Video Vs. Data Acquisition

[Mako Koiwai]

Some folks think Video is more important then Data Acquisition ... if one can only have one.

What do you think? Of course Data Acquisition Plus Video would be the best ... so would you buy a Video system to which you can later add Data Acquisition? What systems would there be ...

[Jonathan Lugod]

Some folks think Video is more important then Data Acquisition ... if one can only have one.

What do you think? Of course Data Acquisition Plus Video would be the best ... so would you buy a Video system to which you can later add Data Acquisition? What systems would there be ...

i think it depends on how far you want to push yourself to the limit. Video i feel is the first step in becoming a faster driver. You get to review your runs and evaluate how close you were to those "key" cones that you picked out to trace out a line. Once you feel you have established a good sense of line choice, data acquisition is the next step to go faster. Compare your data to other drivers on the same day and figure out where you could have went faster and didn't realize it. Of course this would be ideal if all the drivers you compare to, use the same data logger in order to eliminate the differences between other systems.

[Tin Bui]

Ideally you want both. Personally I like the data acquisition since I do it for work. Its objective, but you have to take good notes of what you felt subjectively to have it make sense. The data helps explain and support my subjective feel.

The problem with data acquisition is you have to interpret the data, it's a skill. You need to correlate the objective data to the subjective (feeling and video) to have it all make sense and be beneficial.

Most people use the data acquisition with just acceleration, speed, and location. It gives you a general understanding of comparing lap to lap, but not really grasping what is really happening. Driving is a process of Driver --> Inputs (accel pedal, brake, steering) --> Vehicle (engine speed, suspension movement...) --> Acceleration, Direction, Location --> Driver.

To improve your driving you need to record driver inputs, Accel Pedal, Brake, Steering Angle in addition to acceleration, speed and location. To improve the car, you need to record ALOT, basically everything related to what you are tuning.

[Will Kalman]

My experience is that data aq can show you what and where, video can show you how and why.

I can show in data although Driver 1 entered a turn faster than Driver 2, they lost it all plus 3 tenths on the way out and down the following straight.

Now look at the video and you can see that Driver 1 early-apexed or maybe turned in late and didn't make it to the apex and pinched the corner exit - thus explaining the data and leading to a technique adjustment.

[Aaron Goldsmith]

I'd say for someone with out professional help or a very technical background go for video. Analyzing data and interpreting it in a way that will actually help you is very difficult. All you see is the data, the systems do not tell you what it means or how it is relevant.

If the car is working well, I can tell you almost nothing at the events from the data, it usually takes me sitting looking at it for quite a while, the next day, comparing runs to get anything meaningful out. Big mistakes pretty obvious and trends in what elements you are poor at are also pretty easy to see over time, if you have co-drivers.

The most difficult thing to get from the data is if changes you made to the car are making it faster, mostly because of the one off 60 second lap nature of our sport. Driver problems tend to be more obvious than tuning problems.

The more sensors you can hook up to the data the more likely it will tell you something worth knowing. At a minimum you want throttle, brake and RPM in addition to the accelerometer data. O2, steering position, Oil Pressure, etc are all great too.