21 replies to this topic

[29guitarman]

Okay, so being an Electronic Engineering Student, i have been really interested in using some sort of Progammable interface (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, PIC...), and have a small screen or even touch screen to view music, radio, lighting, speed, temp... and so on.

Now i know a lot of this stuff is pretty simple if im honest, but wondering if anyone has had similar ideas?

I have seen that different screens have been put up for the same sort of idea, but im thinking a little simpler, with just the car on the screen?

 

I have thought of maybe using a tablet, making an app, then connecting a Raspberry Pi to it with all the info.. 

Just ideas at the moment, but if anyone has any ideas throw them out, would be interested to see what people think?

[mk1monster]

hypothetically its possible,

 

for my land rover i'm toying with a "media centre" which is a retractable single din, touch screen running a raspberry pi.

 

the idea would be it would run:

 

Memory map for Navigation

MP3/Video player off of a USB Dongle memory card slot

Mobile Broadband off of said USB Dongle

FM radio input via the headunit

 

plus more?

 

now Android apps are available which can talk to ODBII input so hypothetically if you have a interface between the ODBII and the Pi you could interrogate the ECU/ECM and get a lot of useful data to display on the screen also.

[Ethel]

How are you with Android?

 

There are lots of interesting micro computers appearing, with all sorts of graphics connections.

https://www.olimex.com/Products/

 

'n lots of stuff like this on fleabay, aliexpress...

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a1f485236

[29guitarman]

hypothetically its possible,

 

for my land rover i'm toying with a "media centre" which is a retractable single din, touch screen running a raspberry pi.

 

the idea would be it would run:

 

Memory map for Navigation

MP3/Video player off of a USB Dongle memory card slot

Mobile Broadband off of said USB Dongle

FM radio input via the headunit

 

plus more?

 

now Android apps are available which can talk to ODBII input so hypothetically if you have a interface between the ODBII and the Pi you could interrogate the ECU/ECM and get a lot of useful data to display on the screen also.

 

Yeah this is the same thing i am thinking of doing, maybe a docking possition for it, so it can be taken out with ease and also the car can run manually without it, just to add complication.

 

didnt realise android could communicate with ODBII, thats a lot of help! i will have to look into this, then just connecting some of the sensors and speedo up to it, it could look awesome!

Let me know how it goes! 

[mk1monster]

my motor has absolutely no electronic output (No ECU) however I am using electronic gauges (Speedo, Rev, Coolant and fuel at least) so I guess hypothetically I could build some form of data aquisition module to feed that lot into the Pi...

[joeaustin]

I also thought about this a few days ago when I realised the temperature gauge on mine doesn't work and the fuel gauge only semi works (shows half when full) i'm a mechanical engineering student and recently decided to dabble a bit in coding on codeacademy

 

i was thinking have a smallish touchscreen running off a pi that had all the inputs for like the temperature and rev counter etc. to scroll through or something, only thing is I have no idea how to do it. Or better than that (but more expensive and complicated) use a detachable galaxy note 10.1 for uni (the s pen is excellent) which would have an input from the raspberry pi - better security wise as it's removed and then you can use an awesome tablet too. and it could run any media and be used as a gps speedo.

please do update this thread with anything you do as i'd love to see what comes of it :)

[29guitarman]

I also thought about this a few days ago when I realised the temperature gauge on mine doesn't work and the fuel gauge only semi works (shows half when full) i'm a mechanical engineering student and recently decided to dabble a bit in coding on codeacademy

 

i was thinking have a smallish touchscreen running off a pi that had all the inputs for like the temperature and rev counter etc. to scroll through or something, only thing is I have no idea how to do it. Or better than that (but more expensive and complicated) use a detachable galaxy note 10.1 for uni (the s pen is excellent) which would have an input from the raspberry pi - better security wise as it's removed and then you can use an awesome tablet too. and it could run any media and be used as a gps speedo.

please do update this thread with anything you do as i'd love to see what comes of it :)

 

yeah having a removable pad or something was what i was thinking, sounds fun!

[Marcos Controls]

I'm in the final throws of setting up my andriod tablet with a digital dash. I'm using software called Dash Command from Palmer Performance, which extracts the OBDII data via bluetooth. Just had to borrow an ecu from a newer car to put into my loom.

 

You design the guages and the complete layout and you can have as many pages as you like

 

 

 

 

[sixtyeight]

Just had to borrow an ecu from a newer car to put into my loom.

 

 

 

Could you please provide some more information on this? I want a digital dash installed in my mini, and thought odb interface would be easiest... what is involved to get it all working from an early 1275 (pre A+) with carb...?

[Marcos Controls]

I have the ecu from an R56 Cooper and the and the 2 harnesses that plug into it along with the abs module. I have a 58:2 trigger wheel which will be attached to the crank pulley for the rev counter and an educter ring which will be fitted to one of my cv joints when I machine it down to fit. I memory serves it from a toyota which has the same number of teeth as the BIni. The engine temp reads straight from the original BIni sender and the fuel gauge works through the throttle position sensor feedback. I've had to make a voltage divider with a resistor in series with the fuel sender to make it work within the voltage range of the TPS. 

 

I'm using an ELM327 bluetooth module to send the data to the tablet.

 

You'll need a full set of drawings from whichever car you decide to take the ecu.

 

If you have any other queries let me know

 

Cheers

 

Marc

Edited by Polish Marc, 22 August 2013 - 05:48 PM.

[sixtyeight]

thanks for that :)

[Stevelee10]

what are the legal implications, could you use this as your only indication or would you have to have keep a proper mini speedo with ordomator ?

[Dan]

  You need a speedo and an odometer but they don't have to be mechanical or even physical instruments.  I think it would possibly be illegal if it were possible to use the car with the panel removed, but if the panel's presence in the dock closed part of the starter circuit then you wouldn't be able to start it without the dash.  Providing you aren't attempting any fraud with the odometer reading there is really very little legislation covering it.  The speedo must be accurate to +10% / -0% maximum and doesn't have to work in reverse.

[Ethel]

It'll be legal if it's accurate enough, the only argument I could see is over it not being a permanent fitment to the car. 

 

It's an interesting approach, it got me thinking about emulating the obd signals with another bluetooth device, like Arduino or Ras Pi.

There's plenty of info on reading obd into them and the Pid's etc. Perhaps someone with an actual obd bluetooth could log to terminal to see what extra bits you'd need to send to fool the android side?

 

A programmable device, like Arduino, would make it easier to use the existing sensors on your Min - unless we get lucky and find an ECU that uses similar ones.

 

 

Dan,

 

The obd ECU would still be logging the mileage, so the lack of a display wouldn't bother that bit, at least. A bigger issue might be if the ECU will want to play at all, if too many of the original sensors/outputs are missing.

[Stevelee10]

[quote name="Ethel" post="2892252" timestamp="1378681273 
The obd ECU would still be logging the mileage, so the lack of a display wouldn't bother that bit, at least. A bigger issue might be if the ECU will want to play at all, if too many of the original sensors/outputs are missing.[/quote]

We'll my thoughts will be to create false signals to fool the ecu into thinking the other sensors are there using an arduino board as my engine has no ecu and I will be using one from a doner vehicle