How-To: Configure Your Smartycam - Throttle, Brake, Overlays and More!

Setting it to max sensor readout is poor and inconclusive because the sensor limit is not representative of the actual mechanical limits of the system, and your foot. The sensor should read max effort of available, so you're going to have to stomp the brakes as hard as you physically can, see what it reads on the sensor, and set that as your max/100% value for the overlay (or say, 95% of it to account for some extra overhead).
 
The standard in data is to
Setting it to max sensor readout is poor and inconclusive because the sensor limit is not representative of the actual mechanical limits of the system, and your foot. The sensor should read max effort of available, so you're going to have to stomp the brakes as hard as you physically can, see what it reads on the sensor, and set that as your max/100% value for the overlay (or say, 95% of it to account for some extra overhead).

I like your thought but have always looked at it a bit differently. While you want to look at the max pressure of the system, many times that is not what is available to use in a corner. Say the brake zone is slightly downhill, like Turn 7 (The Chute) at Watkins Glen, you have less braking efficiency and capacity than if the track rises and compresses the car like Oak Tree at VIR or Namerow at Mont Tremblant. The maximum braking effort really changes lap to lap, corner to corner, but we can make some good generalizations like a car can brake at X g force, or X brake pressure. That works great on the bar graphs for the video. If you want to get down to the fine details, you really want to jump into the data and see the actual numbers. If you want a really deep (and neat!) dive, check out the video I did with AiM on "Cornering by the Numbers"

For the actual bar graph, it's showing percent of total effort the same as if you were doing a math channel. Either way you are picking a maximum. IMHO, doing the math channels is much more involved than just putting the max in the bar graph location. For someone who doesn't have a brake pressure sensor, you can use a bar graph with Long G as a great proxy for brake pressure, setting the max to something like 1.2 Gs (a guess for an SR).

As an aside, I'm surprised that the pressures are only in the 8-20 bar range. In regular cars and most sport racers, we run 2,000 psi, 100 bar, or 160 bar sensors.
 
Hi Matt,

Glad to see your part of the group. Having an AiM expert will be a great addition. One thing to note is that setting up the AiM system for a RUSH comes in two flavors. The earlier cars use a K-Line ECU, production ended in January 2023, and the current CAN ECU version. The ECU data available is different between the two versions and unfortunately the data for the CAN ECU cars is much more limited than earlier version. As and example the IGN AN 1 data is not available in the CAN cars while throttle data is, due to the new fly-by wire control.
 
Someone pointed me towards this thread and I thought I could help out a little. I've set up a few AiM systems :)

There is no need for math channels. If you set the dash to output the brake pressure (which sounds low) and then just set the overlay graphic to have the max pressure as the full range. The same thing goes for whatever channel you want to use for TPS in the video. Hopefully there isn't something that I'm missing. With the SC3 protocol, you can put a ton of info on the video.

If I'm missing the mark, please tell me or ask about anything AiM.

You're absolutely right that most channels can be done this way on the smartycam! With the IGN AN channels, this was difficult because the formula was inverted (less angle is more throttle), but when using brake pressure or the MAP sensor, you can simply set a min and max.

I like the math channels because it lets you compare data like for like with other cars, whether they be drive-by-wire Rush SRs from 2023 or other makes entirely. You write the channels once, they're 0-100, you can show them on your dash, end of story. But for absolute novices, or when you're really trying to figure out how much brake pressure your leg can provide... yeah, your suggest is simpler!

As an aside, I'm surprised that the pressures are only in the 8-20 bar range. In regular cars and most sport racers, we run 2,000 psi, 100 bar, or 160 bar sensors.

This is an interesting comment. I've seen vast variability in the brake pressures I see in the wild. Braking on my #012 is fine even at 80-100psi, which makes me think there is more likely something wrong with the sensors than anything else. Most data on the Fast Lap Battle thread tops out at 300-350psi, but my #150 will do approx. 650psi, and Blair's demo car will do 800-1300psi easy. Not sure what to make of this.
 
You're absolutely right that most channels can be done this way on the smartycam! With the IGN AN channels, this was difficult because the formula was inverted (less angle is more throttle), but when using brake pressure or the MAP sensor, you can simply set a min and max.

I like the math channels because it lets you compare data like for like with other cars, whether they be drive-by-wire Rush SRs from 2023 or other makes entirely. You write the channels once, they're 0-100, you can show them on your dash, end of story. But for absolute novices, or when you're really trying to figure out how much brake pressure your leg can provide... yeah, your suggest is simpler!



