Teaser pic of my digital instrument cluster
- Thread starter frontrange
- Start date
Very, very cool.
One question, do you expect to be going 100 MPH when you're at 5,000 RPM?
One question, do you expect to be going 100 MPH when you're at 5,000 RPM?
I'm not going to run a intercooled turbo'd 2F to spend all of my time cruising around in school zones @ 25mph while being a good citizen.
On a more serious note, the nice thing about a digital cluster is you change the artwork for the scales to be anything you want with a simple corresponding change to the Arduino code. One thing I plan to do at least early on is reassign the two small gauges to display AFR and Turbo boost. The center display will just be reprogrammed to provide idiot light functionality for low pressure/high temperature while I run that way.
Initially I was going to use a commercially printed inlay so I could get a nice white number on black background theme, but it was pretty expensive. I tried for a long time to find a cheaper alternative, and I'm still playing around with silk screening so I haven't given up yet but the inlay above is a really just a laser printed vellum stock attached to a clear plastic sheet with spray adhesive. It only takes me a short while to fabricate and it very cheap so I can see changing it whenever the need arises pretty quickly.
On a more serious note, the nice thing about a digital cluster is you change the artwork for the scales to be anything you want with a simple corresponding change to the Arduino code. One thing I plan to do at least early on is reassign the two small gauges to display AFR and Turbo boost. The center display will just be reprogrammed to provide idiot light functionality for low pressure/high temperature while I run that way.
Initially I was going to use a commercially printed inlay so I could get a nice white number on black background theme, but it was pretty expensive. I tried for a long time to find a cheaper alternative, and I'm still playing around with silk screening so I haven't given up yet but the inlay above is a really just a laser printed vellum stock attached to a clear plastic sheet with spray adhesive. It only takes me a short while to fabricate and it very cheap so I can see changing it whenever the need arises pretty quickly.
Last edited:
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
More details on the actuators, please! Did you liberate the stepper motor guts from something else or did you scratch build? What are you using for a VSS and all the sensors?
That's the easy part - these are mass produced for the automotive marketplace now, all of the OEMs are using them. It is a tiny bipolar stepper with a gear drive, you can find them on Amazon.
VSS is a Stewart warner part, all of the other senders are stock except I used a Chevy oil sender because the stock unit was crap.
VSS is a Stewart warner part, all of the other senders are stock except I used a Chevy oil sender because the stock unit was crap.
Attachments
Awesome project, way to go!
Rezarf
Hard Core 4+
I'm way impressed and can't wait to see the finished product!
It's not a DIY sort of thing, but if someone wanted to host the files I could post the S/W, schematics and drawings once everything is finished.
I suppose I could run off the CNC'd parts at some point too although I didn't buy the materials to make a bunch of them.
I suppose I could run off the CNC'd parts at some point too although I didn't buy the materials to make a bunch of them.
I'm curious about this part.
Specifically: did you CNC the gauge faces for backlighting, or did those come from another source?
I see that the housing was CNC'ed, but what else?
Dan
Everything is CNC'd. From the back to front, there is a perfboard that has an outline that matches everything else and the holes to align the spacers that start the board stack
Next up is what I call the motor mount plate, it just supports the motors and the steel stop pins for the needle home position and the LCD display.
The EL layer (TBD) will be a insulated thin layer with the individually CNC cut meter backlights and interconnected with copper self adhesive tape.
The artwork layer is a laser printed vellum that is applied to a thin clear plastic, once mounted I register it in the mill and cut the inside and outside profiles using the four needle centers as my datum points. (Incidentally, I was delighted to see my big HP color laserjet will hold to +/- .001 or so, far better than the artwork I was getting from the office supply place).
Then there is the mask layer that has that pebbled look in between the meters.
Then the top layer is a 1/2" thick slab of 6061 with the pocketing and chamfering.
I only plan on replacing the perfboard with a PCB now, but may do the EL layer that way as well and route it myself on the mill with my high speed spindle.
The only assembly I don't build is the Arduino microcontroller, they are dirt cheap.
Next up is what I call the motor mount plate, it just supports the motors and the steel stop pins for the needle home position and the LCD display.
The EL layer (TBD) will be a insulated thin layer with the individually CNC cut meter backlights and interconnected with copper self adhesive tape.
The artwork layer is a laser printed vellum that is applied to a thin clear plastic, once mounted I register it in the mill and cut the inside and outside profiles using the four needle centers as my datum points. (Incidentally, I was delighted to see my big HP color laserjet will hold to +/- .001 or so, far better than the artwork I was getting from the office supply place).
Then there is the mask layer that has that pebbled look in between the meters.
Then the top layer is a 1/2" thick slab of 6061 with the pocketing and chamfering.
I only plan on replacing the perfboard with a PCB now, but may do the EL layer that way as well and route it myself on the mill with my high speed spindle.
The only assembly I don't build is the Arduino microcontroller, they are dirt cheap.
Attachments
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
LMK if you need anything electrically or firmware. It's what I do - design, capture, layout, fabricate PCBs and what I work we manufacture PCBAs and can do end-to-end assembly, testing, packaging.
Thanks, but I'm not looking to manufacture as in mass produce, just willing to be helpful if anyone else wants to follow in my footsteps building anther one-off.
I work at a quick turn pcb fabricator, if you need a bare board made and already have design files I might be able to get you a deal.
Great, Thanks! What formats do you support? The only tools I have now are from ExpressPCB so I would need to find a new design S/W, anything cheap you could recommend?
If you are interested in this sort of thing you should look into the Arduino programming environment, its free and very approachable. Children are making bots and all sorts of other things with it, so it doesn't require a PHD to get started. Look at sparkfun.com for tutorials, but the really cheap hardware is found on ebay.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
As much as I hate to say it, Eagle CAD is the go-to for cheap tools that at least output Gerbers. I personally am not a fan, but the price is cheap - free for the 3 x 4 inch boards, 2 layers version. I will admit that since just about everyone uses (argh) there are Adafruit, Sparkfun and several element14 vendor libraries to get you started.
I'd avoid ExpressPCB, that locks you in to their tools. You can get Gerbers from boards you already ordered or using conversion tools. But the design file is still proprietary AFAIK and I'm not sure there's any way to convert to something else. I can get Eagle (or Diptrace, another free tool, to some extent) into Altium, OrCAD or Mentor.
DaveInDenver
Rising Sun Ham Guru
Do you work at Circuits West? That would be good to know. I'm up at Vergent in Loveland.
Dave you got me, I'm the process engineer at Circuits West