Digital Dash Project

[bttws]

Oddly enough, the OEM layout is still my favorite. The Proto 1 is a cool option. I'm curious, is the instrument screen display something you found stock a stock or is it borrowed from another vehicle?

How do you plan to input process data signals from the various sensors and mechanical Speedo? GPS would be seemly easy for speed, but then you have Odometer/trip meter to record.

I got the screen via special order from china. I believe the screens are designed for advertisements and subway car status screens.
I can get speed data via a mechanical speedo sender. It connects to the speedo cable (standard size). It sends 16 pulses per revolution. I can read them and using some math on a arduino can get the speed. Trip/Odo functions are when the arduino will write to an EPROM chip every 1/10th of a mile. This saves data when no power is in the system. I also will have the computer write to a log file every 10-15 mins or so as a backup.

Other data can be obtained by using aftermarket sensors

-Kevin

[bttws]

Very, very cool.

My car is going to be going down for a complete overhaul shortly- I have some serious frame rust to fix, and figure if I have to pull the body off the frame I'm doing ALL THE THINGS that I need/want to do to the car while I'm at it up to and including an engine swap. I almost hope that all of it takes me long enough that you have this done and available for us to purchase so I can incorporate it into the car when I put everything back together.

sounds like a long project. I hope to have at least the dash functional over the winter. I not sure how long it will take.

[bttws]

New Dash in progress.

Nissan Leopard F31 digital dash. Proving to be challenging to recreate. It's from a model that was only for the japanese market.

[Lwanmtr]

Looks interesting

[bttws]

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since I updated here... so here is the news.


Part 1


As the summer ends and we move toward fall, my hours pick up at work and I have less time to work on other projects. Along with work, as with most people my motivation for projects fluctuates over time and I get burnt out and need a break. So the past few months have been a little unproductive, but I have started working on it more and more lately. Here is what I have been up to the past few months.

The Car
In the time since DCS the car is now running, nearly everything is done on the car except a few things that still need adjusted. Ken is at a stopping point because the work I am doing needs to be finished before the last bits can be finished up. Because of winter, hopefully this weekend he will be trailering the car up to me for the winter so I can get my project finished ( at least most of it ) before it goes back down to his shop in the spring. Once he has everything done (mostly finishing up the doors), I will get the car to take home for good. Because I will have access to the car whenever I want and not a 2 hour drive each way to get to it, I will be making tons of new progress. My work really thins out just before Christmas, so I will have lots of weekend time to work on it.

I have installed the stock instrument cluster for testing. I need good data readings to compare to my new sensor data when I get it working.

[bttws]

Part 2

Car Integration

This past weekend I ran some new code and got the first steps of the system working


In this video I have my switches below the shifter activating the parking lights and headlight. The results are displayed instantly on the screen. I can also hit the button on the screen and turn the lights on from there, but the communication between the computer and the controller was having some major problem. Because I didn't have access to the car and the relay board when I wrote it, so had to combine 2 sections of code I wrote and they didn't work right. I was 2 hours from home, so I could only do so much. The buttons were laggy and sometimes reset the microcontroller. More work needs done before this will work smoothly, but the status of the lights coming into the computer was quick and worked every time.
The next part was a color picker to change the lighted DMC letters. It uses the same system so it was flakey too.

Here are the final screen for the main lights menu (needs labels) and a early concept of the interior lights option.

[bttws]

Part 3

R&D

I may not have been doing a lot with the car and the program, but I have been doing a lot of research.

I have obtained a aftermarket fuel sender and have been able to read it with the microcontroller. The data is a bit erratic but I can fix it with code. I should be able to use this instead of the factory sender, which is very hard to read from.
I also have a new mechanical speedometer sensor that I should be better results with. Still haven't worked on that yet.

here is some first attempts at controlling a RGB LED. It didn't work every well. I was sending a command to display white and it was going crazy. Interesting effect, would be fun for parades.



HUD Tests

I have obtained some special glass to experiment with for the hud, along with a little 5in display. It looks good in the right conditions, it will be a challenge to get it work in the car without creating tons of reflections on the windshield. Much more work needs to be done.




3D Printer!
Last night I ordered this bad boy. It's a Makerfarm 12" Pegasus 3D Printer.


It has a huge 12x12x13 build area, so I will (in theory) be able to print a custom binnacle in 2 pieces. I also will be able to make my own enclosures, sensor brackets, cable management, HVAC ducts and valves, modified replacement parts, and tons more. It's going to really allow me get some of this stuff working much faster.


If the binnacles come out well, I might consider selling them. Anyone interested?

That's all for now. Hopefully the car will be up this weekend and I can start working on it again.
-Kevin

[rickjames8]

This is all just incredibly impressive work!! I was running through some ideas in my head recently about trying to upgrade the dash based off another thread i saw here, and this surpasses even the wildest ideas I had in my head. Hats off to you. Keep up the great work, and I can't wait to see the finished product in a running car soon!

[Lwanmtr]

Looking really cool. Definitely can't wait to see it all done (and possible kits..hehe).
Would be nice to see that hud thing in a car.

The technicolor tail lights is kinda neat.

How much that printer run? I have an 3d printer and have printed a few minor parts....very handy.

[DMC-81]

Great work! Both on the car and the digital dash project.

Very cool!