Racepak Dash

[petert 587]

In my quest to remove all unnecessary wiring from my track car, I've fitted a Racepak dash. It was a toss up between it and the Race Technologies unit(s), but as the former is a fully integrated GPS logging dash, I went with it. It also picks up data from the Haltech ECU's with one cable, another bonus. I'm currently running a Sprint 500, but when I change over to a Sport 1000 soon I'll be able to fully monitor oil pressure and plot against g forces etc.

 

 

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Looks like a nice bit of kit, I've done quite a bit of work with the Race Technology system, its very good but pretty tedious to setup. How was this to install? Plus with the Race Tech you have a separate logger.

[petert 587]

It was so simple. As I said, just one cable from the ECU to the dash. I added programming buttons, which I'll move to the wheel later. It's fully progamable from a PC however, allowing you to customise what sensors/data you want on each of the four pages. I need to go for a drive now to allow it to calculate the gear ratios, then it's done.

 

The best part is being able to log oil pressure around a circuit. I just need to fit one of these 3 wire oil pressure sensors and fit the Haltech 1000.

 

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/avm-30-2131-100

 

The other nice feature, is being able to program the ECU around the oil pressure. ie if oil pressure is <30 psi limit to 1200 rpm (or whatever).

 

The red light is a high intensity LED I added to monitor falling oil pressure temporarily.

Edited March 3, 2013 by petert

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

With the Race Tech if you want to use your existing sensors then you have this long drawn out calibration procedure, fuel sender is a pain in the arse. You can buy sensors from them but it does start to get expensive.

[clen666 2]

Looks nice.

 

I've contemplated getting a race tech Dash2 several times but keep reading threads about trouble with calibrations etc. so this could be a nice alternative.

 

Haven't heard of them before so I'll do a bit of reading up on them I think

[petert 587]

I got the alternator sorted today. I replaced the dash light with a 47ohm 5W resistor. Less clutter and the dash tells me what the voltage is anyway.

[clen666 2]

Anything to report on this yet Peter?

 

Did the gear calibration work easy enough?

[petert 587]

Yep, it's been awesome. I still haven't done the gear calibration, as I needed to be over 15km/h in each gear, which was difficult to achieve in the pit area. No time to d*ck around pressing buttons when you're on the track! It recorded some fantastic data however, which of course you can replay and zoom in on, at place on the track. I generally change gear at 7850, injector duty cycle was around 68%, coolant temp starts at 92 and ends at 95, air inlet temp is a massive 90 deg sitting at the start line, but quickly falls to outside temp once moving. The most important thing I learned was that I'm over spinning the alternator. The battery voltage is 13.8V at idle, but slowly drops to 13.0-13.1V by the end of the session.

 

I bought a new 3 wire 0-100psi oil pressure sensor off ebay for $30. Now I'll be able to map oil pressure against lateral g forces. Exciting stuff.

[brumster 135 1 Cars]

I suspect you know this already, but I had a friend who chewed through 2 oil pressure sensors in about 4 events before someone from a manufacturer advised him to remote mount the sensor to cut down on vibration, rather than mounting it straight in the block (mind you this is on rather expensive senders, more than $30 worth!). I've done this with mine using a short length of braided hose and the appropriate fittings.

 

Mind you, at $30, it might not be something to worry about - try it first

 

Sounds great stuff though. I have a back-of-mind project to make a little electronics kit that logs CAN messages to a USB memory stick or SD card. It would be incredibly cheap to make and I like the idea of just popping out a memory device and plugging it into the laptop and loading a simple CSV file into something like excel... one day maybe can't afford a proper data logger like this!

[petert 587]

I had read about the oil sensor mounting issue, so I thought the inlet of the accumulator would be first choice. I was surprised at the cost of the sensor. They're about $60 from Summit and about $240 through Racepak. So I figured for $30 I could fiddle with an adjustable air pressure regulator to calibrate it.

Edited March 30, 2013 by petert

[alexcrosse 124]

I went for the AIM MXL pista in mine.

 

 

I use eurosensor 0-10bar ratiometric pressure transducers, the 3100's as the 2100's always break. And foam mounted with euroquip braided pipe to prevent vibration damage.

[clen666 2]

Very nice, bit out off my budget at the moment!

Suppose the price isn't too bad when you take the data logging into account

[clen666 2]

Is that gear shifter a custom made job? Looks interesting

[alexcrosse 124]

xtrac magnesium btcc item

[petert 587]

I've upgraded the ECU to a Sprint 1000 and can now monitor oil pressure and oil temperature. It should be an interesting day at the track tomorrow, with hopefully some meaningful datalogging. We're running at Sydney Motorsport North, which is basically the fast part of Eastern Creek GP. It has one nasty LH hairpin which should get the oil moving amount.

Edited May 4, 2013 by petert

[camgti 56]

Wish I could come out and watch. Ill be working.....

 

 

 

Good luck Pete, hope all goes well and smooth.

 

Cam

[petert 587]

Results posted here:

 

http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=148425