Reliability Data

Was wondering if you could recommend and help out with all the channels you should use for a reliability check after the car has come back from a run.

As well as some recommendation for layout and software. This with relevance to GT racing would be really helpful!

Kind Regards

Hi Thomas,

Simple answer is, all of them. The usual issue that you have when diagnosing an issue is that the channel that you need is the one that hasn't been logged.

What area of the vehicle are you looking at regarding the reliability channels? These are some basic channels that you should have available through the GT racing loggers.

If it is the engine, then the usual temperature and pressure channels, plus throttle, engine speed, vehicle speed and accelerations (very useful when looking at oil pressures)

Drive train, temps and pressures again, engine speed, wheel speed, gear, accelerations.

Suspension, position (you can see if a damper is failing from the data) load cells if allowed, temps (wheel hubs and brakes) accelerations.

Thank you this is helpful. The main focus would be on engine and transmission health during endurance racing for this specific GT category.

Hi Thomas,

As Stephen said, any sensor that can tell you something about the reliability should be being logged. I find in most cases channel reports and alarms (for the most critical parameters) to be the most useful. When the software has the ability to plot the output of the channel reports it is very helpful as it helps you to see the trends more intuitively than numbers in a table. I have added a screenshot from a recent members webinar on introduction to data analysis that shows a plotted channel report, you might want to go and watch this webinar if you haven't already.

As Stephen said, any sensor that can tell you something about the reliability should be being logged. I find in most cases channel reports and alarms (for the most critical parameters) to be the most useful. When the software has the ability to plot the output of the channel reports it is very helpful as it helps you to see the trends more intuitively than numbers in a table. I have added a screenshot from a recent members webinar on introduction to data analysis that shows a plotted channel report, you might want to go and watch this webinar if you haven't already.

Channel reports become particularly powerful when you report on math channels rather than the raw channels in many cases. This allows you to cleanse the data of false negatives like you get during safety car and pit stops.

You should also consider your telemetry list in addition to the logging list. When I'm watching things live on telemetry, I have a main reliability page up by default, this will have mission critical parameters such as avg tyre pressures, powertrain temps/pressures etc shown as channel reports. Also include the status lights with alarms for these parameters as well as for the switches and dials that the driver uses. Also think about tracking the voltage and current of certain systems, things like coolsuit and radio current etc.

I will also have other analysis pages setup for specific areas of the car that go into more detail. For example, I would have an Engine page with all the relevant status and channel reports but with the addition of a time/distance graph for each engine parameter. This allows me to quickly jump to this pre-made page should I have an engine or sensor issue that I need to understand quickly.

Another page I would have setup is a "Crash" page with all the things I want to look at if the car goes into the wall and I need to quickly understand if it is safe to continue without pitting. Think TPMS, steering angle, dampers, engine temp/pres etc.

Hope that helps!

Tim

This is great! Thank you, out of interest what tyre pressure and temp monitoring system do you use on the GT3/GT4 cars that you have had experience on.

Cheers

No problem Thomas. The Bf1 Systems TPMS is the one I have had the most experience with, it is very widely used throughout GTs, prototypes and touring cars. There are more suppliers creeping into the market on this but Bf1 seem to be the most widely proliferated.

Fantastic anymore questions and I will be sure to ask! Cheers