>Byron Short wrote:
>The Pi system is, IMHO, the BEST data acquisition system out there. But
>it's price limits it's market appeal. The Pi system has track maps (I
>think they are stored, not drawn, which wouldn't work well in
>autocross), and has all of the channels that the Edelbrock has and more.
>I have a friend who uses a Pi system to consult with NASCAR teams to
>measure air pressure on the body in a dozen different places around the
>car. It's great, great stuff! This friend tells me it's easy to put
>$20K into a full blown professional Pi system; I'm certain it can also
>be done for a lot less. Perhaps someone with firsthand knowledge of
>getting one of these systems up and running can give us an actual price.
>I suspect it's $3k-5k for a pretty basic system.
The Pi systems are considered to be "the" system of use in the United States
in professional racing. If you advance to Formula 1 it goes bewteen Pi and
Magnetti Marelli. This does not include the areas of engine management. Pi is
mainly noted for chassis/engine monitoring and telemetry. As for maps, the
Pi system uses a combination of the longitudinal and lateral accelerometers
along with a wheel speed sensor. The wheel speed sensor is an active
proximity switch which sees how many times your wheel studs or some ferrous
material passes by it to act as a trigger. The tire diameter also tells the
system how far the vehicle has traveled which also helps calculate speed
graph and to generate a track map.
The map is mainly used for reference, not to determine racing lines. Also,
in the V6 and Pi club software there are utilities to help reconfigure a map
comes out wierd (i.e. banked oval tracks).
Byron is correct on starting prices for a Pi system. When moving to pro
ranks the systems in Toyota Atlantics are $20 - $30 K. A full blown Champ
car team will spend between $80 & 100K (not including the DAG to install,
maintain and troubleshoot the systems).
Julia Aebersold
Double Time Racing
Data Acquisition Support & Analysis
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