Help to install a Launch Control Systems

[E.Santiago]

Hi, I'm new in formula SAE but I would like install a launch control in my car, My question is what's minimun requirement or what I need considerate to equipment have a good operation.

Help...

Thank you for your time and God Bless to all

[Jay Lawrence]

You will need:

1. Control device that allows you to program launch control (I tuned it using a MoTeC M800)

2. Front wheel speed sensors so you know how fast your car is actually going

3. Rear wheel speed sensor/s so you know the ratio between front/rear wheel speed (optional)

4. Control logic. For example, you may want to limit your engine to 8000rpm from 0-10m/s. Alternatively, you may want to use ignition cuts to control front/rear wheel speed ratio from 5-20m/s. And so on.

It sounds like you may be a first year team, in which case launch control is not something that should be high on the agenda. The acceleration event is one which you can program your drivers for. If you do 10 clean runs per driver before comp and have decent gearing you will probably finish well in that (not hugely important) event. Having said that, provided you have a wheel speed output and a decent ECU, it's pretty easy to add to your package in a basic sense.

[E.Santiago]

Thank you Jay,

thanks for a quick response and suggestions.
I will study it to see if it is beneficial or very complicated for us.

we are new but a few years ago my team last competed in Michigan 2011. Now we want to go again.

Thank you!

[himanahu]

jay what will u suggest for mine mini baja car project in innovation ......

[Adambomb]

Originally posted by himanahu:
jay what will u suggest for mine mini baja car project in innovation ......

I'm not Jay, but I'll chime in for him. Mythical "innovation points" can not be sought. No amount of searching will lead you to them.

There are two kinds of "innovation" in SAE, whether in Baja or Formula. The first kind is the more popular sort, and really not innovative in the slightest. This is the kind that is sought. It is innovation for innovation's sake, and mostly follows this pattern:

1. Decide you want to do something "innovative"
2. Don't bother with the fundamentals, because everybody focuses on those and most people don't win
3. Try to come up with something that you've never heard of being done in SAE (although there is a 99% chance that between at least 3-100 teams in the past have either tried and failed or tried and discovered it wasn't worth the effort to do again). Bonus points if this is something somebody in F1 tried 25 years ago.
4. Implement this 25 year old F1 technology using a cruder implementation of more advanced technology, and excessive and inefficient analysis with unclear objectives and insufficient requirements (hey, if you just do enough Matlab, you should win, right?)
5. Spend 90% of your time on design, 9% of your time on fabrication, and 1% of your time testing, because the innovation is just so great that it will practically build itself and work flawlessly on the first try. Bonus points if you plan to spend 20% of your time testing, only to get it done 2 days before competition.
6. Disappointment

Real innovation finds you at 3:30 AM when you've had way too much caffeine and not nearly enough sleep, or sometimes right before falling asleep, but most often just as soon as you quit thinking about the problem. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, first you need a problem. Again, you don't look for the problem, the problem will find you, most often when you're focusing on the fundamentals and identifying the requirements that are necessary to build a car that wins.

tl;dr

If you go looking for innovation, you'll find disappointment. Real innovation will find you when you least expect it, usually right after you think you've exhausted all options trying to solve a problem that has been driving you crazy.

[Tim.Wright]

Boom. Exactly this Adam.

I see this a lot too. Its a classic case of coming up with a solution, and then trying to figure out what problem it solves. I.e. going like this:

Solution > Which problem?

You need to go in this direction:

Problem > which solution?

Reminds me of an undergrad suggesting to me that we sit the driver on top of the engine so we can win innovation points.

[Jay Lawrence]

Thanks Adam, really didn't know what to make of that 'question', decided to ignore it... You are totally right of course. We had some interesting innovation for the hell of it going on. Never worked out properly