When we swapped a V6 into our 1996 Miata a few years ago, we threw away some wiring in the process. We removed the front half of the Miata’s OEM wiring harness and its OEM fusebox, replacing it with $6000 worth of Racepak electronics, including a solid-state Power Distribution Module (PDM) and the company’s IQ3 Logger Dash.
To run the …
I'm assuming from the comments that AiM has rewritten their software to be considerably more user friendly! I've set up a few MXL and MXL2s along with their SmartyCam and it's not what I'd call intuitive. Doesn't sound like the documentation has improved. Solidly built hardware, though.
Your PDM sounds a lot like the factory EDM in the ND Miata. It seems like extra complication when you start - why do the reverse lights have go through multiple modules instead of being a light and a switch? - but it allows the rest of the system to use that information, such as displaying the R on the dash or adjusting how the top works depending on if you're in reverse or not.
Keith Tanner said:Your PDM sounds a lot like the factory EDM in the ND Miata. It seems like extra complication when you start - why do the reverse lights have go through multiple modules instead of being a light and a switch? - but it allows the rest of the system to use that information, such as displaying the R on the dash or adjusting how the top works depending on if you're in reverse or not.
Yeah, PDMs and CAN bus let you do cool stuff in race cars pretty easily. Hit the "pit" button on the streering wheel and it not only tells the ECU to apply the pit lane speed limiter, but also turns off the super bright endurance headlights.
"They’re roughly as durable as a GoPro"
I find that statement amusing. I have worked as a track course marshall and find several broken ones around the track each weekend.
"Roughly as durable as a GoPro"... I found that laughable as well. If the AiM stuff was as (un)reliable as a GoPro, I never would have made the investment!
I installed the PDM32 as the basis of a rewire when K swapping my Miata, and it provides a great deal of flexibility in running the car the way you want to run it. The integration of data/video, and the ability to analyze data through RS3 is a very powerful tool in documenting and improving your performance.
"It just works" is the best compliment I have for the AiM gear. I tried a few other data/video/dash setups before going to AiM, and it was all a waste of money, and ultimately unreliable. AiM's software is still a little clunky, the documentation is still crap, and the AiM video quality is at least 10 years behind where it should be for the price. But, it 'just works.' And the customer service has been very good, in my experience. I had the misfortune of getting a bad switch pad and video cable out of the box. Both were promptly replaced by AiM.
Reliable GoPro's... yeah, like oil and water... Had three different generations before giving up on them entirely.
Regarding AIM, I had one of their early flat dashes. It took a while to wire and program, made much more annoying by the fact that only some of the sensor data was available from the AEM Infinity ECU. I ended up in some cases having two sensors, one for the ECU and one for the dash, which was ridiculous. I hope they finally got their interface squared away with the various ECU manufacturers.
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