My Review of the Solo DL Laptimer/Datalogger

I was asked to do a quick review on the Solo DL lap timer and datalogger. I used it this past weekend at Homestead for a CCS race weekend.

First off, its super simple to use. Just turn it on and in about 30 seconds it's found satellites and is ready to go (Much easier than the DDA ). It even knows what track your at and automatically sets the start/finish line so you don't have to do anything.

During the CCS races and practices, you get a transponder so they can record your official times. This was a great way to compare the Solo DL's GPS lap time system. The thing was dead on. Literally down to the hundredth of a second. I was amazed.

Since this thing works on the Panigale and the S1000RR pretty much the same way, I thought I would write this up here. I am a bit jealous though, the Panigale can log brake pressure - where as the S1000RR only gets a brake switch (so its on or off). You lucky dogs...

I bought it from Richard at M-World. He was super helpful, answered all of my questions, and even set the thing up for me before it shipped.

You can check it out here - AiM Solo/Solo DL GPS Lap Timer & Data Logger - M-World Online Store


And all mounted up!

if you want data to be able to superimposed onto video, the Evo4 to Smartycam/smartycamHD is a killer combo. The Evo4 fits under the cowl and ties right into the CANBus under the seat there. .. I tie into rear tail light power rather than using canbus power to prevent the battery from being drained.

There's also software that can put the data over a gopro video. Can't remember the name right now though.

EvoL said:

There's also software that can put the data over a gopro video. Can't remember the name right now though.

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Dashware is the popular one, and it's pretty cheap.

both of those are a step behind. . Mainly because its a two step process. . The last thing I want to do is after I take a track video is to run it through dashware or other post processing video to pull the video and telemetry data and overlay it onto the track video. . It takes a lot of time (very time consuming) and quite annoying. . the Smartycam video takes a live feed of canbus data from the Aim loggers and overlays the data live as the video is recorded. You take it off the SD card and its there ready to go - no post processing or anything. .

Obviously its the more expensive option but its all at once.

anthem said:

both of those are a step behind. . Mainly because its a two step process. . The last thing I want to do is after I take a track video is to run it through dashware or other post processing video to pull the video and telemetry data and overlay it onto the track video. . It takes a lot of time (very time consuming) and quite annoying. . the Smartycam video takes a live feed of canbus data from the Aim loggers and overlays the data live as the video is recorded. You take it off the SD card and its there ready to go - no post processing or anything. .

Obviously its the more expensive option but its all at once.

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Yea, its more convenient for sure. Its much, much more expensive though.

EvoL said:

Yea, its more convenient for sure. Its much, much more expensive though.

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True, but so is a Ducati over a R1/CBR1000RR as well. . .

but why even look at an AIM lap timer if you aren't going to exploit the other features it has to offer ? You can get much cheaper lap timers (or use the built in one).

Glad to see there are people using these with success so far! I'm putting the Solo-DL / SmartyCam GP combo on my 899. Those new GP "bullet" cameras have been backordered for months now, hopefully going to be available again in the next week or so. We're planning to use these for making instructional videos for our track school. We are making some wiring harnesses for the Panigale to use the OEM cable that comes with the Solo-DL to plug in to the data port under the seat so you don't have to buy the separate Panigale-specific cable.

jarelj said:

Glad to see there are people using these with success so far! I'm putting the Solo-DL / SmartyCam GP combo on my 899. Those new GP "bullet" cameras have been backordered for months now, hopefully going to be available again in the next week or so. We're planning to use these for making instructional videos for our track school. We are making some wiring harnesses for the Panigale to use the OEM cable that comes with the Solo-DL to plug in to the data port under the seat so you don't have to buy the separate Panigale-specific cable.

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jarelj - its blinding simple. Just get the plug kit from the manufacturer directly and the wiring pins. I believe you tap the left two for Can+/-. . Then run the power wire directly to tailight and splice in. Suggest you do not take the power +- from the can, because then it'll drain. .. parts were like $9 for the plug I think and then a few more for the pin kit.

