Scottracing has been using the MYCHRON 2 for quite a while and we love the little beast. As we travel from track to track, it makes setup and initial tuning a breeze. We also use it as part of our development programs, using the data to assess the magnitude of changes we are trying. The following is some of the things we have learned about how to use the MYCHRON 2 and its down load feature. It is not intended to be comprehensive, just a basic way to get started using this very powerful device.

Preliminary Stuff:

The first thing to do is to make sure you have fresh/fully charged batteris in the MYCHRON, the beacon and the laptop used to download the data. If the beacon is weak or not placed correctly, you won’t get reliable collections. If the MYCHRON battery is weak, the download won’t work reliably. Note that you can change the MYCHRON battery and it won’t forget its saved data. We have also found that when our laptop (Toshiba) battery is weak it won’t download correctly, so we try to run it off the generator while at the track and downloading. For those of you who are using desktop computers for download, you are fortunate that you have one less battery to worry about. Otherwise, everything else about download and analysis is the same.

Software Configuration:

Setup your computer with the MYCRON software. The latest version is 3.22.1, which you can download from AIM. We have a link to AIM on our web site www.scottracing.net. If you have an older software version, it seems to work, but the new software provides better download user interface, so it is worth the effort to get it. Please note that version 3.22.1 is huge and wont fit on a single floppy like v3.21.11 did. I don’t know what is in it as there is almost no visible changes for M2 users. Install was simple on Windows 3.1, windows 98 and NT. Analysis works fine under NT but your cannot use the download. Be sure to check MYCHRON only in the setup dialog. Also, let it default to the Wdrack folder.

The installed software needs to be configured as follows:

On the CONFIGURATION menu, select GENERAL. Choose Imperial or Metric and hit OKAY

On the CONFIGURATION menu, select SERIAL LINE. Choose COM1 if that is the one you plan to use for the download pen. Note that this may conflict with an external mouse on a laptop. We take the mouse off when we download and use the touchpad or joystick. Don’t bother with the port speed. Hit OKAY

On the CONFIGURATION menu, select Input Channels. You should see engine and speed #1 in the box. If not, you probably installed the software for DRAC rather than MYCHRON 2 (only). Click on the Engine entry and you will see that it is enabled, rpm, 0 and 7000. Change these to what you normally see. You can change them later in analysis, but it is simpler to do now. We put in 9000 and 15000 for our CR80 shifter. Click on the Speed #1 and you will see enabled, km/h,0, and 280. Change as you did before and then click OKAY. The Software should now be configured.

You can also get rid of the DRACK picture and put in your own bitmap image by going under the FILE /Background Image. The required format is bitmap, so you may have to reformat one of your images to that format.

Configure the MYCHRON:

We are assuming you have it mounted on your Kart and wired up correctly. Second preliminary is to be sure that the MYCHRON is configured correctly. The how to setup data available from the AIM data sheets is pretty good. (http://www.aimsports.com/M2_Manual.PDF) If you didn’t get them with the MYCHRON, they can be downloaded from the AIM website. Areas to check are the tire roll out as this directly impacts the speed and distance, which are important to the analysis program.

Mount the magnet on the wheel using either Velcro, double stick tape or duct tape. Test the wheel speed sensor to make sure you get a few MPH displayed when you spin the front tire. If you don’t, then check the following: First, the clearance between the sensor and magnet is close and critical. About 1/8 inch should do. Second, the sensor is mounted on a steel bracket and the steel will shield the magnet if you mount it on the right front wheel or underneath the control arm on the left front. Finally, the magnet polarity is important on some magnets, so rotate the magnet and try again. We recommend that you add a wheel sensor alignment check to your pre-race checklist because it seems that every time we change tires or adjust anything in the front end (track, castor, toe, etc.) we end up without speed data in the next session.

Beacon placement is important so that the driver will to be able to see the lap time display. It takes a couple of seconds to display the time, so place the beacon where a couple of seconds later the Kart is on a straight part of the track. Make sure the driver’s legs don’t block the beam and also be aware that other Karts can block the beacon. We like the apex of a turn for our beacon location. You should also try to put the beacon in the same spot each time so that you can compare laps between test sessions. The MYCHRON software contains a beacon shift option, but we have never been able to get it to work reliably so we would rather just place the beacon in the same place

Also be sure there is no more than one MYCHRON beacon on each side of the track. Unlike the PI system, every MYCHRON (1,2, lite or PRO) responds to every MYCHRON beacon so you just need one per side. However, you can have multiple Beacons at the same spot on the track. This is a nice thing to do on practice days since the first guy to put out a beacon is also probably the first guy to go home, taking the beacon just when you most needed it. You can avoid this by putting your beacon alongside his. You can also put your beacon on the otherside of the track and flip your beacon sensor over. (you did Velcro it to the Kart didn’t you?)

