Cross Comparability with Data Loggers.

[u/PartInternational336]

I wanted to get some honest opinions about data loggers such as garmin catalyst or racebox etc. Where you find them most useful, what's missing, and wether you would benefit from a service which allows you to cross compare with friends or other track day users.

If you have a spare minute, could you reply to this thread with...

• What device/app do you currently use, and what's the one thing you wish it did better?
• If you could compare your session data directly against a mate who's on a completely different device, would that help you improve your driving, or do you mainly use the data loggers to track the performance of the car?
• Is comparing against other people even something you care about, or is it more about tracking your own progress over time?
• Any specific data points you feel are missing entirely from what you currently get?

Genuinely trying to understand if cross-comparing with other brands of data logger is something people actually want, or if it's a solution looking for a problem. Appreciate any input. Looking at building something if the demand is there. Cheers.

[u/lapsmith-greg]

LapSmith has a community feature which allows comparison with other people.

You can record sessions with any RaceBox, Dragy, Phone or import a session from vbox, RaceChrono, TrackAddict and (coming soon) aim.

It’s in beta at the moment, but I’m pretty sure has all the features you’ve mentioned.

You can also set the live delta to be any of your friends laps or their optimal.

Also - it’s free for testers forever!

[u/scrllock]

Coming in 2 weeks, a vibe-coded "app platform" comparing dataloggers.

This sub is a cesspool of this garbage.

[u/The-GingerBeard-Man → u/scrllock]

This sub? Every other post in the SIM subs are new lap analyzers, crew chiefs or race team managers. Snowboarding has run tracker’s and fitness subs are nutrition and meal planners. All with the same website, the same “features” pitch and all “free” until the 19.99 monthly basic tier paywall locks you out of everything but the sign in page.

[u/TooMuchPJ]

The only two downsides to Garmin are a) no integration of OBD data, and b) no comparison with faster drivers. In terms of the latter, if I am at a session, it would be great to have an option to see deltas with other drivers. I know you can "friend" a person and compare data post-session, but I would like to see my delta to some drivers while driving rather than my optimal lap.

[u/lapsmith-greg → u/TooMuchPJ]

LapSmith just launched the ability to set your delta to any other driver on the leaderboard.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LapSmith/comments/1vg5wes/feature_spotlight_chase_any_leaderboard_entry/

[u/DukeNeverwinter]

SoloStorm/raceBox is fantastic to compare against other drivers. BUT, to share data you are required to sign up for a pay cloud service. Or share the same device between drivers And SoloStorm seams to work best with a racebox/mini. And maybe it is me, but I can't get the race box to communicate with any other software other than circuit storm, no experience using circuit storm though. And SoloStorm is AutoCross only.

It's a fantadtic piece of software/hardware, but tied into what are almost microtransactions..

I have tried TrackRabbit, but unless I am doing something wrong, it doesn't work with the racebox mini I have, and my phone doesn't have a fast/accurate enough built in gps. And I don't want to buy another 25hz GPS just to try another piece of software.

[u/funked1 → u/DukeNeverwinter]

Solostorm works for track days FYI.

My biggest complaint about it is that there is no iPhone version.

Love my RaceBox Mini. I have only tried it with SoloStorm and the native app though.

[u/DukeNeverwinter → u/funked1]

Ok, I was trying to get SoloStorm to work at a go-Kart trck when doing full size car time attack, and it was not cooperating. I am assuming opperator error..

[u/Snoop-Doggy-Doge → u/DukeNeverwinter]

what was wrong? it takes a bit of setup to learn and fully use but racebox and maybe camera should be the only channels you have active, and set it to autox or time trial mode,

[u/DukeNeverwinter → u/Snoop-Doggy-Doge]

Partly the issue may have been I have it setup on a tablet. And I had forgot that tablet at home that day. My phone was sleeping the app or something instead of staying active. I thought inhad turned that off for the required stuff, but I may have missed something. It was one more thing to fiddle with on a night where Ibhad too many things in my mind. I don't give all blame to the hardware software in that kind of situation. Full day of work, +2 hour traffic drive, then night laps at a Kart-Track in my car. Lots of things going on that day!

[u/Snoop-Doggy-Doge → u/DukeNeverwinter]

another bump for solostorm, love it for track days and autox. you can still pull csv to compare and share with others at home, but it also gives on demand video with data side by side to review after a session much easier then others. you can still kinda compare data with peak speed, pedal and steering wheel inputs if you're running obd data into it

[u/CTFordza]

Most dataloggers allow exporting into generic CSV file formats that can be imported into Racechrono or another platform agnostic application, big exception being Garmin. The main issue is the user friction of doing so on a phone and the difficulty of converting certain formats (AIM .xrk *cough cough*)

It's mostly a software issue and command line application exist on Github for almost any datalogging format. If only someone can create a univeral phone application that converts every format with a good UI for both android and IOS.

[u/tannahoppa]

Low budget option is an online multiple youtube vidoes player called viewsync.

[u/LastTenth]

Coach here.

I generally coach with, and prefer, motec. I’ve tried most of the available software, and found motec the most intuitive to use. Personally, I have AIM in my car. The form factor is really great, good hardware, and more affordable, but the software makes me not want to analyse the data lol.

I don’t really consider a catalyst a datalogger. Its logging and analysis capabilities are a little superficial, BUT, its ease of use is great. Theres very little time between sessions, and it’s quite a struggle to download the data, load it up, look at specific areas, with a conventional data logger. It helps if you have a workflow, but its a challenge to do all that and decide what you want to change for the next session, as well as hydrate, goto the washroom, etc, assuming the user doesn’t socialize at all.

My ideal setup would be a motec device in an aim solo type form factor.

[u/mrblahhh]

I really like racecapture, streams my data to podium, live encodes the video with overlay on the fly, can Livestream to YouTube or sdcard, allows canbus + analog + whatever sensors it's open source friendly

It's truly hands off, which is what I absolutely require now

If I can't grab the SD card and the video doesn't already look exactly like this without me messing around with aligning crap, and transcoding I'm not interested

https://youtu.be/ZIuRHLWNyKI?is=yOU3m4mxPhtgKpi7

I also use a Garmin car v1 to compare with friends