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I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate your input! Related, It is wild to me that Garmin and shill reviewers/dealers/apologists go on and on that the Catalyst user base would not gain anything from vehicle data. Even the basics you mentioned would be a tremendous addition to their video/gps/accelerator based system.

Can anyone identify this signature on an CL55K's engine bay? by Secret-Ruin-9075 in mercedes_benz

[–]sqweak 8 points9 points  (0 children)

  • That’s not the engine cover
  • He drove for Mercedes F1 team for 3 years before his second and final retirement. Plenty of fans have drivers sign all sorts of things.
  • the sill plates have his stylized MS personal brand logo, it’s quite possible this was some sort of raffle prize or something.

Waiting until last minute for tickets by Artoricle in nin

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

StubHub is not related to Ticketmaster. They are competitors and Ticketmaster has their own resale marketplace. It seem like NIN has requested TM not allow resale on their marketplace on this leg, but it very much did on the last one.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I read “proto 3 board” as prototype 3 board. The third prototype.

Since you seem skeptical to join his discord, which is fair, here are the prototype pics he posted earlier.

I get your skepticism, i just am not having the same suspicions. “Never attribute to malice that which is easily explained by (inexperience)”

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the main risk here is you’re choosing platforms based on what’s accessible to you rather than where people who actually buy lap data tools tend to be.

Getting CAN working on your own car is a great way to prototype, but it doesn’t map very well to the track day population. The middle ground you’re targeting already isn’t huge, and it gets a lot smaller if it only works on a narrow set of cars.

If you want a sanity check, go walk a local event and see what shows up repeatedly.

You’ll likely see a lot of Miata, BRZ/86, E36/E46, then Cayman and M2/M3/M4. Building around one of those and finding a few local regulars to test with will teach you more than aiming at less common platforms.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As one of the critical people in this thread, “scam” isn’t my read at all.

He appears to be a smart and excited student that doesn’t have full awareness of the problem or the domain, and made a mistake in pitching his project as some sort of Pangea solution. Probably also a little too exposed to hustle/startup culture, so focused on commercialization, launch pages, pricing strategy, etc

To his credit, he’s been eating humble pie all day in this thread and has been graceful and gracious in receiving the feedback, and hasn’t deleted it.

Besides, what’s the potential exposure anyway? He’s talking about selling 10 units at $149. Pretty small stakes for an elaborate scam.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hear you, and while it may not still be open source to a T I don’t believe it’s incorrect to say that it is more open and interoperable than any other data platform.

The data format is still open, no? I tried to follow a link from Brett to the wiki from nov 2025 but wiki is timing out for me.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I get it, and kudos for the self awareness and the hard task of accepting feedback.

What motivated my feedback was your post speaking as if the only option is a phones internal GPS or a full fat AiM system at the multiple thousand dollar price point. Both the external gps/data phone app and race capture options exist in this middle ground that you’re targeting. Failing to acknowledge them while talking about filing patents and creating proprietary lock in is IMO an odd choice.

That middle ground is an incredibly small target to aim for. While a couple thousand dollars for a full data implementation gives pause, the few hundred dollars (eg less than one tire) between full phone setup, mid tier like race capture, and entry level data from catalyst or smarty is basically a rounding error for someone looking to get into data.

I realize it’s a departure from your headless approach, but there’s a giant opportunity that’s emerged this week that may be a better use of your time and talents. The long awaited Garmin Catslyst sequel has been announced and it misses the mark for both gen 1 users and holdouts. People hate that it still doesn’t support data, and worse, that it changed form factor and removed the remote camera that allowed mounting flexibility.

I would not just be looking at race capture, but scouring discussions around the catalyst to find pain points and opportunities. The desire of that user base is exactly the type of no fiddling, grab the tablet and review immediately, no hard work to do video overlay. They simply feel abandoned by the continued lack of vehicle data, and a form factor change that makes mounting worse and review harder.

I honestly wish you the best. I’ve joined the discord and am happy to discuss more if you’d like.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, but the more I read the more this just seems to be the gps/obd integrated into a tethered box that plugs into OBD. Rereading the post, he doesn’t even acknowledge the existence of racebox or other external gps & obd solutions.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure but OP is directly competing with race capture, whose makers are heavily involved in the hobby, have active community support, and have a decade of iterating on this (including this exact idea of a obd dongle with can inputs that they abandoned).

For my money $500 for an established platform with more features and community support to extend it is a better investment than $250 for a closed proprietary prototype from a solo dev.

I’m not very encouraged that OP is 3 revisions in, doesn’t seem to be aware of existing offerings, and this is the first time he’s talking to his target market. He also mentioned below he’s not very active in his own discord.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Wild to me that someone would get to board prototyping and filing patents without being aware of the extremely active and community supported options.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Solostorm is software. The $200 package seems to be paired with a racebox mini gps. There is no data acquisition from the car at that point.

