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2009 SR8 Stack dash and AiM Solo 2 DL

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John Parsons
(@parsonsj)
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Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 626
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I'm getting my new-to-me SR8 ready for a track date, and the first thing (ok... the second thing. My leaky oil pump is back from Spring Mountain and ready to be installed) is getting my data acquisition ready.

Sorry for the ramble that follows, but I wanted to capture what I've figured out in case it's useful to others.

The car has a Stack setup, which was pretty cool in 2009, but is badly dated now. The main problem is that it doesn't have any GPS support... one is supposed to put an IR beacon up on the pit wall near the start / finish line to capture lap times. 

After looking for weeks to find a used AiM MXL Pista at a reasonable price (Spring Mountain has a brand new one, but they want full retail price for it. No thanks... I can buy the MXL2 for that), I decided to install a new AiM Solo 2 DL. That will capture all of my lap times and I can stay with my familiar Race Studio 2/3, and it costs about 1/3 of a new MXL2.  

Now that I've bought (from Matt at Trailbrake.com) the Solo2, my dash quit working. After finally finding some support (Creative Motorsport Solutions in Daytona Beach and 213Performance in the UK), I shipped the dash off to be upgraded and a new backup battery installed. 

The interesting thing about the Stack dash is that you use analog 5 and 6 as the CAN inputs! It took weeks to find that little bit of documentation.

Once I get the dash back, installed and working, I'll post some pics of the whole setup. 


   
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Alan Cassells
(@cassellsmotorsport)
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That would be useful to see. I have a stack setup also 


   
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Nikki Schumann
(@nick02)
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Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 87
 

I did exactly the same upgrade with SR300376... It came with the STACK dash but had all dedicated sensors (RPM, oil press/temp, water press/temp, etc...). Since I had a data output connector from the Life Racing ECU that was not being used I had a cable made and connected it to the 5 and 6 "inputs" of the dash...

Note however I had to upgrade the ECU software so enable the CAN output as the version it had previously did not support this. To do the upgrade I had Radical connect through "TeamViewer" on my computer while connected to the car and they did it remotely. They were very helpful.

Let me know how you get on. I'll be happy to help if you have any questions along the way. 🙂

You will also need activation codes for the STACK unit to enable the CAN input on position 5 and 6 but I think 213 Peformance can help you with these.

Best improvement I did to my Radical since I got it ! 🙂 


   
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John Parsons
(@parsonsj)
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I've been a bit of a slacker keeping this thread updated. I did get the dash upgraded with a new battery and connected to the ECU, and it all worked correctly.

But then... I came across a deal for a new-in-box AiM MXS Strada. I talked with Matt at Trailbrake.net, and he said he'd take the SoloDL back as credit for AiM's new Strada logger, which effectively upgrades the Strada to full logger status.  

I've tested that configuration successfully as well. However, more investigation of the car discovered another issue: the F88 ECU didn't publish gear position, and the gearbox controller was hopelessly old and also didn't support publishing of the gear position, nor did it support closed-loop shifting (where the controller monitors the gear position and uses advanced algorithms to ensure letter-perfect shifts).

Once again, after trying for several weeks to get direct support from Radical, I've had to go my own way. I'm working directly with Geartronics and am using their Pro GCU3 controller and my own harness to upgrade the shifter to modern best practices. 

To circle back to the original aim of this thread, lol, I did manage to get the Stack setup working perfectly. It's sitting in a box with its harness on a shelf now. If anybody is interested, I'll make you a great deal on it. 

 


   
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CharleyH
(@charleyhradicalsportscarregistry-com)
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Joined: 6 years ago
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@parsonsj, I think I can save you some effort.  You don’t need to get a gear signal from the car.  The Aim dash can calculate the gear you are in based on your rpm and speed.  It is easy to set up and works well.

Here are the instructions.  They are for the Pista dash so hopefully they will work for the MXS also.  Matt @trailbrake.net could tell us for sure.

 


   
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CharleyH
(@charleyhradicalsportscarregistry-com)
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It looks like on the MXS the procedure is in the Math Channels section of the manual.  

Aim Gear calc

   
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John Parsons
(@parsonsj)
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Thanks Charley! I'll check that out when I get back in town in a couple weeks.


   
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John Parsons
(@parsonsj)
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Joined: 5 years ago
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Topic starter  

OK, so I'm back in town, and a special package awaited.

It's an open F88RX ECU, one in which I can change the calibration. So I enabled the gear position sensor pin (#73), and calibrated the gear position sensor at each gear position and now the AiM MXS dash displays the proper gear based on CAN output from the ECU. Why Radical would wire the loom (with the 5V supply, ground, and sensor) but not enable the pin is just so... frustrating. 

Anyway, it's all working correctly now. Time to bundle everything up and get ready for Sebring in December. 

Although... the lambda connections are also already in the loom, and I have a couple of NTK wide band sensors, and I could have the ECU run closed loop with wideband input.

Maybe next year. 🙂


   
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Dan Phillips
(@rlm-dan)
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Posts: 262
 

Glad to hear that you are making progress John!


   
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