The TITC inside line with Salton Dong – Day 3
They say data is king, but that is only true if you know what data you are looking at and what to do with it, and that is what today’s topic of conservation from the TITC is with Salton Dong from Hobbywing. Attending major races as technical support for drivers using Hobbywing electronics, Salton often finds himself more involved with drivers and chassis manufacturers than just purely for electronics. Data logs from the ESC show a lot of information and some of the details can be quite interesting if you know where to look and not just in terms of what the electronics are doing but also the inputs coming from the drivers stand!
While every user of a Hobbywing ESC can access the data log from a run, Salton admits the data is more for an expert user but he was keen to highlight a little how Hobbywing uses it in supporting its team drivers on the electronics side and beyond. He said, ‘the data is not very easy to understand inside and what is what, but for us we can diagnose some complicated cases. When we feel we don’t have a proper sense of what has caused a particular issue, then we can take the data log to further compare what might be going on.’ He also explained how in more straight forward cases they can also use the data logs to help analysis feedback from drivers or check if what a driver is feeling during a run is actually what they think it is.’ With data being his thing, Salton says it can be quite interesting to see in the data from the various drivers how they each control the throttle in different ways.
Working with drivers from all different chassis manufacturers, who are locked into intense battles with one another to win races like the TITC, he is privy to a lot of information on their car set-up etc. While that information always remains confidential, on the side of the electronic data Salton says the sharing of this information is a key part of his support role. Giving an example of this he explained, ‘In Open Brushless because we have a lot of drivers in the A-Main, sometimes if one team is faster sometimes other team drivers will think ‘oh maybe Salton gave them some better motors or some secret settings and that is why I’m am slower’ than the other drivers but actually for me in my role with the top drivers I will share my knowledge on settings and the material we have prepared for an event. If we see one of our drivers who should be faster we will go to them to check if anything is not so good. Some drivers, sometimes, don’t believe I can use the data to show them what is the real reason they are slower, and not on the power side, so this makes me like a bridge sometimes between different chassis brands. Of course I will respect any secrets in the chassis but on the power side I prefer to be open to all our drivers. Sometimes with lower skilled drivers I will have some different suggestions because of the control skills but I will tell them why I do it like this and what the problem with the difference will be and most understand this.’
He continued, ‘When I collect data from different sources I can analysis it and maybe combine a better one. Team A might have less in some setting and Team B might have a good element in their setting so I can try combine these and can also tell them each the good and the bad things of their current settings. Of course the setting they choose is totally their decision, it might be down to their preference, but by giving them an insight it might give them more options to try.’
In modified he says things are different, ‘especially with the top guys, like Bruno, Orlowski, there is quite a lot of difference in their power settings.’ He continued, ‘An interesting thing is only when they have some problems, what ever it is, not power, but maybe chassis or other things, they will be anxious to know others ESC settings. Because they can’t find a reason they are having problems they want to know everything about their opponent, and it is then if you tell them the difference they are more keen to try. If drivers are running ok they will not easily change the power setting especially once the race has started. In Modified power setting priority is quite low. For example today before Q4 I was talking to Alex (Hagberg) and he asked me to please update the firmware for him. He knows we have new firmware but in the practice days he didn’t ask to do it because he is working very hard on the chassis and didn’t what to try, although I told him there may be some benefit. But today already he had nothing to lose so he wanted to try the new firmware so I upgraded it for him. Sometimes lots of different things effect their decision, it quite difficult for them to have big changes when the competition is good.’
Asked from his experience why drivers were hesitant to make ESC changes he said, ‘the problem is it can be quite complex and they can get lost with things. If it is not so good they will blindly follow some fast guys but usually first they follow their team-mate but if the whole team is not going well it is usually only at this point they come to ask if I can share some information.’
