Quinlan

I have an AIM MXL dash with an original Smartycam. Generally, both work well together, although the Smartycam usually won't charge itself - I have to take it out and charge it between sessions. I understand/speculate that this MAY be due to the length of the patch cable I have between the camera and the head unit - 3 meters.
I have my gps antenna connected to the Smartycam.
Anyway, recently I have been encountering random sessions where the Smartycam doesn't seem to be recognizing the track that I am at. I get a speed reading on the MXL, so the GPS is working, and the Smartycam will record video, but the lap function doesn't work, so my data reads as if I went out and did one very long lap.

As far as I can tell, the only change between a session where the track is recognized and the one where it isn't, is that I have removed the SD card, downloaded the video and data and then cleared the SD card (deleted all video and data) before inserting back into the Smartycam for the next session.

When this happened before,I tried turning off and restarting the Smartycam, as well as using a different SD card for the new session.

I haven't updated the firmware on either unit lately (I don't even know if there is any updated firmware for the old units).

This happened for a couple of sessions at Watkins Glen last year, then randomly cured itself and worked for the remainder of the year. This year it cropped up again in the middle of my race weekend at Sebring and didn't cure itself before I had to leave.

Any ideas from the brain trust?

ir_fuel

I know it's not a solution, but you can get your laps back in AiM RS2 Analysis by having the application split your laps at a certain GPS position.

Matt Romanowski

There haven't been any firmware updates on those devices in a long time, but still worth checking, though that is probably not the problem.

Make sure you have all the track loaded in the GPS by connecting to the SC then running GPS Manager.

Are you able to see the camera? If so, look to see if it is always picking up what track you are at. If you can, also check the dash to see that you have a good satellite count.

Joris was talking about GPS lap insert. Do you get good lap splits in the data and not the video or no laps anywhere?

ir_fuel

I presume not:

Quinlan

That's correct - no laps anywhere. I have all the tracks loaded - it recognizes them most of the time.

Here is a curious twist - I just reviewed the last video from Sebring (the session where only one continuous lap was recorded) and the track outline in the corner of the video showed Mosport rather than Sebring.

Mosport was the last track I was at before I went to Sebring - is it possible that the SD card still had track information in it when I loaded it? Maybe after my session at Mosport I didn't erase all the data, but just the video, so the dat. and log. files from Mosport were still on the card when I inserted it into the Smartycam at Sebring?
Since I have 2 or 3 SD cards with me at the track, it is very possible that I inserted a different card into the Smartycam for the final sessions when the track wasn't recognized, vs the earlier sessions where Sebring WAS recognized.

Matt Romanowski

The data on the card should not matter. The dash and SC pick their location off of the current GPS location.

When you do GPS lap insert, does it correct the data?

Your best bet is probably going to be to send the camera into AiM once we figure out if you are recording GPS info correctly. The problem is going to be the camera or the antenna most likely.

amso3

Quinlan, I suggest adding a data hub with aux power leads to keep your camera charged in the car. Matt is correct, the fimware on the SC has not changed in a couple years, but it might be good to reload it just to be sure. It is strange that you got the Mosport map on your Sebring video. Is your car still at Sebring or back up north? I live near Sebring and could check it out if your doing another event.

Quinlan

Thanks Jerry. My car is back here (needing an engine rebuild, unfortunately). I`ll do the firmware re-install.

Matt, I will try to do the GPS lap insert to see if that at least gives me the data readout.

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

Waky

Quinlan, were you able to fix the problem?

Yesterday I was at the Ring and had the same issue as you describe. GPS working and the right track map loaded, and the red dot moving along the circuit. But no lap times on my dash and in the video, only 1 long lap.
It worked before at Spa without a track configuration ( ), actually it's strange it worked without having any tracks loaded so StartFinish lines must be present in the firmware or only of popular tracks.
I also tried to load the other Nordschleife BTG map, but same problem. I have updated firmware inbetween the Spa and the Ring..

Matt Romanowski

Start finish and laptimes come from the logger. The track map is in the schd.

DC640

I recently had same issue. What is weird is previous session worked flawlessly just like any other times and then one time, it was one long lap without any timer. My smartycam was recording but one long lap....

ShakeNBake

I wonder if it's a GPS warmup issue? It can take a really really long time for the GPS receiver to understand where it is when moving from track to track. It has to search through all the frequencies of all the GPS satellites and find enough to get a position lock. And it has to do this before the downstream software needs to know - to pick the track map, etc. I would guess it's not warmed up, and you started driving. If the car is in a garage when you turn it on, no GPS, then you jump on the track and the software has already decided to go with where ever the GPS thinks it is from last time. Just random thoughts....

ProCoach

Actually, when you load track maps in the SCHD, it loads the coordinates for lap timing, too.

This is why the SCHD can operate as a standalone device and give lap times, and when there is a mismatch with the logger, the camera GPS config takes precedence.

In EVERY installation I've done where the GPS antenna is connected to the camera, and the camera is connected to a logger like the MXL Pista without GPS, I load tracks along with coordinates into the camera, not the logger.

In systems where the logger has it's own GPS antenna, then by all means, load the GPS track list to the logger first, and the camera second (for the track maps to show), but your mileage may vary.

We've had a number of GPS issues here at VIR this week with PCA and the best thing to do is nuke what is in the system now, make sure the firmware is up to date in all units (all latest, so it matches) and load a fresh, complete set of coordinates. That took care of the half-dozen issues I saw.

Skibum1963

spg993tt

a few question for your AIM gurus:
1. i have a smartycam HD and bridge in my gen2 cup car. couple of questions: was at MMC today, they are doing start/finish/timing loop on the south straight, the AIM camera/aim gps database has the north straight, what it used to be. so the lap timing in my motec/cosowrth was solid, worked, etc. but when i watched video, the start time lap timing is different and not just different but way divergent as aftera really fast lap if i hit traffic i ease off and thus the fast lap vid is there on video but it doesnt tie into the motec data/lap times; so, i want to update the smartycam with the track map w the new proper gps cooridnates for the start/finish. i have the cooridnates. i had successfully loaded them into an AIM SOLO i was testing (to help alleviate the frustrating cosworth forecasting laptime stuff". what software do i use to connect to the camera to erase that track and load the proper one with the correct start finish? RS3 ? or GPS manager? should i copy/edit the map and load the newly created 'user' map? or start from scratch wiht a new map and just input start/finish gps coordinates?

2. is there any way to modify the existing vid file? i presume that laptiming is embedded into the video its just a compiled video but not sure if on the sd card perhaps the start/finish is a value that could be edited and recompile vid? i dont care that much, just curious .

3. lastly, after like 4,5 laps, i pitted to take pressures. camera turned off. and then started back up when i got going again. whih created 2 video files. it was like a 7 minute stop to check a few things, make a change. how do i set up the camera to keep recording longer and not to auto stop, and restart once we get going??

a. what software should i use to connect, and put in GPS coordinates for the new/proper start finish? i was mussing with the aim