Intro
The T24 wireless telemetry sensor technology was used in conjunction with Novatech, an established UK load cell manufacturer and Micro Measurements, recognised worldwide for the quality of their in-house strain gauges, to provide motorsport teams with a tool that allows quick and repeatable car set-up preparation by combining all tests required.
British load cell manufacturer Novatech spotted the potential for improving the process of measuring centre of gravity and other dynamics for the optimum set up on racing cars. To achieve this, the company developed a wireless wheel set up system using Mantracourt’s T24 wireless system.
Motor racing teams needed a more convenient way of taking centre of gravity measurements prior to competitions.
Previously, F1 teams needed to walk around the car to take readings from a handheld display from each individual wheel, which added a lot of time to the process With the increasing complication of vehicles the testing requirements have also increased. This brought the need for optimisation of existing processes.
Teams wanted to be able to complete a maximum number of measurements without refitting the wheels of the vehicle.
With Novatech’s set up wheel, teams are able to remove the wheels of the vehicle and quickly use the company’s set up wheel load cell, which utilises ball transfer bases to allow the car to be moved easily around the workshop. This is not the only benefit brought by the set up wheel. The ball base also serves as a single point of contact, maintained when the set-up frame is tilted. This results in the load cell returning less than 0.25% total error for camber angles up to 3° from vertical.
When combined with Mantracourt’s T24 Wireless Telemetry system and LOG100 software, the set-up wheel package allows the user to continue to work uninterrupted on the set-up of the car whilst monitoring and logging individual corner weights and various groups, in real time, using a built in centre of gravity maths calculation.
The LOG100 software allows the user to create their own graphical user interface and individual data channels can be summed or otherwise manipulated to give front/rear bias, left/right bias, cross-corners (diagonal biases) and the centre of gravity position can be visualised either as an exact percentage from a given position (front/rear and left/right) or by using a colour coded bar graphic from the theoretical centre point. Data transmission is via license free 2.4ghz. ID tagging system implemented during synchronisation between transmitters and base stations and ability to set configuration PINs are in place to ensure that the transmission is secure.
The complete package of set-up wheel loadcells from Novatech and wireless telemetry from Mantracourt provides the user with a simple to use system that is both extremely accurate and highly efficient.
Teams can implement changes to ride height, toe and camber angles and make adjustments to weight distribution without the need to continuously raise and lower the car or circle around the car taking individual readings.
Due to the ‘many to one’ functionality of the T24 system, a single workstation can be used to monitor multiple car set-ups.
The integrity of the measurements is guaranteed by the eight gauge bridge that self compensates for off axis forces. it is assembled using micro-measurements foil strain gauges and modulus resistors made by Vishay Precision group. The supplier has been selected for its unrivalled quality.
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