Formula e | Energy Regeneration Question

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by WadeOhh, Dec 1, 2017.

  1. WadeOhh

    WadeOhh Registered

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    Hi all,

    I have only really found the basics of what the 2 energy regeneration tools (the eMotor Torque Map on increment/decrement mixture and the Regen Mode on engine brake map up/down) in the Formula e car actually do. I read the energize guide, but it doesn't really go into detail of exactly what they accomplish and what they do to the car.

    I wanted to find out in more detail what the 2 do in regards to what they accomplish, what they do to car behaviour, the trade offs, in which scenarios you'd use one over the other, roughly how much the different settings affect lap times (if known), even which is the 'high' and 'low' settings, eg: is '1' max charge or is '10' max charge (I always get a bit confused by number based settings). Basically I want to find out as much detail as possible.

    I realise I could find out through testing, but I'd really like to see a proper description. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
     
  2. Ricardo

    Ricardo Registered

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  3. SPASKIS

    SPASKIS Registered

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    @Lazza Can we check this with telemetry?
     
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  4. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    @SPASKIS I would suspect there aren't any new telemetry values to read. Maybe some of the existing systems/values are utilised in a different way, but if there are any new ones I doubt they've made it into the plugin interface as it tends to lag behind at the best of times.

    In addition, you can only track engine mixture and brake map by knowing what the car started with (via the temporary setup file created when you get in the car), keeping count of the up/down presses, and knowing how many values the car has. I've done it for a league mod, but it's not feasible with unknown (to the plugin) mods.

    Anyway, I haven't bought any DLC and modding/plugin support evidently isn't a focus for S397 (at the moment, at least).
     
  5. The Iron Wolf

    The Iron Wolf Registered

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    Yes, I don't think engine mixture/regen are visible via internals, but some side effects of those changes can be tracked by monitoring mFuel, which now represents % of the charge. This value goes up and down (due to regeneration). So, I imagine doing laps with settings A and B and comparing mFuel readings might reveal interesting stuff.
     
  6. WadeOhh

    WadeOhh Registered

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    Thanks for this @Ricardo. The talk and drive pretty much explained what I was looking for, well, the top level stuff I wanted to know. Some testing will be needed to know exact numbers on difference in lap times at the different settings, braking distances at the different settings, etc.

    For anyone looking at this thread looking for info, here are the basics

    eMotor Torque Map on the increment/decrement mixture buttons: This is basically your engine output. The higher the number setting, the more power you'll output, the faster you'll go. The trade off however (obviously), is that this comes at the expense of battery life. The higher the number, the faster you go, but the more battery you'll use.

    Regen Mode on the engine brake map up/down buttons: This is the amount of power you put back into the battery off throttle. I downloaded a 3rd party plugin to see what effect this had on the rate recovered and from the numbers I saw, this energy seems to go back into the battery at the same rate when you are off the throttle or braking. Braking itself doesn't seem to increase the rate recovered. (IE: when you are coasting with no brake, or on the brake hard, the rate that the energy is going back into the battery is the same. Hope this makes sense). The higher the setting, the more energy you'll recover, however, this is at the expense of braking efficiency/effectiveness. The higher the number, the more energy you'll recover off throttle, but the longer your braking distances will be. Lower the number, the better you'll brake, but less energy will be put back into the battery.

    Hopefully this helps someone (like myself) looking for this info in the future :)
     
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  7. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Makes sense, thanks for typing it out :)
     
  8. Goanna

    Goanna Registered

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    What 3rd party plugin did you download?
     
  9. Korva7

    Korva7 Registered

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    Hmm. I don't seem to have those engine brake map buttons to assign in my menu.
     
  10. WadeOhh

    WadeOhh Registered

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    V-HUD. It's on RaceDepartment. It's a really good customisable HUD much like Assetto Corsa. Many widgets that you can toggle off and on and a fuel/battery reading down to the 0.XX and also features a much more accurate 'fuel laps remaining' calculator than the stock HUD. Also, you can move the HUD items around much like Assetto (for Fe, I've put Fuel/battery just above the steering wheel).
    Hope this helps ☺️
     
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  11. Goanna

    Goanna Registered

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    Thanks for that, will check it out
     
  12. rocketjockeyr6

    rocketjockeyr6 Registered

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    So, does rF2 now incorporate energy harvesting?
    Would seem silly to make a F-E mod and not have harvesting. Even more so since it isnt free. :p

    This will make next years F1 mod 100% accurate, so if this is the case then Im stoked.
     
  13. The Iron Wolf

    The Iron Wolf Registered

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    I am curious, what is the source of energy that's being put back, if it's coming back even without braking? Or, is it simplification in rF2 itself?
     
  14. Emery

    Emery Registered

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    To run an electric motor, you add energy. Stop adding energy and the electric motor turns into a generator as long as it is spinning, thus the kinetic energy of a car coasting in gear is generating electricity rather than consuming it.

    In a big industrial plant, with lots of air handlers and shop motors, the electrical designer has to size the circuit breakers to account for loss of electricity as all those motors suddenly start producing energy!
     
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  15. Charmin

    Charmin Registered

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    Stupid question does the AI use Lift and Coast or do they drive full throttle until they are out of energy?
     
  16. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

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    Basically it's just like engine braking, but technically it's like a headlight dynamo on a pushbike. Don't know what they're like these days with LEDs, but that dynamo used to introduce a fair amount of resistance...
     
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  17. WadeOhh

    WadeOhh Registered

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    Not a stupid question :) Sadly, they just go full peg, so in a 23 lap race (which is a good lap to target without a stop for the player), they will stop once and if you do a full race distance (43 or 45 lap race) they will stop twice.

    I hear they are working on this potentially for future updates.
     
  18. Charmin

    Charmin Registered

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    Thanks for the awnser, good to know, thought i m just to slow in race mode. Would be cool to make it possible that the AI use Lift and Coast, an other question, what about the power? I have the feeling the also use 200kw.
     
  19. SL1DE

    SL1DE Registered

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    They use 180kw. Because I use 200 and I'm faster than they are on the straights. Plus, doesn't the AI always use the default setup?
     
  20. CRMS

    CRMS Registered

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    So I'm grappling with Formula E and the power train settings. The native wheel in the FE car on the top right hand side has 3 settings:

    Trq Map - What is this?? I haven't found a setting for it.
    Brk Map - This is the Regen setting from 0 - 9, but I can't really ascertain any difference between the settings.
    Eng Map - This is engine power and goes from something like 120kw up to qualifying 250kw

    The real cars have regen paddles to apply regen but I can't find an analogue control to set it or use it. This seems to be missing. Some wheels have analogue paddles on the wheel as well as digital shifters eg APM on Fanatec wheels.

    Also, lap delta need to be in the centre bottom box. And showing in Red/Green during lap. If need be instead of last lap, but there is lots of wasted real estate, so should be room for it. It is in the game as SimHub dashes can display it.
    Plus N is huge - lots of space for the other items on the real wheel that are missing - vBatt and the green box next to N.


    rF2FEsteering wheel.jpg

    FEsteering wheel2.jpg
     

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