AX Setup Question

[dbbarron]

I am preparing to use HLT for AX. I have not used HLT before - I have used TA for the past few years.
I want to confirm the anticipated procedure for doing this including setting some triggers for splits.

I run at Moore Airfield in MA, The course changes on any given competition day, but often has similarly located start and finish point although they do move some and the course can run in either direction. Thus, I want to be sure once a few AX courses are defined in HLT (through triggers), HLT recognizes the proper course I am on for that week and does not trigger on, eg., a prior weeks course.

So, I get to the course in the morning and sometime before the course walk, I walk over to the starting lights (we have a staging area ahead of them) and use the Prepare RAce-->+Autocross button to set the course name and Starting point/direction. Then I walk over to the finish lights and set the Finish similarly. At this point there will likely be the drivers meeting and course walk, so I don't want to click 'Drive'; so how do I now exit cleanly from this screen without losing the course settings (Name, Start and Finish).

Now there is the drivers meeting and course walk during which I want to set a few split points. What is the best way to do this?
If I go to Analysis-->Lap List, I will see the entered track set. If I click on it I see the Start and Finish trigger points and can click MAP from here. Is this where I then walk to the various splits, click '+' and add split point (setting the Trigger, Split parameters for each point correctly)? How do I easily determine the 'Direction'? I don't see a compass wizard like when initially setting the start/finish points?

Also, I will be using my iPhone handheld at this point, but I have a XGPS160 in the car for racing. Will using different GPS be an issue? Should I carry the XGPS with me when setting points.

Lastly, how to I insure that at the next competition, HLT does not confuse the different weeks courses given nearby start/finish points?
Do I 'purge' the prior courses? Can I do this without losing the data?

Sorry for all the questions at once.

db

[Harry]

Hi,

The best way to add splits during your walk is probably using GPS View (LapTimer ‣ Analysis ‣ Realtime ‣ GPS). This view gives you an option to add a POI at the current position (+). Furthermore, you can read out magnetic direction as follows: while in GPS View, touch the compass gadget so it is showing a North needle instead of the small GPS icon. Touching the compass actually toggles between GPS derived directions (working while at speed only) and the use of the internal magnetic compass (working while standing still). Once you have toggled the gadget it will be easy to read the direction before pressing +. Once you have added a POI, adjust: POI Type, trigger type, direction fields. Furthermore, select the POI Set created before (AX assistant). This will add the POI to our AX track set.

The use of the XGPS is not necessary for the walk as long as you take care the GPS position received it good. LapTimer shows the current accuracy in GPS View too.

As a final hint - please make sure you really want sectors to analyze your drive. As LapTimer has both predictive lap timing and allows viewing wins and losses at every position on track in Data Analysis (from Lap Details), you will have a much better tool here to identify areas you can improve. Have a look into the Train the Trainer document available from www.gps-laptimer.de/documentation for more information.

LapTimer switches track sets when detecting a trigger. For multiple track definitions, this will lead to unpredictable recordings in case you have several track sets defined for the same spot. For AXes, this is a frequent situation and means you need to purge old track set definitions when running a new layout. The question is - do you need the old definitions any more? Removing a track definition (i.e. the POIs) does not change the laps recorded, so mostly it will be fine to delete them. The only exception is you have defined corner names and want them to get overlaid. This however, is pretty uncommon and can be worked around by overlaying all videos your want before returning to the AX spot.

- Harry

[dbbarron]

Harry - Thanks for all the info - That all makes a lot of sense.

I tried out your suggestions, the only problem I am having is I can't get the Realtime->GPS Compass gadget to toggle. It always shows a compass with needle. If I press it nothing happens. I tried both the internal GPS and XGPS; same result. I think it is locked onto showing GPS heading. I may be pressing the wrong area - is it possible for you to show this graphically?

Good point about the splits. It seemed useful as out course always uses a given taxiway to runway and then runway to taxiway transition that I thought would make great split points.

[Harry]

Here are snapshots for iOS (same in Android). In case you do not see the icon marked at all, or in case it doesn't change, your smartphone has no build-in magnetic compass. In this case, you need to guess the direction. This isn't too difficult because there is no need to set it precisely. LapTimer will accept any direction within +- 90 degree compared to driving direction. Enter 1 for North, 90 for East, 180 for South and 270 for West (or any value in between). 0 is considered "no direction", which is the reason 1 should be used for North.

IMG_8143.jpg (106.52 KiB) Viewed 2576 times

IMG_8144.jpg (106.17 KiB) Viewed 2576 times

- Harry

[dbbarron]

Got it! Thanks.

[gplracerx]

I have some suggestions for settings specific to AX in this post: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3957#p20296

If you really, really want to save a course, use the Certify function and send it to yourself instead of to Harry. Then you can bring it back by opening the email and long touching the attachment. That will open up a menu where you can import the data into HLT.

I use splits. It's a quick and dirty way to see where you're doing better and get a theoretical best time.