How to dyno your car with a phone app. Suprisingly accurate.
How to dyno your car with a phone app. Suprisingly accurate.
Download the App DinoDyno. I used an Android Phone (2 year old 4G EVO)
Open App and press menu.
This will pop up.

Go into the vehicle setup and install these parameters.
Name: Whatever you want
Year: 2007
Make: Chevy
Model: Cobalt SS
Mass 3200lbs (curb weight 2971.83 lb with driver/cargo/gas 250 use "lbs" after your number)
Frontal Area 1.57 sq m (height of car x width of car, in our case 1.414m high + 1.725m wide /2)
Coefficient of Drag 0.324 (will be less for lowered cars but not much, listed online as .324 with big stupid wing, mine is gone so i left off the last digit)
Drivetrain loss 13 (percent found to be acceptabe online or leave as 0.0)
BHP 0.0 (leave settings alone)
Torque 0.0 (leave settings alone)
Go back to this screen.

Press DYNO with pretty horse picture.
Tape your phone to your passenger seat with duct tape or something like a sucktion cup holder. Phone has to be flat and top pointing at windshield.
Press the bullseye to set the accelerometer to your phones "seated" position.
Press "Tap To Stage Dyno" carbon fiber area.
"Dyno Staged" will appear on your screen. Upon accelerating to 0.2g the phone will get your "TRAP" and capture your quartermile speed and time. Make sure you leave yourself enough room wherever you are doing this, dare I say the interstate or hwy. I got up to 110 before I looked down to see my 1300 feet results.
You will need to tweak your settings here and there to get your car accurate but the above inputs used yeilded me almost perfect results.
Post up your results when finished.
*Be smart and dont due this where you will hurt yourself or others.
Open App and press menu.
This will pop up.

Go into the vehicle setup and install these parameters.
Name: Whatever you want
Year: 2007
Make: Chevy
Model: Cobalt SS
Mass 3200lbs (curb weight 2971.83 lb with driver/cargo/gas 250 use "lbs" after your number)
Frontal Area 1.57 sq m (height of car x width of car, in our case 1.414m high + 1.725m wide /2)
Coefficient of Drag 0.324 (will be less for lowered cars but not much, listed online as .324 with big stupid wing, mine is gone so i left off the last digit)
Drivetrain loss 13 (percent found to be acceptabe online or leave as 0.0)
BHP 0.0 (leave settings alone)
Torque 0.0 (leave settings alone)
Go back to this screen.

