Controlling the Instrument Cluster's Display

74946 Views 470 Replies 65 Participants Last post by Mario, 1 mo ago

Mario

Discussion Starter · Nov 9, 2015

A little project I'm working on.

(Sorry for the horrid picture!)

Here's the elevator pitch: Directly control the LCD panel with a microcontroller to display custom information on the instrument cluster. The microcontroller will also read the data that would normally be going to the LCD and can choose to display that info or custom info.

Maybe you want to display OBDII parameters where the MPG is. Maybe you want to change the charge, assist, and SOC gauges to accurately reflect amps in/out, real battery SOC, etc.

I've got a few other ideas as well. Once I'm finished with this project I'll open-source everything I've learned and perhaps produce some PCBs to sell. We'll see!

I have work and other projects as well, so it may be slow going at times. But I'll try to give updates fairly regularly.
I don't think this has ever been done before. I hope you guys are excited!
If anybody is or wants to work on something similar, I'll be glad to share what I know; just ask.

See less See more

Reactions: 5

81 - 100 of 471 Posts

Stueveo

· #81 · Jan 16, 2016

One and probably two

ericbecky

· #82 · Jan 16, 2016

mudder said:
I'll early adopt that. Send me your paypal and I'll make a 100% deposit, knowing that the price might increase. Having an early unit will help me suss out Linsight+Pegasus.

I will also early adopt that.
100% deposit from me, knowing the price may increase.
Let me know the paypal address as well.

Mario

Discussion Starter · #83 · Jan 16, 2016

Wow, 10+ preorders, just like that.

Glad to see there's a decent amount of interest even before I've shown it do anything!

I won't be taking any money until I am ready to produce them, so please don't try to send any now. But I'm glad people would put money on it at this point!

Rainsux

· #84 · Jan 16, 2016

Make that 11. Maybe 12 if my wife likes #11.

Sam

novicetrader.jay

· #85 · Jan 17, 2016

Put me down for one

Mario

Discussion Starter · #86 · Jan 18, 2016

Always gotta have some sort of art for my PCBs.

Finished up rev 1 of the PCB, all routing's done, art's on there, everything. I'm going to send it out tonight and I should get the boards back in about 12 days. More news then, once I solder one together and start programming it.

See less See more

Stueveo

· #87 · Jan 18, 2016

Exciting news looking forward to see what’s next! Thank you for keeping us posted

Bull Dog

· #88 · Jan 18, 2016

I'm undoubtedly going to need one of these soon. So there's a sale from me as well waiting in the wings.

AbCaRed00

· #89 · Jan 18, 2016 (Edited)

+1 I'd like one too please.
_______________________
As a suggested feature, to assist USA [mpg scale] owners .....change the mpg bar graph output to a 'gpm' bar graph on USA car's displays while retaining the familiar imperial measures for the car's digital display.

....if the dynamic miles per gallon [distance/volume] FCD bar graph under the digital display could be changed [as like the metric bar version volume/distance], to reflect a scale of gallons per mile, then the operator could graphically have a better sense of the finer points of fuel economy from better scale resolution to reflect small differences.
i.e. on metric side, a lack of total fuel cut with throttle lift in very cold weather was noted showing a 1 L/100km fuel consumption difference. It shows as one bar; this subtle difference would not show up as any bars indication on the mpg scale in stock configuration.
__________________________
So, hopefully the FCD bar graph on US cars could be made more useful as an instantaneous economy indication if it were GPM, gallons per mile vs standard mpg distance/volume indication.

See less See more

Mario

Discussion Starter · #90 · Jan 18, 2016

The problem with gallons/mile is that it's a very small number - 50mpg is 0.02gpm. The digits above the bar graph can only show certain whole numbers. What would make more sense is g/100m, in which 50mpg would be 2g/100m.

But if all you really want is an indicator of fuel cut, that's easy. I was already planning on adding a feature where the 150 above the bar graph is replaced with your instantaneous MPG, up to 199 instead of the stock 150. In fuel cut mode, I can just make it say "InF" for infinite MPG.

striider

· #91 · Jan 19, 2016

I am very much in for one of these too. You guys on this forum continue to amaze!

mudder

· #92 · Jan 19, 2016

Mario said:
The problem with gallons/mile is that it's a very small number - 50mpg is 0.02gpm. The digits above the bar graph can only show certain whole numbers. What would make more sense is g/100m, in which 50mpg would be 2g/100m.

Why not do liters/100 km? It's an internationally accepted fuel standard and already part of the OEM UI. Show mpg on the bar graph and L/100 km on the BCD. Force us to metricize

.

RedDevil

· #93 · Jan 19, 2016

I vote for ccpm or ccpkm.
This stands for cubic centimetre per mile or kilometer and should be a nice double digit number.
My ZE2 says l/100km and shows just one digit beyond the decimal point so it is quite imprecise; at 4.0 l/100km the next value is 2.5% away...

IamIan

· #94 · Jan 19, 2016

Both have pros/cons:

Distance / Volume (MPG) ends up offering more greater differentiation (per unit) at better Fuel Economy .. and less at lower Fuel Economy .. while Volume / Distance (GPM) ends up offering greater differentiation (per unit) at lower fuel economy .. and less at higher fuel economy.

highwater

· #95 · Jan 20, 2016

Yes Yes

Always gotta have some sort of art for my PCBs.

And a bumper sticker????:clap:

Randall

See less See more

Mudfoot57

· #96 · Jan 31, 2016

UK +1 Please

Please can you put me down for 1 unit. Happy to wait till you are shipping others to UK and would collect or arrange delivery within 100 miles of Reading if that helps others and keeps cost down. Great project.

W522 SLE 111k miles, just replaced original battery pack with s/h one, ODBC & IMAC & C. Battery pack now has all 20 sticks wired for external monitoring.

Sigma Projects

· #97 · Feb 1, 2016

How difficult do you think it would be to use your setup to report various sensor reading inputs where the MPG markers are FDIG11 through 19?

Mario

Discussion Starter · #98 · Feb 1, 2016

Sigma Projects said:
How difficult do you think it would be to use your setup to report various sensor reading inputs where the MPG markers are FDIG11 through 19?

So it turns out many of those can only show one number. Fdig11, 13, and 16 are only a 0 (or off completely) and 14 and 17 are only 1 or off. It's really only feasible to show stuff on the last number (17-19). But you could show whatever you wanted there as long as it's from 0-199.

Sigma Projects

· #99 · Feb 1, 2016

Can fdig 12 and 15 display 0~9?

Mario

Discussion Starter · #100 · Feb 1, 2016

Yes, that's correct.

81 - 100 of 471 Posts