Progress on my digital instrument cluster program

[rossmacd]

Looks great!

[scott_fx]

another update if anyone is following this

I redesigned the lcd instrument panel then refined it yet again. I am a stickler for having things look professional and clean. I think the redesigns, though time consuming and pushing back my project timeline, are well worth it. I will be refining this as i go along but i think i'm getting closer to something i'm happy with. Also, i listened to your suggestions and now the color of the gradient is fully user definable. I'll be able to select any color i want through a menu option. Also, The background will be user definable too. future plans will be to auto switch between daytime and night time modes. also past that i want to have another menu option to switch between pro-touring and grand-touring modes. grand touring will be largely like it is now, but grand touring would center the tach and make it bigger, remove the speedometer gauge (just a digital readout) and that'll add more real estate for more important readouts

here is a video of how the guages will work v02 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyP22...ature=youtu.be) and then i further refined it to look like this:

and then the new v03 design (still coding it, i'll try to get a video uploaded this weekend of it in action)


hue shift

[CapSS92]

Very nice!

[hessdawg]

I really like it

[CapSS92]

Just a suggestion for the circle around the gauge. I saw this on a Dodge Charger and I can't remember where I found the second pic but it makes the numbers stand out. I'll attach 'em.

[HurstOlds]

Hey Scott,

Thanks for sharing your project! I love this type of stuff. What sort of issues were you running into when trying to keep it retro? You mentioned that you had to abandon that idea, and go all digital.

Have you tried playing around with MCR MR1107 stepper motors? I built a crude speedometer using an Arduino, GPS receiver, and MR1107's. I never got past the rough prototype stage.

[scott_fx]

Just a suggestion for the circle around the gauge. I saw this on a Dodge Charger and I can't remember where I found the second pic but it makes the numbers stand out. I'll attach 'em.

thanks for the suggestion. i messed around with using that look but wasn't sold on it in the context i'm using it in though. that look is cool though

Hey Scott,

Thanks for sharing your project! I love this type of stuff. What sort of issues were you running into when trying to keep it retro? You mentioned that you had to abandon that idea, and go all digital.

Have you tried playing around with MCR MR1107 stepper motors? I built a crude speedometer using an Arduino, GPS receiver, and MR1107's. I never got past the rough prototype stage.

Thank you, glad you dig it.
Issues i was having were mainly cost. I think i could do it relatively cost...efficient, but I'm not sure about the quality of the end product. I was talking to a vendor about getting some of the gauge face cut and the needles backlit friendly; in hopes of getting a true oem feel, but it was looking to creep up into the $400 range when all said and done. The steppers i was using were a variant of the mr1107 if not that one specifically. it worked great... i haven't ruled it out completely yet but for the sake of getting v01 into the car in time, i think i'll skip that for now.

Issue i'm having now is trying to speed up reading the obd port. was giong to try to post a video of the program working in the car but the updates were too slow. I believe my script was poling all of the data from the obd port then parsing just the information i wanted. I asked around and found out a way to just request and return specific data. going to see if that will speed it up to a usable state. if that doesn't i may have to pull tach and speed from outher sources (hall sensor on a spark plug and gps) but i'm trying to avoid that to make this cost effective in case others want to do the same thing

[scott_fx]

Well with our first born on the way, my free time has been eaten up. I did get a chance to get into the car today (my suv not the chevelle) and do some obd-ii reading test. here is a demo of the gauges:
http://youtu.be/GrkIU5mSe-4

still need to tweak the code but i think i got a 300% increase on data poling so the needle responds a lot better. I think i can massage the motion a bit with some interpolation.

[scott_fx]

I love the design. A great mix of analog and digital feedback that doesn't waste space.

Only thing I'd change is using red instead of blue, as red has a smaller impact on the eyes night vision. If you end up selling it, you'd want to allow the user to choose from a set of basic colors to match their preference and interior.

The interface linked to by CapSS92 also looks interesting, although I think it is just a stepping stone on the path to voice controls. Voice controls have the best chance of keeping two hands on the steering wheel at all times and I'd be surprised if the technological building blocks to build quality, automotive voice control systems don't already exist.

Needed to step back from the gauges for a bit while I wrestled with some horrible customer service. So I took your suggestion as a challenge.
http://youtu.be/LOIHNiOHmNQ

Notice how the syntax of the commands change and it still knows what I mean.

[RLHearn_Design]

Scott what programs are you using for your graphic's and what are you programing your gauges in (code)?

I like you design's and ideas.

[scott_fx]

Scott what programs are you using for your graphic's and what are you programing your gauges in (code)?

I like you design's and ideas.

Thank you for the compliment. sorry for the late reply... i actually never got a reply notification email. :\

for graphics i'm using photoshop and a program called processing2.js. its a visual language based off of java.

unfortunately the project has been shelved for now. My wife is pregnant (due next monthy) and my day job hasn't shown any signs of easing up till after my son is born.. i just don't have the time to devote to this project. :/

here was my last iteration of the cluster for what it's worth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caR26RecI4E

[WallaceMFG]

Looks good! If i didn't hate writing code so much I might try to do something like this as well. I look forward to seeing it in a working car!