OK, new thread from the Audio thread that I was about to take off topic *phew*.

Peter, I had just gotten everything installed, but hadn't yet downloaded Race Studio or connected the Solo to the computer yet. Now I've done that and below is what it showed me when I downloaded the config from the device.

My car is a 2010 Cayman S. The configuration is for a Bosch 997 GT3.




I downloaded some data from just driving around town and the Brake channel seems to be binary (0 or 1) and the gear channel seems to be 0 at all times. Sorry if this is frustrating, and please don't feel compelled to spend time on this. I'm doing my research slowly sending emails to Matt (!), and I will figure this out eventually - but any hints will be appreciated!

 

Yes, on the car is no current capability to read brake pressure, only brake pedal position (off=0, on=1). If you set up your red brake bar in the SmartyCam HD configuration (that you transmit to the camera) such that the brake bar is actuated by brake POSITION and set the minimum value to 0 and max value to 1, it will indicated when you actuate the brakes.

Matt, Jerry and I have shown a close correlation between a properly calibrated Solo DL Long G accelerometer channel and brake pressure, so to transcend this limitation, that's what you need to do.

None of the manual shift cars (and only the recent PDK cars) send gear info over the CAN. You must calibrate the calculated gear function on the Solo DL. Directions here: http://www.aim-sportline.com/downloa...ce_108_eng.pdf

 

Cool, I can work with that, thanks!

 

OK, I've hit the next hurdle. This system is challenging !

I downloaded SmartyManager2 and connected the SC to it, and boom, SM2 crashes. Over last night and this morning I've installed SmartyManager2 on two different computers, done reboots, hard-booted the SC, tried every permutation of launching, connecting, turning-on of things. SM works and the SC works, but as soon as I connect the two, SM2 just gives up.

SCHD GP reports these FW versions
Main: 1.03.52 (April 2015) in the details page it shows a slightly different number for main 1.03.15, which is odd.
Slave: 60.03.41 from October 2015, which is higher than the latest firmware on the AiM-Sportline download page.

Looking into whether I can workaround this by building congfigs and moving them on the SD card. Out of ideas for the moment on what to try next on the crash. Have an email off to my dealer

Here's the screen:




Here's the full crash report, in case anyone is interested and this is more fun for you than the Sunday NYT Crossword.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: AiMRS3-32-ReleaseU.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.1
Application Timestamp: 53ba9998
Fault Module Name: AiMRS3-32-ReleaseU.exe
Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.1
Fault Module Timestamp: 53ba9998
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00409879
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?link...8&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

 

Do not use SM2. A workaround would be to load a completed config to the SD card, but the SD card MUST have been put in an operating camera so the file structure can be written in order for the software to "see" the card BEFORE attempting to do this.

Download and install Race Studio 3, then connect the camera, then open "configurations"

Proceed from there. I reported this issue in January...

1.03.52 is the most current FW for the HD cameras.

Who is your dealer? Why don't you pick up the phone and call them or text them?

 

Matt and I have been trading emails and he's feeding me ideas. No complaints there. Was also posting here to see if anyone else had seen these issues before, since Matt hasn't. I appreciate the community here and on P-9, and am definitely not taking anything for granted. I have what I need to run the system at VIR for Zone2 next weekend, but my brain won't let me stop chasing down the unknowns and optimizations!

*update*. The SC connected just fine to RC3, and I can see my config . Cool, onto the Next hurdle.

 

He bought everything from me Peter. We were trading emails all day, starting around midnight last night through this afternoon. He has my cell number and like anyone with an AiM device, can call me anytime.

I think one of the great things about Rennlist and this data forum is that people have access to so many resources, dealers, and knowledgeable people. Like much of the time, we both said the same thing to him, but in different places.

 

All good.

 

Double thanks - to all the posts advice and confirmation of how to wire this in, to swift guidance getting over the initial learning curve with this setup. Here some spam of the finished install. Tim and his crew at KMC are fastidious! Very nice work.

 

And here's the trouble to get there





Tin Solder into the CAN Bus. Ground to the nut just out of sight to the left of the bottom of the fuse box.





Add a Circuit. I had C6 and B9 as switched and I know there are others, looks like Tim found one closer to the left.





Routing the cable to the SCHD GP through the dash and center console.





Shop!





Camera and SoloDL cables come in, below the level of the bin bottom.





Camera cable running up an over. We un-tied the mike cable for now, since I wanted to try it in the cabin, behind the seat. If there is still too much wind noise I can easily zip-tie it back to the stickie.





Camera cable over to the back left side, where it can climb up the roll bar out of sight to the bullet cam

 

Very nice!

 

And here's the results from the instal, from VIR at the PCA Zone 2 event (first time at the track - fun track and fun event).

I'm still getting the 1kHz whine but to be honest it's hard to hear on track footage. Since I don't plan to watch vids of my grocery runs that may not be a problem. The quality from the external mic wire isn't great yet. I went from auto gain down to 0 gain, and tucked the mic behind the carpeting and it still clips (running stock sport exhaust, on a mostly stock car - does not sound like this!).

It looks like there is no way to try out the internal mic once you have the external one wired in. Sort of a bummer since it should be a software switch. I'll try running the direct wire at LRP with the HVR event in a bit over a week.

and yeah - plenty to work on in terms of the driving but at least I mostly knew where I was on the track and my arm wasn't sore from giving point buys to 50 other cars like it was after Friday!

https://vimeo.com/160363405

 

You should be able to "mix" internal and external mic levels, IIRC.

Glad you had fun at VIR!

 

I know that was true for the original SC. Saw it on a friend's original SC. I only have one menu for audio, and when I go into it it has only one adjustment, which is gain for the mic. 0/25/75/100, and placement of the mic and gain levels don't seem to have much effect. I don't see settings for audio in RaceStudio.

Wait... I wonder if my camera is picking up audio from the external mic at all. Or recognizing it's existence. The connector is a real pain to thread in. I have some more experiments to perform!

 

OK, the external mic. is wired correctly and verified working. I also ran the straight cable (no mic.) from the SoloDL to the SCHD, and confirmed that it uses the internal mic. in that config.

In both cases there is only one setting in the menus on the SCHD GP. The two pictures below show this and the same options (and settings) are used regardless of whether the on-board or external mic. is used. Option to swap between auto and manual gain levels, and on manual the option of the 4 levels.







Other observations.
- when using the internal mic the 1kHz interference is missing.
- when using the internal mic, the pickup is really poor in auto gain setting. I haven't tried manual gain, but from the center console bin, it would not pick up the radio or my various vocalizations. I'll post the videos later.

Mostly documenting this in case others can benefit from it. AiM documentation is sparse in this area. For the SCHD GP the use case of the external mic is a no-brainer. Tuck the main unit away and have the freedom to move the bullet cam and small mic where you want. The assumption would be that AiM would have some of the best components for the job, and the configuration would be pretty good. From reading, it sounds like the better option is the cable with an aux input, so that you have more options and control.

I did read the other post about unscrewing the AiM external mic cap and removing the foam disk. I did that and put a foam microphone sock on it (from Amazon, for lapel mics). I haven't tested that yet, and to be fair, what you can test driving around town does not correlate with what we want on the track anyway.

more musings to come