RE: Time for Tea? All hail the digital dash!

[zygalski]

mitch78 said:

I'm with you on that. There's no way you can read a digital dash as quickly and easily as a set of dials.

With a quick glance, you can see where a needle is and instantly know (roughly) what it says. With most of the digital dashes you have to actually spend time READING it to know what you want to know.

Now a digital representation of a dial, that's a different story...

I disagree.
Maybe it's the way my brain works, but I find mine much easier to read than dials.

[andrew.delamare]

Stuart said:

When we were looking at this earlier I was reminded of the only digital dash I wanted when I was a kid, that which was to be found on the Raleigh Vektar. For reasons I can't fathom this was a major bike lust object for the 7 year old me, whereas of course now it just looks like what it was; a Raleigh Mag Burner with a crap body kit.



http://bianchista.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/raleigh-v...

Never meet your hero's....

[Dave Hedgehog]

wow distant memory's of electronic nastiness

only one i like now is the aventadors

[andrew.delamare]

Then there was the Maestro Vanden Plas!!

I had one of these at Uni it was rubbish..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5zs6TU32pY

[monthefish]

Stuart said:

When we were looking at this earlier I was reminded of the only digital dash I wanted when I was a kid, that which was to be found on the Raleigh Vektar. For reasons I can't fathom this was a major bike lust object for the 7 year old me, whereas of course now it just looks like what it was; a Raleigh Mag Burner with a crap body kit.



http://bianchista.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/raleigh-v...

No, the Raleigh Wildcat


and Wolf


were the BMX's with crap bodykits.


The Vektar was a thing of amazement, a wonderous machine from the future.

(I never had one but GOD did I want one badly. A chap at my schol had one but wouldn't give anyone a shot of it )

[tercelgold]

Some of them talked as well, which nearly every manufacturer eventually dropped as it must have been very annoying.

AUDI UR QUATTRO CHECK CONTROL VOICE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6YV5rxzxXY&fea...

Dashboard Renault 11 TXE Electronic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQrBtoaj_4A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1nm4Oh18o8

I'd still like the German one though.

[Podie]

zygalski said:

mitch78 said:

I'm with you on that. There's no way you can read a digital dash as quickly and easily as a set of dials.

With a quick glance, you can see where a needle is and instantly know (roughly) what it says. With most of the digital dashes you have to actually spend time READING it to know what you want to know.

Now a digital representation of a dial, that's a different story...

I disagree.
Maybe it's the way my brain works, but I find mine much easier to read than dials.

mitch is on the money.

There have been many, many studies of this.

Basically, digital readouts give you a more exact reading (e.g. the 34mpg in large digits), whilst an analogue dial will give you an approximation (it's about 35mph).

It then comes down to whether the application requires a digital or analogue readout based upon that criteria. Hence the reason rev counters on things such as Stack dials remain analogue, whilst other functions are digital.

[BlueMR2]

The Soarer had a pretty cool 3d digital dashboard.

[suffolk009]

Years and years ago I had a mate who tried to fit an Astra dash into his mini. Unsuprisingly he never got it to work.

[EvoSlayer]

EvoSlayer said:

I remember the digi-dash in my old 10v quattro with the dodgy synthesised voice... thought it was great at the time.

Brings back some memories...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P88AnM3z_wI

Brilliant stuff

[balls-out]

Digital doesn't have to be electronic.

[NotNormal]

suffolk009 said:

Years and years ago I had a mate who tried to fit an Astra dash into his mini. Unsuprisingly he never got it to work.

Not hard at all to retro fit tbh

[Garlick]

Parabola said:

Can you link the old thread to this one? There's some cracking posts on there.

I can

[Skater12]

ZesPak said:

This thread is incomplete without this:



But these must be photoshopped, as they are working.

Would that be a Lagonda ?

[jaik]

Vector W8

[Dave Hedgehog]

tercelgold said:

Some of them talked as well, which nearly every manufacturer eventually dropped as it must have been very annoying.

AUDI UR QUATTRO CHECK CONTROL VOICE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6YV5rxzxXY&fea...

I'd still like the German one though.

my German is very basic i got something about invasion and poland but missed the rest

[Podie]

[Matt UK]

Some pretty cool ones on this thread:

http://forums.mwerks.com/showthread.php?4816733

[topalwaysdown]

The geek in me loves stuff like this

Pleased to see all variations of the S2000 and even the similar Mk1 Insight included too. I hadn't realised quite how many older cars had digital dashes. The Lagonda is my favourite, it looks like a game of Space Invaders!

Only ommission I can think of is the early 90s Prelude, can remember a friend's mum having one back then. I loved the dashboard design, though always thought the exterior was ugly. I thought I remembered the speedo and rev counter being digital too, though it seems it's just the fuel and temperature.



After six months of driving with a digital dash, I much prefer it and think it's quicker to read. It's a plain number on the screen, it's lit up and easy to see out of the corner of your eye without having to look right at it. And the S2000 rev counter, despite being digital reacts in the same way as an analogue one would. I actually find it hard work driving other cars now, because I have to concentrate on the dials, particularly in the X Trail where they're offset in the centre.

[EvoSlayer]

Not technically a digital dash, but couldn't let this thread go without this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpCK6PPVcjA&fea...