I'll be refreshing this page every 10 minutes or so until someone posts...if you want to work on your MoTeC stuff then I can help...hopefully...to get you almost immediate solutions.

Are you ok?

Not sure....let me check...uhm...how about...no...maybe...nope...nothing wrong, so the answer must be Yes. Next question?

OK, I'll go first. Suspension: Bump and rebound basics and then go into how interpret data for fast bum and rebound?

I'll go second.
Is there a way to create some sort of math equation that motec can calculate for you?

For example... I'd like to see a figure telling me the total amount of fuel I've used over the course of a lap. Is there a way to do this?

Would make fuel strategy easier for me... won't have to break out the calculator :-)

I can handle Andrew's question, Steve, as fuel usage is one of the few things I've actually spent some time on. Andrew, I will post it in a separate thread so that it's better archived and usable to others.

@Andrew: http://race2play.com/homepage/show_posts/7622

@Steve: there's a question I am unsure of in that post. Maybe you could check it out and add clarification? Thanks!

Here's one, Steve (or anyone). I have found where I can view all my laps and see what my micro-split times are. Under the first "Samples" set of worksheets, I go to the last worksheet "Section Times" which has a chart with each turn and straight down the left and each lap along the top and each cell has my time in that section. The sectors which are within 1/2% of my best in that sector are highlighted according to the properties of the Time Report. My total times for each lap run along the bottom.

This is a very helpful chart, but what I was wondering is if I could somehow get this data represented as an image of the track (like the rainbow brake chart, for instance) where the track map has colours for each sector (turns and straights shown in the chart) where the colour coding shows how close or how far all of my times are in that sector.

So, what I am hoping to learn from this map of the track is the micro-sections where my times vary the most (meaning I am the least consistent). Areas which I drive almost precisely the same each time might show as green while the further the times spread over the stint, the colours might shift gradually to red.

Possible?

OK...thanks Justin, but if you want just post in here...we can move it into it's own thread later.

Bill. The Suspension position and Damper velocity graphs are where I look. I add these channels to my MoTeC Engine / Chassis worksheet graph. What to look for is how long it takes the suspension position to drop to previous values after damper velocity has a large positive value....meaning a curb has been hit.

The default zoom is not going to give you the view that you want, so you need to zoom in on it. The default buttons at the top of the MoTeC window include a set of magnifying glass icons...a white one with a + for zoom in, a white one with a - for zoom out, a yellow one for zoom out full (this shows every lap in the same window...only good for files with a few laps, and a red one that looks like a stop sign for the default zoom which is a single lap fit to the window.

For suspension analysis you need to click on the zoom-in button until you can see only 1 or 2 seconds. If you move your mouse down to the bottom of the graph it will change into a hand...click and hold to drag the graph sideways so that the initial "bump" is on the left side of the window.

You will be looking at the damper velocity first...normally you will see the front wheel velocity rise above the zero line followed by the rear. Then in the next 400 milliseconds or so you will see the suspension positions rise...first the front then the rear. Then they will fall and velocity will go negative.

What you are shooting for is to keep the tires evenly loaded on the road...yep...tire loads will also be another clue and can be used to tweak the setting, but the rough setting can be made using the damper and suspension data.

Most likely you will see the suspension stay up for almost a second or two after an initial damper velocity spike. What you want is for the front suspension and rear suspension to return to their previous value at the same time (not necessarily the same numerical value). So, you need to get a reading of these numbers at the beginning and end of the suspension event.

Move your mouse over the vertical blue line and the cursor will change to the line movement icon...click and hold to drag the measurement line to the point just before the damper velocity spike...write down the numbers for the time mark and velocity and position for each wheel. Now move the measurement over to where the damper velocity peaks and record those numbers...move it to where the velocity hits zero and record those numbers...move it to where the velocity hits the most negative peak and record there...finally move it to where the dampers positions return to their previous positions.

The goal is to have all wheels reach their previous positions at the same time by adjusting the fast bump/rebound to manage the damper velocity and slow bump/rebound to manage the position.

For example, if you set the dampers equal for all 4 tires then your front wheels will be the first to return to the road after a curb...causing severe oversteer. The most simple solution is to slow down their return with a higher front rebound (fast if you are looking at a curb or slow if you are watching braking and exit events), or alternatively with a lower rebound on the rear so it will catch up quicker.

With MoTeC you don't have to drive around the track half an hour to feel whether the change is working...just do one lap and then look at the data. Play around with the damper and spring settings...do a lap...then look at what changed.

You can more easily see what changed by Overlaying a previous lap onto the lap you currently have by opening the Data window (default is on the left side of the MoTeC window) and click on the square icon of another lap to overlay it onto the existing lap (overlay appears black). At the top of the data window you can click a button that switches the Main with the overlay. You can also overlay multiple laps onto each other by clicking the 3rd column of icons (the 2nd square one) which has a #1 in green above it...each time you click one of these squares it increments the number and indicates a color in that square and overlays that lap with that color.

Hmmm....perhaps I should make these shorter posts...it took 30 minutes to answer that one.

Yes Justin...MoTeC has the Track Report. Create a new worksheet and right click in the empty space and select Add | Track Report...just click OK for the defaults.

If you want to do more numerical analysis you can select Add | Time Report. The right click on the track report and in the popup menu select Export | To File...by default it creates CSV files which Excel or other spreadsheets can open automatically. I have a spreadsheet somewhere that I need to upload somewhere to make available to everyone that has macros to enter formulas to help determine where on the track you need to focus on...this weekend I'll try and link that in on the sticky.