Made this system (I'm an EE) for my S2K and Lotus, and other HPDE guys I know. It's to know when your tires are up to operating temp. I thought I'd try and get some feedback here to see what people thought.

Here are the features of the kit:

• Four IR sensors
• Narrow 10deg sensor field of view for sampling tire sections
• Large 1 1/12 by 2 1/2 inch display
• Weather resistant; sensors can get wet without being ruined.
• Removable lens cap if they need cleaning or replacement
• Extra protective lenses
• Does both fahrenheit and celsius
• You can adjust the emissivity of each sensor (different materials reflect light at differing rates)
• Quality harnesses
• DC supply is designed for difficult automotive environments with large current dumps and voltage spikes

The installation is straight forward. You drill a small hole in the wheel arch for the sensor to poke through. Top center is best to account for changes in tire angle.

I'm aware 3 sensors per tire would be needed per corner to monitor camber load. But that's another kit--one with no display and CAN support for data-logging--and not this one, which is aimed at being sub $1k.

If anyone is interested just send me a PM or email me at mikes at ntisys.com

 

Something like this has always fascinated me but I haven't pursued it because I couldn't figure out how to implement it for not much more than it costs to have a friend waiting in hot pits with a pyrometer. If I had cash to burn though...

 

This is great! Nice work.

 

If I am not mistaken, this will only give a surface reading. My understanding is that surface reading is sub optimal and deceptive. The probe thermometers measure the core of the "tread" block at roughly 4-6mm I believe.

 

True ^^^... But that's because the surface will cool down before you can get a temp reading in the pits. If it's a RealTime reading though I'd imagine you'd be good using the data.

 

If you went out on say 26psi you could very easily raise the outer surface temp through an aggressive first lap and your wheel temp would not be up yet, so, most importantly, neither would your tire pressure which is critical. So.....you would need pressure monitors too. I think there is a good reason the guys with $500,000 race cars use a tire probe device.

 

It's not a silver bullet and I sure as **** wouldn't shell out the coin but I think it'd work fine for an idea of tire temps. Certainly not perfect but I'd put it in line with probe temps. i.e. Once you know the temp target it would be as good a tool as other options. The key is going to be knowing the surface target temps in corners and on the entrance to the straights.

 

Professional teams have been using IR for a while now. E.g., http://www.texense.com/en/
Any data has its limitations that needs to be taken into account, probes included (as Xian correctly noted). Also, absolute tire temp(s) aren''t important if you want to monitor camber-load, the relative spread is what you're after.