Consult Lcd Display

[Kushil Abeysinghe]

i want one too.......

[NewKleer]

Are you planning on making these in the Blue 4x20 display?

Was sceptical of these at first because i have the impakt one.... but congrats man, these now look far superiour.

If your making them in the 4x20 box... (smaller i hope)

Then count me in.

unfortunately the blue 4x20 displays are negative/transmissive screens. this means they rely solely upon the backlight to provide lighting, and any external lighting will cancel out the backlighting. without the backlight (or with cancelling external light) they will appear black and unreadable. so unless you only drive at night, the screens will be unreadable during the day unless put in something which receives very little natural light.

traditional 20x4 lcds are also slightly more than twice the height of the current screen ive got. means that u have practically no useful mounting positions compared to a lower profile screen (which can be mounted on steering column, dash near windscreen, or sun visor (maybe?)). as im sure ur aware, finding a place to mount one of impakts devices that wont mean ur taking ur eyes completely off the road to look at it, isnt too easy.

one alternative is the crystalfontz low profile 4x20 screens: http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/2004k/index.html

if u find a suitable enclosure, these could be mounted inside a DIN slot. they are wide temperature which is good (as are the ones im supplying) but the viewing angles from above arent so good (so youll need it close to eye level to read them easily - ie not a low DIN slot).

[NewKleer]

for more info on those screens, see this post on pga: http://forum.pulsar.org.au/showpost.php?p=...p;postcount=136

[NewKleer]

just an update on what ive done/havent done:

done:

main sensor display

keeping track of max values

button inputs (i dont want to hear the word "debounce" for a long while!)

main menu

reading error codes

device info

some options stuff (eg reading saved options on startup)

still to go (probably in this order):

clear fault codes

peak values viewing

options setup

time trials

and most importantly, i havent build any devices yet (hardware wise), but this isnt much of an issue compared to finishing the device firmware

[AzzurrA]

as with ellie, i'd also be very interested in a device that you could plug some external sensors into as well (such as an oil pressure sensor, oil temperature sensor, exhaust temperature sensor) for an all-round unit, so you don't have to have seperate gauges for all of those, but could view them all in the one unit.

The problem with running boost displays through an electronic readout such as this, would be it is constantly changing at a very fast rate, which makes it very hard to read, and you would need an extremely high refresh rate on the unit as well. You're much better with an analogue gauge for that type of display.

[NewKleer]

good point about refresh rate - oil pressure or boost pressure arent really useful on digital display as theyre changing too quickly

but like ive said previously, i cant do anything without technical specs on whatever sensors u would be using (eg k-type thermocouple is known format for temp reading, but as for pressure, no idea)

[WogsRus]

so once these are up and running, what price and when might they be available, cos i want one.

[NewKleer]

200+post, and a few weeks (both are estimates)

[WogsRus]

no probs mate, keep up the good work, the units look fantastick BTW.

So just for my satisfaction, what features will it have in the end.

[satanic]

Posting Interest!

[hrd-hr30]

no probs mate, keep up the good work, the units look fantastick BTW.

So just for my satisfaction, what features will it have in the end.

details on p6

NewKleer, is it possible to include knock sensor value?

[NewKleer]

hopefully all these (as post above linked to)

i snuck a "400" into the time trials section, which is for a 400m time trial - this might not make it in if i cant accurately enough measure distance (which is hard without an accelerometer or access to trip meter). i think i can get close which is why i put it there, but ill find out soon enough. although i am a tad concerned if it is in there, that people will find the need to do a 400m run on public roads, but u could do that already with a stopwatch, so hopefully common sense will prevail

if i somehow have too much time, ill see if i can setup some config to allow economy to be L/100km, which requires setting up ur injector CC rating. like the 400m thing, i dont know how accurate

details on p6

NewKleer, is it possible to include knock sensor value?

while the knock sensor value itself cannot be read via consult, i came across somewhere that said bit 7 of address 0055 will tell u if the ecu is using knock maps or not - so ill see if i can add ability to read this

[Kushil Abeysinghe]

400 times would be cool, as long as it accurate relative to the car.i guess its fine....

[WogsRus]

Mate your a blody legend, i think this is such a great idea, no more need for a laptop hookup to readout values.

[PHATR32]

hey instead of having a numerical reading for the oil pressure and boost, why have a bar graph, or somthing simular to at least give you some idea.

[NewKleer]

bar graph would be acceptible way to view it (allows u to glance at it to read boost, which is analagous to normal analog gauges)

however, wont u want to read sensor values and boost pressure/oil pressure at the same time without having to switch between them on the device? in which case itd make sense to have seperate gauges/devices.

anyway this wont be in the initial release, we can talk about it after uve got ur device if u are still convinced u dont want to keep a separate boost gauge.

[ellie]

I'll go back on what I posted and say that boost and oil pressure should deffinately be monitored on seperate analog gauges but if someone can find some K-type temp sensors to monitor oil temp and exhaust temp, THAT would bw very handy.

I wanted an all in one display of boost pressure, oil temp, oil pressure and water temp all at a very high sample rate to give very accurate, quick read outs but that isn't what this tool is for as far as I can see!

I will definately buy one of these because of the dianosis (and to a degree) tuning data it can provide.

If things go amiss, you can see at a glance a fault or a dud sensor.

Gauges have thier place as you can see raedings in your periphery vision fairly accurate were as a digital reading requires you to focus on it!

Can I ask what the point of time trials are? Don't be mistaken, I think this is a fantastic product but am unsure of what this function is used for that you couldn't get at the drag strip?

[NewKleer]

Can I ask what the point of time trials are? Don't be mistaken, I think this is a fantastic product but am unsure of what this function is used for that you couldn't get at the drag strip?

i definitely still want it to be able to monitor k-type thermocouples so that can become an addon for anyone who wants that. and i also have generic voltage input monitoring on the todo list (to read any 0-5v input) for after the initial release sometime (i do have to work on an update to my consult software first, however)

as for the time trials, ask people why they buy g-tech's for and u probably have your answer there. it is nothing u cant get at a drag strip, but then not everyone goes to a drag strip. i also want to see how accurate distance measurements can be, as this may tie in with more improved economy monitorying/trip meter type functions. and if i go so far as to implement the 400m time "just to see" how accurate it will be, i may as well leave it in

for thermocouples, maybe this would be appropriate?:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=QM1283

ive no idea how ud set it up for oil or exh temp. intake (before and/or after IC) would be useful and easy to set up?

Edited August 10, 2006 by NewKleer

[Munkyb0y]

Peter, if i grab one of the first ones you make, and then u implement some new stuff on the next batch, can the first batch be updated, and so on?

[AzzurrA]

some things that i was thinking of before:

if we do end up going down the path of having external sensor monitoring, it may be needed to do it on a seperate unit.

also, i see you are having a peak hold function in the unit... i run one of Impakts interfaces, and it has peak hold, but it only seems to be on what is displayed on the screen... i.e. you can't cycle through other readouts that weren't visible on the screen at the time and see their max values...

will you be able to cycle through all the readouts with yours and see their max values, or only the ones that were visible on the display at the time?