So you want to take real-time tire temps?

Hola,

Taking real-time tire temps is (and has been) available to the common club-racer and I've been doing it since 2007 (first time was for the UTCC actually!)

I've put up a 'how-I-did-it' page on my website and thought I'd share it here with other GRM'ers.

http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch192.htm

This basically uses three IR sensors (under 500$ for all three) into a DL1 (mine is a first-gen unit, they can be found under 500$ used) and I set them up to take one tire at a time. On one hand 1k is a lot of money, but on the other some folks go through multiple sets of tires trying to get their setup correct and that typically costs a lot more.

I'll post more updates and data to my website as time goes by, and at the end of the above chapter there is an in-car vid with the data overlayed which (I think) turned out pretty sweet.

(other chapters if you are bored http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/wdnews.htm)

Costas

(driver: Vorshlag 2011$ Challenge Car E30LSx "Scrappy")

Just remember that this data is suface temp.

No big deal for suspension and alignment set up.

But for tire optimization, you need to make sure you know how to convert that into the data that the tire companies should supply. I'd bet that the data on a cold fall day will be different than a hot summer afternoon. But the tires may both be working perfectly.

Great idea to that, though.

Any thoughts on building an interface to lower end Harbor Freight IR Sensors which are significantly cheaper and have big temp ranges?

Yes, this is surface temp...that is EXACTLY what you want. I don't care what the carcass is doing, nor anything else. I care what is going on where the rubber meets the road.

For tire optimization, the data the tire companies want to see is indeed surface temp and every time I've talked to tire company engineers that is what they've always told me... example: "shoot for 190-220 for best grip and equalize it across the face"). As for a cold fall day or hot day, yes the peak temps may change a bit but I'm not understanding why that matters. Even on a VERY cold day I can get tires in the operating range typically....and if I can't then likely neither can any other racers.

As for an interface for the low end sensors, I pondered that but they simply arent that durable and the error range was too big for me. I'm sure you COULD use them with any data logger, but if the data is suspect then what have you really learned? Also, if they aren't very robust and break frequently then you keep buying and replacing. I've used these same sensors since 2007 on a wide variety of cars. Obviously, you COULD use them, but for me personally the choice I made was for better ones. :-)

Costas