CDS Track Master Software

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Track Master Software is used for analyzing all types of data recorded with a Commander II. We firmly believe that the value of a racing data acquisition lies in the ability to quickly utilize the data to improve. Consequently, Track Master’s mission is to enable the user to quickly get answers, not just a jumble of raw data.

Track Master has been widely imitated by our competitors over the years. This imitation is a credit to those who design Track Master, and those people are the hundreds of racers just like you who constantly provide feedback and ideas on the direction you think our software should go.

The current, state of the art Track Master is a culmination of over 13 years of effort to bring you the very best analysis software which is powerful, flexible, and easy to use.

Features

FLEXIBILITY to analyze data the way YOU choose, using
X-Y plots, Signal vs. Signal plots, Map plots, Suspension Animation Displays, Histograms, Bar Graphs, Numeric Displays, Driver Controls Graphics, Text Reports, Map Markers and more!

CONTROL to design screens the way you want, deciding for yourself which plots to put on the screens, how to arrange them, and what data to display in them.

SPEED & POWER that can only be had with true 32 bit software designed exclusively for Windows 95^®(and higher). TM 2000 loads and calculates data faster than any competing products - Guaranteed!

ARRANGE displays and graphs to create screens or “pages” the way YOU want. Number of pages limited only by available memory
NAME your pages using labels you prefer such as “GEARS”, “CHASSIS”, “SHOCK ANALYSIS” etc.
HOT LINK displays and graphs together so when you change to a different lap, move the cursor, or zoom a graph ALL LINKED ITEMS AUTOMATICALLY UPDATE
DESIGN map reports using CUSTOM MAP MARKERS (including segment times) for easy visual analysis

CREATE groups of pages (called “views”) and save them for future re-use allowing fast and methodical analysis
ANALYZE your data any way you want with preprogrammed AND user programmable math channels
ADD NOTES to any display or graph using the text control
PRINT IN COLOR using any WIN 95 Compatible printer
TRUE 32 BIT PERFORMANCE takes full advantage of the WIN 98 user interface including long file names, toolbars, context sensitive menus, help, and click & drag zoom & pan

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Graphs

SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISONS are simple to do. Below are segment times, shift points, RPM’s and Driver Controls for 2 laps. The left hand column of plots shows data from a “decent” lap, while the right hand column shows data from the best qualifying lap. Only TM 2000 gives you the power and flexibility to organize data this way.

THE “FLYING BOX” attached to the cursor in the 2 upper map plots shows which gear the car is in. Notice that on the “decent lap” the car is in 4th while on the “best” lap, it is in 3rd. The SEGMENT TIMES markers in the 2 upper maps are automatically positioned at the same exact track position for both laps, making the need for multiple beacons obsolete.
THE MAPS IN THE CENTER of the screen show the exact shift points for each lap, as well as which gear is being used at every point on the track, making gearing analysis as easy as it can be.

THE CURSORS IN ALL THE PLOTS are “Linked” to each other, so that as you move any one, they all update.
ALL THE NOTES ON THESE SCREENS were created using the Text Tool built into TM 2000, which makes it a snap to add notes to graphs.

SWITCHING FROM SCREEN TO SCREEN by clicking on the Page Tab is nearly instantaneous. Each custom screen can be given a meaningful name, reducing confusion.

HISTOGRAMS aid in analyzing complex data such as Shock Speeds. Here are histograms of the 4 shock speeds, along with distance plots of the shock speeds, the Driver Controls, Track Map, and 3-D Chassis Animation, all in one nicely organized page.
BY ZOOM LINKING the histograms to the X-Y plot, they analyze and display only the portion of the lap you are zoomed in on. This powerful feature allows you to quickly zero in on the portions of the data important to YOU.

STATE OF THE ART Context Sensitive Menus (Speed Menus) are used throughout the program, and are accessed by simply “Right Clicking” on any object.

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Animating Displays

3-D CHASSIS ANIMATION can be rotated both horizontally and vertically (even as it is animating!) The fixed plane (green) shows the chassis at static ride height while the red plane shows the relative movement from static. These chassis planes can be shown as wire frames (as they are in this example) or as solid planes.

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Reports

THE REPORT GENERATOR in TM 2000 is extremely flexible and powerful. The SEGMENT TIMES REPORT shows segment times for every lap in the session. At the bottom of the report the FASTEST ROLLING LAP and FASTEST THEORETICAL LAP are displayed, along with their segment times.

THE AVERAGE AIR/FUEL and the ENGINE RPM reports in the lower left are examples of “All Laps” type reports, where the min, max, average, and range for each lap is reported. In the upper right is an example of a “Session Summary” where only 1 line is devoted to each chosen signal, and the parentheses after each item indicate which lap the min or max occurred on.

THE PROPERTIES BOX for reports includes a user-controllable “Lap Time Filter” so that you have control of which laps are considered in reports. This makes it easy to exclude slow or “in” laps, spins, etc.

MAP BASED REPORT DESIGNER

CREATE map based reports using the improved map markers facility which enables you to position markers wherever you would like them to appear in the report.

MAP MARKERS appear on Map Plots positioned exactly as you arranged them on the design page.
NOTE that a Custom Marker can display the Minimum, Maximum, Average, or Absolute Value of any Signal (including Math Signals).

Segment Times Report:
Use this to quickly identify the best examples of the important segments, or segments where the driver is having trouble. The best examples of each segment are shown Like This The best examples make up the theoretical best lap. When analyzing data, many people will just analyze the fastest lap or 2 frequently missing the best examples of important segments.

