Close look at Vettel's Tire before the moment...

[dodds_turbo]

Sneak preview or Vettel's tyre setup for Monza at the weekend:

http://www.facebook.com/aajaroodi/video ... 943074045/

(Can somebody embed the video please?)

[TAG]

beating this horse to absolute death.

Does anyone know the process or the gauge used to read the tire pressure the Pirelli or the FiA uses? My assumption was always that the pressure was read via sensors, but the way the last line is written; "The tire pressures were checked with the calibrated tire pressure gauge of the official Formula One tire supplier on all four cars." Indicates that an external gauge is being used.

I ask because every time I use my tire pressure gauge, no matter how careful I am, there's always a puff lost putting on and taking off the chuck.

[Jersey Tom]

beating this horse to absolute death.

Does anyone know the process or the gauge used to read the tire pressure the Pirelli or the FiA uses? My assumption was always that the pressure was read via sensors, but the way the last line is written; "The tire pressures were checked with the calibrated tire pressure gauge of the official Formula One tire supplier on all four cars." Indicates that an external gauge is being used.

I ask because every time I use my tire pressure gauge, no matter how careful I am, there's always a puff lost putting on and taking off the chuck.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COOXmKFWsAAHRsT.jpg

External gauge I'd be fairly certain. The sensors run on the car are owned and operated by the teams. If you're Pirelli or the FiA you have no way of saying how well calibrated they are, if they're affected by heat, or if the team just cheated the cal! Could easily set it up to read 1 psi high across the board to fool the officials.

Tire companies, officials, etc. will have very high quality external gauges, calibrated, known to be good. Not cheap either. But that's what you'd use as the gold standard and out of the hands of the race teams.

[hardingfv32]

...very high quality external gauges, calibrated, known to be good. Not cheap either.

Would these expensive gauges be mechanical or electronic?

Brian

[Jersey Tom]

...very high quality external gauges, calibrated, known to be good. Not cheap either.

Would these expensive gauges be mechanical or electronic?

Brian

The ones I've seen have been electronic

[ubrben]

http://www.m-a-horne.co.uk/products/gauges.php

Virtually everyone in top level european racing (F1 included) uses these.

Ben

[DaveW]

...very high quality external gauges, calibrated, known to be good. Not cheap either.

Would these expensive gauges be mechanical or electronic?

Forgive me Brian, but (so far as I know) an electronic pressure gauge does not exist. There are gauges that generate mechanical movements (usually of a pointer), and there are gauges that generate electrical outputs that are used for digital display &/or recording. Both types "transduce" a pressure to be measured using several mechanical processes. Making those mechanical processes stable and repeatable has a major affect on the cost of the gauge.

But, even with the most expensive pressure gauge, there is still a procedure to be followed to ensure that measured tyre pressure values will also be consistent.

[hardingfv32]

Forgive me Brian, but (so far as I know) an electronic pressure gauge does not exist.

I was thinking about something like a multiple surface micro-machined capacitive sensor cell array. I do not know if you would call this all electronic as there is some microscopic movement but everything is integrated onto one chip except the display and power source.

You start to wonder about the mark up (and size) of the Ma Horne gauge. There are only a few companies making these chips and the are very inexpensive. Their accuracy and repeatability matches the specs listed for the expensive gages.

Brian

[DaveW]

I was thinking about something like a multiple surface micro-machined capacitive sensor cell array.

Good devices, but they work roughly as follows:
Pressure -> Strain -> Displacement -> Capacitance -> Voltage -> Output.
Errors can be introduced at every step in the sequence, and so understanding and controlling them is important. Having said that, the major cost in many transducers is the selling of them.....