It’s been a busy month and a half for our team! We’re shooting for our initial production of 25 RaceCapture/Pro Data Junkie Perks by the end of this month- which is … 10 days away!
Here’s a bit on where we currently stand:
Production Status
We are flush with inventory to build all of the RaceCapture/Pro perks, but for now we will focus on the first 25 to sort out our manufacturing processes. Since we can do all of the assembling in house on our own production line, we have the agility to build small, medium or large batches as needed. All of that infrastructure we’ve built is paying off!
We’re going to document the production build for you – starting possibly this weekend. Yeah!
Software
Probably the area which needs most work is the Race Analyzer software package. The broad goals of Race Analyzer are 3 fold:
1. Provide the ability to configure RaceCapture’s features (channels, sample rates, GPS settings, Lua Script and so on)
2. Provide the ability to do basic data analysis, including importing multiple data logs, playback and comparison of session data side by side, offering line charts, digital and analog gauges, GPS track map, and G-force / yaw meter. Our goal is to provide an MVP version of the software to get the early adopters up and running and then continue to develop, bug fix and enhance while we fulfill the different phases of the campaign.
3. Provide the ability to view runtime channel activity. This will let you monitor the data that RaceCapture is producing at a relatively low rate over USB link- primarily useful for diagnostics and setup, and not for actual logging.
RaceAnalyzer development is on the front-burner, and we plan to get some more screen shots of the software in action in a few days!
Firmware
While the RaceCapture firmware features have been stable for quite a while, there have been a few things going on here to make it complete- at least to the point to provide a viable, stable MVP set of capabilities.
Enhancements
Bootloader: We implemented a firmware bootloader: a tiny bit of firmware code that makes it much more convenient to load the main firmware image. Without this bootloader, users will need to take apart Race Capture, run a special, multi-step sequence for loading new firmware. It’s a PITA and is only good as a backup flashing mechanism (which is good because it makes RaceCapture “unbrickable”). As you can imagine, easy firmware updating is important, since fixes and enhancements will be happening frequently!
Virtual Channels: We’re working on a way to create virtual, calculated channels (aka derived channels on steroids) in the Lua Scripting – this will be an exciting feature that will bring much value to the system. This deserves it’s own blog post- so watch for more details.
Sector / Split Time: We still need to add a sector / split time GPS target and related channel in the firmware. This is a relatively minor enhancement as we already have start/finish line detection built in.
Automatic Logging Start/Stop: Right now automatic start stop is made possible with a custom Lua script. We now think this should be a first class feature, so we’ll be implementing a speed based logging trigger. Other built-in ‘start’ triggers will be forthcoming, such as a g-force triggered autocross launch detection.
Fixes
SD Card Compatibility: Who knew this was a common issue? Apparently the SD card protocol is one of the nastiest things for firmware engineers to deal with. We recently resolved a problem with that was preventing us from being able to use about 25% of the cards we tested. Turns out that if you implement the SD card specification, it does not guarantee all cards would work! Some deep researching into the initialization sequence of the SD card protocol with some healthy debugging mixed in helped us figure out what was going on. This is great knowing the firmware is just that much more robust: we feel confident it will work with almost any card (knock on wood!)!
Shift light
Our shift light prototype came back! The LED colors are bright and beautiful and the circuit board is sleek and compact. However, the bonus night dimming circuity feature we squeezed in did not work as hoped. Automatic dimming does occur; there just isn’t enough dynamic range to provide enough dimming at night. Ironically, after some experimentation / testing we may have an updated design that is actually *simpler* – which is good, but will require a re-design. This time we will fully prototype it out before running the next batch of board– yes, we optimistically jumped the gun after being confident with simulation, so a small bummer there. The result is we won’t be shipping the first 25 units with the shift lights; we will be sending these out separately after we have our design nailed down.
Bluetooth + Mobile App
The Bluetooth module and Mobile App is on a slightly slower track as we work to get the first 25 units shipped. We feel fairly confident we will be able to ship these perks out on track by the end of March. More details will be forthcoming as we shift our guns to this phase of the project. The one thing we are doing in the near term is finalizing the hardware design of the Bluetooth adapter so we can spin out the prototype boards fabrication in parallel with near-term work.
Telemetry
Our team is cranking on the Cloud portion of real time telemetry- we are bursting with excitement to share what we have going on at www.race-capture.com . Share with your racing friends- especially the ones that missed the indiegogo campaign, so they can be notified when Race Capture is available!
A final version of the telemetry module hardware is under design. Like the Bluetooth module, it will be spun out for fabrication while we work on other projects. Parallel processing, baby!
Thank You
Again, thank you for supporting our project- we have more announcements and project updates waiting in the wings. It’s truly an amazing time for us, and we’re glad you’re along for the ride. MAY THE DATA DRIVE YOU!