GPS Performance programs (MPH, Avg speed etc) ?

[DynaMight]

I'm after a program that can measure actual speed (hopefully full screen) aswell as 0-60, 1/4mile times kinda like this program for the S60 mobile phones http://www.tempes.com/features.html or even one like BlueSky http://www.blueskygps.com/

Anyone know of any programs free or pay that do this.

Thanks

[mikealder]

You can display the speedo full size and do a bit more with GPS Dash, have a look at http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=19 for the full version it will cost but the demo will give you a feel for it. For 1/4 mile drag race times I don't think GPS is good enough, the reasoning being the time stamp and signal update only ocurs once per second, so if you are wanting to time to 1/1000 of a second it will not do it -
mike

[DynaMight]

Thanks mate I'll have a look, according to the Tempes website it's pretty accurate. I am sure I've seen a similar program for the PPC....

[mikealder]

Just for the record the GPS data is very accurate but it will only update once per second, running a drag strip you will cover quite a distance in this time so its difficult to approximate the true speed and time of the quarter mile. You will only get a snap shot of data containing position, track and speed (there are other parameters streaming from the GPS that are not relevent for this type of work IMHO).
Measuring wheel speed is one way but it gets very expensive due to the hardware/ software needed and is upset by wheel speed/ spin.
The only true way I know of doing this is to measure road speed (and therefore distance) by a non contact sensor "bouncing" off the road surface, (optical or infra-red), very difficult and very costly - GPS data is fine for track use (just) and great for normal on/ off road activities, I would not recommend its use for drag race or other finely timed modes of sport -
Anyone from the F1 world using this site care to comment on what is used for the high performance systems fitted to the "cars" for speed/ position data transmision via telemetry - Mike

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