For those of you who were curious about Aerolab, there’s now a patched Win32 build for it in a development version of Golden Cheetah 1.3. Thanks to Mark Liversedge for building my patch into GC1.3. Keep in mind that this is a very early version of the Aerolab module and that it is not currently part of Golden Cheetah. Aerolab is just a prototype right now, but it will eventually be a complete suite of aerodynamic tools for virtual elevation work.
For those of you not familiar with it, Aerolab is a virtual windtunnel that helps you analyze your ride files. Under certain conditions, Aerolab will help you estimate the rolling resistance (Crr) and aero drag coefficient (CdA) of you and your bike. It does this by helping you match a computed virtual elevation curve with the real curve.
[Edit: Please keep in mind that this is a pre-release patched special build of GC1.3. It's meant to give you a taste of what's coming. ]
Download it here. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Very cool. I like the visualization quite a bit, and the sliders are very very smooth.
Here are some random comments.
1. The calculations appear to be off.
2. You should allow for rho < 1.0
3. What are the units for elevation?
4. Distance on the x-axis is way off.
IOW, niggling details are off but functionality is very slick.
Also, I’d restrict the range of the sliders a bit and increase the resolution.
F’rinstance: rho should be range between maybe 0.9x and 1.25ish. Crr between maybe .001 and .01. CdA between maybe .1 and .5. You’ll need a drivetrain efficiency constant.
Ok, I’ll go home tonight and make sure the sliders are right and recheck my distance calculation. This stuff is begging for 4th-order Runge-Kutta, which I’ll have to put into future version.
Gotta leave *some* work for later versions.
Thanks for the feedback, Robert.
Hi, I doubt it’s related to your part of the software, but I can’t get a file to import (.csv or .wko (2.2or 3.0)) Sounds like a great idea, but… Any thoughts. I may be pushing things by trying to run GC under parallels on a Mac, but…
Thanks Ben
Ben, it may well be because of Aerolab. I’m looking into it right now. Stay tuned and check back soon for updates to the binary.
Thanks for your comment!
I am trying to upload training files from a WKO+ data file. This is not working and it is suggesting I open the file and save as… What should I do here? The set up looks really good and provides charts that are not offered in other programs. Great work!
-mike
I am currently working on a new, clean patch for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Stay tuned for the announcement and we’ll get you a proper version.
Thanks for trying it out — we appreciate you using Golden Cheetah!
Andy F
GC had no problems importing one of my field testing WKOs from last spring. This ride consisted of a set of Lim opposing-direction runs, followed by a Chung session on a running track. Aerolab shows me a flat plot when I plug in the Crr calculated from my Lim runs, along with the CdA I got from the Lim runs and my original Chung analysis spreadsheet. So, looks like your math is at least close
Notes:
1. X-axis is labeled Distance but it’s pretty clearly time.
2. Inputting values in the Crr/Cda/Rho/Total weight text boxes causes the values to go haywire.
3. Would be helpful to be able to zoom in on an interval
A new clean patch is imminent, and it will fix the reported problems. Thanks so much for trying Aerolab, and stay tuned for plenty more features in the coming versions.
It’s looking good
The sliders are good for rough estimates but it would be good to be able to type in specific values so you can vary CdA by o.oo1 and Crr by 0.00001
It would also be useful to be able to plot more than 1 run so different conditions could be compared.
Chris