Driver sensors

[Dennis McCarthy]

I'm curious if anyone has experimented with heart rate or other driver health or reaction monitoring sensors with their data systems?

[Tigaman]

Yes, biometric sensors are trickling down to the club level. I saw Scott Tucker's heart rate and other biometrics measured as part of his exercise coach's program at the ALMS race last year at VIR. Will find out more and report back.

[romoman]

There is some cool technology being developed in other fields that will find it's way over to racing pretty quick. They are starting to monitor fire fighters, EMTs, etc through simple wearable garments. Once that technology filters out a little, it will be very easy to add it to your race car.

Now the interpretation of that data is another story!

[Dave Harmison]

I for one do not want a sphincter pressure sensor.

Had to say it, just had to.

[Keith Carter]

Would be pretty easy to have a bluetooth dongle to plug into an Aim channel port in order to synch with a Polar heart rate monitor. I'd be interested in it!

[Jean-Sebastien Stoezel]

For $60 and a bit of programming, you already have the possibility with this module:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8661

You could program the unit to output a PWM signal, or a number of counts per second-similar to a wheel speed sensor (to interface with your AIM system).

Only supports the older Polar belts though (non bluetooth).

Would be pretty easy to have a bluetooth dongle to plug into an Aim channel port in order to synch with a Polar heart rate monitor. I'd be interested in it!

[Keith Carter]

Very interesting.... A friend of mine would totally be able to do this.. I

[Jean-Sebastien Stoezel]

I have been interested in doing this for a long time... What's been holding me from strapping a piece of rubber around my chest at the track is the fear of a crash and the possibility of fire. I've heard bad stories of people getting burnt in high temp cockpits (due to fire around), where the elastic band of the underwear melted around the waist.

Maybe it is just an urban legend but sounds plausible.

Very interesting.... A friend of mine would totally be able to do this.. I

[Keith Carter]

I'm not an expert on fire safety by any means, but if the temps are high enough to melt the elastic through your suit, I would think you have much bigger problems being in a fire for that long.

[Jean-Sebastien Stoezel]

I think the issue is that apart from the burn now you also have to peel rubber off your skin.

I'm not an expert on fire safety by any means, but if the temps are high enough to melt the elastic through your suit, I would think you have much bigger problems being in a fire for that long.

[romoman]

I would say you are probably ok with the elastic strap, but then again the Army stopped giving guys t-shirts with Army screen printed on them because Army was being burnt into their chest after IEDs exploded.

[Steve Demeter]

Charlie Kimball probably has all kind of body condition sensors connected to him given the fact that he is diabetic and manages his insulin real time under instructions from a medical professional in the Ganassi pit.

[glenn pashley]

I use SUUNTO ambit watch , records ,speed, distance, time, heart rate ,temp,altitude,mapping on goggle earth, down loads to laptop.

[gcoffin]

Pretty sure there was an article on this in Sports Car back in 1997..... Guess what...driving a race care is aerobic exercise......if you squeeze hard enough it is a Charles Atlas isometrics program as well.......but I find I go faster when I am relaxed......my fastest races are directly related to falling asleep on pre-grid......does anyone else do this?

[Speed Sport Engineering]

I've worn a heart rate monitor in the car before to see the range it would be in during a race. It's pretty interesting. Almost any heart rate monitor has recording/download functioning these days.

The cycling community has gotten pretty smart with all their sensors. There is a standard protocol for all the wireless sensors, so everything is really plug and play even across different manufactures.

Everything from wheel speed, crank speed (cadence), heart rate, power (via strain gauge in the wheel hub, crank arm, or pedal spindle) ect. all outputs the same format.

I've found Garmin's systems to be way more reliable then Polar. Polar heart rate monitors would last me about 6 months before the straps would fail, and they are sensitive to interference. The Garmin units seem to be bulletproof so far.

Garmin now has a 1080p camera that displays GPS info and heart rate on top of the image.

If someone really wanted to link this into a Aim or CDS system, I would think all that would be needed would be a converter to take the ANT+ output format of the bike / heartrate sensor and convert it to a 0-5v signal.

[romoman]

If someone really wanted to link this into a Aim or CDS system, I would think all that would be needed would be a converter to take the ANT+ output format of the bike / heartrate sensor and convert it to a 0-5v signal.

Doesn't even have to be 0-5v. It could just be a digital, on/off signal like rpm or wheelspeed.

[mikey]

Doesn't even have to be 0-5v. It could just be a digital, on/off signal like rpm or wheelspeed.

that would be 0v off and 5v on triggered by the heart beat

[romoman]

that would be 0v off and 5v on triggered by the heart beat

Yes, but it can be 0-1V, 0-2V, etc. Doesn't have to be 5V.

[mikey]

5 is just convenient for building a simple circuit

[Tigaman]

Matt, meet George. George, meet Matt. You guys share a lot of interests and Matt, you and can both learn a lot from George. Outside this thread.

The "bike guy" I learned about this from is Hunter Allen, founder of Training Peaks coaching, as well as software that uses a "power meter," a strain gauge in a crank sprocket on a bike, to measure and design training programs for pro bike racers.

He was using some of this in Scott Tucker's P2 car at VIR last year and I was fascinated.

On a side note, I will have to call or ping Charlie and get the scoop on real-time monitoring, as I have several clients that would be interested in (and can afford) that.

[Brian C in Az]

I have been interested in doing this for a long time... What's been holding me from strapping a piece of rubber around my chest at the track is the fear of a crash and the possibility of fire. I've heard bad stories of people getting burnt in high temp cockpits (due to fire around), where the elastic band of the underwear melted around the waist.

Maybe it is just an urban legend but sounds plausible.

I'm not an expert on fire safety by any means, but if the temps are high enough to melt the elastic through your suit, I would think you have much bigger problems being in a fire for that long.

One of the safety persons at our local venue did see that happen. The person was burned through the suit, but the elastic band did the worst damage when it melted into the skin.

[Daryl DeArman]

I'm not an expert on fire safety by any means, but if the temps are high enough to melt the elastic through your suit, I would think you have much bigger problems being in a fire for that long.

That's what common sense tells me too. However, elastic has a pretty low melting point and I'm guessing that it doesn't dissipate heat like your suit does so if it gets that hot in a 20-30 second fire, it probably is going to stay hot longer once the heat source is removed and cause damage where other areas of the skin won't continue to be exposed to that heat.

[gcoffin]

Hmmm right after I bought special non-melting boxer briefs at my wife's insistence I saw a scar from a melted sock.....it was nasty....but the guy said the worst part was pulling the sock remnants out of the burn...