What Is A Good Computer To

[Brucepts]

I've never looked at the system requirements for the PTS DM software. What are they anyway?

~Josh

If it runs Windows 98 or greater Windows and has a USB port it will run Flowsoft

[jfholm]

Josh is right as most older computers will work with garage stuff. My flow bench computer is an old Windows CPU. Works great for that. My new one is to surfing and research. So much graphically intensive stuff on the Internet now my old one would not cut it anymore

Besides that Malvin I am out of town for a week and I was trying to slow you down so I could beat you getting my bench done!

John

[Malvin]

Josh
The computer I use with my dyno is an old junker E-machines Pentium 4 that still runs windows Vista (after upgrading from XP)

What kind of dyno do you have engine dyno or chassis dyno ??
dynoing engine is very addictive you can learn allot on the dyno

John wrote
Besides that Malvin I am out of town for a week and I was trying to slow you down so I could beat you getting my bench done!

The biggest problem I have getting my flow bench done is the wiring & finding
those little female connectors that push on to power the vacuum motors
I do not want to use butt connectors

John you will still beat me done with your flow bench build
It will take me a complete day or two just to put the rest of my internal bracing in my flow bench

[Areomyst]

Josh
The computer I use with my dyno is an old junker E-machines Pentium 4 that still runs windows Vista (after upgrading from XP)

What kind of dyno do you have engine dyno or chassis dyno ??
dynoing engine is very addictive you can learn allot on the dyno

Crumbs man, I apologize that I did not answer this sooner.

I have a DynoJet 150 (Chassis Inertia dyno for motorcycles) that I purchased used and broken from the "leftovers" of a Harley dealershp in Jasper, Georgia. I could not afford to upgrade all the DynoJet stuff ($$$) so it is now equipped with Performance Trend's "DataMite III" hardware and software. I use the dyno for testing scooters! It's a great tool, and my business has taken on a LOT more performance work than I ever thought I would see, much to my satisfaction. I even have a mail-order engine build to complete by next week from Michigan in the shop right now.

I agree that you can learn a lot when working with a dyno at your disposal. I have changed a good bit of how I do my tuning because of the dyno. It'a also much faster an easier than typical road testing, although I do still use a datalogger when road testing on occasion.

Back to the subject of computers though, I have a lot of tools that use the computer and none of them are very picky in their system requirements. Some of the scan tools I have for the fuel injected engines measure injector pulse width, air temps, ignition advance, etc etc etc all in real time and work on that same old Pentium-4 with no hiccups. I can't complain!

Cheers!

~Josh

[Malvin]

Areromst"

Back to the subject of computers though, I have a lot of tools that use the computer and none of them are very picky in their system requirements. Some of the scan tools I have for the fuel injected engines measure injector pulse width, air temps, ignition advance, etc etc etc all in real time and work on that same old Pentium-4 with no hiccups. I can't complain!

Can you do graph over lays of your pulls with your computer that you use for Chassis Inertia dyno ??

That is nice to know Josh that you can still have a use for old computers in to days world the way technology
and computers change so fast heck what is new this month is considered out of date 3 months later.

All my computers are used witch is OK with me.

[DaveMcLain]

The computers I use in our shop are all home built machines. Over the last several years I've been using mostly Asus mother boards. I like the AMD APU chips too they are powerful and inexpensive. These programs take no computer power to run really you just need to have the right ports for communications. My PC that's used on my flow bench also does data acquisition from my valve spring tester and cam plotter. It's an ancient machine that I probably built close to 10 years ago. Windows XP, AMD Duron processor, 1GB memory, slow old hard drive but it gets the job done just fine after taking it's sweet time to boot.

My dyno PC(this one I'm using right now) runs Windows 8 which has no problems running Dynomax 2010. One drawback that I've found with Windows 8 vs Window 7 is a lack of driver support for some of those USB to Com adapters which I need in order to interface with the EFI computer on an engine I'm working with right now. Otherwise it's very solid and easy on resources.

[jfholm]

I have attached a picture of a damned good computer I used in college. Never did crash!

John

[1960FL]

John,

Never could figure out why SF did not have one manufactured for each of their benches where you set Orifice and Delta P and it gave you CFM at Standard Air.

Rick

[slracer]

I'm with you Rick, A special purpose slide rule is (usually) very simple to use and just about as accurate as really needed!
Doug

PS - If you want to figure out the average speed of the fastest car at Speed Week (in round numbers) add 448 and 436 and divide by 2! Speed Demon again (with their smaller motor)!

[jfholm]

Doug,
Did they set the record then?