Cars are loud. It's often difficult to hear what was said over a radio. "Can you repeat that" is said way too often. Radios sometime get unplugged. Radio communications suck. Also, some people are deaf or hearing imparied. We need an alternative.
RATTY is a minimialist racing communications application for text communication among the driver, spotters, and pit. All parties communicate with a text messaging service (e.g. Discord) via the Internet.
- Vehicle:
- Mobile HotSpot (e.g. Verizon Jetpack)
- Arudino with WiFi connected to a single button
- Display screen (e.g. a phone or tablet)
- Pit: Computer connected to internet
- Spotters: Phones connect to cellular
There's quite a bit you could do with a single button by recording any number of
short and long clicks. One could also have more than a single button. For
simplcity, the current design is for 4 types of actions with a single button.
It's easy enough to modify the messages (see config.h).
- Single-click: "Yes"
- Double-click: "No"
- Panic-clicks: "Bad things have happened"
- Long-click: "Pit request"
When the driver signals "bad things" or "pit request" the pit can start to ask questions.
- Pit: "Everything OK?"
- Driver: "Yes"
- Pit: "Yellow flag in T5"
- Pit: "Emergency vehicle on track"
- Pit: "All flags are cleared"
- Driver: "Pit request"
- Pit: "Are you running out of fuel?"
- Driver: "Yes"
- Pit: "OK, we're getting ready"
- Driver: "Bad things have happened"
- Pit: "Are you still pitting for fuel?"
- Driver: "No"
- Pit: "OK, come into the paddock"