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My Experience about Qstarz LT-Q-6000
The Qstarz GPS Lap Timer (LT-Q6000) comes in a small and compact box that looks like it is going to be a great performer. However, looks can sometimes be deceiving therefore the best way to determine how good it is would be to put it to the test.
This Qstarz GPS has a colour display which may seem to be only aesthetic however it is not, as we will discuss later. The GPS is small and compact. It has a 2.4” display, which is plenty. It does not weigh anymore than an ordinary GPS and is also supposed to be water resistant. The box also contains additional accessories, a suction-cup mount, a USB cable, car charger and a sleek and protective case to carry the GPS in.
The suction-cup mounts to the windshield well. It was mounted onto a clean windshield which was not wiped prior to mounting, and the suction-cup never came loose under acceleration, braking and/or cornering, reflecting on the good quality of the material.
However not the same could be said for the GPS interface on the mounting arm. The GPS mounts fine to the suction-cup arm and the GPS locks in and won’t fly off while driving. Yet the clearance in the interface is so slightly off that there is a very slight wobble that could potentially result in some minor errors in the G-Sensor readings. A solution would be to have the interface between the arm and the GPS have stricter tolerances so that the GPS is fixed with absolutely no movement when locked in.
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| The instructions in the manual are simple and straightforward, and the fact that the GPS is not cluttered with buttons makes it simple to manoeuvre through the options and settings. Once the load screen passes, the main screen shows a variety of options such as ‘Drag Race,’ ‘Circuit Race’ etc. We only tested the GPS using the ‘Circuit Race’ function for Time Attack and Pre-Time Attack lapping. |
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The first step is to setup the track. I believe you can download tracks already submitted by users as well, but if your track is not available, you have to set a start and finish and can also setup splits for better analysis of your driving later. This is a very useful tool.
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Once your track is set you hit the start button to start recording and then you’re done pushing buttons until you are off the track. The GPS displays your time as you are lapping and also displays your last best lap for that recording session. The colour display comes in very handy here as the screen background goes red if the lap you just finished was not faster than your best lap for the session.
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If your last lap was better, it displays a green background. This enables the driver without having to remember his lap times to the thousandths of a second whether his last lap was an improvement over his best lap or not. And this can be done by glancing over allowing you to keep your eyes on the track when you need to.
Off the track, the GPS has plenty of memory to store all your sessions and lap times, which can then be reviewed on the computer using the Qstarz QRacing software. The transfer of data from the device to the computer is very simple. The software asks you whether you want to read the device log and you accept and then select which sessions to transfer over. The transfer still retains your sessions on the device as well.
The software maps out your driving line for each session and lap, and has Gs, Speed, and Distance & Time data. It allows you to analyse your splits and full laps, allows you to compare laps and so on. It also allows you to sync a video to your data. This feature is expandable through another Qstarz software, but this feature was not tested.
There was a discrepancy noted between the lap times on the device and the software. Qstarz technical support was contacted and we were told it was due to the difference in how the software and the device calculate the lap times (from the splits). They also informed us that this is something that they will fix in an update. Overall the times were not off by a large amount. The official times versus the device times were off by approximately 0.040 seconds. This is a small difference and likely due to an error in setting up the track (i.e. starting the track before or after the actual timing line).
Overall, the Qstarz GPS Lap Timer LT-Q6000 is a great device that works for multiple types of racing that will be tested in the future. |
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