Gary R.

All my emails went unanswered, didn't see him at Limerock or the Glen races. Is he ok?

RickBetterley

Funny you should ask - I too am waiting for a support reply.
He is usually great about support, but when its a bit delayed, its because he has been at the track. Hope that's the case here; my last support question was answered by someone else, so he must have backup.

good hands

Tony posts quite a bit on Dorkiphus.net
His partner is rs911t on that site. You may want to PM him.

Gary R.

I joined Dorkypuss and PM'd Gred D., hopefully he will respond. All I want to do is transfer my unused Trackvision software to someone that can use it (assuming it syncs easily with a Traqmate) as it has proven to be nothing less than a nightmare for me to try and sync it with my AIM system and has been shelved for a looooong time.

For the heck of it I searched and found that Tony has been busy posting away over there as late as yesterday! And here I was worried about his health and welfare when all my emails went unanswerd..... silly me.

RickBetterley

This is turning into the Gary and Rick show.
I have a similar email into TrackVision since I don't need mine any longer either.
No response.

APKhaos

OK, I'm back. Been sailing a boat down the Atlantic, and have been working to reduce the backlog since I got back. Will try to find your emails [Rick & Gary] over the weekend.

RickBetterley

Ocean sailing is a great getaway; glad you're back.
No rush on my question. I was going to sell my Aiptek camera but got talked out of it.
BTW, Tony's support has always been great; no criticism here.

Gary R.

Don't bother searching for the emails I sent to you and the Trackvision site Tony. I got the answer from Greg D., that the software is not transferable. With that I would have to say if you have an AIM system and don't like spending hours of frustration trying to sync the video to data, save your money until you can get a SmartyCam.

APKhaos

To be fair, Gary, I spent a lot of time with you on this and you were making some nice videos soon after you started with TrackVision.
Our experience with most logger vendors is that they have done a lot to make their analytics software easy to use with TrackVision. We see many that have added an 'export to TrackVision' function. We've seen both Racepak and MoTeC add seamless integration with TrackVision. Unfortunately, AiM has chosen to do nothing despite endless requests from us and from their users, yourself included.

That said, AiM users represent maybe the second largest group of the TrackVision user community. Yes, we need to cut a custom logger for each user to cope with the inconsistency across Aim installation setups. And yes, its ultra frustrating that AiM sells a GPS module but refuses to export GPS position data from RaceStudio. Despite those complications, we have hundreds of AiM users running TracKVision. We work with those users the same way we worked with you. They are happy; you want something simpler. Obviously, the $900 SmartyCam solution works better for you, and that's a good thing.

Before posting that your 'hours of frustration' is typical, remember that we are a small two-man operation, both with day jobs as well. If what you say was true, we'd never be able to support a user community of well over 1000 users in 32 countries. And just for good measure, we'd probably not have the kind of reputation for solid customer support that we enjoy. I'm just saying, OK?

Finally, TrackVision costs less than $200 which is less than a single tire for most cars. How many times do you think is reasonable to on-sell it to a new user when you move to something else, then again when the next guy moves to something else?

forklift

Track Vision works great w/ DL-1 and I can barely turn the computer on! CS has always been great also.

Gary R.

Tony - I made one video and i'm not even sure THAT one is synced correctly! I'm not ditzing your software, just saying that in my case it was frustration after frustration to the point of me saying screw it and giving up. I know that it's the lack of cooperation from AIM (at least that's what I remember discussing with you but it was so long ago i'm not sure anymore) that was the biggest issue and if there is a large number of AIM users using Trackvision successfully they have a LOT more patience than I do (and I am a bit beyond just being able to turn the computer on). Your support, when I first started out and later when I tried diving back in, was exemplary and I commend you on it.

mooty

nothing against trackvision and i dont have it.
but all these so called data systems out there are simply pathetic for club racers.
i only wish someone can convince steve jobs to have apple make something that normal ppl can comprehend. i had AiM, gbox, DL1 and trackmate, quite frankly they all need a lesson from apple.

APKhaos

Man, you should see MoTeC's i2 Pro!
There's just about no limit to what you can do, which is why MoTeC and Pi Research rule the pro racing scene.

From what I see, there are three tiers:
- Deeply technical analysis for the pros, eg MoTeC and Pi Research
- Mid-level technical for advanced amateur racers, often with a coach or engineer on hand to translate for the drivers, eg the top two and maybe AiM, Racepak, and Race Technology
- Simpler to use, but functionally limited for the amateur, eg Traqmate
This is a generalization, so lets not argue about what fits where. The general point is that the deeper the analysis, the more complicated it is for the user.

I've had a few long discussions with logger vendors about a macro approach that would analyze a session by sector and produce a display that identified the areas where there was significant time to be picked up, and WHY time was being lost. You can do it manually, but it involves a lot of steps and channel comparisons that many users just don't have the time/familiarity/interest to go through. Think of it as a front end display that drives the native analytic functions. Its definitely doable, and would be a real value to most amateur racers.

Gary R.

I'm with you Mooty, it's like some one at AIM said "Hey, let's make the software intuitive" and the president said "NO WAY!" Then it's "Hey, let's make a manual that the average club racer can go to and get his answers and procedures logically stated!" CEO says "AH FONGOUL to THAT!"

RickBetterley

I particularly like the awkward phrasing in the manual; not only do I need to figure out what some technical writer is trying to tell me, but I have to also deal with the lousy translation.
I do like the hardware, though. The dash, GPS, and now the SmartyCam seem to be really well thought out.