GPS 0-60 Timer!

[james_jamz]

Alright all,

Just been to a show today, and there was a 0-60 time trial at the show... took the car on it, and they used this GPS type device to read how fast the car goes from 0 all the way to 60.

Just been looking on the internet, and could not find anything... just wondered where i would be able to get one.

Cheers

James

[mikealder]

At very best it will be an approximation of your true 0 to 60 time, GPS data only updates every second for civilian users, some devices can offer higher update rate based upon guess work, but I wouldn't trust it for a true reading - GPS speed is great for steady state speed readings but for short sprint type work the speed/ timing is far better served using static timing beams over a known distance - Mike

[james_jamz]

One of my friends was telling me that someone has deisgned something which you can add to your tom tom to tell you a rough 0-60 time.

[robertn]

This has been discussed previously, it could be done, with some specific engineering inside the GPS chip. You would use doppler shift to detect when the speed reached a ceratin level, then report the time.

I doubt it can be done in consumer GPS devices such as TT. Maybe reprogramming the GPS front end processors could get it working. I doubt it make economic sense to do this. The very few people in the world with the skills are probably more interested in frying bigger fish.

The current rancge of SiRF (and most others) are set to process the signal based on a number of different types of use - Automotive, Aviation, Pedestrian and a few others. The tweak calcualtions to do with rate of turn, rate of acceration, rolling average times etc. If one of the modes was "0-60 test", then maybe. The problem is, the shorter time for rolling averages, the more dynamic the result. Automotive tends to use long times, so speed and direction remain relatively stable, if somewhat slow to respond to changes.

Do this test - instead of the 0-60, try the 60-0 test. When it is safe, do an emergency stop, and watch how long it takes the GPS to report your speed is 0 - You will get a idea of how accurate your 0-60 test would be.

[Skippy]

As others have commented, although GPS is a good way to measure steady state speed, it is not very good at measuring acceleration or 400 metre/quarter mile times. The position tends to jump around a lot and the speed reading can lag behind reality.

However, you can get GPS units which do 5 or 10 updates per second. It could also be used in conjunction with an accelerometer for better accuracy. I've heard of systems which do this, but they are fairly specialised, they aren't normal consumer units.
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Gone fishing!

[james_jamz]

Cheers for the reply's guys

[philpugh]

Try this link - suprisingly affordable if you are into this sort of thing. A stop-watch will do for one offs!
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Phil

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