Lap timing

[gibbo]

Two of the guys I was at the Island with on monday were using there mobile phones as lap timers, you need a phone with gps, download a free program from the net and you are away. Not sure it works on all tracks but as Phillip island is mapped on the gps system it does work there. Attach phone to your bike, start the program and it resets everytime you cross the start/finish line, after your session you can review all of your times. These guys took a couple of tries to get it working but after that it was easy, and no transponders to worry about. Now I just have to get a new phone.

[skb954]

This is the program people are using. http://www.racechrono.com/
Its pretty acurate if you have a external GPS hooked up. A mate of mine runs one on his bike. Gives trap times and speeds. Pretty impressive software for a mobile phone freebie.

[Gsxar]

Hey Gibbo get on to Turbo about this he was telling me all about and has brought 1;)

[_M_]

These are the phones that use the S60 OS:

http://www.s60.com/life/s60phones/browseDevices.do

and these are the Australian tracks that are already loadable:

http://www.racechrono.com/tracks/?lang=en&country=Australia


Ohh, and thanks this is tops :)

[TurboKat]

Yep, my mate R1 Nick (who rides a ZX636 ?) put me onto it the day after I'd just bought a new phone [V] so I got to thinking... A cheap version of a Tomtom/Navman/whatever is $200ish, a lap timer with remote beacon is $400 - $450 & my new phone was $180, all up = around $800.
So I onsold my new phone & bought a new Nokia 6110 with GPS for $275 & I'm in the process of downloading & setting up the Racechrono system now.
R1 Nick has used his at Broadford (100MPH taped to the tank) & it's so much better than a normal laptimer that only triggers once per lap, the Racechrono program gives 3 split/sector times at Broady & about 8 or 9 splits at P.I. including speeds between sectors & of course you can download it into your PC & graph it all up.
Every major track in Australia is available & it's accurate to .000fuckall.
A couple of blokes on the Kwaka forum used theirs a week or so ago at P.I. & 1 bloke did a best lap of 1'45s but when he took all his best split times from different laps he found they added up to a 1'42! Fucking handy bit of gear I reckon.
& yes, Racechrono is free to download & use too.
Get onto it Gibbo - & anyone else who does Trackdays or Races... except maybe Booster... I don't think the speed facility goes that high ;)

[WATEVR]

bloody hell that is amazing, sure does beat buying transponders etc etc. and the data that is available is awesome.

[Tony OW31]

I don't think I would be trusting it. GPS is only accurate to between 5-10 mtrs, which is not accurate enough for lap timing. If you want better you have to have differential GPS which uses ground stations for extra triangulation as well as satellite data. Differential GPS can be accurate to between 1-2 mtrs but to get within half a meter you need access to military signal encryption.

[DCRacing]

I was a bit sceptical as well, but i thought they had lifted the ban on the acuraccy of the signal, on the farm we had GPS systems in the tractors which gave us +/- 2 cm accuracy with any sort of machine. but they did use a base station, i guess they could just be using a simple triangulation program that refreshes farily quickly on the signal from the satelites. who knows i don't have much of an idea with this sort of stuff.

[chopiesel]

iv done alot of topo surveying with it and you can see the corrupt signal the satelites send out.

when surveying you need to have a unit set up on a known survey point within a few kms of you and then apply all the corrections at a later date to make the info accurate.

the us army spent that much making gps for themselves you think they want enemies having the same accuracy for free?

[TurboKat]

When I get to use it, I'll get someone to take laptimes with a stopwatch as well.
I'll be sure to report my findings.

[Booster]

Telstra are making there towers gps base stations, there may be a base near the pi track making this possable and accurate.
had no probs with gps reading to 355kph ...
someone should get Casino into the system, just the 400 & 900m marks if it doesn't like standing starts

[gibbo]

Pretty sure there is a tower at the track, just inside the fennce at the corner of Backbeach and Gap roads.