Start it up

Plug it in

Unpackage the RaceCapture system and included cable.

Plug one end of the cable into the RaceCapture unit
Plug the other end of the cable into your car's OBDII port.
Place the RaceCapture unit on your dashboard with clear view of the sky. Position the system so it's square to the car's axis.

Download the app

On Mobile

Google Play
Amazon App Store
Apple iOS app store (coming soon)

Not sure what tablet to use? See our list of recommended tablets

RaceCapture software on Windows / OSX

You can get the latest Windows or OSX software from the software downloads page.

Windows 10 and OSX: No drivers are needed for OSX or Windows 10.
Windows XP, 7, 8: See the driver installation instructions below.

Connect to your RaceCapture system

In your mobile device WiFI settings, connect to the RaceCapture WiFi network.

By default, RaceCapture will setup a WiFi network starting with 'RaceCapture', with no password. You can immediately connect to this network.

Once you've connected to the RaceCapture WiFi network, launch the RaceCapture app.

Verifying Connectivity

The RaceCapture app will guide you through a brief automated setup and tour. During this process the connection to RaceCapture will be verified.

LED status

Your RaceCapture system has a status LED that will indicate the current status of the system:

Green - GPS Status (or firmware update status)
- Slow green flash : GPS searching for lock
- Fast green flash : GPS locked (2Hz)
* Very fast green flash': Very rapid green flash indicates the unit is in bootloader mode, during firmware updates. If you see this when the the unit powers up and you cannot connect with the RaceCapture app, it usually means a failed firmware upgrade. You can resolve the issue by going through the firmware update process again.

Blue : WiFi activity
Red: Firmware error

System Status

Access the system status pages through the top left menu. The system status offers information on GPS status, current WiFi state and more. You can also get a copy of the RaceCapture application log for diagnostics.

Dashboard Mode

To view your dashboard, touch the dashboard option on the main screen.

Customizing a gauge

Most gauges can be customized for the channel and setting visual alerts. Touch the gauge you wish to customize, select the channel you wish to monitor and optionally configure alerts.

Navigating dashboard screens

You can navigate between dashboard screens by swiping left or right, or press the arrow buttons in the lower corners of the screen.

Track mapping and predictive lap timing

RaceCapture offers predictive lap timing, which relies on a robust track detection system leveraging hundreds of track maps worldwide.

How it works

When GPS receives a lock, RaceCapture will search for a nearby track.
If a track is detected with one configuration, it is automatically selected.
If a track is detected with multiple configurations, the RaceCapture app will prompt you for which configuration you're using.
If no tracks are detected nearby, the RaceCapture app will offer the ability to create a track on the spot.
- If you're not able to immediately create the track, you can do so later under Setup.
Track not found? Submit the track to us and we'll get it into our online database.

Setup Mode

You can configure all of RaceCapture's options under the setup page.

When the RaceCapture app detects the connected hardware, it will read the current setup from the device.

The setup information is presented as a series of pages, by topic.
When you change something on a setup page, you'll need to Write the changes back to the unit - they do not take effect immediately.

Explanation of buttons

Save: Save the current RaceCapture setup to a file, for backup.
Open: Load a previously saved setup file.
Read: Read the current setup from the RaceCapture device.
Write: Writes any updated changes back to the RaceCapture device. Note: when you see the write button glowing / pulsing, it means there are pending changes to write back to the RaceCapture device

Race Tracks

On the RaceTracks page you can create a custom track, which will be included in the library of track maps for automatic detection. To create a custom track, turn off 'Automatic race track detection' and then press the add (+) button. You will be presented with an option to create a circuit or Autocross (point-point) style course. Follow the on-screen instructions to create your track.

GPS

The GPS page allows you to adjust the GPS sample rate and enable/disable various channels.

Note: We highly recommend you keep the default channels enabled for proper operation of analysis and lap timing.
10Hz is the recommended sample rate for the best balance of performance / accuracy. Getting the best GPS performance

Race Timing

These enable the lap timer and predictive lap timer. Leave these 'on' to enable these features.

Analog Sensors

RaceCapture has one analog sensor that measures current battery voltage. The default 1Hz is the recommended sample rate. To disable, set the sample rate to 'Disabled'.

Note: Normally you would not need to adjust these settings.

Accel / Gyro

The recommended mounting orientation for RaceCapture is square with the chassis.

You can re-map channels by re-assigning the physical axis to the mapped channel.
Once defined, you can calibrate the accelerometer + gyro by pressing the calibrate button, and then pressing the write button to write the calibration back to RaceCapture.

CAN bus

For OBDII operation, ensure the CAN bus is set to On.

Common baud rates for OBDII are 500K and 250K. The default is 500K, which applies to nearly every CAN OBDII vehicle.

OBDII

You can select from a standard list of OBDII channels on the OBDII configuration screen.

Selecting sample rates

For channels that require a faster response rate, like RPM and TPS, we recommend 10, 25 or 50Hz. More slowly changing channels like EngineTemperature should be set to 1 or 5Hz.

Note about unsupported channels: If your ECU does not support a channel, the value will remain at 0. RaceCapture will time-out waiting for a response from the ECU, which will affect the performance of other channels. We recommend removing all unsupported channels to ensure optimal OBDII performance.

Wireless

You can configure RaceCapture's WiFi for both Access Point and Client mode.

Client Mode

To enable client mode, specify the SSID and password for the network you wish to connect to and turn the client mode switch to on

Access Point Mode

To enable the RaceCapture access point, specify the SSID and a password.

