Eagle Tree Car Data Recorder - Manual (Page 8)

Copyright © 2003 Eagle Tree Systems, LLC
http://www.eagletreesystems.com
Page 8
o Startup/Reset Detected – this indicates that the Recorder has been turned on at the time specified
o Recorder low battery restart – this indicates that the Recorder has ‘rebooted’ because the power momentarily
dropped below 4.35 volts. See the troubleshooting section if you frequently see this message.
o Glitch detected – these messages tell you what type of glitch was detected, and on what servo the glitch occurred.
The most common causes of glitches are low receiver or transmitter battery, flying out of range of your transmitter,
or defective receiver. Note that it is normal to see a series of glitch notifications right after the recorder or the
transmitter is powered up.
•
Trip Length/Progress – when stopped, this readout indicates the total recording length. When playing back, this meter
indicates current time into the race.
•
Battery Voltage – this instrument indicates the current battery voltage during playback.
•
Graphical and/or Numeric Temperatures – The application can display up to two Temperature readings in either instrument
or numeric format.
•
Graphical and/or Numeric RPM – The application displays RPM readings in either instrument or numeric format.
•
Graphical Steering Wheel – The application indicates steering knob position via a graphical steering wheel.
•
Throttle Position Meter – Throttle position is indicated via a bi-directional meter
•
Graphical and/or Numeric Speed – The vehicle’s speed, as computed from RPM, can be displayed graphically and
numerically.
Other display options are available with optional equipment from Eagle Tree Systems.
Multiple Session Support
Depending on the length of your modeling sessions, it is often possible to record multiple runs into the Recorder without having to
clear the buffer or overwrite data. The Recorder application will split multiple sessions automatically for you. By clicking the
“Sessions” option in either the playback or graphing pages of the app, you can display a separate session, or all sessions
simultaneously. When graphing all sessions simultaneously, vertical gray bars on the graph indicate where sessions start.
Note that a new session is created in the logger each time it is powered off and on.
Saving race files
After downloading race data, if you wish to save the data to play back later or to share with friends, save the file with the File->Save
Recorder File menu. Note that the file is saved with a .CDR extension by default.
Graphing/Spreadsheet Compatibility
The Recorder application’s Data File is compatible with Excel ™ spreadsheet software, and perhaps other spreadsheet brands. Using
Excel™ is useful for graphing the data output from the recorder.
To load in Excel, save the data file from File->Save Recorder File, and in Excel™ choose File->Open, and select “All Files” in the
“Files of Type” box. Navigate the Excel dialog box to the location you saved the .CDR data file, and click on the filename. Excel
should then bring up the “Text Import Wizard”. Choose the “Delimited” option, and on the next page choose “Delimited with
Spaces”. The data should then load correctly in Excel.
The format of each line of data in the file is:
First Line: Car Name
Second Line: Data about your car’s setup. This line is needed to allow sharing of your race files with others.
Third line: header indicating what each of the fields represents. These columns are:
Steering Throttle RPM Speed Rec-Bat*10 Temp1*10 Temp2*10 Amps*100 PackVolt*100 GForceX GForceY
ThermoA ThermoB IsEvent EventError EventData Timestamp
Steering and Throttle are servo entries. The values correspond with the length of the servo pulse for each servo. A lower # means
the pulse was shorter. A value of zero corresponds to a length of about 740uSec, and a value of 254 means about 2.25mSec.
If IsEvent is 1, the record is an event, rather than normal data. Typical events are power-up (restart), and servo glitches. Ignore the
non-event fields when IsEvent is set to 1.
Timestamp indicates when each record was collected. The timestamp is in milliseconds