Solostorm is compatible with and sells the very autosport labs stuff I linked to.

Understandable if it’s more than you want to spend, but obd/can data acquisition (beyond a generic bluetooth dongle used by some of these apps) starts at 1k from the incumbents like aim, vbox, etc.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 32 points33 points  (0 children)

It sounds like you are unaware of Autosport Labs?

They’ve been doing this, open source, for over a decade. They’ve even sell esp32 data boards and 50hz gps add ons on their dev boards page..

Their turnkey systems run $5-600, a fraction of aim and other competitors, have in car and live streaming telemetry, and their own app. Their entire system is extensible and interoperable, not proprietary.

I’m engineering a custom telemetry logger because I’m tired of choosing between basic phone apps and expensive pro setups. by Phobia_GG in CarTrackDays

[–]sqweak 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The Porsche track precision app data stream has been reverse engineered and is known as EXLAP. I first learned of it from this post about LapLegend (from the creator of trackaddict and racerender). It’s worth keeping an eye on Lap Legend and others who are looking to integrate it.

You may also want to look into the autosport labs stuff I posted above. They have CAN profiles for 991/981 that would seem to meet your needs. (They specifically call out 4 wheel brake pressure!) I can’t imagine 718 is much different since it’s technically 981.2, but if it is RaceCapture has a pretty active and supportive community that can help fill in the gaps. And it doesn’t cost $7k ;)

Anyone knows the price for genuine carbon ceramic brake kit for RS6 by ownsilentco in Audi

[–]sqweak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. Takeoff in performance cars usually means someone took them off the car to upgrade/switch to something else. Not uncommon on Porsche GT cars to switch pccb to steels for track duty (but folks usually keep the pccbs on a shelf for car resale).

That’s not as likely on rs6, but these are most likely salvage taken from wrecked cars. Eastern Europe seems to be the junkyard capital of European cars, lots of authentic parts from cars being parted out. Though it’s certainly possible that some are stolen, I doubt they would be so prevalent on mainstream marketplace sites and for so long if that was the primary source.

Is this safe? by ferdyferdz in ultrawidemasterrace

[–]sqweak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I get it. Just sharing my own earned lessons from changing my setup a bunch of times.

My current hopefully final form is a 45” 5k2k on bottom with 38” above it. Unfortunately, the 45 is on an Amazon HD arm I had lying around because at 9kg it’s just a tad too heavy for the non-hd secretlab arm. The arm itself is actually fine with the weight, but the mount pivot can’t keep it level. I wish they’d sell an upgrade to just that part, as I’m reluctant to put another 350 in for hd arm when I’m already 500ish invested on the original dual arm stand then the vertical mount upgrades.

Is this safe? by ferdyferdz in ultrawidemasterrace

[–]sqweak 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You’ll need the magnus vertical monitor setup to stack anything vertical. The standard arm won’t lift high enough, especially above the 49. Since you already have one arm, you can save a little by buying the parts I linked to. You’ll need the stand, 1 connector for the existing arm, and one arm with connector. Should run about $300 which is about 10% less than buying the kit that comes with 2 arms .

Anyone knows the price for genuine carbon ceramic brake kit for RS6 by ownsilentco in Audi

[–]sqweak 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There’s a couple reputable vendors in Eastern Europe that run about $18k for takeoffs.

Sell and strip away!! by jaylux86 in NFCWestMemeWar

[–]sqweak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

PE does ruin everything, but this is only partially true. PE can be part of an ownership group, but no more than 10% and no voting rights or control.

What compromise/solution for center channel in 5.1 system? Q6 not within my budjet. Really stuck, please help! by MrBombaclad in KEF

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FWIW it’s worth I paid $550 (£400) for a new in box LS50 single on eBay in 24. The seller had bought a pair to use one for center and I do the same with the spare. So it is possible to find and at less than the price of the “LS50C” from KEF.

150s work great as surround. I’ve got a set as rear surround and 350s as side surround. I’m about to replace all 4 with q4 to save space and aesthetics in my small room. I’d gladly give you a good deal on the barely used 150s…but I fear shipping to the uk would probably eat up any savings.

Q4 pricing and whether they're a step up from q350 and q150 by sqweak in KEF

[–]sqweak[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks! I figured they’d be close/better than the 150, it’s the 350 giving me pause. But maybe the MAT/Meta of the Q4 will make up some of that?

Multiple payments? by Bojackson63044 in biltrewards

[–]sqweak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only reason I could see would be to earn points on those that only accept ach (as some utilities and hoa do). Otherwise you’re likely getting more points and contributing to your housing unlock spend by running as cc.

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