autox
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Software vs. Hardware

To: "team.net" <autox@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: Software vs. Hardware
From: "Mark J. Andy" <marka@telerama.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 15:25:07 -0400 (EDT)
Howdy,

On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, Paul Foster wrote:
> That's EXACTLY what I am talking about. The idiot who came up with that
> nonsense should be castrated. The PC should a home appliance not an
> exercise that requires the average user to hire an electronics
> technician to properly install a modem. 

So you're telling me that someone that's comfortable working on a modern
car can't handle 4 screws and moving a jumper?  And that same person
expects to be able to use a datalogging device to help them improve their
driving?  Bull.  Here's a little clue about PC's and jumpers.  That
jumper, on an older PC with an ISA bus, was pretty much the simplist and
easiest way to do the job.  Witness the joy that "Plug and Play" was in
the early days with ISA cards...  At least with a jumper you could
make it work if you could think logically.  Trying to have the system
think for you just made it so 20% of the time you couldn't get there from
here.

> Error filled channels which just like it's predecessor the g*Analyst
> manage to overcome the pitch and roll induced errors to provide accurate
> information at a very low cost.
...
> Based on the knowledege of what was required for him to write the
> software he has since I too had the same aspirations. I played around
> with a g*Analyst for months and I could not get it to draw a reasonable
> course map.

Have you ever looked at two runs side by side using Geez?  That course map
isn't accurate at all.  Don't get me wrong, it provides a handy reference
to help you locate areas of the course, but using it to compare lines or
anything that requires much accuracy is a waste of time.  This isn't
Byron's fault (I assume), its that the accelerometers have error like any
other measuring device.  I wonder how much more accurate those maps would
be if Byron had an independent measure of vehicle speed like the Edlebrock
system apparenntly supplies?


> I do too and my opinion is exactly the opposite of yours. And your> 
>description fo the Edelbrock product has only confirmed that while it
> does provide more 'channels' it is very difficult to install and even
> mroe difficult to get reasonable values from the most critical component
> - at least to me - the accelerometers. YMMV.

And if it works best for you that's awesome!  Like a few people have said,
_any_ of these systems is a huge help.  I do think you can perhaps tone
down the "Geez is king, everything else sucks" attitude though.

Mark


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>