Collect data on the track:

Only tips we have here are to clear the MYCHRON data before a test so you don’t have to download a lot of data at one time. Long downloads can be frustrating because you sometimes have to try several times to get it all. However, you shouldn’t clear it if you havn’t downloaded it. We have many times just collected a days worth of data and downloaded it at home is the comfort of the shop. Not good practice, but necessary when you forgot the laptop. Clearing data is an option under the menu button on the MYCHRON.

Run you practice or race laps. You can stop in the pits and make changes and the MYCHRON will continue to collect data. You will just see a long lap recorded. If everything works on the track, you can see your lap times, rpm, etc by pushing MEM on the MYCHRON. ). This also marks the end of a session and causes the next session to increment the session number. The Mychron numbers laps within a session using a session number and a lap number. The format is S-LL and laps continue to increment by 1 until you clear the data or push MEM. Sessions increment by one each time you push MEM until you clear the data. It is good practice to try to correlate these sessions with your paper data sheets so that you will know what you were testing when you see the data.

Download the Data:

Assuming you got "good data" it is time to download the data. First get the WDRACK program running on your laptop and then under FILE, select Track. A window appears called Track Select. It contains the data sets it knows of including the default tracks from AIM which are called 2WHEEL and 4WHEEL. You can select 4WHEEL for any download, but you should set up different TRACKS to keep yourself organized.

Select a TRACK by clicking on it and EXIT.

To create a different place (TRACK) to store your data, select FILE/ NEW and you see a window asking for a name, shape and threshold. The name becomes a folder name, so keep it short and DOS legal. TRACK is just storage (folder) for data, so you can have many names for your home racetrack. For example, PHXTST could be used for test data and PHXRUN for race data. The shape is obvious and select a time in seconds for the threshold that is about 5 sec under the lap times you expect. For example, our lap times in Phoenix are 48 sec, we set the threshold at 40.

Check that the download pen is plugged into the COM1 port. (If you don’t have a pen and you can’t find one to buy, AIM has plans for building one. It is not real easy to do, however, so I recommend buying one)

We find it helpful to have two people during download. The MYCHRON pen is sensitive to light and if you start the program without having the pen covering the LED on the MYCHRON it may not work. Person 1 places the download pen over the right most LED on the MYCHRON, selects transmit from the MYCHRON menu and pushes MEM once. Then person two selects DOWNLOAD on the laptop and tells person one that it is ready to go. Person one pushes MEM again and the laptop should show a progress window for the download process. Person 1 must hold the pen still and completely covering the LED. If you see an LED shining during this process, you are on the wrong LED and must start over. During the download, you will see a progress display on the Laptop. The latest software provides a more informative window with some of the communications parameters displayed. The Laptop operator can tell whether the download will work by observing some of these parameters.

If everything works okay, the MYCHRON display will change from transmitting to its normal display when the data transfer is done. The laptop will close the progress window and open a window that asks you to provide a test name, driver, track and a long comment block. We usually do a little victory dance at this point, but I am not sure that is an important part of the process. The test name should be short (8 char I think), but the comments can have all the notes you might want to remember about the test. (Main event, I won, gear ratio, tuning info, etc).

Download Problems:

At this point, there are a couple of things that can go wrong. First, if you don’t see any progress after about 10 seconds in the progress window, you should start over. Hit ESC on the laptop and off/on on the MYCHRON to start over. The software looks for a data block at the beginning of a download that tells it how much data to transfer. If that block isn’t received due to stray light, evil forces, low batteries on MYCHRON or Laptop it will time out with and error message. Just try again being careful to keep the pen perpendicular, very steady and completely covering the LED. We give it three or four times and then give up and change batteries. The second problem is when it starts transferring data and does not finish. You see an error window about comm. failure and check the port. Same fixes as before.

The most common problem with download is pen position followed closely by weak batteries. The MYCHRON eats batteries and it is not unusual to need a fresh 9volt battery each race weekend. In fact, when we buy ICE for the cooler on the way to the track, we frequently buy a 9volt battery conviently displayed at the 7-11 cash register.

The MYCHRON will occasionally loose data and you will not be able to download it. It doesn’t happen often and we have only seen it once in 18 months, but sometimes you should just give up and try again. This is one of the main reason why you should download and clear frequently. It is easier to recollect a session than and entire day.

Data Analysis

Once you capture the data, you can now look at it. This is where the lack of any documentation and help files gets frustrating. The software is written in Italy and it is not intuitive. We don’t understand all of it, but I will try to share how we use it.

Get the WDRACK software running on your computer.

Select ANALYSIS. You will see a window called Select test. If it isn’t the track you saved your data in, click the Track button and select the track. Highlight the test you want to look at and then click OK.