Handling Wizard in Track Master 2000:

Automatically calculates the characteristic handling (called Baseline Steer) for your car and compares it to your actual handling at any point on the track.
Here are 2 typical graphs of Baseline Steer. Notice how the shape is different for an overall under-steering setup vs an over-steering one.

Here is a plot of Baseline Steer (red) along with actual Speed Steer (green). Where the green line falls below the red line the car is over steering. Wherever the green is above the red the car is pushing. The plot is zoomed in to just show the entry to mid point of turn 1 at Road America.
In the transition region of corner entry the car is slightly over steering as Lateral G begins to build. ( 1 and 2).
As the car takes a set the Speed Steer goes directly vertical, crossing the Baseline Steer line and into the understeer region.
The slight entry oversteer might be due to trail braking into the corner. Examine the braking data to be sure.
The real issue in this corner is the under steer at steady state. This is the same data that is shown on the Throttle and Brake Map on the previous page (where the driver had to lift in the middle of the corner). We now know why he had to lift.

Plotting the Over Steer and Under Steer data directly on the map dramatically shows how much time the car spends under steering in the corner. This is not as obvious in the plot above because it occurs at constant Lateral G. (steady state)
Having these new tools in Track Master 2000 enables you to quickly analyze both the transient and steady state handling of your car, significantly enhancing the value of your data system.

Throttle And Brake Map
Use this to quickly identify where the driver is having trouble and to analyze braking performance.

Any place where the driver has to lift or feather the throttle (after initial throttle application) is a red flag to a problem.
At "A" there is a slight lift at the apex of turn 1.
At "B" and "C" the driver lifts in the middle of the corner. Examine the handling data to find out why.
At "D" the driver lifts a lot for the kink, which is normally flat in this type of car. Look at more laps to make sure this was a "one time event" (and not a habit).
At "E" The driver brakes hard initially then trails off the brakes substantially, wasting time braking at a low level. He could brake a little later, and maintain higher average braking G.
Compare several Throttle and Brake maps side by side to easily see patterns and differences.

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Analysis Functions

INTUITIVE PAGE LAYOUTS enable you to view many channels of data on one screen. On this page we have air/fuel ratio for all 8 cylinders of a Winston Cup motor shown in bar graphs on the left. The bar graphs are arranged as if you were viewing the engine “from above”. Obviously, this is particular data is arranged for a Ford engine. The average air/fuel Ratio for the left and right side cylinders are also shown in bar graphs as well as the average for the whole motor. (These averages are formulated using the Math facility in TM)

THE MAP PLOT IN THE LOWER RIGHT shows throttle position and fore/aft G superimposed on a map of the track. This type of plot (unique to TM 2000) is a quick, easy to understand picture of where the driver can pick up the throttle and where he must back off. Also shown on this map plot are markers of average air/fuel ratio for the 4 main sections of the track. Map markers can be easily set up for any variable in TM.

(Click to enlarge)

THE XY PLOT in the upper right shows average air/fuel for the right side cylinders in blue, with the left side in green. The graphs are plotted against Engine RPM, and show how drastically the air/fuel ratios change as the engine pulls through its RPM range. These plots illustrate how easy it is to boil down “data” into the easy to see “answers” that we really need.

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Chassis Analysis Option

THE CHASSIS ANIMATION display shows a 3-D representation of the “Chassis Plane”. This screen shows the reference plane (green) and moving plane (red) as solids. (the example on the opposite page uses the “wireframe” option. As you move the cursor around the map of the track or across a x-y plot, the chassis and all the bar graphs update or “animate“ Moving the cursor can be done manually point by point, or can be run automatically at 3 selectable speeds. This screen also demonstrates that you can easily have more than 1 chassis animation showing several views of 1 set of data, or even view several data sets side by side.

THE PRIME BENEFIT of the Chassis Animation is that it lets you watch actual action of your chassis on the track, rather than trying to visualize it yourself while looking at graphs. Of course you can also look at the graphs in TM 2000 if you like. The small graph in the lower right of this screen might not seem useful until you realize that any graph, no matter how small, can be instantly zoomed to full screen with 1 keystroke.

BAR GRAPHS displaying all the common chassis parameters have been added to this screen. This illustrates that in TM 2000 you can “layer” displays on top of each other to create screens as you want them to appear rather than being constrained by someone else’s idea of how to show the data.

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Math Channel Option

THE MATH CHANNEL FACILITY IN TM 2000 is the most advanced available with many unique and powerful features. Performance is so good that when you plot a signal, you can’t tell if it is a raw recorded signal or a math signal nested many layers down in the math channels!

ALGEBRAIC FUNCTIONS


TRIGONOMETRIC FUNCTIONS


LOG AND EXP FUNCTIONS


STATISTICAL FUNCTIONS


CALCULUS FUNCTIONS


COMPARISON FUNCTIONS

SMOOTHING OPERATORS
LOGICAL OPERATORS
IF-THEN-ELSE CONSTRUCTS

SYSTEM WIDE CONSTANTS


SESSION SPECIFIC CONSTANTS


NO LIMIT AS TO NUMBER OF FORMULAS OR LEVELS OF RECURSION


COMPLETE CONTROL HOW DATA IS MODIFIED PRIOR TO INSERTION INTO A MATH SIGNAL


CONTROL OF SAMPLE RATE AT WHICH A MATH SIGNAL IS RESOLVED