cid042

I have installed a GPS receiver in my 2008 cup. Everything is working fine, but I can't find out how I may define the beacon GPS coordinates at the track, at the push of a button.

In the Calculations - Lap time and numbers - Beacon menu, I see a push button option, but I do not understand to which button it refers. When I select it, the channel "beacon" is displayed next to it. The help is of no use...

Does anyone know what it relates to ?

Thanks in advance for any help

Cedric

ZSA Motorsport

ha!!
dude, gps is one of the reasons i so dislike MOTEC at times. we've had GPS in 3,4 cups and its often complicated and not intuitive. generally speaking, you need to get the coordinates from eith ergoogle earth, or some other source and plug that into the config. i keep an AIM solo in my rolex cup just as a backup since AIM has the integration of gPs just about perfect.
in one of our cups Geoffrey Ring wired up a push button which we could hit at any given time and it would establish the beginning of the lap and for the sessions thereafter it would be the trigger gps point. i forget exactly why i was so annoyed but i think it wouldnt then save that point in the config venue file for future use. it was something really grating like htat. eventually, i pulled it out and just went with ole' reliable, the beacon.

PM Geoff or pro Coach. im sure one of the two of them can get you squared away.

amso3

The only thing I've seen is to add GPS coordinates under Lap Time and Number

Click on "edit". When you save the "venue" you can re-use this venue each time you return to that track, thus avoiding entering coordinates at each event. If you need a good source of coordinates (around the world) download the "GPS Manager" from the AIM website. http://www.aim-sportline.com/eng/download/software.htm

Matt Romanowski

CDS has a nice GPS solution. http://www.competitiondata.com/sensors/pg11_gps.htm

Juan Lopez

I have the CDS unit and works like a Charm

cid042

Seems that there i no chance for me to get it to work in a Motec only way...

Let's enter GPS coordinates for all the venues, then.

As usual, thanks to all for your quick help !

boothkc

It's amazing to me that about the only thing I ever REALLY need from this overpriced piece of Motec crap is lap times.... and it takes a PhD to get it to work.

You will have to enter the start/finish GPS coordinates for each track. A good support team will have a data guy who can give them to your for most tracks (venues) or you can create them from a gps recorded lap (complicated). Also an iphone or Google can find them if you have the exact location.

Once you have the data set you have to select the venue for each track and upload the new config file to Motec..... grrrrrrrrrr.

I added a $300 GPS lap timer to my dash to have a back up. The above solution looks cool and I will look into it.

KB

amso3

It does seem strange that the AIM products can store 150 tracks and Motec needs so much effort to make it work. I suppose you could build each "Venue" at home and store them on the computer. I have not tried to do that, I'll check it out.

The odd thing is that IMSA doesn't allow the GPS solution, you must use the beacon.

cid042

Yes, it works this way, but you have to connect the laptop to the car each time to tell the dash on which venue you are.

A simple button to push once in the first lap of the morning would have been a better solution for me... and I am an IT guy...

Always the same thing, just have a data engineer to carry at the track.

amso3

I would love to come to France and set your dash up at each track

ZSA Motorsport

yeah, exactly. i have venue config files for every venue wit the GPS start line in it. length, other track specific things which the dash config likes to know.
you load it as you arrive at the track before your first session and you're good to go.
htere are a LOT of goofy things in motec. another one that irks the living heck out of me is the computation of forecasted lap. i like AIM as it relates to lap times and forecasted laps by a margin of a bazillion to one. in aim, if its a new track, you can, while you drive around set the start/finish with a button push, and also set a few splits. again, you have to load that via the config software in motec.

then AIM automatically computers forecasted lap, which for us, is probably the main thing our drivers focus on, knowing how the lap is going particularly critical in qualifying,e tc.
in motec, you have first go do a lap to create a reference laps. then yo have to load the reference laps. then the dash while you drive can display a forecasted/estimated lap. if you load a reference laps which is super quick from yoru qualifying last time out...and now you are doing some simple easy laps testing setup on old tires....it gets all goofy. if you are getting more comfortable with each passing session, and lap times keep falling, you have to keep re-loading reference laps. blows. chunks.
and yuou have to get that reference laps by a) offloading the data b) loading it in I2Pro data analysis software (which by the way, is totally awsome and amazing) and then saving it as a reference lap, reconnecting to the dash and uploading the new reference lap to the dash. if you were constantly improving midsession or every session, you might have to load reference laps...often.

i think the CDL3 in our camaro allows you to select a setting which says that if you turn a lap that is faster, then it automatically saves that away as the new reference laps.

just saying....in some areas, Motec is just not as simplistic as AIM.

Matt Romanowski

I think that is why so many teams just put an AiM SOLO in the car to get the predicted lap times.

cid042

Me too !

gstahl

I will also say that GPS coordinates seem to be the I have to fool with at most venues (with or with a data guy). Always have one or two session that the start finish is wrong or the GPS is funky.

Yes motec is a pain in this regards, tracks are far away from each other, build a library default based on GPS location, if the user wants to override they can. Literally a one week software effort, including testing.

ProCoach

I'm a CDS dealer and it is a nice, albeit expensive (for what it is) solution. $660 plus lead lengths (custom)

It does, but only to add a start/finish. It does not supply anything but another speed sensor and a trigger from the beacon. No GPS track mapping (it will still generate a map), no things that make MoTeC GPS capabilities very special with the addition of their 10Hz and Pro Grade GPS add-ons. For the ADL2 and later... It just makes it not necessary to do the venue build for every track.

I sell the heck out of Solo's and Solo DL's (can pull limited Cup CAN data too, and uses RS2 to look it over) for just this reason. $399 and $699

That's what I do...

True, all of that. But for a trained and practiced eye, the configuration options and viewing capability of the MoTeC is incredible. But AiM is the daddy for the money.