I haven't seen any talk about on-board performance measurement devices such as G-Analyst or G-Cube. Anyone else use these or similar?
A bit of history for those not familiar:
The younger crowd probably won't have heard of the G-Analyst (made by Valentine), but it was a pretty nifty tool for measuring g-forces during acceleration, breaking and cornering. It was very popular with autocross types but Valentine gave up on it a few years ago because they could never sell enough to make a profit.
Along the way a guy name Byron Short developed PC software which used the g-analyst output to create various charts and stats, and even a track map of your run. Then when Valentine gave up on the hardware Byron started building and selling the G-Cube, which also has dual accelerometers but none of the built-in display functions of the old G-analyst. On the other hand, it is very small , self powered, and can be connected to a Palm PDA as the data collection device.
I just recently bought the G-Cube/Geez package plus a Palm, and have a few first impressions.
It could be better, but for the $$ it represents one of the best gadget values I've ever had. He continues to develop and enhance the PC software, which is getting pretty good now and certainly worth having. I'm not yet convinced of the hardware's absolute accuracy, but it's pretty close, and both relative and repeatable values are definitely close enough for evaluating all sorts of mods and changes in conditions, not to mention the potential benefits during lapping days at the track where you can clearly see differences in speed anywhere on the course. He's also working on "Dyno" software to calculate HP from the G readings, although that seems less interesting to me.
One of the things it needs is a way to "filter" the readings, smoothing out the obvious blips due to bumps etc. A simple enough task which I'll do myself shortly, massaging the data before pulling it into his Geez software.
Anyway, it also seems like a great source of data for discussion in this type of forum. Imagine having a chart showing how many G's of acceleration your car pulls from zero to flat-out in 1/10 or 1/20 of a second intervals. In some ways it's even better than a dyno, and you can use it any time, any place. Are your new tires really any faster on your favorite decreasing radius ramp? You can measure both Gs and MPH before and after. Of course you always need to keep in mind that conditions such as air and pavement temperatures can have a significant impact, but even those can be evaluated by changing nothing else between runs. This is one great gadget!
OK enough, I'm starting to put myself to sleep.
You can check out Byron's stuff at: http://www.extremegeez.com/Extreme_GEEZx.html
Please tell him that Steve S. ([email protected]) in St. Louis referred you. No, I don't know Byron personally, have never met him, and do not get ANY kind of financial consideration for referrals. (His stuff is too cheap to even make such a deal worthwhile!) However, I do hope that if I send him enough customers I will move up the ranks of those to whom he listens when deciding what changes and enhancements to tackle next. And of course my suggestions will be influenced by discussions here if there is any interest, or you can send him suggestions of your own.
So, any interest?
[This message has been edited by sjs (edited 25 March 2001).]
A bit of history for those not familiar:
The younger crowd probably won't have heard of the G-Analyst (made by Valentine), but it was a pretty nifty tool for measuring g-forces during acceleration, breaking and cornering. It was very popular with autocross types but Valentine gave up on it a few years ago because they could never sell enough to make a profit.
Along the way a guy name Byron Short developed PC software which used the g-analyst output to create various charts and stats, and even a track map of your run. Then when Valentine gave up on the hardware Byron started building and selling the G-Cube, which also has dual accelerometers but none of the built-in display functions of the old G-analyst. On the other hand, it is very small , self powered, and can be connected to a Palm PDA as the data collection device.
I just recently bought the G-Cube/Geez package plus a Palm, and have a few first impressions.
It could be better, but for the $$ it represents one of the best gadget values I've ever had. He continues to develop and enhance the PC software, which is getting pretty good now and certainly worth having. I'm not yet convinced of the hardware's absolute accuracy, but it's pretty close, and both relative and repeatable values are definitely close enough for evaluating all sorts of mods and changes in conditions, not to mention the potential benefits during lapping days at the track where you can clearly see differences in speed anywhere on the course. He's also working on "Dyno" software to calculate HP from the G readings, although that seems less interesting to me.
One of the things it needs is a way to "filter" the readings, smoothing out the obvious blips due to bumps etc. A simple enough task which I'll do myself shortly, massaging the data before pulling it into his Geez software.
Anyway, it also seems like a great source of data for discussion in this type of forum. Imagine having a chart showing how many G's of acceleration your car pulls from zero to flat-out in 1/10 or 1/20 of a second intervals. In some ways it's even better than a dyno, and you can use it any time, any place. Are your new tires really any faster on your favorite decreasing radius ramp? You can measure both Gs and MPH before and after. Of course you always need to keep in mind that conditions such as air and pavement temperatures can have a significant impact, but even those can be evaluated by changing nothing else between runs. This is one great gadget!
OK enough, I'm starting to put myself to sleep.
You can check out Byron's stuff at: http://www.extremegeez.com/Extreme_GEEZx.html
Please tell him that Steve S. ([email protected]) in St. Louis referred you. No, I don't know Byron personally, have never met him, and do not get ANY kind of financial consideration for referrals. (His stuff is too cheap to even make such a deal worthwhile!) However, I do hope that if I send him enough customers I will move up the ranks of those to whom he listens when deciding what changes and enhancements to tackle next. And of course my suggestions will be influenced by discussions here if there is any interest, or you can send him suggestions of your own.
So, any interest?
[This message has been edited by sjs (edited 25 March 2001).]
