What would you want to see?

[Kenneth]

I got a question... some of it a bit hypothetical at this point... but hey

Lets say someone was planning on doing something real geeky such as programming micro controllers to read vehicle sensor input and do some form of display...

A) What sensor output do you think would be the most useful? (Prioritise)
B) What do you think would be the most useful way to represent that information?

I was thinking about doing some prototyping on a micro controller, getting sensor data and turning it into information.
Limitations are: Time, Money and motivation at this point.

If successful in reading sensor data, I will be seriously thinking about signal modification... eg airflow.

Question is where to start. I asked the above questions so that I could get ideas on what would be useful, and why people think that.

Could do all sorts of stuff, like average RPM, average speed, etc...
Am personally pretty keen on some form of AFR display.


The more response, the more motivated I am likely to be

[_simon_]

Dude, I've been thinking of doing something similar. I wanted to log stuff like RPM, boost etc so that when I take my car to a garage or somewhere I can look back and see if they've been giving it death. Another idea I had is to look at stuff like boost, oil temp, oil pressure and have a warning beep/LED if someone starts driving it too hard before its warmed up properly. Or I guess you could go to the next step if you can control boost and limit it until the engines warm.

I also think a wireless link would be cool so that you can download data to your computer without having to run a cable out to the car

If you want to take it any further then I might be able to help.

[Roadrunner]

Display of oil temp and boost pressure would be useful to have

[enigma]

To be honest I dont see the need to spend a lot of time making something that is already available cheaply!

All this info is available on the diagnostic port its just a matter of cracking the code. I thought it was OBD2 but it isn't.

Kierans Camp (maybe I should leave it at that! ) system seems to be the nuts and its for not a lot of money ozey:

[Kenneth]

I also think a wireless link would be cool so that you can download data to your computer without having to run a cable out to the car

If you want to take it any further then I might be able to help.

That was going to be the next thing... A mini pc in the car using the via MITX platform. on board data logging, wireless lan, touch screen, 5.1 surround sound etc :-D

That will be reasonably costly though, so I'm leaving it for now.

[Nick Mann]

Kenneth - read here: BDA MMCS

[Kenneth]

To be honest I dont see the need to spend a lot of time making something that is already available cheaply!

All this info is available on the diagnostic port its just a matter of cracking the code. I thought it was OBD2 but it isn't.

Kierans Camp (maybe I should leave it at that! ) system seems to be the nuts and its for not a lot of money ozey:

You could say that about any mods. You do them because you know how, or enjoy learning on the job and because you can.

There are a heap of different gauges about that will initially tell me what I want to know. some cheap, the ones I think would look nice are not so cheap.
I also have a serial device that connects to the diagnostic port.

What I want is the flexibility to program my own interface, adjust the output to make it more meaningful and display more information.

An example is the AFR display. I have seen many different approaches to the display, but none that show AFR, Duty Cycle and EGO sensor speed (closed loop). which is what I want.

I also dont want a million gauges in my car. Some people like them but in my opionion having to many looks stupid.

With full control over data aquisiton and display, I can seperate them and try implementing things like HUD etc. And cheaply.

Besides I would enjoy (I dont know if im willing to say it will be FUN) the challenge

[Kenneth]

Kenneth - read here: BDA MMCS

Yep, thats pretty close to what I indend to do

some of the hardware is a bit of a c**t to get in NZ (as far as I can tell... someone might correct me though, which will please me no end) namely the LCD touch screens. What I have seen in NZ have been rather expensive.

[enigma]

LCD touch screens are about $400 NZ at the moment, I paid nearer $600 a year ago, but it is the coolest thing ever!

[Kenneth]

LCD touch screens are about $400 NZ at the moment, I paid nearer $600 a year ago, but it is the coolest thing ever!

yeah? where from??? im keen!

[enigma]

EBAY!!!

Try here!

[Physician]

Kenneth,

I'm technically useless at this stuff and wouldn't know where to start - so I admire people like you who can develop new data outputs etc such as you're suggesting.

Two things come to mind that I would PERSONALLY find useful. One is oil temperature as H.7 suggested and the other is slightly different but I don't know if this data can be retrieved from the ECU or if it's displayed by a different electronic route .......... having a separate AYC 'three green bars' display which one can actually see whilst driving. I thought I had solved this by the use of small mirrors but it looked cra*. I would *think* it's possible by tapping into the data source and having it display the data as now but also a separate feed to a simple small calculator type numeric display - showing numbers 1.2.3. instead of the 'bars'. (But I'd like mine going up to 7 :-D )

[Kenneth]

BDA: Cheers!

Physician: Yeah, the AYC lights are in a bad place for drivers... Unsafe almost! hehe, the times I want to look to see how many bars are lit are the times when I need to be concentrating on the road the most.
Even passengers seem to be more interested in looking at the road than the dash... i wonder why :rolleyes:

It would definatly be interesting to see what can be done with AYC.

I'll have to make a list somewhere