I use the EVO4 as I don't care about the display (though I could add a display unit) and it fits perfectly under the seat cowl. . You can put all sorts of sensors into it like turn rate, forward suspension travel, rear suspension travel, etc.. the can line feeds the ecu telemetry data so its all there.. I highly suggest the ABS unit one for this (or S/R versions), because the ABS pump actually supplies brake pressure over the can line. The non-abs version does not and you'll have to use another brake pressure sensor if you want that data. . But all sorts of goodies like throttle percentage, brake pressure etc. ..

Evo4 only makes sense if you are adding analog inputs for suspension etc. The Solo DL will log the brake pressure and everything else from the CAN line the same.

anthem said:

jarelj - its blinding simple. Just get the plug kit from the manufacturer directly and the wiring pins. I believe you tap the left two for Can+/-. . Then run the power wire directly to tailight and splice in. Suggest you do not take the power +- from the can, because then it'll drain. .. parts were like $9 for the plug I think and then a few more for the pin kit.

I use the EVO4 as I don't care about the display (though I could add a display unit) and it fits perfectly under the seat cowl. . You can put all sorts of sensors into it like turn rate, forward suspension travel, rear suspension travel, etc.. the can line feeds the ecu telemetry data so its all there.. I highly suggest the ABS unit one for this (or S/R versions), because the ABS pump actually supplies brake pressure over the can line. The non-abs version does not and you'll have to use another brake pressure sensor if you want that data. . But all sorts of goodies like throttle percentage, brake pressure etc. ..

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Great info, thanks! I'm going to run the Solo-DL at the track next weekend, and hopefully have the camera integration all ready to go for our June event so we can start working on those instructional videos. I'm hoping to figure out a way to integrate an in-helmet microphone for audio into the video stream using the SmartyCam HD GP. I think that will be really cool to have video following a student on the track and providing real-time instruction right there on the video. Such helpful advice as "You're going too slow!" ha ha!

shakazulu12 said:

Evo4 only makes sense if you are adding analog inputs for suspension etc. The Solo DL will log the brake pressure and everything else from the CAN line the same.

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correct. .. as I said, I have turn rate sensor, suspension pots and I gain the 3-axis g sensor that the solodl does not have built in. . Though it is honestly of limited use. .. The soloDL is their more all-in-one box. The Evo4 gives you a good step up in expansion capabilities. If you aren't ever going to put another sensor in and just want ECU data, then the SoloDL is all you need.

I like the Solo-DL also because it will be easy to unplug and use as a lap-timer in my car as well.

I tried out the Solo-DL this past weekend at Motorsports Park Hastings and it's pretty sweet! This particular track was not in the database yet, so I had to "create" the track map, which involved walking out to the start/finish line with the unit and pressing a button for it to log that point. Everything else was automatic, just turn it on and it start recording laps every time you pass the start/finish point. The Race Studio software to download the laps is pretty simple to use. It's very "Italian" software, so a little quirky. The Race Studio Analysis software is used to actually analyze the lap data, and it's even more "Italian" but I got the basics figured out on it. It's fairly similar to the software that we used previously to analyze data from the Nemesis system on the older Superbikes. One huge bummer is it only runs on Windows, not MAC OS, so I had to boot my Macbook Pro into Windows to run it. The DDA software runs on Mac or Windows. Having all of the data channels from the bike's CAN line is a huge plus, and the fact that it logs even more channels than the DDA does is kind of baffling but a big benefit if you're a data hound. Having the brake pressure is a big benefit in analyzing performance, so anyone with an ABS bike is in luck there. For me, the absolute coolest and most valuable feature of this vs. the DDA is that it can show lean angle. I haven't gotten my camera yet to integrate video, but that's going to add another dimension to the awesomeness once it arrives in a week or two! Here's a screen shot of the analysis software. The channels are Speed, Throttle%, RPM, Front Brake Pressure, Lean Angle, and the final channel is the lap comparison that shows the reference lap (blue line) and the comparison lap (red line) and which lap is ahead at any given point. At the top, the corners on the track are noted in red and blue "blocks" so you can see where you're at during the lap when looking at the data. You can also modify the GPS-created map to get the corners specifically referenced to exactly how the track map is in reality. In other words the track has corners that we normally call 9/10, but the GPS data doesn't know that's really two turns, it assumes it's just one turn, but you can change it. Very detailed capabilities that a professional race team would use. So of course we need it on our track day bikes! ha ha!

