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

 

Very interested in both 1 and 3 sensors per tire options, but needs to be can enabled for easy plug and play into pista

 

For now I just have this kit with a display. A headless CAN unit wont be done for a while.

 

Pretty sweet.

For actual utility, I pyrometer after autocross, get a few good full braking zones in to heat up for DE (and pick tires that don't need much heat), and club racing there are yellow flag laps to heat up (and I run tires that heat up quickly).

For pure utility, I go by tire feel to tell me when they're up to grip rather than worry about up to temp. I go for the primary data (grip) rather than secondary data (temp or tire pressure).

I have used TPMS as a surrogate for tire temps though in the past.

 

Been thinking about this for a while. Bravo x1000 for making it.

 

Problem is that rubber is a very poor thermal conductor therefore the IR would only measure surface tire temps which would change dramatically depending on scrub.

Watch an F1 infrared video and you will see how quickly surface temps change on tires.

A probe is necessary to gather actual tire temp data.

 

Great idea. Hope to get a chance to see it in action sometime.

 

The surface temp is what is important if you are measuring in realtime.

 

Agree. I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that. I apologize.

 

Who will be the first sports car manufacturer to include tire temp sensors on a production model? Or maybe some of the hyper cars already have this?