Difool

I think more people with Catalysts need to synch their data! If you have one at home pls go ahead and do that. I looks at the leaderboards and there’s just no way I should have the 3rd fastest lap at the glen, in a spec cayman! It was a good lap, but still over 2 mins. I only see 53 drivers have synched data for the glen, all year.

now also, there is more of an incentive to add info to profiles. The old Garmin interface was less than useless. This app has some potential.

oh, did I say upload your data for then glen? I meant upload your data except the glen. I’m ok holding 3rd 😂

ProCoach

Hahaha! Go, man!

sf_c63

Read something on a FB Catalyst group and curious if it’s true…

Someone posted a vid with their Catalyst mounted to the rear window of their Cayman so the video captured the steering wheel and hands. He got flamed for improperly mounting the Catalyst cam, posters said it needs to have a direct view of the hood and road ahead for the Catalyst AI to do its thing? Is the camera actually gathering data for coaching tips? I’m kinda blown away by this…

Same question goes for the position of the Catalyst - does it matter at what angle it’s set?

I thought all of the data was based on GPS telemetry but I guess I’m wrong.

ProCoach

I was probably one of those flamers, but having sold about 250, used more than 500 and having been hired by Garmin to travel to the race track, demo and show folks how to get the most out of these extraordinary devices, I can assure you that there is much more to it than meets the eye.

Both the camera and tablet have accelerometers in them. The accelerometers are sensitive enough to tell when, where and how much, as well as how fast, the driver is pushing the pedals and turning the wheel.

The camera is an integral part of the device measures used to grade and coach the driver, both in real-time and post-session. To do this, it must be mounted in a specific place, high and centrally on the windshield.

Sure, it’ll capture video placed further back, but few of the capabilities needed to compile a complete and accurate picture of driver performance will be available, then.

In the setup of the device, the accelerometers are used to make sure it’s level left to right. There are also profiles to aid in aiming the camera for the most effective grading of your use of the full width of the track, where you leave and track out to the edge of the road and where in the geometry of the turn your apex area is in relation to turn in and track out.

One profile is a green line in the lower horizontal axis that serves as a guide to make sure its centered on the front bumper and that it’s not got any part of the bodywork in the field area used for this study.

The other is a short, wide white box used to aim at the track surface 25-70 feet in front of the car to build that neural network, gauge car placement accuracy and even recognize traffic in front that may be influencing your performance, thus tossing laps where you get held up from the peak average performance model it builds for you.

While it does matter what position the Catalyst tablet is in simply due to the GPS antenna being above the top of the dash (it’s in the upper rear panel of the tablet) the accelerometers present in the tablet are auto-calibrated and constantly validated with those in the camera.

The two ways the device proactively coaches you are real-time audio coaching, which when set at advanced audio coaching under the Options setting can be pretty specific, and by providing you prioritized, limited and highly targeted opportunities for improvement, telling you where and how to effect the changes required to do it. You can even set it with one tap to coach you on the specifics that it learns that work to make you more consistently quicker.

By crunching the segment times, accelerometer data showing the efficacy of the driver inputs, validating proper car placement, encouraging commitment to throttle and brakes, it duplicates a lot of the methodologies top professional coaches use to analyze where, when and how to go quicker, without navigating a computer, operating system, software or downloading multiple files and arranging that information so you can make sense of it.

There has recently been a run of bad cameras, connections to the camera or cables that Garmin is working through, but they’ve sold tens of thousands of these devices and they do help in a way no other video or data logger does.

The Black Friday sale starts 11/24-11/28 and there are a number of RL vendors that sell them.

It is very effective when used properly and compared to existing technology in this realm, it’s the Easy Button! Hope this helps.

powerhusky

I recorded a bunch of sessions at Sonoma Raceway, but chose the wrong track config so I can’t compare my laps with friends. 😑

Is there a way to edit past sessions with the right track config?

Difool

I heard there is a problem with the compare feature since each device dynamically creates sectors, and if they are different enough the app reports that the tracks aren’t comparable. Also, that Garmin is working on it. My source is a thread on Facebook, so 🤷‍♂️.

probably different from what you are looking for but maybe still relevant.

fatbillybob

UPDATE issues?

I have one of the earliest Cats that I have been very happy with and never updated. With the new Garmin Cat AP features I'm thinking I need to update my Cat. But before I update has the RL braintrust seen any weird issues from updating and early Cat?

ProCoach

No issues.

dsddcd

I am the same way, not an early adopter when it comes to electronics, I would much rather let others work out things like the shinny new OS on a phone. In this case none at all and most importantly there are a number of improvements that will increase the accuracy/reliability and adds additional features.

fsts2k

I grabbed a Garmin Catalyst over the weekend with Black Friday pricing, looking forward to using it in the race car starting in April.

fatbillybob

does anyone know the ram mount ball size that comes in the garmin cat? Is it A B C ????

sonorous

B - 1" ball

Tigers10

I got a new computer and now when I try to plug in my catalyst via USB to save my videos the catalyst doesn't show up as a device. Any advice? I've tried a couple of USB ports and a few cables.

ProCoach

Won’t work on a Mac without a utility and some Windoze ultrabooks.

I’ve never used USB, too slow to transfer video. Use a card reader instead, pop the card out and super easy drag and drop transfer.

burnergt4

If you're using a Mac, Android File Transfer works great: https://www.android.com/filetransfer/