This is an interesting comment. I've seen vast variability in the brake pressures I see in the wild. Braking on my #012 is fine even at 80-100psi, which makes me think there is more likely something wrong with the sensors than anything else. Most data on the Fast Lap Battle thread tops out at 300-350psi, but my #150 will do approx. 650psi, and Blair's demo car will do 800-1300psi easy. Not sure what to make of this.

To the top point, if you are just looking at the graph, the math channels and putting the max in the camera config provide the same result. If you really want to dig in, I believe the data is way more helpful. Video provides context, data provides detail and granularity. The answer to what 100% is comes from when the wheels lock, not a number. In the data, you care more about the corner type and the required technique. I can't find it right now, but Blayze,io had a great email a few weeks ago about the different techniques for braking.

For the numbers, I couldn't say without more info. The circuit pressure depends on the MC sizes and caliper sizes. Then you can see different forces applied based on the pedal setup. Finally, if the system isn't configured correctly (wrong sensor profiles), it will read wrong. With a config and photo of the sensor, I could help more.
 
For the numbers, I couldn't say without more info. The circuit pressure depends on the MC sizes and caliper sizes. Then you can see different forces applied based on the pedal setup. Finally, if the system isn't configured correctly (wrong sensor profiles), it will read wrong. With a config and photo of the sensor, I could help more.
Will give that a shot when I can. Nice to have you here!
 
The standard in data is to


I like your thought but have always looked at it a bit differently. While you want to look at the max pressure of the system, many times that is not what is available to use in a corner. Say the brake zone is slightly downhill, like Turn 7 (The Chute) at Watkins Glen, you have less braking efficiency and capacity than if the track rises and compresses the car like Oak Tree at VIR or Namerow at Mont Tremblant. The maximum braking effort really changes lap to lap, corner to corner, but we can make some good generalizations like a car can brake at X g force, or X brake pressure. That works great on the bar graphs for the video. If you want to get down to the fine details, you really want to jump into the data and see the actual numbers. If you want a really deep (and neat!) dive, check out the video I did with AiM on "Cornering by the Numbers"

For the actual bar graph, it's showing percent of total effort the same as if you were doing a math channel. Either way you are picking a maximum. IMHO, doing the math channels is much more involved than just putting the max in the bar graph location. For someone who doesn't have a brake pressure sensor, you can use a bar graph with Long G as a great proxy for brake pressure, setting the max to something like 1.2 Gs (a guess for an SR).

As an aside, I'm surprised that the pressures are only in the 8-20 bar range. In regular cars and most sport racers, we run 2,000 psi, 100 bar, or 160 bar sensors.

This is a flawed view of what is actually being recorded though - while braking effort and limits may change, the internal pressure in the system is not. The master cylinder outputs the same pressure regardless of what the rest of the system is doing. 200mph or stationary, wet, dry, uphill, downhill, upside down, on the moon, doesn't matter. All the sensor does is read loop pressure, not braking effort.
 
This is a flawed view of what is actually being recorded though - while braking effort and limits may change, the internal pressure in the system is not. The master cylinder outputs the same pressure regardless of what the rest of the system is doing. 200mph or stationary, wet, dry, uphill, downhill, upside down, on the moon, doesn't matter. All the sensor does is read loop pressure, not braking effort.

I think we are doing the same thing, but in different ways. You can do the dash math to make percent and set the bar graph maximum in the camera to 100 or you can just send pressure and set the max to the max pressure you can achieve. Both ways show the same thing on the video, but the second way doesn't take more work in the dash.

I can share some data from Mont Tremblant that really shows the braking efficiency differences with hills. Chris Brown also has some great info on it in his book "Making Sense of Squiggly Lines."
 
I think we are doing the same thing, but in different ways. You can do the dash math to make percent and set the bar graph maximum in the camera to 100 or you can just send pressure and set the max to the max pressure you can achieve. Both ways show the same thing on the video, but the second way doesn't take more work in the dash.

I can share some data from Mont Tremblant that really shows the braking efficiency differences with hills. Chris Brown also has some great info on it in his book "Making Sense of Squiggly Lines."

Less pedal/system pressure would be needed in certain tracks / track areas, which is what I believe you're referring to - but the overlay max should still be the max pressure you can possibly actually generate in the system; which means it's going to vary person to person (strength) and will display effort vs max potential effort. The overlay is irrelevant if you're actually looking at psi in the data/graphs since it is generating a line output and the max doesnt matter.