up something in the pre session setup. Leads me to believe it’s valid.

i do have an iPhone.

quickboxster

My dongle is old, used it for years and is wifi, polling rate is positively glacial. The thing here is what I threw in the car is exactly what you asked for, cheap and easy, your expectations here should be for the most rudimentary video and some cool graphics... nothing to use for serious "analytics". One issue with mine is it's long (rectangular) and its placement lends itself to getting kicked off if I forget when I get in the car so I have to remember my foot placement. Look for a stubby BT dongle, OBD is a standard applied to any vehicle sold in NA so it doesn't matter what you buy, there are dozens on amazon and you can test the dongle with a free OBD app like OBD Fusion. This is about what you can expect; so I wouldn't spend a lot of time on this route. As you can see mounting the phone is critical, this is from a ram mount, suction cup'd to my engine cover, not good but what I had time to throw in before heading to Laguna. I ended up 3d printing a mount that clamps to my roll bar and the phone is held much more steady now but that's as far as I'll go spending time on this setup because there's just no real return other than some video to share with family.

Nugs.

I've tried a bunch over the years and recently I've been impressed with Dragy Lap.
The dragy device itself is a nice piece of hardware (25hz refresh rate, multiple GPS systems, long battery life) and is similarly priced to other GPS modules.
The app is decent for quick on phone review, it does dual camera video overlay quickly on the phone, and you can export the data for analysis elsewhere.

The app is still being updated with more features and they say they have an ODB dongle coming as well.

ProCoach

I think there are other circuit-centric apps far more refined and mature than the Dragy Lap, which is based on the performance testing meter hardware.

Skid

. Thanks, to close this off I had the 10Hz on iOS confirmed by the manufacturer.

stellman

Yeah, I'm interested in the progress of the Dragy Lap system. They seem to be developing it pretty quickly. Hardware is nice, for sure.

Speed2k

XGPS160 is 10HZ, the XGPS150 is only 5HZ, on the iphone. On the XGPS150, iirc, you need to switch it to 5hz using the app, in order for it to work. I haven't used it in a while, but doesn't TA tell you what the polling rate is?

build.bat

IMHO the best and easiest phone setup is RaceChrono Pro ($10), Racebox Mini ($200), and OBDLink CX ($80). Racebox mini and CX are both bluetooth LE so they don't require you to pair, they just broadcast all the time, so you just tell RaceChrono to use them and you don't have to fuss with bluetooth stuff at the track. If you want video and use your phone camera, then everything is sync'd automatically. using a gopro usually requires you to sync up the telemetry and video even if using the GoPro remote API as there is a delay from the API when RaceChrono tells it to start recording, etc.

Upsides, easy, works with almost zero fussing with technology at the track. Racebox mini is 25hz.
Downsides, Racebox mini price. OBDLink data is limited, usually no brake pressure and OBD port is really limited to about 1-2 fast channels and 2-3 slow channels, otherwise the OBD update rate drops below 4-5 hz

RaceChrono also supports the XGPS160, you don't need the OBDLink CX unless you want things like RPM, accelerator position, etc. iPhone GPS update rate is 1hz, so trying to use your phone GPS isn't going to be much of anything. i have seen ppl's data doing that and the results are lines off the track, etc, not useful at the end of the day for even basic analysis

that all being said, i recently moved a move permanent Racelogic VBOX Video HD2 setup ($5000+) and its just amazing, but almost 10x the price.i like having the cameras permanently mounted and the unit mounted on the rollcage, so nothing to mess with other than putting in and taking out the SD card.

Tier1Terrier

UGH. I just typed out this long update and it got erased by mistake, so here goes again...

I ended up going with the Track Addict. For my purposes, it was perfect. Nearly free, offered some basic video & overlay with data. I knew that I wasn't going to get a whole lot of detail & accuracy without some peripheral devices like dongles and GPS units. That was ok with me for this first go around. I did end up upgrading to the PRO version for $8.99 so I can get just one more session recorded. The free version only covered me for 3 sessions, but I knew my 4th session was going to be the best and I really wanted to capture it.

Viewing the videos and analytics on my phone was simple. Trying to get the videos onto my PC and/or sharing it from my phone was not. My phone simply doesn't have the capacity to save the fully rendered videos and I would need to spend around $50 on the Race Render software to do so on my PC. I settled on being ok with only being able to share the non-fully-rendered videos with overlays. I could of course be missing an obvious solution, but I wasn't able to figure out as of yet.






This leads me to my last detail I left out and that is the window (suction) mounted phone holder. I ordered two different ones to try. A RAM mount with the medium length extension and a ReadyAction Sport Smartphone SUction Cut Mount Kit from Apex. Once I had the two of them in my hand, I (thought) knew for sure that the ReadyAction would be the better one at holding the phone (camera) steady on the track, so I brought only that one with me and put it to use. Simultaneously, I used my GoPro Hereo (9 or 10?) with it's own windshield suction mount. The difference in the steadiness of the video between my two setups was significant. The GoPro was rock solid steady whereas the phone mount was very bumpy. Given my experience, if am to go forward with this sort of thing, I will want to find a way to use my GoPro video with whatever data collection/analytic software and have it overlayed. The video steadiness is just so much better.

The last thing I will say is that for my purposes, I believe I made the best choice with Track Addict. I got mostly what I wanted out of a cheap (or nearly free) solution. At this point, based on everything I've seen and read, If I were to upgrade, I would want to go straight to the Garmin catalyst. To me it appears to be one of the most intuitive ones although it comes at a steep price. Or maybe between now and then, i discover something different. Who knows? Lot's for me to learn but mostly the focus should be on my driving. Thanks again everyone for your input.

quickboxster

I use iTunes on a windows pc to pull the vids and data files from the phone. The windows race render software can be used for free for up to 3 minute videos with data overlay. The software has a stabilize button in the settings that actually does something, not enough, but something, as I said previously, the mount is critical when using a phone to shoot video.