The First Test

Well this is a little back dated since I received the stuff about 2 weeks ago on the 5th of Aug. This was the first test of the data logger with GPS at Kallang, with a friend and his Honda Civic EK hatch.

Since it was the on the day the package arrived, I only had a couple of hours to figure out how to use the software and logger, and it wasn't an easy thing. Unfortunately we were too excited to remember to take pictures, although we do have some results to show.

The run was from Kallang KFC, around to leisurepark and back. The 'circuit layout' is shown below:


Notice that we start on the left actually while Kallang was on the right of the map, because the system was reset along the way due to some mounting errors. This run was the 2nd run of the day, and the better one with a little more 'g' force and speed than the first slow run which was just to test the GPS connection and logger. The colours in the lines represent the speed of the car with red being the highest and dark blue being the slowest. You can see that red is achieved on the straights and blue for the corners.


Above are the results of the first run. We'll explain more about how to analyse this data in the future, but for now we have speed (in km/h) on the top, lateral acceleration ('g') in the middle, and longitudinal acceleration ('g') on the bottom. The top right box shows the details of the car at the chosen instant (marked by a crosshair on the chart), and the track layout on the bottom right of the picture shows the position on the track at that same chosen instant. Note that there are many more ways to represent these data and this is just one of them.

A few quick observations in the results. The maximum speed reached was about 110km/h on the stretch towards kallang macs. Note that the 'circuit' is in a clockwise direction, and it is actually 1.5 rounds since we start on the left and finish on the right. The maximum lateral 'g' pulled was close to 0.8gs and it happened on the second left turn. We also see that the maximum acceleration was about 0.33gs, and the maximum deceleration or braking was about -0.56gs.

Another hint. If you look at turn 2, you can see that it wasn't taken very ideally. It was a sweeper bend taken with an entry speed of about 80km/h without any or much brakes, relying on the 'engine brake' or coasting/lift off to slow down. It seems that as he turned the steering, he gave some throttle. About a quarter into the turn, he gave another jab of throttle and at the same time adjusted his steering (which shows some hesitance). After the apex, speed was allowed to drop further suggesting that the driver hesitated on the throttle. The second lap of the same corner shows a similar pattern in the trace (where the crosshair is), but with less hesitance suggesting a little more confidence.

Well, that's all for now. =)