Measuring camber at home with the iPhone

Shortly after buying an Apple iPhone, I found an application called Clinometer - it's a level and slope finder available from the iTunes Store for a reasonable 99 cents. It uses the phone's built-in accelerometers to measure angle with amazing accuracy. Useful for hanging pictures on your wall, making sure your new plasma TV isn't crooked, and most importantly, making sure you are getting the most out of your tires while autocrossing and on the track.

Step 1 was to find a straight block of wood that is cut to touch the top and bottom lip of the wheel:

Step 2 is to put this block of wood on the garage floor and go through the simple calibration procedure in the application. I could calibrate it from multiple directions in order to measure my camber relative to gravity.. but since the car in on the ground, I want to measure it relative to the garage floor only.

Finally, I can place it against the block of wood pressed against my wheel:

That is just so cool!

cool! I have been shopping around for a nokia e90, but I might as well get the Iphone because of all the cool features it has (and the accelerometers, too)!

That is awesome. Very remarkable.

Add the Dynolicous software to the iPhone too. Although a bit more expensive ($10 IIRC), its pretty impressive as well. The simple comparisons that I've seen have shown the iPhone with Dynolicious to be better than the G-Tech unit and it compares within a couple of percent to actual dyno numbers and drag time slips.

That is awesome... Really smart of you to think to do that. Nice job

That's an interesting idea. For those with windows mobile phones....http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-...bblelevel.html. Not as fancy, but same idea.

Yes!! I just bought the app. Thanks Kris

Wow ! That`s quite impressive....and a bargain too....thanks for sharing !

Ok, I have seen it all now.

Maybe they have a 1/4 mile time app too? Skidpad G force app?

Originally Posted by smolck

Ok, I have seen it all now.

Maybe they have a 1/4 mile time app too? Skidpad G force app?

Ask and you shall receive....see gesoffen`s post #5 above....

Originally Posted by Fast Bob

Ask and you shall receive....see gesoffen`s post #5 above....

Sorry, I'm a skimmer......

Now I just need an iPhone that will put a manual in my car for me.....

Very cool.

Originally Posted by smolck

Sorry, I'm a skimmer......

Now I just need an iPhone that will put a manual in my car for me.....

You can copy the pdf manual to the iphone and browse it from there no problem.

Oh wait, you meant manual transmission .

Thats really neat Kris. It sure beats my old "analog" geometry by a long shot. gordo

wow, that is a very neat application. too bad i dont have an iphone

Originally Posted by gordo325xiwagon

Thats really neat Kris. It sure beats my old "analog" geometry by a long shot. gordo

haha! That's how I used to measure it too (obviously the deflection of the lower sidewall would cause the measurements in these pictures to be a bit off):








Tangent(A) = opposite / adjacent

and my little cheater table:
opposite/adjacent equals camber
0.004 -0.25
0.009 -0.50
0.013 -0.75
0.017 -1.00
0.022 -1.25
0.026 -1.50
0.030 -1.75
0.035 -2.00
0.039 -2.25
0.044 -2.50
0.048 -2.75
0.052 -3.00
0.057 -3.25
0.061 -3.50

Originally Posted by KrisL

haha! That's how I used to measure it too (obviously the deflection of the lower sidewall would cause the measurements in these pictures to be a bit off):








Tangent(A) = opposite / adjacent

and my little cheater table:
opposite/adjacent equals camber
0.004 -0.25
0.009 -0.50
0.013 -0.75
0.017 -1.00
0.022 -1.25
0.026 -1.50
0.030 -1.75
0.035 -2.00
0.039 -2.25
0.044 -2.50
0.048 -2.75
0.052 -3.00
0.057 -3.25
0.061 -3.50

He he. Now I've got something new to throw in my niece's face when she starts with, "When am I ever going to use this stuff." while I'm tutoring her in trig.

"iNerd":

A person who embraces iPhone and iPod so much it begins to rule their lives
"Hey, I think Joe has become a bit of an iNerd since he bought that iPhone"

Insert "Kris" where you see "Joe" above.....

I think this guy said it best....

The answer is, of course, an emphatic Hell No! But it might be too late. I'll get the iPhone because it is a great device and I want one, but I have a few points that I will hold my ground on:

* I won't wait in one of those damn lines at the Apple store to get it
* I won't pull it out at every possible opportunity to show it off
* I won't talk about it incessantly and argue its merits at dinner with people I don't know that well
* I won't buy over-priced Apple products just because they are made by Apple
* I won't wait with baited breath for Steve Jobs to tell me about the next great Apple innovation
* I won't read the MacRumors blog to find out about what is coming
* And most importantly, I won't become an iNerd

Yeah, I'm gonna stand my ground.

Posted by: Connor Fee

ok, I'll admit I just bought two 16's, one for me and one for my wife. I'm no Apple fanboy even though (or maybe because) I used to repair them professionally. These days I just use Linux (Fedora) for everything at home. Seems like every day I find some new use for it and I haven't regretted picking it up at all. Now if only they'd make the right cable so I can charge it while I listen on my dice adapter.

Originally Posted by wdgiles

ok, I'll admit I just bought two 16's, one for me and one for my wife. I'm no Apple fanboy even though (or maybe because) I used to repair them professionally. These days I just use Linux (Fedora) for everything at home. Seems like every day I find some new use for it and I haven't regretted picking it up at all. Now if only they'd make the right cable so I can charge it while I listen on my dice adapter.

http://home.swipnet.se/ridax/connector.htm?connipod.htm

That's what I use with my intravee, works great.

I hope this gets added to the wiki. Excellent finding Kris!

Originally Posted by LuvThatSam

I hope this gets added to the wiki.

Nah, it's not really E46 specific.

This is getting kinda scary!