Anyone have experience with a good video / data acquisition set up? I've seen multiple products out there, but either the video is sub-par or the data is GPS-only, instead of OBD-read RPMs / Accel / Brake / etc.

TIA

 

Good thread. I have a GoPro and a Performance box and they do not integrate well. The only software that I could find was called Dashware and this is all I cold produce with it and that took a while lining everything up.



I am going with Harrys Lap Timer, the OBDLink MX Bt, the Dual XGPS160 GPS receiver with 10hz data position data rate and a Note 4 running Harry's Lap Timer. I have a 64Gb SD card slot in the Note 4 along with a base 32Gb memory config. It also has 3Gb ram for the CPU. Harry's says 2Gb ram is the minimum needed for running this setup and collecting HD video.

There is an integrated product from AIM that has better HD but it has some proprietary ECU connection. With the setup I am putting together I will get two camera views, front and back, be able to overlay speed, rpm, altitude and other car parameters as well as embed the second camera view from the GoPro in the video. I hope to have all this working in the next week or so as the parts get in and I get all the details worked out.

The benefit of this setup is that it can all be controlled from the phone using Harry's lap timer and the GoPro app. Currently I just use one GoPro mounted in my windshield. The Performance Box on it's own produces good data about the track, it knows COTA and a number of tracks in the US and automatically recognizes it so irrespective of video, I could analyze my speed performance in any lap at any point. The Performance Box is also useful for measuring acceleration performance and does that automatically. You can time your own 1/4 mile tests and 0-60 or 0-100 0-150 standing 1/2 mile 60-130 and so on. They have another product called Vbox that integrates with iPhones and has 20hz data collection capability. The Performance Box only does 10hz.

Another member Rez has a similar setup with his iPhone and when I saw what he was doing I realized that was a better setup than the integrated solution I saw from AIM which is expensive and I think can only provide one camera view. They sell a system with two cameras for $3000. The setup I am using is $150 for the Note 4 as an upgrade to my S3, $150 for the GPS receiver, $400 for the GoPro Hero 4 Black and $100 for the MX Bt OBD data logger. This is two cameras for $800 and if you don't want to use GoPro as the source of video, then it's only $400. I think Harry's software is $40.

 

Thanks for the thorough information. I look forward to seeing the results of your new setup.

 

Here are some preliminary results using my Note 4 with a 64gb SD card to store the video from the camera. The laptimer app uses the GPS in the phone but I am getting a 10hz GPS it can use over bluetooth. It collects the OBD data over the Wifi using OBDLinkMX from Scantools. Once you have connected the devices once, the lap timer program knows about them and connects to them if they are there. So the speed and rpm and other data is from the engine, the acceleration is from the phone. One of the biggest issues was coming up with a phone mount that wouldn't give me wobbly video.

Here is a lap around my street. I made it into a track definition.


I still have to add the second camera with a view out the back. That will be the goPro. The laptimer app can control it over bluetooth but I haven't worked that out yet. I will and then I will have it as a PIP in the upper right hand corner.

 

Excellent cost effective way to integrate data with the overlay.
- Could one integrate a go pro for video up front as there are multiple mounts and could record in high res video.
- laptimer has the ability to pair multi bluetooth devices? you mention phone for video and 10ghz gps
- can you configure the overlay to show other paramiters such as boost, temps, braking, etc.

Very informative, thanks!

 

Yes, there are other dashboards I can setup I think. I just overlayed it with the standard. The other camera views can be from any other point you choose. The advantage of using the Note 4 is that it has does HD video to begin with so while it's not 1920x1080 super wide like I get from the GoPro, it's still 960p which is 1280x960. The other advantage is that the master video for overlaying is sitting on the card and doesn't have to be transferred from the camera for processing. Now if I do the PIP, then it does. I think the weakest aspect of the app is that all the processing is done using the phone CPU so that video took 15 minutes to do the overlay on. Just hook it up to the charger and walk away or a while and when you come back you have your videos. I would rather be able to post process using a computer like my ASUS gaming laptop which has a faster CPU and 8GB of memory but that isn't the way Harry's works. However, it is less expensive and offers a lot of flexibility for a low entry price.

Here are some pictures of the custom mount I devised. I use the suction cup mount for the gopro and I bought another case for the Note 4 and glued one of the slide attachments for the gopro to it. I think I may need to epoxy it and screw it in for a better attachment but right now the slide was put on with loctite and it's holding OK.