I would appreciate advice on how to diagnose the cause of the crashes. Here's a detailed description of what I'm seeing and what I've tried so far. I apologise that this is quite a long message, but I wanted to make sure that I included everything rather than miss out an important detail.
The problem first started during testing on Friday. At that time, I was running very out of date firmware on the RCP and software on the phone that I use as a dash. So on Saturday I upgraded both to the latest versions (2.9.0 and 1.4.2 respectively). Although the new software is a massive improvement (good work guys) it didn't solve the problem
I have the RCP setup with the ShiftX lights that I use as *either* shift lights *or* error lights depending on circumstances - see this Lua script that I posted a while back for details:
https://www.autosportlabs.org/viewtopic.php?t=4416
When the problem started, what would happen is that I would be out on circuit, and suddenly I'd get an error showing up on the shift lights (i.e. just the red lights in the middle lit up). So that would suggest that some parameter has gone out of range (e.g. oil pressure has dropped to zero). At the same time, the Bluetooth connection between the RCP and the phone would fail (no updates on the phone). The only way to clear this was to power-cycle the RCP by switching off and back on at the master switch, at which point everything would work fine for another few minutes, but then I'd see the same again.
In the races on Sunday, I decided to stay out, even though I had a big red error light on the dash (scary, given that that supposedly means that the engine is about to lunch itself). What I then saw was that after a while the RCP would reboot (I can tell that it was rebooting because when it does it briefly lights up all the shift lights). Things would then work OK for another minute or so, after which it would again show the error lights and everything would stop again.
I also occasionally saw another failure mode, which was that I'd have the dash telling me that I was in the middle of a pitstop, even though I was tearing down the straight at well over 100mph.
Nothing shows up in the log which looks at all helpful. The log is recorded fine, until it suddenly stops. There's nothing untoward in the log that I can see (no battery voltage drop-off just beforehand, for example) it just suddenly stops. It *doesn't* start logging again after the RCP has rebooted though, which is odd (I have the Lua script setup to start logging as soon as GPS speed goes above 10mph).
We've disconnected all the sensors from the RCP apart from RPM, oil temp, and oil pressure, but still see the same behaviour (so the only things that are connected are those three plus power, 5v reference and the three outputs to the ShiftX lights). This made no difference.
Suggestions very welcome indeed.
Thanks!
It's easily accessible when the car's stationary (the body panels are attached with Dzus fasteners and removable within seconds) so we can run experiments when the car's in the garage very easily. I just can't get to it from the driver's seat while I'm in the car.