You will see a window called Data Window. The Data Window (accessable under WINDOW) is the key to your data display and analysis. At the bottom of the screen, you will also see the name of the test, a Lap identifier and a lap time. The program automatically selects the fastest lap when you call up a test, which is very handy. Don’t worry about what is in the data window at this time.

Next, select View / Plot vs. Time. A new window opens which contains a plot of the active channels (usually RPM and speed) versus time. You can also select Plot vs. Distance and get a similar plot. We use plot vs. time most of the time because we always seem to mess up the wheel speed sensor and the plot vs. distance wont work without it. Also, plot vs. time gives a better feel for acceleration and deceleration (engine stuff) when you look at the slope of the curves.

You can expand the window to see it better. Here are a few things you can do with it.

First problem you usually see is the scales are wrong for your data. What we usually see is we collected MPH from 30-70 and the software is thinking in KPH from 0 to 280 (default). The result is a very small bumpy line across the bottom of the chart. To change the scale you select the Data window by going to Window / Data window or clicking within the window. In the Data window, it lists the test and the channels in the color they are displayed. To change the speed scale, click on Speed #1 (highlight it). Then go to Modify/Channels/Math. You will see a window Measure Modification. This window should say Speed #1 (test number lap number) at the top. To change the scale, type in the unit of measure (M/H), the Zero Scale and Full Scale values. Then click on COMPUTE and you should see the chart change to the new scale. Click SAVE to have the data set permanently modified. This same process works for the engine speed, except you select engine in the data window and you get the engine window. Two problems here are not getting the channel you want after going to Modify/compute because it was not selected in the data window and forgetting to click on compute.

Other functions in the analysis mode include:

File / Print – this sends the current plot to your printer along with all the info from the test and comments block. Very handy for your files and the reason you took time to include everything in the comments.

Data / Next Lap or Button with Blue Circle/Blue Arrow - Plot the next lap. Does not wrap around to the start from the last one however.

Data / Previous Lap or Button with Circle/Red Arrow – Replaces plot with the previous lap.

Data / Delete channel – Lets you turn off the plot line for a channel. This is very handy when comparing laps, since the display can become very cluttered when you plot several laps with both speed and RPM.

Data / Add Lap – This lets you look at two laps on the same chart. It opens a window from which you select the lap to add. Very helpful for driver training as it shows where you are faster. For lap comparison, we recommend using the PLOT vs. Distance mode and use only one channel, preferably speed #1.

MAPS:

Getting a Map:

The MYCHRON 2 does not make maps. They come from DRACK units and we get ours by asking Mike at AIM to send them to us. He has a lot of them for US tracks that may not be helpful to you. Finding somebody with a DRACK at the track you are using who knows how to convert his or her data into a map is your best route. You can also get some maps information from the Ekarting News Web site.

Loading a map:

When you get the map file, you copy it into the track folder that it matches. If you look at the hard drive after you install the MYCHRON software, you will see a folder called WDRACK. It has a subfolder called DATA and under that folder are folders for each track, including hopefully the one you just added. In the track folder there are files for each test with a really hard to decipher filename. We used to use the date and time to correlate the files, but the Y2K problem with Win3/95 makes this less helpful. Now you need to keep a paper notebook. We recommend you copy these files to a floppy as soon as possible to make sure you have your data backed up. We don’t use the File / Backup feature as it makes too big a file. Each track folder also has an .INI file that contains some limited info used by the program, such as the direction, length, threshold, etc. Just ignore it, it does no harm. Copy the map file into the track folder. Map files are .MP extensions.

Using a map

To use the map, start ANALYSIS for the track you want to show the map for, then select MAP / Select. You get a window that should show the map name. Click on the map name in the window and click OK. To see the map, select VIEW /Map and it will pop up a window. When you click on a part of the plot, you will see it highlighted on the map so that you can correlate graphed performance with track location. A really cool feature is to select View / Animation which will move a cursor around the map and the plot at the same time. You can watch the speed/rpm windows moving around in nearly real time. A map caution: the map starts at the Beacon location and I find that the maps I get from others do not always have the beacon in the same place as we put ours. This means that when you pick the fast part of the plot, it may show as a turn on the map. Fixing this requires the use of the Modify / Tests /Beacon shift menu. This option allows you to move the apparent location of the test beacon forward or backward on the track to align it with the map beacon. Before playing with this feature, be sure to back up your data as you are almost assured of screwing up the data permanently while trying to figure it out.

SUMMARY

These are the basic functions that will get you started. The next problem you will face is trying to wade through the enormous amount of data you have and obtain some useful information that will make you go fast. We hope to add to some papers on data interpretation as time permits. Good luck and good racing

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