Thermal imaging for traction

[bry195]

I thought this might be interesting.
You are looking at a car chassis from the underside looking up.
4 tires. Its an RC car so disregard the hotspot in the middle that is the motor.
You can see a couple things.
The right side of the car has too much camber-inside tire temp,
Left side has better camber.
One diaganol average is higher than the other indicating an uneven weight distribution probably related to shock preload.
The average rear temp is lower than the front indicating more weight on the front of the car
this car slightly understeers but you lose all 4 corners very evenly.
Once i get the static camber even (meaning even temp across the contact patch) I’ll adjust camber gain by tuning the outside tires in a sustained 2g corner and then the same for the other side.
I’ll run the same test again and tune the inside tires the same way and then average the camber gain settings for both sides so that the inside tires compliment the outside tires. The point is to have your inside tires help the outside tires rotate the car by setting toe and camber to a happy medium.
obviously preload and weight distribution can be adjusted with this data.

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[chikinhed]

I’ve been using a tire pyrometer for years for this but your method is is a step up.

[euro2fast4u]

Ive been building something very similar to this guys.

http://www.izzeracing.com/products/i...e-sensors.html

except 30 bucks instead of 300 a sensor.

You'll realize the tire temp mid corner is much more important then resting tire t

[TheJuggernaut]

Just get a probe type pyrometer. Surface temperatures are always changing, it's the inside that you really want to know and it's like a buffered integral of what the tire went through.

[bry195]

Ive been building something very similar to this guys.

http://www.izzeracing.com/products/i...e-sensors.html

except 30 bucks instead of 300 a sensor.

You'll realize the tire temp mid corner is much more important then resting tire t

That is pretty cool. Whether its a camera like mine or something based off emisivity (SP?) the ratio of light reflected versus absorbed like black versus chrome can give you a huge swing in temperatures. i would say dry tires are pretty stable though. You will get minor variations with the distance to the camera or optic but not enough that you wont get good data to work with. I think you will have to do focus the cone at the tire in a way that the central point of rotation shares the optical center of the optic. But depending on cone width your measurements may have bad data at the extremes of the tire while turning the wheel unless the optic rotates with the tire. It looks like that sensor does a plane of measurments but you can work with that.

Once you get the right tires its pretty helpful to know how they deliver power and temperature is the best indicator next to having an experienced driver. I had no idea that tire temperature can tell you the right cross weight, camber, ride height, toe, camber link (gain), and spring rate. Im no expert but while im learning i have gone from rear of the pack to middle front of the pack.

[bry195]

Just get a probe type pyrometer. Surface temperatures are always changing, it's the inside that you really want to know and it's like a buffered integral of what the tire went through.

I think most racers agree with you but I cant get the hang of it yet. i think F1 is still experimenting with the cameras but you can never tell with those guys. What I can say that a camera has going for it is that all 4 tires can be almost real time and synchronized. Thats probably a good thing when you have to make big changes for different tracks but probably has minimal value when you are already close or have enough experience at adjusting your suspension. I’d say that for someone starting with no experience its pretty easy to visualize what is going on with a camera.

i think you can get a camera for your phone for around 300 bucks but I havent used one of those. This one is IP67 and around 1k. The ability to average temperatures or measure multiple simultaneous pointsmight not exist in those phone IR cameras.

[bry195]

I did a skid pad test to find out if camber gain is correct for a CW turn versusa CCW turn and found that the FR and RL tires were always hotter than what they were supposed to be in both directions. The car is 50/50 F to R and R to L. Ride height and spring rate are also spot on.
8BD652E5-5140-4FF0-A771-5B20761678A7.jpg91E8F61C-A5BF-42B6-BA49-32F9D5748F3E.jpg