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A lot for trouble to go thru for gauges but you'll have something unique when you're done.
It's something I love to do. I hope to be better at it one day and be able to make some nice stuff. I guess that is with any craft. I like to learn how things work so I know what is possible.
No I respect that. I always try to learn something, and I honestly try to build everything myself, well not gauges.... but most things lol. Gauges I just put an iq3 in.
I'm wrapping up a track bite tester.... 1500 bucks for one and I thought to myself..... Eeh I can do that!
Readings won't compare to the other units, but once I have my own results to compare I'll have a useful tool. My total investment, about 100 bucks in material, and time. Nothing compared to the 1500 they sell for lol!
No I respect that. I always try to learn something, and I honestly try to build everything myself, well not gauges.... but most things lol. Gauges I just put an iq3 in.
I'm wrapping up a track bite tester.... 1500 bucks for one and I thought to myself..... Eeh I can do that!
Readings won't compare to the other units, but once I have my own results to compare I'll have a useful tool. My total investment, about 100 bucks in material, and time. Nothing compared to the 1500 they sell for lol!
I'm interested in how you're going to do it.
I've thought to myself it shouldn't be that hard to make one, just never made an effort to do it.
most of the time, you can tell the condition of the track on visual and thumb/foot if it smears and how much adhesion there is from the glue.
I have it basically built. Used a piece of tubing with a couple. Brass bushings and an extension inside, used a collar and a spring to hold a small pad that attaches to the end of the extension to the track, had a couple legs to hold it to the track with your feet. I have a couple pieces of material I'm going to bolt/attach to the track pad that should be like a tire, and I bought a calibrated tq wrench with a needle pointer on it to show max achieved torque. Stand on it, take the torque wrench and rotate. Whatever the max "hold"
Is will be translated to a number on the torque wrench.
I think what I'm going to do with it is make a pass and have my starting line guy take a reading right in the groove where my tire marks are, and do this gathering data for a good while. Once we have some solid data as to car did x with a track surface reading of Y and tempature Z, we should eventually have enough data to be able to go take a reading 10 cars ahead of us and going off that, and the temp be able to at least know what the starting line or wherever we deem we want to check it (I'm thinking starting like and 150 feet out where ya would normally have issues with the tires wanting to unload)
Without a bunch of run data it won't help..... but once we have a season worth of it's with different conditions and what the car did we should be able to make some logical tune decisions on the nitrous ramp.
I attached a couple pictures. It's crude looking and I wasn't trying to make this fancy by any means, Just a functional tool to try out my thoughts on the design. If it proves to be repeatable (should as the spring holding the pad to the track is constant and as long as we keep the pad cleaned consistently it should be) then we will use it.
Once I have some determination that it's doing what I want maybe I'll put it back in the Bridgeport and try to fancy it up, maybe make another one out of aluminum or something.... I did this one from Steve because that's what I had laying around that was handy.
Fwiw I do agree with being able to tell what the track is like with a temp gun and the "can this track pull my shoe off test" but I'm kind of a technical person and I would like a number associated with that test.
The tool that's already available looks like it has some sort of an abrasive/rubber pad on the bottom of it.
The one thing I haven't understood, is the software that they sell with the tool.. has increments out to 660'.... who has time to go out there and check all that track area.. let alone the track officials let you do that? I have yet to see someone go out past about 20-60 ft' and check that area.
I can make an excel sheet that will mimic that. The "pad" that's going on the track I'm not done with, going to drill/tap 4 holes and attach either a section of a slick, 94 a piece of a 40-50 durometer rubber to it, so it will emulate a tire. Just haven't gotten that far been busy with holidays... should be able to wrap it up in a week or so.
I have a few different springs too to try to get the range of the tool to meet all track surfaces, just have to figure out which one is the right rate.
It's a tool all the nhra pro teams use, way out of my league of needs most likey but I can see it being useful especially for a no prep race, see just how the surface is and be able to put a tip toe ramp in to get it to go a to b, as that wins about 75 pct of the time
I decided to start over on the gauge panel. I figured out how to use a few more components which will cut down on the parts a lot and make it easier for me. My new power button came in. Also the el wire came in. I plan to use this for the purple part of my concept. Also I did some test 3d printing of the CAMARO logo to see if the printer would print it good enough. I plan to make a box behind the logo and backlight it.
This is the back side of the panel
This is the front side where the screens attach
This is the el wire that I plan to use around the displays and down the middle.
Here is what the purple light should look like.
Here is my new power button
I printed the CAMARO logo in actual size that I would need it on the gauge face. It turned out pretty good. Just needs a little clean up with an exacto knife. This is just a small test print for proof of concept. It will be part of the entire face and backlit. It will also have the missing parts from A and O.
Here is how it looks being back lit by my computer.
Finally getting some work done on this thing again. I have my engine in and I am working on wiring it up temporary until I figure out where I want all the wires at. I just need to get it started right now first.
Also I am working on designing my own gauges from scratch. I plan on using a bunch of OLED screens driven by a micro-controller that I am programming. I was able to build a micro-controller on a breadboard and drive the single OLED display. Next plan is to learn how to drive multiple screens with the one chip.
Got the engine in
Working on designing my own gauges from scratch
This is the concept I drew up. It will probably change before its done
Learned how to build a micro-controller on a breadboard to control the OLED
This thread made me order an arduino kit. I have only messed with it 2 times but I got an LCD that I can right messages on now lol. Keep the updates coming!
This thread made me order an arduino kit. I have only messed with it 2 times but I got an LCD that I can right messages on now lol. Keep the updates coming!
Cool I love tinkering with those things and they were meant for hobbyist to be able to build stuff without having to go to school for programming.
I am on hold on the gauges right now. I have to focus a lot more on work this time of year.
I got my Strange brake and PA racing 2" drop spindle installed. Also these are my new wheels for now. I may get something lighter later but I want to run these for now. They are 18x10.5 Race Star Darkstar C6/C7 offset for the rear and 17x4.5 C6 offset fronts. I am running a 29" ET Street Radial.
I think I finally got my cooling system figured out. I decided to go with a small 2 core aluminum radiator mounted low without a cap and a trans cooler about the same size. I changed from the street electric pump to the HD race pump with AN fittings. I am using a remote mount filler/cap coming right off the pump. I am tapping a plug on the water pump to route the steam vent hose.
I got the car sitting on all 4 for the first time. I can't wait till this thing is complete. It is sitting a litte too low on the driver and too high on the passenger. I have a lot of adjustments to make still.
I'am trying this Duraflex ZR bumper. It looks like it will need a lot of work to fit right. I was thinking about having the bottom part either black or wrap in dark carbon fiber.
I have not weighed it yet, but this bumper is definitely lighter than the OEM.
Here is a pic of the gauges so far. I kinda threw it together to get an idea of what it will look like. They are not showing any real data and the 2 top screens are not working yet and one other screen is not working. One of the screens is the wrong color. I put a piece of glass (not the right size yet) and piece of tint behind it to get an idea of what it would look like.
I think its going to be pretty close to my original concept.
Here is the back side. I decided to start over on my design of components. I decided to go with a single microcontroller that was prebuilt. I think this will make it way easier and if something is messed up can easily change a component since its all modular now. I designed all the black part and 3d printed it.
11-25-2016, 05:11 PM
I love tinkering with those things and they were meant for hobbyist to be able to build stuff without having to go to school for programming.
