How About a Digital Tachometer on Steriods!

Our life is a constant search for the hottest new products for our loyal customers.  Earlier this year we began testing a new product that we believe has great potential in mini sprints, modified midgets, dwarf cars, mod-lites, tq midgets and other motorcycle powered racing cars-it is the MyChron Light TG Log.

Because the cockpit is a busy place!
Finding the occasion to give your tachometer a quick glance under race conditions is a challenge. Attempting to remember what you saw during that quick glance is even tougher. Memory tachometers are a great way to address this problem. However, most memory tachometers are only capable of recording the highest RPM reached during a session. Aim Sports' MyChron Light TG Log takes digital memory tachometers to a new level. Not only is it capable of playing back the highest RPM for each lap of a race, but it also allows data to be downloaded to a computer for a more in-depth analysis.

The TG Light Log is a digital tachometer capable of displaying RPMs, water or exhaust temperature, wheel speeds, lap times and throttle position. While the units real-time digitial display is beneficial, its real power is in its ability to log all of this pertinent data for review after the session.

How It Works
The TG Light Log consists of four components; a small digital display, a collection unit, an electronic eye and a timing beacon that is placed adjacent to the racing surface for purposes of recording lap times. The digital display and collection unit are small, lightweight units that can be easily placed on the car’s dash. The electronic eye is also a very small unit that should be positioned somewhere on the car that provides a clear view of the timing beacon which is placed on the inside or outside of the track. The collection box contains four feeds; one that goes to the coil wire for purposes of registering RPMs, a second that is used for the wheel speed sensor, a third that is used as a throttle position sensor and a fourth that is used to capture either water temperature or exhaust temperature.

The MyChron Light TG Log consists of three small, lightweight components that can be easily mounted on your racing car.  They include (pictured from left to right) the digital display, the collection unit and an electronic eye.

Information from each of these sensors is displayed in real-time on the digital display while the car is running. The information is also recorded in memory for playback on the digital display or download to a laptop computer for more in-depth analysis. The TG Light Log is capable of logging up to 10,000 laps or 24 hours of data. If the timing beacon is utilized, the unit records lap times and segments collected information on a lap by lap basis.

The included Race Studio 2 software provides easy-to-read graphical depictions of information like RPM readings for each lap of an entire session.

Each TG Light Log comes with Race Studio 2, a powerful computer program that facilitates the download and analysis of information. With Race Studio 2 data downloaded from the unit can be saved with important descriptors for later retrieval. Once in Race Studio 2, the data can be graphed and manipulated in several different ways. Graphs and analysis can be either printed out or exported to Excel. A special dashboard feature in the program allows the user to view a recording of the collected data. An onscreen tachometer shows RPMs through every second of the session (data is actually recorded 10 times per second). Additional information displayed throughout the playback includes wheel speed, throttle position and temperature.

Practical Application
The best thing about the MyChron Light TG Log is that its user can take advantage of as much or as little of its functionality as they desire. If a driver wants to start out just using the unit as a digital memory tachometer—he can. If he later decides he wants to capture throttle position, water temperature, lap times, wheel speed and download all of that information to a laptop computer, the functionality is already there.

When we started using the unit we were only interested in the unit as a digital memory tachometer and lap timer. Although we have not always used the lap timer, in most cases we position the timing beacon on a guardrail on the outside of the track when we arrive. After hotlaps I generally will do a quick review of my times and highest RPM reading for each lap of the session right in the cockpit. We use this as a starting point to determine if we are in the ball park on our gearing. If I want a more in-depth look at our gearing, I will often go ahead and download the data to Race Studio. This allows me to go in and view not only the high RPM for the session, but RPMs throughout the entire session. This is often important information since you might only be hitting that high RPM mark at one point on the track. The ability to view RPM readings for multiple laps on a single graph can also be an interesting driver development tool. I often compare RPMs and lap times that result from running different lines on the track. It can also be interesting to evaluate your consistency from lap to lap. (although in some cases you might want to hide this information from your crew chief)

We continue to check the unit throughout the night from the cockpit to keep tabs on our gearing and set-up as the track changes throughout the night. At the end of each evening we download the entire evening’s data to the laptop for review at home. It is really informative and fun to go back and review data from every lap you turned during an evening of racing. It really gets you thinking about potential changes for your next outing. Additionally the ability to save data from the evening is valuable for future visits to the track or under similar track conditions.

Only the Beginning
We know that we have only started to scratch the surface of the data and analysis that the TG Light Log can assist us with. As we gain confidence in our ability to use the unit’s most basic functions, we look forward to using some of its more advanced features. The throttle position sensor and wheel speed sensor are likely the next two areas we will tackle. I am looking forward to reviewing data captured during this past racing season during the long winter months.

An onscreen dashboard allows you to watch tachometer movements throughout each lap of an entire session.  If we had hooked up all of the sensors, the dashboard would also playback wheel speeds, throttle position and temperatures.

The Light TG Log is available for $489. The unit comes with the digital display, the collection unit, the electronic eye, timing beacon, throttle position sensor, wheel speed sensor, temperature sensor and Race Studio 2 software. In addition to the MyChron Light TG Log, Speed Partz is also a dealer for the entire line of MyChron data acquisition units including the MyChron3 Basic, Plus and Gold units. For more information visit the MyChron Light TG Log Product page on www.speedpartz.com.