For those who know me well, know that I’ve been in the automotive racing industry for 12 years and I mainly now deal with data acquisition and track support. One of my specialties is the installation of data logging equipment - mainly MoTec and other systems to cars, bikes, boats, planes and other interesting platforms - even trains.
So I've decided to set upon my own bike to do some more research with proper data logging on bikes and not taping your iPhone to your tank. Since there are a lot of different brands at different prices, I've decided to go with a unit we sell that is affordable - let's face it, how many of you could afford a MoTec Dash with logging and GPS, that unit installed would set you back approx $ 10,000.
The unit I will be using is the Race Technology DL1 GPS logger. It is a small unit that basically measures raw data as voltage, freq and GPS with additional rpm, speed and serial inputs. So those of you with a genuine OBDII diagnostics system on your bike can log with a simple Can loom connected.
These units retail for $ 1395 inc and have genuine 20Hz GPS, 8 AV inputs, 4 Speed, 2 RPM (1 x high and 1 x low) and a bit more. They can be combined with their Dash 2 and also the new Video 4 system which I will talk about later when I install it. Also sorry for the pictures. I used my phone camera, as I forgot to bring my camera from home.
Here are some more technical details and pictures.
Race Technology DL1 Logger
I have quickly made up a data loom consisting of a few AV inputs and RPM. I have allowed for speed as well, but will be using the GPS speed for now.
I’m installing this into my 2008 Yamaha R6 which has a small amount of room under the pillion seat to mount the main unit. It has to be close to level with the bike at ride height (Inc rider) to get the Long G trace accurate. Since Lateral G is not used this doesn't matter - but have squared the unit up for that as well. As you can see below I have made a simple bent bracket to level the unit in the rear tray. My power and data loom then goes forward to the under seat section.
Under the seat is the Denso 32Bit ECU and Battery, Inc a few relays. Here I will tap into the sensors I require for now and Ignition power.
First the Ignition feed - this needs to be a good feed that isn't disturbed by engine kill or starting voltage noise. So I've decided to go for the ignition feed that runs the starter solenoid. This is feed is the best and without running power straight of the barrel, plus it has a good power source as well. Ive placed ground onto the battery as there wasn't any power loss between there and the ECU ground which is close by.
Now that’s done and fused I'm ready to move onto splicing the sensors I want from the ECU. I wanted to grab TPS, STPS, Gear and Water temp. Since I found out that the R6 doesn't have a variable gear sensor, I decided to leave that and tap the TPS's and RPM. Ive also left water for now as well, but will tap later.
Here you can see I basically strip the wire back from the loom and splice the data loom into it without breaking the original loom. The Denso ECU uses the same connectors as the MoTec 100 series so I basically already had the knowledge of getting pins out to heat shrink and secure the wires.
As I've noticed for the wiring diagram (Thanks Tony), Yamaha like to use the same colours and size wire for different things. This is something I noticed when installing the Shift I to the bike, they use the High beam activation (which is ECU controlled) and RPM colour. A simple continuity and voltage test had insured me which wire was which for RPM and also TPS, which had two of the same wires to the ECU.
Basically, after that was to check power and voltage levels to the unit and to install the GPS. For now I've just placed a steel wash under my pillion grip rubber and it works fine. I haven't tested the GPS yet and if it falls out of range whist leaning, then I do have one of the Moto GP antennas that are designed for bikes.
Upon looking at the data, everything is working well. I haven't test ridden the bike yet, but will on the way home. All I want to do is to install the remote logging and status light button. It basically gives me the ability to start and stop logging and the button has a status light built into it. I could set the unit up to start recording under a variable condition; ie RPM > 1000 for 5 secs and stop rpm < 1000 for 30 sec. But I'd rather have control over it. I will put the button near the dash.
So, here we have is a system that will basically do the following just by giving it power.
- Speed via GPS
- Track mapping with Google overlay if needed
- Accelerometer measurement in 3 axis at 2G, upgradeable to 6G
- Gyro, as an upgrade
When hooking the system up to sensors we can add more variables.
- Temperature
- Pressure
- Linear, Suspension Pots
- Infrared or height
- Angle and position
- Steered angle and loads cells
All of this at a starting price (that could be installed) for $1500. Package includes DL1, Connector and power plug, GPS Antenna, Mounting tabs and Software.
I will keep you updated on the progress as I play with it more. I will also be adding the new Video4 system that has the ability to log 4 cameras with all the information from the DL1 via a serial connection. So I can design my own Screen template (in fact I have the Moto GP template) and show my data over the video. These units are normally around $ 2600 for a 2 camera system and $3400 for a 4 camera. But state of the art and used in a lot of top end racecars around the world.
And no I’m not using this as a sales pitch – but I’m sure people would’ve asked how much and where do you get them from.
Cheers
