(You can also find this in our Kickstarter page)
Podium Launched!
First off – Podium has launched! Current RaceCapture/Pro users can live stream data, join race events, compare laps against other racers and more – and soon you will too with RaceCapture.
WiFi Progress
The full-meal deal for WiFi support is a pretty huge project. Since multiple connections are possible and necessary to fulfill our promises to you, it means we need to implement a multiplexing connection engine. The internal WiFi module supports up to 5 simultaneous connections, all of which we intend to use. This is vastly more sophisticated when compared to the single connection support we already enjoy with Bluetooth and Cellular Telemetry on RaceCapture/Pro. When it’s operational it will allow us to communicate with cameras and other accessories as well as accept incoming connections from the RaceCapture app. It’s a hell of a big project all by itself, but it’s being simultaneously developed on both RaceCapture/Pro MK2 as well as RaceCapture, since there’s a common code base between the two. With that, here’s a video of Andrew showing off two data streams at the same time over WiFi!
RaceCapture App updates
In the near term we’re focusing on a few key areas of the app to support features in the RaceCapture you backed – watch for more progress and demo videos as we roll these out. Specifically:
- Many analysis enhancements, including making look good (and useful) on a phone form factor. One example:
- A re-vamped and friendlier set of configuration pages that’s also aware of what hardware you have connected (RaceCapture/Pro or RaceCapture)
- A ‘first run’ experience that steps you through an initial setup when running the app for the first time
iOS App
The iOS app port is spinning up! Ryan will be taking the lead on getting the RaceCapture App running on iOS. And we say running vs ported since we’re building the app in a cross platform framework. Watch for a demo video coming soon!
OBD-II classic adapter and RaceCapture development
Work is continuing on the OBD-II classic adapter – here we have a very bespoke programming and debug cable connected to it for development work:
Developing with RaceCapture
Here’s a peek of some kitchen table development with RaceCapture – as you can see, it requires quite of bit of support equipment – but the emulator keeps us from hauling around zombie ECUs from different cars!
Timelines
With all this work, what does it look in terms of timeline? It seems the long pole in the tent is getting all of the software and firmware features fleshed out and most importantly: solidly tested. As we’ve planned out the remaining timeline we’ve been working with these assumptions:
- Your racing/track-day/auto-x season is or has started
- You’d like something as soon as possible with the features that matter the most
- What you do get you wish to be robust
- You’d be OK with phasing in remaining features ASAP if it means earlier delivery
We’re shooting to begin delivery towards the end of May with the majority of the capabilities in-place, essentially matching existing features already available in RaceCapture/Pro and the current RaceCapture App, including:
- OBD-II channels support
- Lap timing / Dashboard
- iOS and Android support
- Live streaming to Podium
- In-app analysis of post-run data
Following very soon thereafter via firmware and app upgrade:
- GoPro camera control
- Full CAN bus mapping
- Additional analysis features
The plan is to ship the perks for RaceCapture with CAN bus connection first, and then phasing in RaceCapture + classic OBD-II thereafter. Confidence level hitting this target? 50%. We think we’ve ironed out most of the unknowns so the rest is “just” engineering work. What will help us hit that target is avoiding classic pitfalls like having to do re-work and minimizing support issues with existing products like RaceCapture/Pro.
More communications! And an open secret
As we’re getting closer to the target we’ll ramp up the updates with team members sharing their individual work so you get a better feel of how things are going and get a sense of what we’re dealing with daily and week-by-week. Want to know an open secret? Since RaceCapture is an open source project, you can follow along on our Github repository as we work hour-by-hour delivering the features you care about. Browse the issues, comment on them, and let us know your thoughts!