[Fot] Data Acquisition - experience with Innovate Motorsports?

[Bill Babcock]

This is going to sound goofy, but you could probably do everything you want to
do with a subminiature data recorder from Eagletree Systems. It's made for
doing data acquisition in RC planes, but I used it to instrument paddles to
measure acceleration, wobble and flutter, vibration, and get a GPS position
for speed. They have a lot of sensors available, including hall effect for
RPM, and up to four channels of analog to digital conversion. I pulled the
strain gauge out of a $29 scale to do a load cell for my hydraulic press, you
could probably use something like that. You'd have to fiddle some but it's a
remarkable system, works great and costs $150. You'll spend more getting all
the modules, but everything I have was less than $500.  I was expecting to
spend a few thousand to do what I wanted to do.

Here's a link to an article about it on my stand up paddle website.
https://www.kenalu.com/2011/07/serious-paddle-testing/

The software is excellent, the units are seriously tough, and I've had no
problem with them except for toasting one with over voltage from the wrong
battery (12 volts instead of 5. Here's a tip, don't put the same connectors on
two different batteries and toss them in a box). They offered to fix it but I
haven't got around to sending it back since I bought two to begin with.


On Oct 15, 2011, at 2:58 PM, Larry Young wrote:

> Does anyone have experience with data acquisition using hardware from
Innovate Motorsports?
>
> Some friends and I are bringing an old water brake dyno back to life for
some engine testing. The data acquisition stuff at Innovate Motorsports looked
good and they could furnish everything we needed.  We bought a pressure
transducer to get torque (thru force using a hydraulic cylinder), a Hall
effect sensor to get RPM, and a wide band oxygen sensor for AFR.  These are
connected through an interface "box" which goes to an RS232 port using USB to
RS232 cable.
>
> We've had nothing but problems with their system.  We had to return the
interface box once already to be fixed (which took about 3 weeks).  After that
we were able to get pressure, but it often loses its settings and must be
reset.  We get RPM a few seconds before it craps out. No AFR.  The whole
system is flaky.  I am now sending the box and sensors back a second time.  I
think the interface box still has problems. I can't decide whether to give up
on them completely. It seems like it shouldn't be this difficult.
>
> Does anyone else have experience with this company? Do you have a different
company you would recommend? I realize this is a little different from data
acquisition for racing, since we are going direct to the computer, but thought
some of you might have a suggestion.
>
> TIA, Larry Young
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