KartIntelligence Mychron4 Tips

The minimum laptime function is handy for very specific situations, but can cause really difficult problems if you play around with it and forget you did so, like me!

The minimum laptime function sets the minimum amount of time that can pass before the Mychron accepts another split time.  It’s useful for people using infra red beacons, when there are a number of beacons at a track etc, but it’s rarely useful for tracks with magnetic strips or when you use GPS timing.

So, if you are having any problems with your Mychron4 the first thing to check is that your minumum laptime function hasn’t been set too high.  Mine was set at 46 seconds and the default setting is 3.  So if it’s higher than 3 set it back down again.

If you are running at a track where you don’t like where the splits are set, or there aren’t enough you can use the GPS to look after the split timing itself.  You tell the mychron where you want it to start timing laps and also where you want the splits to be.  You can have up to five splits, compared to most tracks that have up to three.

To do it you need the Mychron GPS connected, and you go into the splits setting screen.  You schroll down and change the strips type from magnetic/optical to GPS laptimer.  You still need to set the number of splits, but the choice is yours. You can select up to 5.

Then you can go back to the initial start up screen and press the on/view button, untill you see the GPS satellites screen.   On that screen you will be asked to press ok to begin settings, and you then need to press the ok button whilst driving around the track where you want the splits to occur.

If for whatever reason you can’t get the time to go out on track and set the splits, or if your driver doesn’t fancy setting them, it is possible to set up the mychron4 gps splits without going directly on track.  I’ve done it myself by getting the kart as close as possible to the track, usually in the parc ferme or dummy grid, and then setting the gps start beacon from there.  If you do this you should only set the number of splits to one.

You can then use the Race Studio analysis to review splits and so on.

I never used to have problems with collecting lap times and splits from my mychron until I started using GPS and ebox to data analysis.  Then I noticed that when a magnetic strip was missed it totally mis-aligned my data, which quickly started to do my brain in.

These days I make sure that the magnetic pick up is mounted centrally on the floor tray so that we reduce the chance of missing a magnetic strip.  It seems that on many tracks after a bit of wear and tear the strips sometimes don’t cover the full width of the track, so if you run a bit bit wide you can miss a strip especially if the magnet is mounted on one side of the kart.

So mount it centrally and you should eliminate the problem.  The other solution is to use GPS for all your lap and split times

If you run a Mychron 4 with any attachments at all you’ll find it eats through batteries in no time.  If you rely on the little 9v batteries that run the Mychron 4 unit to power the whole system you will be let down pretty soon.

By far the best solution is to plug your Mychron into an external power source, but I don’t like plugging the data gear into the kart battery in case it drains it and ruins the race.  I’ve also tried using extra little 12v lead acid batteries which seem to get shaken to death!

My latests battery is from a radio control model shop, and so far its been great.  I use a 12v NiMh battery pack, and I carry a 9.6v spare with me all the time.  The battery cost me £20 and a proper charger for it was £15.  That kit has ended all my battery related problems.