RACEKIT by Bug Catchers S.R.O

RACEKIT

Open telemetry you own

Engine + chassis telemetry you actually own. GPS, G-force and live engine data straight off the CAN bus — logged to SD and streamed to your own Grafana dashboard, not a locked app.

Request a kit → See the device
ESP32-S3 · 7″ touch GNSS + 9-DOF + OBD-over-CAN Open CSV you own Road-validated
01  /  Validated on the road

Not a bench demo.
A real drive, all channels live.

V2.1 was signed off on a 14.14 km mixed-road run in the Amarok — GNSS, IMU and OBD-over-CAN all reporting 100 % of the way. Every number below came off the SD card.

14.14km
Distance
131km/h
Top speed
4697rpm
Peak engine
0.67g
Peak combined G
96°C
Max coolant
100%
Sensor uptime
3 899 samples · 12 satellites · 83 % average volumetric efficiency · 17.5° max grade
02  /  The signal chain

Three sources in. One file out.
Your dashboard on top.

Everything a GPS lap-logger records — plus live engine data off the CAN bus — plus the maths done on-device. All fused on one ESP32-S3, on one clock.

Sense

Capture

Multi-GNSS, a 9-DOF fused IMU and OBD-over-CAN, sampled together and time-aligned on-device.

3 sources
Compute

Derive

Volumetric efficiency, boost, air-per-cylinder, engaged gear and G-forces — calculated live, in the loop.

on-device
Log

Own

Append-only to microSD as plain CSV / InfluxDB line-protocol. No cloud, no account, no lock-in.

open CSV
Visualize

Analyse

Self-hosted InfluxDB + Grafana — a 33-panel race-engineer board that ships with the kit.

33 panels
03  /  What it records

Every channel that matters

📍

GNSS · multi-constellation

Position, speed, altitude and track from a multi-constellation receiver on an external active roof antenna — 12 satellites, 100 % fix on the validation run.

speedaltitudetrack colour
📐

Motion · 9-DOF fused

Sensor fusion runs inside the chip, so pitch, roll and yaw come out absolute and drift-free — plus gravity-removed linear acceleration for true G.

lat / long gpitch · rollyaw rate
🔧

Engine · OBD-over-CAN

Talks to the ECU directly on the vehicle bus. No ELM327 dongle, no WiFi hop, no dropped frames.

RPMMAP · MAFcoolant · IATloadthrottle
🧮

Computed live

Volumetric efficiency, turbo boost, air-per-cylinder, engaged gear and combined G — maths done on the device, not in post.

VE %boostair/cylgear
💾

Logged to SD

Open CSV in InfluxDB line-protocol, append-only — full data ownership, nothing trapped behind an app or a subscription.

plain CSVappend-only
📡

Pull it over WiFi

Tap once and the device reboots into its own hotspot and web server — browse and download the whole card at 192.168.4.1. The case never has to open.

hotspotno card removal
04  /  On the 7″ screen

A dashboard built for a moving vehicle

A native LVGL interface on a 7″ capacitive touch panel — 800 × 480, finger-sized targets, tabular numerals so values never jitter. One tap runs the pre-drive checks, then you get the screen you stare at for hours.

RACEKIT driving dashboard on the 7-inch screen: RPM arc with shift lights, headline speed, G-force friction circle, and throttle, load, boost and coolant along the bottom. RECORD · main dashboard

The main screen. 270° RPM arc with shift-lights, headline speed, a live G-G friction circle, and throttle / load / boost / coolant across the bottom.

RACEKIT off-road page: pitch and roll inclinometer in the corners over a topographic contour backdrop, derived gear, speed, RPM, altitude and coolant down the right side. OFF-ROAD · inclinometer
RACEKIT pre-drive system check: IMU, GPS, OBD-II and SD card all showing PASS, 4 of 4 ready. PRE-DRIVE · system check

Off-road page: pitch and roll in the corners over a topographic backdrop, derived gear, and speed, RPM and coolant down the right — the numbers that matter when the road runs out. Every screen carries a battery badge, and the unit powers down from the touchscreen. Runs off the car or its own internal battery.

05  /  Your own Grafana

The data is yours. So is the board.

Pull the ride over WiFi, import it, and open a self-hosted InfluxDB + Grafana stack that ships with the kit — Docker up, and the whole drive is on screen. Laid out the way a race engineer reads it, top-down.

33-panel · real Amarok run, 14.14 km RACEKIT Grafana dashboard showing a real 14.14 km drive: session summary tiles, GPS track coloured by speed, speed and gear, RPM and throttle, boost and MAF, volumetric efficiency, per-gear averages, G-G friction circle, attitude, coolant and altitude, and a data-health panel.
Track & powertrain

GPS route coloured green→red by speed, peak gauges, speed vs engaged gear, RPM & throttle, boost & MAF airflow.

Efficiency & chassis

Volumetric efficiency, air-per-cylinder, per-gear averages table, the G-G friction circle and attitude traces.

