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How To Use Weather Sensors - eLapsRaceTiming - 21-Feb-2016 03:48 PM Weather variables like air temperature, track temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure etc. influence a race car set up and engine tune. e-Laps Race Timing software has integrated functionality that allows you to read and display these weather variables directly on the Pit screen display, as well as printed on the race reports and emails. There are several different weather sensor modules that can be purchased through Scale Race Engineering, and the basic temperature sensor module has the following technical specifications: To use a weather sensor, connect the sensor module directly to a USB port on your system, or to a USB port on a compatible network controller such as a Wireless-g Network Hub or PoE Ethernet Controller Module. NOTE: network controller must be an integrated controller (available through Scale Race Engineering) in order for the weather sensor to be able to communicated back to e-Laps software. Once the sensor module is connected to your system, open the Weather Sensors tab on the Network page (7th Menu item from the top). NOTE: it can take a few seconds for a connected sensor to appear in the drop down lists. The sensors will appear automatically (after 5 seconds or so), however you can click the small button to the right of a drop down list to refresh the lists immediately. On this tab you can choose which sensor you want to use for which weather variable. If you have multiple physical sensor modules connected to your system (e.g. a Temperature sensor module and a Thermocouple sensor module), you will be able to choose individual modules using the drop down lists. Some sensor modules (e.g. the "Temperature, Humidity, Atmospheric Pressure" sensor) have multiple sensors built in to the one module. Each of these sensors can be chosen for the required weather variable using the drop down lists. Track Temperature Reads a sensor that is measuring the track temperature - ideally this would be a thermocouple temperature sensor connected directly to the track surface. Ambient Temperature Reads a sensor that is measuring the ambient (air) temperature. Relative Humidity Reads a sensor that is measuring the relative humidity. Atmospheric Pressure Reads a sensor that is measuring the atmospheric pressure. Once selected, sensor values will be displayed on the Weather Sensors tab, as well as in the footer bar on the e-Laps window: Sensor values will also appear on the Pit screen display, and will also be printed on any race report or race result emails. Changing Sensor output values Temperature values can be displayed in degrees Celsius ©, or degrees Fahrenheit (F). Atmospheric pressure value can be displayed in Pascals (hPa) or Bar (bar). NOTE: Changing an output value will record the change on the sensor module's flash memory. This means you don't need to continually change the value each time you connect the module. Calibrating sensor values Weather sensors can be calibrated if required. To do so, click the small menu button in the top right corner of the Weather Sensors tab as shown below: Clicking this button will open the Calibrate Sensors form. To calibrate a sensor, type in a value in the NEW Value field (as shown in the above screen shot), and then click Save. The sensor module will save this value in its flash memory and use it to calculate sensor value output. To reset a sensor calibration, simply click the Reset button to clear all previous calibration values. Weather sensor chart Weather sensor values are recorded within e-Laps every 30 minutes. These 'trend' record values are displayed on the BREAK screen that can be opened via the Preferences Tab on the Race Setup menu (2nd menu from the top). Complete BREAK screen functionality is explained in another How To guide, but some functionality explanation is repeated here due to its relevance to weather sensor control. Here you can control which weather sensors are displayed on the BREAK screen. Turning on (ticking box) a sensor will add the sensor trend records to the chart: These weather trend records can be informative for racers so they may predict how race conditions may change throughout a long race.