Pi Research Case Study
The Challenge
Pi Research Cambridge – F1 and Indy Car Motorsport Data Loggers. Users: Designers, engineers and mechanics.
A motorsport electronics supplier needed a real time temperature logger for top tier series. Exhaust gas temperature had to be measured at multiple points hundreds of times per second, then streamed to the pit wall for live decisions. The system had to be compact, robust, and safe around extreme heat and vibration.
Teams also wanted the data aligned with existing engine channels so engineers could spot mixture issues, misfires, and emerging failures. The deadline was tight and the hardware had to integrate with existing looms and telemetry.
The Development Process
We began on site in the garage to map the physical constraints, sensor placements and connector standards. From this we wrote a concise spec covering sampling rates, synchronisation to the ECU clock, noise rejection, alert thresholds, and data paths to both onboard storage and pit side receivers.
Electronics were built around NXP DSP56F8300 Series for deterministic sampling. We used thermocouple front ends with cold junction compensation and shielding for EMI. Firmware handled scheduler driven acquisition, calibration, spike filtering and packet framing.
Our software provided a serial link into the team’s telemetry and we integrated the data to the existing system via an API. Track tests validated timing, packet loss and latency.
A supervisor console showed live traces per cylinder bank with alarm bands, and the logger could fall back to local storage if the radio link degraded.
Key features
- Multi point thermocouple sensing along the exhaust for detailed heat maps
- High speed acquisition and logging
- Real time telemetry to pit wall or resilient onboard storage
- Calibration and filtering to remove noise while keeping true spikes
- ECU friendly integration so temperature aligns with engine channels
- Fail safe thresholds and alerts for early intervention
Outcome
The system met the one month delivery window and ran reliably across race weekends. Live temperature traces reached engineers with low latency, helping tune mixture and timing, spot failing components early and protect engines. Several teams adopted the solution and used it for both performance and reliability work.
“RD Research did an outstanding job on what was a technically demanding project that was delivered on time and with a high degree of expertise. The data logger worked perfectly from day one and has been a great success.”
Derek Taylor, Head of Design, Pi Research