Press DYNO with pretty horse picture.
Tape your phone to your passenger seat with duct tape or something like a sucktion cup holder. Phone has to be flat and top pointing at windshield.
Press the bullseye to set the accelerometer to your phones "seated" position.
Press "Tap To Stage Dyno" carbon fiber area.
"Dyno Staged" will appear on your screen. Upon accelerating to 0.2g the phone will get your "TRAP" and capture your quartermile speed and time. Make sure you leave yourself enough room wherever you are doing this, dare I say the interstate or hwy. I got up to 110 before I looked down to see my 1300 feet results.
You will need to tweak your settings here and there to get your car accurate but the above inputs used yeilded me almost perfect results.
Post up your results when finished.
*Be smart and dont due this where you will hurt yourself or others.
Last edited by c130aviator; Jul 21, 2012 at 06:01 AM.
that would be awesome, hard part is getting a flat stretch without traffic, from a dead stop off the interstate to 110 or more in the quarter. Its harder than you might think.
ive got a backroad thats a minute from my house, that is pretty flat and almost 2 miles long. Thats where ive done most of my runs.
updated some numbers to try and get better accuracy, still reads a little high tonight.
edit I am an idiot and had frontal area way off.
edit I am an idiot and had frontal area way off.
Last edited by c130aviator; Jul 21, 2012 at 05:25 AM.
Ok, so I just went out tonight and did one last pull before I go to bed (just got off night shift). This by far was the most exciting. The data logger showed 2 consistent runs and let me graph them side by side and all info above was as close as I could get it for accuracy. The frontal area of our cars could be a bit less depending on lowering and air dam mods. But I am sure this as good as it gets for frontal area. For weight I know this can get a lot more accurate if you have a scale around your town.
Now onto the fun stuff. The run manager built in lets you see how FAST you shift or how slow, it lets you see HP before you shift and the dip in the graph to display power into the next gear and rpms. THIS IS SIC
My First gear spun like crazy even with feathering the clutch, I need to work on that. I made 105hp before going into second. Graph showed a wide gap/dip, meaning I was slow to shift.
Second gear climbed from 115hp to 229hp! before I shifted. The graph showed a quick blip and I was into 3rd gear. Meaning that was a good shift obviously.
Third gear made 175hp and ran out to 223hp before I hit 106.5 mph @ 15.0 1/4 mile mark. Quarter mile has been 15.0 consistently but on slight inclined grades.
My rev limit is still 6500 so that was my shift point. Overall I made the most power in second gear at 229 at 6500rpm at 73mph.
This thing is freaking awesome! 229 with 13% drivetrain would be 200hp. Very believable number for a stock car with just an intake. Accuracy was consistent which is all that matters. When I go to turbo my car and run this I will have baseline numbers to run against even if they are low or a little off. All calculations will still be the same.
Now onto the fun stuff. The run manager built in lets you see how FAST you shift or how slow, it lets you see HP before you shift and the dip in the graph to display power into the next gear and rpms. THIS IS SIC
My First gear spun like crazy even with feathering the clutch, I need to work on that. I made 105hp before going into second. Graph showed a wide gap/dip, meaning I was slow to shift.
Second gear climbed from 115hp to 229hp! before I shifted. The graph showed a quick blip and I was into 3rd gear. Meaning that was a good shift obviously.
Third gear made 175hp and ran out to 223hp before I hit 106.5 mph @ 15.0 1/4 mile mark. Quarter mile has been 15.0 consistently but on slight inclined grades.
My rev limit is still 6500 so that was my shift point. Overall I made the most power in second gear at 229 at 6500rpm at 73mph.
This thing is freaking awesome! 229 with 13% drivetrain would be 200hp. Very believable number for a stock car with just an intake. Accuracy was consistent which is all that matters. When I go to turbo my car and run this I will have baseline numbers to run against even if they are low or a little off. All calculations will still be the same.
Last edited by c130aviator; Jul 21, 2012 at 06:13 AM. Reason: spelling
probably a great app as well. But what turns so many off is the homework on the frontal area. Drag and weights are easy, they are given by the manufacturer. Frontal is something you have to work at. Throw the right numbers in any app I bet it will be close. Thanks for the reply, going to look at it too, later. Going to bed...
I already said there are other great apps. Besides iphones are like Hahn, overpriced for what you get. Android has had the market for a while now. At any rate use the numbers in my OP, they are good
so you compared the aps numbers to an actual dyno run? or was it an estimation? curious how close it was
trap speed in the 1/4 seems a bit off but it's not perfect obviously
android is also the most vulnerable to hacks, viruses and attacks. watch the news lol they both have their advantage and disadvantage..
so you compared the aps numbers to an actual dyno run? or was it an estimation? curious how close it was
trap speed in the 1/4 seems a bit off but it's not perfect obviously
so you compared the aps numbers to an actual dyno run? or was it an estimation? curious how close it was
trap speed in the 1/4 seems a bit off but it's not perfect obviously
Did I mess up or something?
Cuz it said I was at 210BHP and I'm just a little 2.2l with a full exhaust, an short RAM, and trifecta tune.
I got it calibrated at 0.0
I put the weight of the car and everything also.
Cuz it said I was at 210BHP and I'm just a little 2.2l with a full exhaust, an short RAM, and trifecta tune.
I got it calibrated at 0.0
I put the weight of the car and everything also.
it sounds like your weight may be off, you cant just assume my weight, i went off how much gas I had, my body weight and the cars base. If you are reading high then decrease your weight cause the app thinks you are moving more mass then you really are
the drag coeffiecent might be off since your car is not an ss. I used the specs for an SS. wondering this is why so many hate these apps too many variables to see if its the real deal. Keep switching numbers around until you get in the 160-170 range on hp. That might be a more accurate number with your mods. You really have to check on a scale for accuracy to be a bit better and see if you can find your drag coeffiecent on a gas saver type webiste. Our cars came in a high effiecency model so you may find good numbers for your body style. It takes some research.
Last edited by c130aviator; Aug 2, 2012 at 12:56 PM. Reason: clarify
To me its still worth a try because the app shows you not only peak horsepower but the entire power band, blips for shift times and a lot of other cool factors. Its more than just a peak HP number!
Huh? Lol... iPhone is the most reliable phone you can get and they sell for $0.99...
the drag coeffiecent might be off since your car is not an ss. I used the specs for an SS. wondering this is why so many hate these apps too many variables to see if its the real deal. Keep switching numbers around until you get in the 160-170 range on hp. That might be a more accurate number with your mods. You really have to check on a scale for accuracy to be a bit better and see if you can find your drag coeffiecent on a gas saver type webiste. Our cars came in a high effiecency model so you may find good numbers for your body style. It takes some research.



