Digital Dash Project

[dodint]

I want to thank everyone who stopped by and checked out the project at DCS. I got a lot of great feedback and complements.

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Thanks for taking the time to show my wife and I! Really great work. You nailed it when you said the best way to learn to code is to get a passion project, it's the reason I haven't yet learned to code.

The pictures we took of the dash didn't turn out, old camera phone in the dark and all, but it looks really great in person. The NES emulator is a nice touch as well.

[Ryan King]

I want to thank everyone who stopped by and checked out the project at DCS. I got a lot of great feedback and complements.

Sent from my XT1095 using Tapatalk

Is it your plan to make kits and sell them as "Plug & Play"? Or is this just going to be a one off kinda thing?

[bttws]

Update: DCS 16 Wrap Up & moving forward.

IMG_20160723_140016810.jpg
Vin 909, Nearly complete @ DSC 16.

Well, its been a whirlwind week and a half. I left for a week long camping trip right after DCS and now I am back home. I wanted to again thank everyone for at the show for coming by and checking out the car. I got so wrapped up in showing people the system, cleaning, and checking out the show, I did not take a whole lot of pictures. ( if anyone was there and wants to post any here, feel free.)

One of the many who stopped by took a video and put it up on youtube. It shows the system in action.


Thanks Marty Edwards.

Moving Forward

Here is what I am looking at over the coming months.

Car
As of the show, the car has yet to be started and the doors were far from finished. Most of the components are in place and we should be starting it soon. Sometime next week the car will be transported up near my house so I can work on the dash some while Ken is busy and out of town for a few weeks. In that time I will try to do some tweaking of the hardware and software. If the car is running by then, I can try to start getting data to feed into the computer.

After a few weeks it will go back to Ken's shop for final tweaking and then it will be time to take it home permanently. I will continue to work on it from here on out.

Fabrication
I learned a lot about the fit of the console as we rushed to get everything ready for the show. I found flaws in my design that will need to be fixed. The biggest problem is the position of the hole for the shifter. The opening is too far back and as you use the gears at the top, the shifter bar hits the edge of the opening and pushes the entire unit forward. The solution to this is to recut a new bracket with a redesigned shift area. I have to move the screen/flux or the DMC logo down below the shifter to move the hole up. It will most likely be the sceen/flux because it was not easy to read from that angle. There is the possibility of using a different screen also.

In the recut I will have to make some adjustments to make it fit better. When I made the first one, I only had the console out of the car, so I had to make do with what I had.
I will need do a rewire whole unit so I can feed it to a better harness that I can remove easier.

I also want to raise the parcel shelf up 1-2 in and make a opening lid to store all the electronics. There is just not enough room behind the console.

Software
I wanted so much more functionality to show of my software but life has it's way of stealing time here and there. I ran into an error in the software that will cause me to go in and do a bit of house cleaning of the code. I mainly need to do some reorganizing. My next steps are to add more of the menu screens and add more to the dashboards. I want to add a univeral on dash menu for the eventual steering wheel controls, as well as some custom menus for each dash.

I have a few more dashes I want to make as well as finish my 80's retro one.

As I used it more and watched it have fits and fail, I am starting to rethink the android part of the project. The software I was using worked great sometimes and froze and crashed other other times. I am having a hard time seeing as a reliable source for music, gps, and entertainment. I am going to look into other options.

Hardware
My next big step is to get the hardware and computer to talk back and forth. I had some major problems with this in the weeks before the show and had to push it aside so I could try to get other things done. Now that the show is over I need to work on this problem.
Once I get them communicating correct information to each other than I can start trying to gather real data to send in.

The future
I do want to make some kind of kit or installer option. But at the pace I am working, it may be a few years off. I need to get everything working and long term tested in my car before I would sell anything to someone. I don't want to mess up someone's car or sell something that doesn't work. If I keep on it and accomplish everything I want to, I will have everything working and flushed out by DCS 18' After talking with Rich, I will most likely be doing some kind of talk or presentation there.

I have a long way to my goals and this was my first huge step. I have some setbacks that need overcome, but I am sure I can make this happen. I will be sure to keep you updated along the way.

-Kevin

[Lwanmtr]

Very cool to see it working in the car.

Looks like you got a good roadmap going, cant wait to see the completed project working n bug free.

Couple years for a kit works for me..I'll prolly have my car done and to a point where I can think of spiffy things like that.
If you need any help designing graphics, lemme know.

[toyotafreak88]

Couple of years is fine!! I won't have a car for a while probably, lol.

Wonderful work!

[16949]

Update: DCS 16 Wrap Up & moving forward.

IMG_20160723_140016810.jpg
Vin 909, Nearly complete @ DSC 16.

Well, its been a whirlwind week and a half. I left for a week long camping trip right after DCS and now I am back home. I wanted to again thank everyone for at the show for coming by and checking out the car. I got so wrapped up in showing people the system, cleaning, and checking out the show, I did not take a whole lot of pictures. ( if anyone was there and wants to post any here, feel free.)

[toyotafreak88]

I think seeing the SNES controllers pushed me over the edge, this is just amazing, lol. Great idea! Are you using an emulator within Android or another unit/console displayed on the screen?
Apologies I haven't read the whole thread yet.
Finally, I wanted to recommend some potential digital dashes you could use, they aren't beautiful but if you wanted options, one is from the JDM RHD mkiii Supra and another from the 80sToyota Turbo pickup. The Supra may be too asymmetrical because that dash extends to the center of the car, but I think the pickup might work well. The mitsubishi starion had a digidash, too, but i don't know how aesthetically pleasing it was. The Supra has a few gauges off to the center of the car you'd have to change but the tach tree is decent.
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[bttws]

Great pictures, thanks!

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[bttws]

I think seeing the SNES controllers pushed me over the edge, this is just amazing, lol. Great idea! Are you using an emulator within Android or another unit/console displayed on the screen?
Apologies I haven't read the whole thread yet.
Finally, I wanted to recommend some potential digital dashes you could use, they aren't beautiful but if you wanted options, one is from the JDM RHD mkiii Supra and another from the 80sToyota Turbo pickup. The Supra may be too asymmetrical because that dash extends to the center of the car, but I think the pickup might work well. The mitsubishi starion had a digidash, too, but i don't know how aesthetically pleasing it was. The Supra has a few gauges off to the center of the car you'd have to change but the tach tree is decent.
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The system is running Windows 10, so just used a emulator. The center console screen is just a touch screen.

I have run across those dashboards. Over the next few years, my goal is to try to recreate every digital dash i can find. Seems crazy but there aren't as many as you would think. Maybe 20-30... They don't take much space in the code and are fairly easy to make ( depending on complexity).

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[toyotafreak88]

The system is running Windows 10, so just used a emulator. The center console screen is just a touch screen.

I have run across those dashboards. Over the next few years, my goal is to try to recreate every digital dash i can find. Seems crazy but there aren't as many as you would think. Maybe 20-30... They don't take much space in the code and are fairly easy to make ( depending on complexity).

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Awesome! And that doesn't sound like too many honestly. It's a DeLorean, lol. If you're making this level of modification to it, you might as well hit it out of the park.

Although there may be some ugly digidash options you won't like, lol.

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