Note: If specified, passwords must be minimum of 8 characters. Leave the field blank to create an open network.

Real-time Telemetry

You can live-stream your data to Podium so you can compare and share laps and runs with your friends as well as analyze your data in Podium to become a faster driver

Enabling Telemetry

Create an account on Podium and create a device ID.
Enter the provided device ID into the telemetry configuration page of your RaceCapture app
Enable the telemetry option in the top level application preferences.

When telemetry is broadcasting, you will see a green cloud icon in the application toolbar.

Notes about Android devices

Hotspot mode: Older versions of Android will lose their internet connection when connected to a WiFi network that doesn't provide an internet connection. This is a common issue when connecting to WiFi enabled cameras such as GoPros and other WiFi enabled devices. Fortunately, iOS and newer versions of Android have the smarts to detect this condition and keep the cellular connection active, but older versions of Android will require an different approach.

If you have a device that loses it's internet connection when connected to RaceCapture's WiFi network, you can solve this by enabling a hot spot on your device, and then configuring RaceCapture's WiFi interface by enabling the client configuration to connect to your hotspot, effectively reversing the connection. Once RaceCapture is configured to connect to your hotspot, it will automatically connect whenever your hotspot is turned on, and then you'll be able to broadcast telemetry to Podium.

Logs

To view the log messages provided by the RaceCapture unit, you can enable the Poll log check box. You can copy the current log to the clipboard by pressing the Copy button.

Note: These logs are useful for diagnosing issues with your RaceCapture unit.

Analysis Mode

RaceCapture will automatically record your session in the background while in dashboard mode. To view the data, enter the Analysis mode and load an existing session. The session will be automatically named with the local track or with a timestamp.

Reviewing Laps

If the data contains lap times, the laps will be shown in the dropdown list on the right. Select the laps you wish to compare; the Speed channel is selected by default.

Comparing additional channels: You can review additional channels by pressing the gear icon on the line chart.

Navigating data

Swipe across the data to compare various points correlated with the position on the track map.

Zooming you can zoom the chart using a two-finger pinch gesture, or using the mouse scroll wheel or your laptop's trackpad scroll feature.

Selecting time vs distance

You can switch between time and distance data comparison by accessing the chart options, or pressing the -> or clock icon in the line chart.

Reviewing raw data

If your data contains no laps, such as data from a static test or dyno pull, the data will be present in one entry under the loaded session. Select this entry to view the data. The RaceCapture app will auto-select the Time dimension if it detects no significant distance traveled within the data.

Comparing laps / runs between sessions

You can compare data between sessions if they are in a coinciding location - just load multiple sessions and select laps between those sessions.

Exporting Data

You can export your sessions from your list of saved sessions.

RaceRender

See the RaceRender guide on how to create videos using RaceCapture data

Importing to 3rd party software

The RaceCapture log file format is plain CSV, which can be imported into 3rd party software.

RaceRender provides native support for the RaceCapture log file format.
DashWare has been used by RaceCapture customers - Rowan Hick has a write-up on Dashware integration.

Updating Firmware

See the Firmware upgrade instructions to update your RaceCapture to the latest firmware.

More

Alternative ways to power

Automating use of Tablets/Phones for a Dashboard display

See this guide here: Automating Tablets/Phones for use as Dashboards Guide

USB

You can power RaceCapture using the included USB cable, plugged into your car's USB charger.

You can optionally power RaceCapture from a battery like the kind you would use to recharge a phone (1000 mAh or higher recommended)

Custom Cable

You can build a custom cable for power and CAN bus using a standard CAT-5 ethernet cable with an RJ45 connector. Wire up using

Power, ground and CAN bus connections
Connection	RaceCapture (RJ45 cable)
+12v	Brown
Ground	Orange/White
CAN 1 High	Orange
CAN 1 Low	Green/White

Note: These color codes assume EIA-T568B RJ45 cable (check printing on the cable to confirm)

(Looking into the connector on RaceCapture)

Microsoft Windows 7/8 Driver installation

Download and unzip drivers: Windows XP/Vista/7/8 Drivers V2
- Note for Windows 8 users - These drivers are unsigned. You will need to disable the driver signing requirement for Windows 8, or upgrade to Windows 10. Instructions
  - Win8 64bit unsigned driver instructions
Plug RaceCapture/Pro in to the computer.
If prompted to install a driver, direct Windows to the folder where you unzipped the RaceCapture/Pro drivers.
If not prompted, manually update driver:
- Open Windows Device Manager and find the Ports (COM and LPT) section. RaceCapture/Pro should be listed there, possibly with a yellow (!) over the icon.
- Right click and select 'Update Driver'.
- Follow the instructions and direct Windows to the folder where you unzipped the RaceCapture/Pro drivers.

Recovering from mis-configured WiFi

If you're unable to connect via mobile due to a WiFi configuration issue - for example:

You forgot the password you set for RaceCapture's Access Point
If RaceCapture's WiFi client needs to be re-configured for a new WiFi network
You just accidentally messed something up

You can recover by re-configuring RaceCatpure's WiFi settings via the USB connection and the Windows or OSX app.

Steps to recover:

Launch the RaceCapture app on Windows or OSX
Connect RaceCapture via USB
Allow the software to connect and read the configuration
Under Setup, adjust the WiFi settings as needed
Write the configuration back to RaceCapture

Once you update the settings, it's recommended you test the WiFi connection using your mobile device while still connected over USB so you can further adjust settings as needed.

RaceCapture-Track