Club data log share?

[TXBDan]

Hey all,

Me and some other guys have been sharing our Aim data logs to compare our driving. It's very helpful. Maybe it'd be cool to organize a way to collect/share data as a club? I currently use a dropbox share, but we could put it in google drive alongside our class sheets or something.

We have some good data experts in the club so it'd be interesting to get their take on certain matchups. We could potentially have an email series containing tips and analysis of particularly interesting things. If nothing else, people could simply compare their data against others that they download from the library.

We'd have to think about what access/privacy control we'd want. I'd be happy to help organize/run it if we get there.

Thanks

[gcranston]

I like this idea. I'm pretty new to data collection - even newer to data analysis. I've had some great sessions with a couple of club members and am definitely interested in doing more.

If most folks are on AiM then RaceStudio might be enough. If we're trying to bridge across systems we might try the free version of Track Attack.
https://trackattack.io/pricing

[joncowen]

I like the idea.
We could have a folder for each data type (Aim, etc), and people could share within whichever platform they are using.

[TroyV]

The club has google drive space that we use for file storage of documents that are operational in nature, and also is where our archive currently sits. We have space available to host a thing like this and make it available to the members. I don't think the data files from Aim take up very much space. Not sure about other platforms.

[TunaNoCrust]

This is a great idea, reviewing the data has been very eye opening for me...plus then I can steal Sash's secrets and then beat Troy

[gcranston]

I presume that the competition folder with class sheets is part of that drive? I don't think regular users can see the rest of the drive.

How about a structure with a directory for each track, then ask users to upload their data in a subdirectory labeled with <Class> - <Date> - <Number> - <Name>?

Since data + video is such a powerful tool, it would be great to include links to video where available.

Dan I'm willing to help with this if you'd like a hand.

[TXBDan]

The problem with giving the public upload perms is that that also gives them edit/delete permission. Even with a private link to the share, its basically public to the world and anyone could delete all our stuff. The other permission option is "view" (read-only, not upload/write), at least with google drive as far as i know. Another option would be to give individual read/write access on an user by user basis, but that would be a pain to manage.

We currently handle this with the classing sheets by setting the share public and read-only and having one person collect submissions by email and manually add them to the drive. I think for the amount of volume we'd have that'd be fine here as well. This also let's one person keep everything organized.

We could come up with an email submission address (data@comscc.org or something) to send data to so that it remains constant no matter who is actually doing the collecting and posting.


^that directory/filename structure would be good.

[gcranston]

Any interest in looking at the Track Attack option with me? Has anyone tried it? Seems like it's built to solve this problem.

[TXBDan]

Any interest in looking at the Track Attack option with me? Has anyone tried it? Seems like it's built to solve this problem.

That's an interesting product. They're doing some of the things like multi-platform integration and leaderboards that Race Capture is working on. I used to use the Autosport Labs Race Capture system (and still do for other purposes*), but i got frustrated with its software and particularly with the fact the proprietary data format wasn't compatible with all my friend's data in the AIM ecosystem. There are some scripts to allow you to convert, but they were a pain. There's also some legal issues with converting to Aim format as that essentially unlocks their software. Eventually i got the Aim Solo so i could collect data in their format and use their software which is very good and very popular. It's been worth it as now i actually use the data.

Regarding Track Attack for our club use, i think we'd have to pay to allow it to archive data formats and serve as an archive/storage solution. It'd also require users to create an account and subscribe, etc. I think the Google Drive solution is simpler and free. If someone has data in another format (or wants to use Track Attack regardless), they could use Track Attack on their own to compare their data with whatever they grabbed from our archive. Before i made the switch to Aim i did a little polling around the garages and it seems Aim is by far the most popular. Second was phone apps like HLT, Track Addict, etc. That said any format could be added to our archive. Just my opinion, others should weigh in.


*I use the RCP to drive my tablet dashboard and also collect all my pulse/analog sensor inputs (RPM, wheel speed, WT, OT, OP, TPS) and send them over CANBUS to the Aim Solo DL

[gcranston]

Hosting our own storage has a lot of advantages, but making a single person responsible for posting the data to the drive feels like a bottleneck that maybe doesn't need to be there.

I agree that Aim is the most popular in the garages, but it's a barrier for students. I remember when I was starting out even $20-30 for HLT or RaceChrono Pro seemed like something I didn't want to spend money on; $400 for AiM was just out of the question. I think most students are going to start with phone-based laptimers and data, and we should think about how to make this tool/resource useful for them.

[joncowen]

In my opinion, we should keep it as simple as possible, at least to start.
What if the Admin backed up the Google Drive to their own machine every so often, so that if someone came and deleted files, they could easily be restored?

[TXBDan]

In my opinion, we should keep it as simple as possible, at least to start.
What if the Admin backed up the Google Drive to their own machine every so often, so that if someone came and deleted files, they could easily be restored?

So crazy simple it might just work! Derek or whoever owns the comscc google drive can just create a public folder with read/write access. Since we all have access i'd be easy for any of us to back it up every so often.

Graham, I think the club is simply hosting a bunch of files and not necessarily advising on what to do with them. Data logs of any format can be there and people can read them with whatever they want. Track Attack will certainly be helpful for the HLT users who want to compare with Aim folks. I'll test it out with RCP logs as well as i have some old logs from before i had the Aim Solo.


On the topic of how the club might use this data to create additional value for the membership, maybe one of the data gurus can volunteer to analyze some interesting matchups and email it out. That'd be super interesting and educational.

[gcranston]

Fair enough. Let's see how many members share data once the space is up, and go from there.