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Steering angle sensors...etc...

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Old 01-22-2012, 07:29 AM
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333pg333
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Default Steering angle sensors...etc...

Just gong through the process of setting up the car for this year and amongst a myriad of changes they've included a steering angle sensor. Who is running one of these and what info do you glean from this?

This in addition to wheel speed, suspension pots, fuel pressure/temp, coolant pressure, oil pressure/temp, water temps, iat temps, front & rear brake pressure, trans oil temps and whatever else. Going to be overwhelmed with info so I thought I'd start with a question re the steering angle thingy...???
Old 01-22-2012, 10:02 AM
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Originally Posted by 333pg333
Just gong through the process of setting up the car for this year and amongst a myriad of changes they've included a steering angle sensor. Who is running one of these and what info do you glean from this?

This in addition to wheel speed, suspension pots, fuel pressure/temp, coolant pressure, oil pressure/temp, water temps, iat temps, front & rear brake pressure, trans oil temps and whatever else.

Going to be overwhelmed with info so I thought I'd start with a question re the steering angle thingy...???
OMG!

Sounds like you're entering the exciting world of car engineering!

The throttle position and steering angle sensors are the two most important, period.

The RPM/water temp/oil pressure/oil temp/fuel pressure/trans temp are the most important for monitoring engine and drivetrain health and even calculating properly and accurately the amount of time between maintenance, plus keep track of your abusive episodes.

The wheel speed, front and rear brake pressure can be used to properly and objectively set bias and really optimize braking efficacy.

The shock pots. Well, the shock pots are the only way to objectively measure damping, plus the real exponential gain is that you can recreate your ENTIRE dynamic platform as the car drives around the course.

You can compute ride height differentials, measure static and dynamic rake, check ground clearance to the bottom of a splitter, measure aero balance, gain or loss and go so far as to measure the roll lag differential between the front and rear axles, helping diagnose corner entry behavior and optimize that performance.

The sky is the limit!

If you're headed in this direction, you need training. Other than Segers, Templeman, Bob Knox's and Chris Brown's books, you really need to take a class with either Roger Caddell of AiM Sports or online with John Block at Autoware. John's classes, knowledge and demeanor are exceptional! I'm in the process of the Advanced Interpretation class and it is MARVELOUS! PM me if you want more specific info about the educational resources surrounding using these "thingies" to their best effect!

Seriously, the steering wheel angle sensor is helpful in many ways.

Two of them are to reconcile and compute the difference between the path of the car on a given radius and the angle of the tires (rim plane) to the road. With this you can calculate slip angles and come up with an understeer/oversteer NUMBER!

You just need to decide whether you are going to be measuring ACTUAL steering WHEEL angle, which is finer in it's resolution, or the ACTUAL angle of the front wheels in relation to the centerline of the car in a corner (need to calculate and take into account Ackermann angle for that).

The next thing I look at is the "driver panic" value , which is a calculation of steering SPEED in relation to other things that are going on in the car. Steering speed can be extremely helpful in determining how responsive the car is and how much the driver does, or doesn't, trust the car.

I think there are a lot of things you can measure before going crazy with the rest of the car engineering stuff, but a steering angle sensor is a MUST for any objective measure of the car's platform performance and measuring the car/driver interface effectiveness.

Good luck!
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Old 01-22-2012, 01:04 PM
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Land Jet
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There is a steering angle sensor in my car and the only thing the owner's manual says is that any time suspension or alignment work is done , it must be reset.
Old 01-22-2012, 01:30 PM
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The OP is talking about adding this to his car for the purpose of logging his inputs while racing.

Yours is for your "black box" and to help determine whether you are steering the car in the same direction as the gyro (also in your car) is measuring that it should be.
Old 01-23-2012, 10:23 AM
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Originally Posted by Lolaman
The OP is talking about adding this to his car for the purpose of logging his inputs while racing.

Yours is for your Electronic Stability Control (aka PSM) and to help determine whether you are steering the car the same as the yaw rate/lateral accelerometer (also in your car) is measuring.
Fixed that for ya...
Old 01-23-2012, 10:57 AM
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Hahaha! Thanks, Vaughan!



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