Trouble Shooting.

After 9 years of making FXL DATA loggers and MPE loggers, and over 265 customers, we have found some typical trouble spots.

You have more than a 99% chance that the logger will work first time and continue working as long as you need it.

The vast majority of problems centre around the throttle switch. If you don't get on full throttle, you will never get a recording. If you have the transbrake/two step on you can never get a recording until it is released and you are on full throttle. Example of this is if you have the car/bike in the pits on stands and you go full throttle against the transbrake/two step BUT never release it (because it would be rather dangerous) then you simply will not get a recording because the record inhibit is on.

The scenario is this: In the actual race, you start the car/bike, do a burn out, go to pre-stage and turn the logger on. Then the logger is triggered by going to full throttle and releasing the transbrake/two step. This is the launch and this is what sets the Time Zero on the graph. If you don't use a transbrake/two step limiter, then the logger will record the moment you hit full throttle. For example, a blown car wont go to full throttle on the line. Some blown cars, mainly altereds, will tip toe off the line then mash the throttle about one second into the run. The recording is referenced from then. If you are concerned about triggering the throttle switch, then put the micro switch near the pivot point of the pedal so it needs less movement to trip it. Yoiu could also put some nylon hose under the pedal so it will squash as the pedal pushes against the switch.

If the logger loses power during the recording, then it will drop the recording and nothing will be downloaded. This usually comes back to not using the correct on off switch. If a normal spot light switch is used, then it will suffer from vibration and drop the recording.

If you make a run and then go to do a download, and the program comes back with "Not connected, Not switched on" etc, then it can be two things.

1: Either the logger has lost power during the run and the internal voltage has dropped to such a point that the microprocessor picks up a corrupted instruction

2: or there is a conflict with the Windows not allowing access to the serial port for downloading.

The way to check for serial port conflicts is this:

Get the computer or laptop running the program, plug the download cable into the 9 pin serial port but DONT plug it into the logger. This will set up the scenario of the download cable not being plugged in. Go to do a download, even though nothing is plugged in. If the computer comes back IMMEDIATELY with the failure message, it is a serial port problem. If it waits about 2 seconds then comes back with the failure message, then this is correct. It should not reply instantly. There should be a short delay of about 2 seconds.

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