I just got my hands on one of the early-release SmartyCam GP HD 120-degree camera systems to integrate with the Solo-DL, will be testing it out at the track this weekend. I think I'm going to mount the bullet cam in the nose of the bike eventually, but for today I just made a quick-and-dirty little bracket to hold it on the upper fairing. I already designed a data overlay template to show the Solo-DL bike data on the video screen, now just need to record some laps and see how it works!

jarel - I used the SC HD last week as well . . I think the speed is off (pulling from the ECU). Either the ECU isn't reporting correctly to the SC HD or maybe I have the wrong sensor feeding in. Not sure if I'm feeding wheel speed, gps speed or what not. Haven't checked it. . But the video didn't show above about 125 when I clearly saw my speedo registering 140+. . so just fyi. Maybe you'll see the same and we can figure out why.

Thanks for checking this out and posting the details up here! Very interesting topic!

Got a full workout with the Solo-DL and SmartyCam GP HD this weekend, it's SUPER-COOL!! The only thing that wasn't working was the real-time track map on the video, I finally got that figured out this morning so next time I'll have that feature on my videos as well. I also need to change the range on the brake pressure display to make it narrower so the red bar will use up more of the available range. The system is totally hands-off and completely automatic. It gets power from the CAN plug directly, the data logger and camera both turn on and off automatically, you literally don't need to do anything other than ride. The videos are highly-compressed in H264 and stored as .MOV files so you don't need to take the SD card out after each session to clean it off, I got a full day's worth of video (5 sessions - about 15 min. each) and it only took about 6 GB of total storage on the card.

Here's a sample video:
TrackAddix MAM 2014 06 08 Solo Laps - YouTube

Very overcast day, so you don't get full bright colors and such, but you can see the video quality is very good as is the image-stabilization with this camera. I mounted the camera recorder unit under the seat so it was out of the way. The actual camera I mounted on the upper fairing, but now that I know it works and I won't have to be messing with it, I'm going to make a mount and stick it right inside the tip of the nose fairing so it's "hidden".

jarelj said:

Got a full workout with the Solo-DL and SmartyCam GP HD this weekend, it's SUPER-COOL!! The only thing that wasn't working was the real-time track map on the video, I finally got that figured out this morning so next time I'll have that feature on my videos as well. I also need to change the range on the brake pressure display to make it narrower so the red bar will use up more of the available range. The system is totally hands-off and completely automatic. It gets power from the CAN plug directly, the data logger and camera both turn on and off automatically, you literally don't need to do anything other than ride. The videos are highly-compressed in H264 and stored as .MOV files so you don't need to take the SD card out after each session to clean it off, I got a full day's worth of video (5 sessions - about 15 min. each) and it only took about 6 GB of total storage on the card.

Here's a sample video:
TrackAddix MAM 2014 06 08 Solo Laps - YouTube

Very overcast day, so you don't get full bright colors and such, but you can see the video quality is very good as is the image-stabilization with this camera. I mounted the camera recorder unit under the seat so it was out of the way. The actual camera I mounted on the upper fairing, but now that I know it works and I won't have to be messing with it, I'm going to make a mount and stick it right inside the tip of the nose fairing so it's "hidden".

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Most of those changes are minor. . I do notice that speed setting fed to the video overlay has the same problem that I have. It's "off", as in its only reporting like 85-90 percent of actual speed. . .. It looks the same way on yours as well. Take a look - maybe my eyes are fooling me but it does appear that you are going faster than the mph on the video is reporting. . I see a big discrepancy between my dash speed and the video speed as well. namely 5th gear at close to 11k rpms and its showing 125mph or so and my guess is you're at 140-150.

I've always though mounting the remote camera would be perfect right in that area above the fender but below the headlight cowl area. . Whether thats screwed in, VHM or whatever but that would be a cool area to put a camera. The other views that are pretty cool are right off the front axle (low to the ground) and pointing rear ward (maybe through the vent back there by the brake lights).

Very nice