Setup Your Pit Limit Function Like A Professional

It doesn't matter where in the world you race, pit lane speed limits of varying speeds are enforced right from the top to the bottom of motorsports & precise control over your speed is vital if you want to remain competitive.

Speeding in the pits will net you penalties, often severe, in the world of motorsports. In this lesson taken from the PDM Installation and Configuration course Zac runs through a simple explanation of how your PDM, or PMU/PDU depending on your preferred term, can go beyond it's function of replacing your fuses and relays to just one task of many it can handle.

He also covers why your ace driver doing this manually while waving out the window is an option, but one wrought with the chance of lost time to either inconsistency or penalties, and the general advantage that having a set pattern that is precise gives in case anyone decides to question if you were obeying the rules or not (yes, protests can happen often in motorsport, everyone is there to win).

------------------------------------
TIME STAMPS:
0:00 - Why Limit Pit Speed?
0:30 - Trying Manually
0:44 - Enter, Pit Limit Mode
1:04 - ECU & PDM Relationship
2:26 - PDM Pit Functions
3:16 - Setup Diagram | Timer & Pulse Function
4:52 - LED Lights Are A Must
5:02 - Why Not Do It Manually? - (Because, Protests)
5:19 - Lesson Summary
5:39 - 1 of 36 Modules from the PDM Installation and Configuration course
6:60 - Thinking About A PDM?

WHAT IS A PDM?

A power distribution module (PDM), power management unit (PMU) and power distribution unit (PDU) are all the same thing with different names, much like how variable cam control is called something different by each different car manufacturer.

Over the last few years we’ve seen PDMs become more popular and more affordable which means we’re seeing them pop up in more and more cars running at the grass roots level. These units replace the conventional fuses and relays we need to control and protect the various electrical circuits on our car with solid state electronics to control current flow. This dramatically simplified the wiring installation and can also improve reliability. With a conventional fused circuit, if the current is excessive then the fuse will blow to protect the components and you need to stop and replace the fuse to get going again.

With a PDM the fusing current can be adjusted in software and the unit will simply shut off the circuit if the fusing current is exceeded. The smart part however is that you can then configure the PDM to wait a specific amount of time before retrying the circuit that just failed. You can also set how many times the circuit will retry before failing permanently. This can often be enough to nurse a car with a failing electrical part back to the pits for repair. It’s also possible to log and display the current draw on each circuit so you can see exactly what’s going on with every part of the electrical system.

At this point a PDM is still going to end up more expensive than using fuses and relays but when weighing up options most enthusiasts overlook the cost involved with mounting and wiring the relays and fuses. When you factor that in, upgrading to a PDM often isn’t going to cost substantially more and by the time you consider the advantages it can start to look pretty attractive.
------------------------------------