After the graph, the histogram is one of the most important ways to gain insights into your data. In this quick overview, I’ll show you how to use the histogram to help optimize your engine and/or gearing using the histogram.
To look at the data, I open the sample data that comes with every version of Off Camber Data. In particular, I open Matt’s run from 2014-02-13, at 12:02. When I open up the histogram, and I set the channel to RPM, it looks like this:
This shows me, for example, that on lap 7, Matt spent 5 seconds at 8000 RPM. That’s about 17% of the lap.
This is important for me to know if I’m trying to optimize the engine. I may want to choose jets based on this information, change the length of the exhaust, or modify another setting to optimize the power output at 8000 RPM. Used another way, if you know in which RPM band the engine produces the most power, you can change your gearing to try to be in that band as much as possible. This is especially true for shifter karts, but it helps even for non-shifters. Setting your final gear to get top speed at the end of the longest straight is not always the best way to set up the kart!
There is an important button at the top, this one:
This is the On Power button. When it’s clicked, we only consider the time while the kart is accelerating. For a channel like RPM, this makes a lot of sense. Under braking, a lot is going on with RPM, especially if you have a shifter kart, but you don’t really care about optimizing engine power at that moment. You want to optimize engine power while accelerating, and that’s what this button is for.
If you want to see the data over many laps, you can select all of them:
This colorful view stacks all the laps on top of each other. The total size of the stacks becomes an average over all laps. You can do this with one lap, all laps, or just a few of the best laps if you don’t want to rely just on one.
I think that’s enough information for one post. As always, let us know if these are useful! You can either leave a comment below, or email us at feedback@offcamberdata.com. Cheers!