Data acquisition system

[kobefly]

First of all I wanted to know how data acquisition system are called in English. I just translated from Spanish those words and I´m not sure those are the words in English. After that I´d like to ask all of you for something about it.

[ss_collins]

data aquisition is exactly right.

[kobefly]

After my doubt was answered (thanks) I´ll try to tell you what I wanted.

Nowadays data aquisition system are a main item in the setup of a racing car. The engineers pay more attention to the information in the screens than the information given by the actual driver of the car. Even great drivers “learn” how to drive better with these systems.
Even the big importance data aquisition system have the information about the is pretty poor, of course there´s much of hiding and no team would sit with the press and show them how old that works and what they do about the information.

I want to tell you that for a subject at University for having my degree I had the possibility of choosing any kind of subjet to investigate related with computer engineering and I came up with “Data aquisition systems in racing cars”.
Even if it isn´t the easiest subjet to get information it´s something I´ll actually enjoy to investigate and I won´t do this work just as an obligation. That´s very nice for me.

It is now when the time of asking comes. If someone is interested in helping me with material or knowlesge about the subjet I´d ve glad. Websites links, books, magazines, videos or own experiencies are all welcome. From sensors to the transmition of the info to the pits, the proccesing and also de software for its interpretation all will be very helpful. Of course, after finishing the work I´ll share with you if you want to.

Thanks for at least reading all those words and thanks in advance to anyone that could help me. You can contact me at my msn kobefly@hotmail.com or my mail kobe_arteaga@yahoo.com.ar
Cheers.

Pablo Arteaga
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Student of National Technologial University

[grisezd]

I found a book by Buddy Fey "Data Power" to be very helpful when I was starting out. It's out of print now, but if you can locate a copy I'd recommend it.

William Mitchell (mathmatician, data guru, creator of kinematics and data analysys software) wrote two SAE papers and an article for Sports Car magazine (SCCA's publication) on training driver's with instrumentation and defining a good line with instrumentation, and was kind enough to include me and my collegues in them. Those are worth a look, probably after the Fey book.

Good luck,
Dennis Grisez

[kobefly]

Do you know how could I get those books and magazine here in Argentina?

How were you involved in those works?

[grisezd]

SAE international will have the papers, but they're really just good suplimental reading. Buddy Fey's book is probably available from time to time on ebay or Amazon. I'm sure there are more recent books that are good too.

I was just the data geek in all cases. We train engineers to test drive (road car development stuff) and use the data to accelerate the process.

[Lukin]

The Fey book is hard to find, but good. The McBeath book is ok. There is only so much you can learn in the book. Once the data is there it's a whole other world in interpretting it.

Ultimately to be a good data guy, you have to understand the car your working on 100% and no the drivers style before you can say anything with any certainty.

I think it would be easier if you have raced before too.

And no team with any level of sucess would ignore what the driver says and go with what the data says. Only 5% of the time would the data show something different to what the driver says if your driver is any good with feedback.

[kobefly]

Could you give me the exact name, author and if it´s possible editorial of those books?