Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

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rbpeirce
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Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by rbpeirce »

For those not familiar yet, Apex Pro is a relatively new dash-mounted device designed to show the capability of your car in red and how much of that you are getting in green. It has an IOS app that uses bluetooth to connect to the device and to save session data in graphical form. Green means you are getting pretty much all your car can give. Yellow is so-so and red means you have a lot more potential in those areas.

It has been suggested that mounting the device so the output appears in the video may be the ideal situation but I haven't figured out how to do that. I'm also not sure it would be all that easy to see in the video. Instead I am trying to use the app and HLT at the same time.

I tried this yesterday without any success. The last session I finally just used the device without the app and HLT for data and videos. The problem is both have something to offer. HLT videos and data show what you were doing at each point and the Apex Pro data shows how much of your car you were using at that point. For example, yesterday I set a recent PB which was captured by the Apex Pro app but not by HLT! Consequently, while I can see where I have room to improve I don't actually know what I was doing at that point that might be improved.

So, has anybody figured out how to use both at the same time? If not, have you figured out a way to get the device in view of the camera and is the output sufficiently readable to be useful?
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by macdude357 »

I have an Apex Pro and was able to use HLT; however, it was hit and miss. I think both apps try and access the GPS but only one app can actually use it. I say this because when I got lap times from HLT, I did not get times from the Apex Pro app and vice-versa. I talked to Apex support and they suggested I use the "Freestyle" track which doesn't use the GPS. I was able to see the LED's in my video so I wasn't too worried about getting the Apex data. Here's a link to one of my laps with HLT and Apex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGfAupdurzc

Maybe Harry can confirm my GPS theory.
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by rbpeirce »

I reached a similar conclusion and was able to set up the Apex Pro so it appears at the bottom of the HLT video. I haven't tried this yet on the track but it may actually be better.
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by Harry »

I'm not familiar with the Apex Pro. Not sure I understand how you use it with LapTimer and create a GPS conflict? The Apex Pro seems to have it's own internal GPS, so I doubt it will access the one built into the smartphone. Furthermore, multiple apps can subscribe to location services at a time. It is not possible to operate LapTimer in background in case this is the scenario. When sending LapTimer to background (e.g. because you start another app), it will be a good citizen and shut down operation and sensor allocations.

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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by macdude357 »

Harry's right regarding the Apex having it's own GPS. So based on that I'm stumped. Knowing that Harry's won't work in the background, I started the Apex app, picked Auto Club Speedway from it's track list and clicked "Start". I then put Apex in the background, fired up HLT, and clicked start. After my session, I had full lap data from HLT and can tell from the video that the Apex was operating as well but when I looked at the Apex app, it thought the session was one 25 minute lap. This worked like this every session of the day.

The next day, I was at Buttonwillow. I thought I followed the same procedure as the day before but in this case, HLT thought it was one 20 minute lap but I got lap times from the Apex app. One thing to note is that when I looked at the data in HLT, the map view was roughly the shape of the track; it was as if HLT couldn't tell when I crossed the start/finish line (the map looked like someone traced around and around the track with the line varying a bit each time). I've run this track many times with HLT alone and got good laptimes/data.
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by Dubbedown »

Are you using a separate gps hardware? If so I wonder if that connection is getting affected by your Bluetooth connection from Apex.
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by rbpeirce »

The Apex Pro works fine for real-time info. Where the conflict arises is in Apex's "heat" map which shows the track with green, yellow and red colors to show how well you were doing. Nobody seems to be able to get this and HLT working together. I suppose you might do one session with each, but they wouldn't be comparable.

However, by putting the Apex device within the HLT video you can come pretty close. You can see what the lights are doing on each lap for each part of the track. Further, HLT has a lot of data you can download into a spreadsheet to see what kind of speeds and Gs you were carrying at the relevant points.

I think this is probably too much work for someone like me but I think having the Apex device in the HLT video could be very useful in its own right.
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Re: Is there a way to use HLT with the Apex Pro?

Post by Dubbedown »

rbpeirce wrote:The Apex Pro works fine for real-time info. Where the conflict arises is in Apex's "heat" map which shows the track with green, yellow and red colors to show how well you were doing. Nobody seems to be able to get this and HLT working together. I suppose you might do one session with each, but they wouldn't be comparable.

However, by putting the Apex device within the HLT video you can come pretty close. You can see what the lights are doing on each lap for each part of the track. Further, HLT has a lot of data you can download into a spreadsheet to see what kind of speeds and Gs you were carrying at the relevant points.

I think this is probably too much work for someone like me but I think having the Apex device in the HLT video could be very useful in its own right.
I just got my hands on an Apex but won't have chance to test till next spring. But based on what you guys are telling me, I plan on running the Apex off a second iOS device to avoid any interference.
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