Telemetry - How to read it?

[David Brooks]

Hello.

Not sure if there is already a thread like this, but I wanted to get some help with what the telemetry is actually telling me, and I thought if others had questions on the topic they could put it here too.

My question is regarding the suspension bump stop, travel and ride height data. I am trying to figure out what the measurements are relative to? For example, the bump stop figure is constant, which suggests it is relative to a fixed point on the chassis. But the travel and ride height, and how they interact with each other and the bump stop are less obvious to me.

I guess what I want to understand are things like: If I am bottoming the car out at speed and when that happens my travel is indicating 10mm, does that mean that setting the bump stop to 11mm will mean the car will hit the bump stop and have a ride height of 1mm (all other things being equal)?

Another example question: If my bump stop is at 10mm, does that mean if my travel indicates 10mm it is actually on the bump stop? Or is it 10mm above the bump stop? Or can the travel go less than 10mm, in which case what does it mean? Does 0mm mean it is on the bump stop? Or is the travel relative to something completely different and the number has no relation to the bump stop? That kind of thing.

Secondly, can anyone advise what it means when the travel flashes red? At first, I thought it meant you were hitting the stops or exceeding the limit of travel, but I don't think that anymore. As an example, I was driving the Honda Indycar (oval) at Texas motor speedway with the SMS loose oval setup. I found the feedback on my T300 (PS4) was very odd feeling, in that it had very light resistance turning into the corners (especially the kinks in the pit straight), but then it got hit with some feedback from the car/road. I turned on telemetry and this feedback kick seemed to correlate to the travel data flashing red. Yet the ride height was clearly off the ground, and the travel was indicating values well higher then the bump stops. Also, the little curved scales were showing a 'mid' position (I don't think I have ever seen them show anything else - what are these telling me?). Furthermore, the suspension values on the telemetry when flashing red did not appear to be any different to the values when not flashing (like when driving down the straights). So to my original question - what is this actually trying to tell me?

Thanks in advance to the community for any help you can offer. I just want to be able to make the most of this tool to improve my tuning. 👍

 

[diesel97]

Hello.

Not sure if there is already a thread like this, but I wanted to get some help with what the telemetry is actually telling me, and I thought if others had questions on the topic they could put it here too.

My question is regarding the suspension bump stop, travel and ride height data. I am trying to figure out what the measurements are relative to? For example, the bump stop figure is constant, which suggests it is relative to a fixed point on the chassis. But the travel and ride height, and how they interact with each other and the bump stop are less obvious to me.

I guess what I want to understand are things like: If I am bottoming the car out at speed and when that happens my travel is indicating 10mm, does that mean that setting the bump stop to 11mm will mean the car will hit the bump stop and have a ride height of 1mm (all other things being equal)?

Another example question: If my bump stop is at 10mm, does that mean if my travel indicates 10mm it is actually on the bump stop? Or is it 10mm above the bump stop? Or can the travel go less than 10mm, in which case what does it mean? Does 0mm mean it is on the bump stop? Or is the travel relative to something completely different and the number has no relation to the bump stop? That kind of thing.

Secondly, can anyone advise what it means when the travel flashes red? At first, I thought it meant you were hitting the stops or exceeding the limit of travel, but I don't think that anymore. As an example, I was driving the Honda Indycar (oval) at Texas motor speedway with the SMS loose oval setup. I found the feedback on my T300 (PS4) was very odd feeling, in that it had very light resistance turning into the corners (especially the kinks in the pit straight), but then it got hit with some feedback from the car/road. I turned on telemetry and this feedback kick seemed to correlate to the travel data flashing red. Yet the ride height was clearly off the ground, and the travel was indicating values well higher then the bump stops. Also, the little curved scales were showing a 'mid' position (I don't think I have ever seen them show anything else - what are these telling me?). Furthermore, the suspension values on the telemetry when flashing red did not appear to be any different to the values when not flashing (like when driving down the straights). So to my original question - what is this actually trying to tell me?

Thanks in advance to the community for any help you can offer. I just want to be able to make the most of this tool to improve my tuning. 👍

This might help

 

[ozwheels]

Hello.

Not sure if there is already a thread like this, but I wanted to get some help with what the telemetry is actually telling me, and I thought if others had questions on the topic they could put it here too.

My question is regarding the suspension bump stop, travel and ride height data. I am trying to figure out what the measurements are relative to? For example, the bump stop figure is constant, which suggests it is relative to a fixed point on the chassis. But the travel and ride height, and how they interact with each other and the bump stop are less obvious to me.

I guess what I want to understand are things like: If I am bottoming the car out at speed and when that happens my travel is indicating 10mm, does that mean that setting the bump stop to 11mm will mean the car will hit the bump stop and have a ride height of 1mm (all other things being equal)?

