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Tesla Roadster Data Logging Format Reverse Engineered
s1axter writes with word that "the data log format for the Tesla Roadster has been reverse engineered and documented, now available in Python. (Python script linked in the post.)" From the linked blog entry: "Not only was I given a $110k car unrestricted I was requested to see what ECU information is available, collect and parse the data from it. Tesla Motors periodically collects information from their vehicles presumably to see what real-world driving the cars see. On original Roadster models there is no method to collect this information remotely thus someone must go out to the vehicle and collect it. The owner of the vehicle saw this and wanted to know what information was collected on these service calls ... Because I am a big fan of freedom to modify a program to fit ones needs, I have uploaded the ... python script to parse Tesla logs."
No big deal. Most modern cars have, to some degree, a black box.
One car company even 'gives you one for free': you can hit the rev limiter fuel cutoff once a year, any more and you void the warranty for parts excessively worn by over revving. (dammit - I can't find the cite right now. The google is weak in me today.)
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
The rev limiter is there precisely so you don't hurt anything, once a year would be ridiculous. What it can't stop is people with a manual transmission shifting to a lower gear when the RPMs are too high, which will create an unavoidable over-rev situation.
But it's a wicked fast pile of duck shit...
Not really. Its top speed is a "mere" 125 mph, something my 33 year old Porsche can (or could, when new) beat.
As far as acceleration goes, though...yeah, it's very zippy.
One over rev isn't going to destroy any modern engine. It's the long term effect that they are curbing. Many very tine bits of damage acquired over time can be hard to differentiate from a 'bad' engine.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You can hit fuel cutoff rev limit all day long, all year long and your warranty is not voided. The engine has been designed to operate up to that speed by the manufacturer, that's why the rev limiter is in place. Over revving is what voids the warranty, and on any modern car there is only one way of over revving, called "mechanical overreving" or "money shift" -- imagine an engine with a 8000rpm redline, shifting from 4th to 5th at said 8000rpm, and by accident actually downshifting into 3rd. This results in the engine spinning at 9500 or 10000 rpms for a second or two, possibly damaging the rod bearings, the crank, the valvetrain or the pistons, if there is contact between the crown and a valve that didn't close fast enough.
I was listening to a report on the New porche.
I found the report on the New gazeboe much more entertaining.
StupidShitCorporationsDo.Enqueue(Lawsuit);
BullshitThings.Add(StupidShitCorporationsDo.Dequeue());
BillshitThings.Dispose();
Could have saved time by just ignoring the suit. Shame society doesn't for the frivolous ones.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
All he is doing is bragging about a python script that he himself admits to be simplistic and ugly. The binary format was decoded by two other posters in a bulletin board who also wrote a windows parser but the original guys did not think it warrants any kind of bragging like this. And he is not posting the logs either due to privacy concerns. So unless you are curious about seeing someone's ugly hack of a python script, just move along, there is nothing to see here.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Most places you want to drive, top speeds are greater than speed limits so acceleration is more significant.
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
I'm surprised took so long, given the immense popularity of that car.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
I took my Mustang out there about ten years ago. It was fun but I never really got the salt out of all of the places it found a way into.
Protip: Don't drive there in early morning except in high summer - the salt is wet and sticks like nothing you've ever seen before.
My 1985 hover car idles at 125 mph, while I ignore this story to brag about how cool I am
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
You mean the Synchromesh?
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Yes, pushing harder will get it in gear, but at the expense of shortening your synchros life - much better for the transmission to hold off on ramming it into first until you're slow enough that it slides in easily. Or just leave it in neutral, let the clutch out and use your brakes. When you're ready to go again, just shift into first.
Remember: brakes are almost always cheaper than a clutch or a transmission rebuild.
Never been to the UK during winter I take it?
The Roadster has a governor? I've never heard of such a thing. The main deal is that the RPMs in the engine start getting to insane levels turning the engine + drive train into a huge flywheel which takes increasingly larger amounts of energy (it increases geometrically, not linearly) to spin even faster. If that is a governor, then so be it, but removing THAT governor is simply removing the engine altogether.
The limiting factor is the current draw from the battery pack. Expand the battery pack, and you might go faster, but at the expense of killing your acceleration time due to additional weight.
I suppose you could hook up a Mr. Fusion or some other massive energy source that could kick the car into overdrive, but once you get past 88 mph you would be looking at temporal displacement when that happens too.
Since the invention of the fuel injector, gasoline has been metered appropriately. Prior to that, cars used a carburetors which tended to run the fuel mixture too rich. This causes excessive washing of oil from the cylinder walls thus causing exponential wear and tear on the engine depending on RPM.
Now days with tight clearances, improved metallurgy, oils, and computer controlled injection; running high RPMs will not have that much of an effect on its life. If anything, you suffer fuel economy.
I used to drive my 99 Miata like I stole it. I actually tried to destroy the engine. I would float the valves often for the hell of it. This lasted for about 160K miles before I got rid of it (bought it used with 34K on it). Spark plugs indicate a clean burn (nice tan color), valve train and cam lobes in primo condition, and excellent compression on all four. Yup, engine tech has come a long way.
Life is not for the lazy.
Now days with tight clearances, improved metallurgy, oils, and computer controlled injection; running high RPMs will not have that much of an effect on its life.
These days they're using the tight tolerances to build torque via intentionally higher RPMs instead of bigger pistons or increasing compression. It saves on fuel and engine size. But the higher RPMs create higher forces on the moving parts, "taking up" the slack the tighter tolerances and better materials gave them. Revving the engine over the manufacturer's published spec still risks damaging it.
John
Any/all rev limiters I have ever worked with have all been on the spark side of the power triangle ( compression / spark / fuel )
Every car with a rev limiter in then engine ECU accomplishes it by cutting the fuel off. If you turn off the ignition, you continue to blow unburnt petrol vapour down the exhaust, where it will ignite in a spectacular killswitch backfire as soon as the ignition kicks back in. It will also destroy the catalytic converter.
Hang on, I think there's some confusion here. First off, hitting the rev limiter does not damage your car. If revving at that level was going to cause damage, the rev limiter would be set lower. BMW's older M3 with clutchless manual SMG had a hidden feature where you could enable launch control by a combination of button presses, which would allow you to from rest floor the accelerator and on click into first gear it would launch at max attack. They enabled a feature where after 5 such actions they would void your transmission warranty.
Is this what you're thinking of?
"The Tesla has a gas engine "
For fuck's sake...
Even tamer V6es like the ones going in the Chevy Malibu are in the 250HP range.
Buick's putting one in the lacrosse that goes around 380 or so..
There is no snobbery like euro auto snobbery, I think some of them actually believe that their low end VW, or opel or whatever would actually out-corner a Z06....
I will point out that citing HP numbers is the absolute worst way to compare any two different engines. Horsepower, in of itself, is an almost useless metric for comparison of anything.
Horsepower numbers are a great concept used by magazines and manufacturers for people who generally don't know anything about engines or vehicles. Car and Driver is a great example. Its for people who know nothing about vehicles but want to pretend they do. If you know a religious Car and Driver reader, with few exceptions, you've identified a seriously pretentious, and almost completely ignorant, douche bag.
An engine is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion.
An engine is a machine designed to convert heat into useful mechanical motion.
Fixed it for ya!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
...and no, I don't care about what an encyclopedia written by the unwashed masses has to say on the topic. My Thermodynamics books say otherwise.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".