The racing TrakBox is a data acquisition system built from inexpensive hobbyist level development boards. The TrakBox is rigidly mounted inside a competition vehicle and used to evaluate the performance of the vehicle.
The system runs on a microcontroller. The firmware is open source. The system includes a GPS sensor, an inertial measurement unit and an environmental sensor. There is also a real time clock, a small OLED display and a microSD card module. TrakBox includes a web server that can run a dash display including a speedometer on a cell phone.
The Rac TrakBox can record the sensor readings and write them to a file on the micro SD card at a rate of over 90 times a second. The data can be retrieved from the SD card and imported for later analysis
The current firmware is open source and free to download. Click the Github links to go to the myracedata github repository. There are schematics, wiring diagrams and a parts list. If you can solder, you can build one!
My Race Data is proud to announce the racing TrakBox Dashboard file viewer. The
dashboard is great way to view the data files produced by your racing TrakBox data
acquisition system. The files produced by the racing TrakBox are ordinary text files
and can be viewed in any spead sheet program or text file viewer. Because the Racing
Trakbox can write over 90 lines of data a second the files can be very large and finding
the information you're interested in can be difficult. The TrackBox dashboard file
viewer make visualizing the data very easy.
Remember, the racing TrakBox is intended
to be used only during legal sanctioned motorsports events on closed circuits.
The first step in viewing the files your racing Trakbox records is to retrieve the microSD card from the unit. Pop the snap off lid from the TrakBox. The enclosure snaps open by gently squeezing the sides of the lid and gently lifting. Push gently on the microSD card and it will spring out of the slot. Place the microSD card in the adapter sleeve that came with your card and insert into a laptop or PC. Copy the files to the laptop or PC. This step is important because the files can be large and reading them directly from the card would be slow. You will find your files in the root folder of the SD card. The file will be named trakbox.csv Once copied, the file may be renamed to any file name but the .csv file extension must remain for the viewer to open it.
Every effort is being made to make the dashboard work on a cell phone browser but it is suggested at this time (Spring 2024) that you view your data files in the TrakBox dashboard on a larger screen such as a tablet, laptop or PC.
Once you have saved your files to a PC or laptop, open your browser and go to TrakBox Dashboard In the upper right corner click the 'Choose File' button. A Dialog box will open allowing you to navigate to the location where you have saved your file. Choose your file and click the 'Open' button. The file will take a few seconds to load, be patient with large files.
When the file is processed, it will be split into sessions. Each session is a continuous recording. The TrakBox only records when you are moving to save file space. Recordings made on different dates and at different times will appear as separate sessions. On larger screens, the navigation menu on the left side of the window will list all of the sessions. You may switch between sessions by clicking on them in the nav menu or using the 'Sessions' drop down list button. The navigation menu on the left also includes the date of the session and the total elapsed time of the session.
When the file is first loaded, the most recently recorded session is loaded in the viewer. At the top of the main window are the file statistics. The file name, size of the file and the total number of sessions are shown in the file statistics box. Each time the TrakBox records the sensor data, it writes one line of data to the file. The total number of lines of data in the file are also shown in the file statistics box. Below the file statistics are the session statistics. The date, start time and end time are shown as well as the total elasped time of the recording. The number of lines of data making up that session is also shown.
The chart is plotted over time showing the vehicle speed in miles per hour. To the right of the chart is a GPS map with the track of the session recording ploted on it in red. The red vertical cursor line on the chart and the blue marker on the GPS map are at the starting point of the recorded session. As you hover your mouse over the chart a small tool tip showing the time and MPH will pop up. Clicking on the chart will jump the red cursor to that place in the recording. The marker on the GPS map will also fly to the location of the vehicle on the map. You may zoom the GPS map in and out with the plus (+) minus (-) buttons in the upper left corner of the map. You can also drag the map.
Below the chart and map are the VCR buttons and the data table. The data table shows the actual recorded sensor readings from that moment. You can click the play button to play the session like a movie. The cursor will move along the chart and the marker will follow your track on the map as the data table scrolls the values. The fast foward button (>>) will play about three times faster then real time. The rewind button (<) and fast rewind button(<<) will jump back in time. The start button (|<) and end button (>|) will jump to the begining or end of the session and the pause button will stop playback.
The My Race Data team has just begun developing the TrakBox Dash file viewer. Many further enhancements are planned. In fact that is the whole purpose of this website, to provide tools and information to help racers and engineers use technology to develop quicker safer racing vehicles.