Another example question: If my bump stop is at 10mm, does that mean if my travel indicates 10mm it is actually on the bump stop? Or is it 10mm above the bump stop? Or can the travel go less than 10mm, in which case what does it mean? Does 0mm mean it is on the bump stop? Or is the travel relative to something completely different and the number has no relation to the bump stop? That kind of thing.

Secondly, can anyone advise what it means when the travel flashes red? At first, I thought it meant you were hitting the stops or exceeding the limit of travel, but I don't think that anymore. As an example, I was driving the Honda Indycar (oval) at Texas motor speedway with the SMS loose oval setup. I found the feedback on my T300 (PS4) was very odd feeling, in that it had very light resistance turning into the corners (especially the kinks in the pit straight), but then it got hit with some feedback from the car/road. I turned on telemetry and this feedback kick seemed to correlate to the travel data flashing red. Yet the ride height was clearly off the ground, and the travel was indicating values well higher then the bump stops. Also, the little curved scales were showing a 'mid' position (I don't think I have ever seen them show anything else - what are these telling me?). Furthermore, the suspension values on the telemetry when flashing red did not appear to be any different to the values when not flashing (like when driving down the straights). So to my original question - what is this actually trying to tell me?

Thanks in advance to the community for any help you can offer. I just want to be able to make the most of this tool to improve my tuning. 👍

There’s a lot of things that logically should work that really don’t work. The whole bump stop, travel and ride height relationship is funky in this game just like it was in pCars 1. I wouldn’t try to get your head around them honestly as the whole telemetry screen is extremely basic and not very useful since the tire load circles were removed. The flashing red doesn’t work at all from what I’ve seen. Mine flashes and the car is nowhere near bottoming out the travel or ride height. It never worked in pCars 1 either. I think it was a carry over from the Shift series, but I’m not positive.

If you want to improve your tuning just listen to the car and tires. If you’re bottoming you’ll hear various noises based on the degree of bottoming and look for unexpected handling changes. The tires talk a lot in this game too. Too much in my opinion.

 

[Scaff]

There’s a lot of things that logically should work that really don’t work. The whole bump stop, travel and ride height relationship is funky in this game just like it was in pCars 1. I wouldn’t try to get your head around them honestly as the whole telemetry screen is extremely basic and not very useful since the tire load circles were removed. The flashing red doesn’t work at all from what I’ve seen. Mine flashes and the car is nowhere near bottoming out the travel or ride height. It never worked in pCars 1 either. I think it was a carry over from the Shift series, but I’m not positive.

If you want to improve your tuning just listen to the car and tires. If you’re bottoming you’ll hear various noises based on the degree of bottoming and look for unexpected handling changes. The tires talk a lot in this game too. Too much in my opinion.

I would have to disagree with you on that (well except for the removal of load circles).

The biggest issue with the telemetry is that you don't get access to it in the replays and so can't slow it down (unless you record it and do so while watching it back), when you do so its actually extremely useful and accurate enough to use.

This is a better example of doing so.

 

[ozwheels]

I would have to disagree with you on that (well except for the removal of load circles).

The biggest issue with the telemetry is that you don't get access to it in the replays and so can't slow it down (unless you record it and do so while watching it back), when you do so its actually extremely useful and accurate enough to use.

This is a better example of doing so.

What would you say it’s useful for when making a setup other than temperatures that can be attained through any dash app?

 

[Scaff]

What would you say it’s useful for when making a setup other than temperatures that can be attained through any dash app?

The effect of downforce on suspension set-up, the effect of different tracks on suspension set-up, I've used it for brake bias set-up as its handy for showing the overall load transfer in various corners.

I've also found it very handy for working out the point at which mechanical grip and aero grip transition, which can make a big difference to how you approach a track.

 

[ozwheels]

The effect of downforce on suspension set-up, the effect of different tracks on suspension set-up, I've used it for brake bias set-up as its handy for showing the overall load transfer in various corners.

I've also found it very handy for working out the point at which mechanical grip and aero grip transition, which can make a big difference to how you approach a track.

If it works for then more power too you. As for rake angle i can see it being mildly useful, but more as a guide then actual downforce measurements. Such as for any given static ride height you can see the dynamic and adjust static to move the dynamic 5 mm and have a good idea what the split will be so there’s less trial and error. I think you’re making some assumptions and educated guesses though with weight transfer and the like since there aren’t any g force numbers.

 

[David Brooks]

I've also found it very handy for working out the point at which mechanical grip and aero grip transition, which can make a big difference to how you approach a track.

How so? Can you explain what you were seeing to show this?

Thanks

 

[David Brooks]

This might help

I had seen that one but thank you. I guess that's the beginners guide and I was looking for the advanced guide

 

[Scaff]

How so? Can you explain what you were seeing to show this?

Thanks

In the video above I talk about this, as downforce starts to affect the car the suspension starts to compress.