I finally got around to installing the Traqmate that my wife got me for Christmas. I mounted the GPS using under the passenger's seat, and wired into the +12V from the power seat harness (GT3 seats in there now) and ground right there on the floor.. Forgot to take a photo of that before I replaced the seat.

That source is always hot, so I went down to Radio Shack and got an illuminated switch and a little "project box" to hold it. Then i bent up some aluminum sheet to make a spring-loaded device to hold the display unit into the console (photo below). The switch box fits in behind the display. The other photo shows the unit in place.

Can't wait to try it out!

 

Looks good. Congrats.

 

i need to do something similar to my display unit. currently i have it velcro'd behind the steering wheel. it partially blocks the view of the tach. thus, didn't see that 'consider remaining fuel' message on the cluster. my last track day, i ran out of gas. i knew i was low on gas earlier in the day but totally skipped my mine. fortunately, it ran out at the paddock so had some guys push it to the pump. embarrasing? yes.

 

Well, not nearly as embarrassing as black-flagging the session so that they can tow your fuel-starved machine off the course!

I find that when I am on track, the fuel warning comes on pretty early, because the g-forces slosh the fuel enough to fool it. Fortunately, the fuel pickup is so well designed that you don't actually start to get fuel cut until you are REALLY low on fuel.

Also, I decided to put the display unit out of the line of sight so that I wouldn't be tempted to watch it so much.

Jon

 

Jon that is brilliant! I unfortunately don't have that little storage tray in mine and ended up doing the same with the Velcro that Speedoflight did.

You're going to watch your times DROP after one weekend use and follow on analysis... I actually saw my straight away speeds slow on the longer straights, and my lower speed sections increase in speed EVERYWHERE once I understood what was going on with me, the car and the track...

Great mod there... BTW, there is a KEY ON source I tied into under the seat, but what you have rigged will work just fine. I mounted my unit in the same location and mounted the sensor for satellite feed thru the moonroof!

Mike

 

Thanks, Mike. I sure hope that you are right. Unfortunately, I will not be on track until June. I was supposed to do the new KY track next weekend, but the event was canceled because the track isn't quite ready. I gotta be in Switzerland the whole month of May. No track time, but there are other positives.

I wanted to use one that stayed hot so that I could look at the results in the pits with the car shut down. That's why I used an illuminated switch - to make it harder to forget to turn it off. I will be stealing your idea about routing the sensor through the moonroof. Good idea. Did you put anything under it, or just put it right onto the roof?

Jon

 

Jon, I saw no evidence of marring on the roof, and I ran it on there for about 10 days without issue...

You could use clear tape between the car and the sensor...The wire whipping against the roof as more of a concern, so I ran it just outside the opening with enough slack to not pull the wire with it closed! Worked great!

Mike

 

the car was cutting fuel as i come out of the turns. i was freakin out thinking something may be wrong with the car but luckily just my absent mind.

i like to put the display unit where i can see my time lap after lap as i explore different things but yeah i've been told to just tape it somewhere out of sight and just drive.

 

Little more description on how you wired into the 12v from the seats please. I am going to need to hardwire my traqmate as well and use the cigarette adapter for video or something else.

 

Nice work Jon. I guess I'll want to know my lap times at some point, but so far I've got my hands full just learning.

 

Nicely done...looks good

 

Doh! Wish I'd taken the photo before I put the seat back in. I'll see if I can pull out the connector to take a picture. Here's a description:

The same connector that has the seat belt has another connector that plugs into the original seat. Mine was free because I have the GT3 seats in now. I just checked to see which pin had +12V with no key. Then I went down to Radio Shack and bought a connector that had a male pin that fit into the hole. The guys at Radio Shack are actually quite willing to help you out with this, opening packages and trying things out. I also bought the illuminated switch, a little plastic project box and some velcro. Whole thing set me back $16. You could also get a new power connector, but Radio Shack was out of the one that was the right size. I think it was size "N". The one that comes with the unit has a screw on it that is probably a little more resistant to vibration anyway.

The switch has three terminals: +, Acc and ground. Run a new wire from the +12V to the + terminal on the switch. I cut off the cigarette lighter adapter and used the power cord for the rest. Solder the positive (center) wire of the power cord to the "Accessory" on the switch, and the other to the ground. Splice into the ground near the GPS unit and solder on another short wire to run over to the ground on the floorpan. Hide the wires best you can, and you're done.

I'll take some pics, but maybe not before Thursday.

Jon

 

Hope you can join the June 26-28 event at Bluegrass motorsport! I had also signed up for the late April school with CIRPCA but so hopefully the track is ready by end JUne. I will be instructing at the event - link below...
http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.c...5D9A9BBFBE723C

 

Sounded a lot easier when you mentioned it before. Now I'm confused, pics would be great if you could provide some.

I got the connector part, because I have race seats too, but are you connecting this to the seat belt wire or the big bundle that the seat used to plug into? And what ground near the GPS unit? You mean the traqmate GPS unit or SU?

 

Mine was hardwired in 30 minutes, start to finish... All you need is a test light and some wire taps... Pretty simple, really...I didn't even remove the seat, just slid it all the way forward or reverse (was a year ago)!

Mike