[Skter505]

can you shut it, then put it in the net behind the pass seat?? maybe with a tie-strap holding it in place if tech gets picky....or if you have the seat pass seat out, you can rig up some kind of bracket that goes to the holes in the body for the seats, then somehow holds your laptop.. You should be able to figure something out that will pass tech.

Just make sure the Tactrix cable gets routed and secured somewhere so your feet dont get tangled in it...

[BoostJunkie]

Yeah I could probably figure out a way to secure it, although now that I've seen this PLX gauge I'm really close to going that direction...

[WRX4ME LE 482]

Originally Posted by BoostJunkie

No way to replicate the heat and strain that the car endures on the track.

True, I wasnt thinking. I was assuming drag racing.

I believe all laptops have the setting that allows you to close it and leave it on. It's a windows thing.

A friend of mine has a Civic Si with a supercharger kit. He had his ECU sent off to somebody (cant remember who) for modification. They added a piggyback unit that can record like an hours worth of logs (among other things). Resolution is great too. He can record every single parameter and it does like 50-100 queries a sec.

[ZuMBLe]

That's what I want. I don't want something that plugs in to the OBDII Port. I have my scanmaster3 plugged in there. I want something that is piggybacked off the ECU and out of sight.

Originally Posted by WRX4ME LE 482

A friend of mine has a Civic Si with a supercharger kit. He had his ECU sent off to somebody (cant remember who) for modification. They added a piggyback unit that can record like an hours worth of logs (among other things). Resolution is great too. He can record every single parameter and it does like 50-100 queries a sec.

[wrxcelration]

I would not suggest not using a laptop to log while running on the track. All the shock, vibration and movement will cause the actual disk and writting arm in the drive to jump and skip around. This could lead to a corrupt or damaged HD and you could lose your O/S or even your HD and loose all your data and leave you with an expensive paperweight to fix.

[V8Huntr]

Actually laptops can take a lot more abuse than people think. I have doctors at work who drop their laptops onto the marble floors in the hospital where I work and they keep working, although the screen is usually the first thing to go. A laptop strapped into a car going around a track isn't going to see all that much shock unless you go over an apex or go off the track. The most force it will see is lateral Gs and as long as it's secured in place it'll be fine. Plus if it does experience shock then the laptop body itself is designed to take most of the force and actually cradles the HDD.

[wrxcelration]

Yea most pcs, like most of the IBMs I work w/ now have shock sensors that sense gs or actual shock and temporarily prevent the HD from spinning to prevent damage. I know cases will prevent damage to the HD and can absorb shock/vibration but I was talking about the actual disk itself inside the drive. Nothing can prevent the writting arm from jumping/skipping and causing damage/corruption.
Yes pcs these days are built stronger and are more durable and include software like I stated above but it is just not something I personally recommend when there are other options out there. Plus I also see it as a safety issue even if it is strapped tight you can see up to 4gs and more instantly in some cases which can make any possible moving object deadly

[maxxell]

I have had a regular 3.5" desktop hard drive in my car for my carputer for 2+ years.

I dont do track days, but am a pretty hard driver taking corners and accelerating off the line on the streets.
I'm not going to pretend I know why the drive has survived this long, as I have gone through many different means of mounting the computer. In fact, at one point, it was just mounted inside a [mini-itx] case screwed to a piece of wood sitting directly on the frame in the trunk. I have heard of people with carputer systems running the same regular 3.5" cheapo harddrive for years.

On the other hand, there are also stories of people whose drives died in < 1 year.

Food for thought.

------

While we're at it, I have a question someone here might be able to answer. I just bought an OBD reader that has a USB interface. As you can see, I'm far more familiar with the computer side, not the OBD side.

Can I leave that thing plugged into the OBD port at all times or is that a bad idea for the ECU?

[maxxell]

Huzzah!

Answered my own question. For future travelers...

ScanTool.net - Forum - Safe to hook up and read OBD-II for an extended time?

[Yes, you can leave it plugged in permanently]

[red5001]

I have been looking around for an datalogger my self so I am still learning about the different ones and such. But what about the open tune by Innovate Motosports. Its not to expensive (~$150) and it seem to datalogg at least 16 channels. Not sure if this product is any good. Sounds decent.