Thermal & data health

Coolant and intake-air, altitude against grade — and a panel that tells you honestly which channels to trust.

⚠ Honest by default

MAP clips at 255 kPa on generic OBD, so logged peak boost is a floor, not the true peak. The board says so, on the board.

⚠ Derived, not read

Engaged gear is computed from the speed/RPM ratio — accurate mid-gear, blank during clutch and idle. Labelled as derived.

⚠ Nothing faked

Channels the car doesn't actually expose are removed from the board rather than shown as a convincing zero.

06  /  Drive the data

Scrub through a real run

This is the actual V2.1 sign-off drive, replayed from the logged CSV — not a mock-up. Hit play, drag the scrubber, or hover the chart to move through all 13 minutes and watch every channel the device recorded.

07  /  Works on your car

Plug in. It's already showing something.

Three independent layers, so a failure in one never blanks the screen. The dashboard is alive before the car even answers — and gets richer the more your car is willing to say.

Tier 0 · any vehicle

GPS + motion

Speed, position, altitude, G-forces, pitch and roll need no connection to the car at all. Live the instant you power on — even with a dead or locked diagnostic port.

always onno OBD needed
Tier 1 · every car ~2008+

Standard OBD-II

Mode 01 PIDs are legally mandated and identical across brands. RACEKIT asks the ECU which ones it supports and lights up exactly those gauges — the rest simply read --.

auto-detectRPM · MAP · MAFload · temps
Tier 2 · profile-driven

Manufacturer data

The deep signals that aren't in generic OBD — oil temperature, injector balance, DPF. Held in updatable profiles on the SD card, not baked into firmware. VW / Audi group first, decoded on the Amarok.

UDSSD profilesin progress

Read-only, everywhere — RACEKIT listens and queries, it never writes to a module. Safe to leave plugged into any car.

08  /  Versus the alternatives

Nothing else does all of it

These are what people actually buy instead: a phone on the windscreen, a GPS lap-logger, an all-in-one race dash, or an industrial CAN logger. Each covers part of the job inside a closed system — RACEKIT is the only one that does all of it, in a device you can open.

Swipe the table →

Phone + OBD dongle RaceBox Mini S AiM Solo 2 DL Racelogic VBOX Sport CSS CANedge2 RACEKIT
GPS + motion logging phone✓✓ ✓add-on✓
Engine data from the ECU ✓—✓ —raw CAN✓
Direct CAN-bus access ——— —✓✓
On-device VE / boost maths ——— ——✓
Open CSV you own app-locked—— —✓✓
Your own Grafana board ——— —✓✓
Dedicated in-car screen your phone—✓ small—7″ touch
Runs with no phone or app ——✓ ✓✓✓
Open-source firmware ——— ——✓

Where each one stops: the phone loses your data to an app and dies in the sun. RaceBox and VBOX never touch the engine. AiM sees the engine but locks the data in its own software. CANedge2 shares our open-data philosophy — but it's an industrial box with no screen, no OBD polling and no on-device maths. Only RACEKIT does all of it at once.

09  /  Specifications

Under the lid

What it does, and what it gives you. Exact modules, pinout and firmware internals come with the build guide.

Brain
Dual-core 32-bit MCU — integrated CAN controller, dedicated display memory
Display
7″ capacitive touch · 800 × 480 RGB · native LVGL UI
GNSS
Multi-constellation receiver · external active roof antenna
Motion
9-DOF · sensor fusion on the chip · drift-free attitude
Engine data
Direct CAN-bus link to the ECU · no ELM327 dongle in the path
Channels
RPM · speed · coolant · IAT · MAP · MAF · load · throttle · VE · boost
Logging
microSD · open CSV / InfluxDB line-protocol · append-only
Data off-load
WiFi hotspot + web server · or pull the card
Power
Integrated battery · uninterrupted charging · hardware power switch
Dashboard
Self-hosted InfluxDB + Grafana (Docker) · 33 panels
Expansion
Manufacturer-specific profiles · chassis modules (in development)
Validated on
VW Amarok 2.0 BiTDI · 14.14 km road run, all subsystems 100 %
10  /  Get one

Three ways in

RACEKIT is built in small batches, so every unit is quoted to the spec you want. Tell us the car and how you plan to use it, and you'll get options and a price back.

Build guide + dashboard pack Full build documentation, wiring, firmware and the Grafana stack. For DIYers who already have an iron and want to source their own parts. Enquire →
Most asked for Assembled & flashed Built, wired, tested and firmware-loaded, with the battery pack and OBD cable. Plug it into the car and start logging. Enquire →
Full rig + car profile Assembled unit, enclosure, and a manufacturer profile decoded for your specific car so you get the deep engine channels, not just the generic ones. Enquire →

Tell us about your car.

Make, model and year, and what you want to measure — track days, hill-climbs, towing, overland, or just knowing what your engine actually does. We'll come back with what's possible and what it costs.

contact@racekit.solutions

Small-batch builds · open-source firmware & dashboards included