Been a while since I redesigned the Griff dash...
Discussion
So I thought I'd have another go:
I'm annoyed about the accuracy of the speedo, tacho and fuel gauge, and TBH the speedo is well passed its best since the odometer stops nearly every 1000 miles (when I get time to drive the car) and the speedo tells awful non-linear lies.
So the answer seemed to be a nice set of stepper motor instruments. The cost is considerable, and doesn't quite get me what I want. Plus they don't look quite like I want them to and have all the features I'd like.
So I decided to make my own. After all, how hard can it be...
An evening with a CAD package later, and I have the following:
Front:
Back:
Wireframe:
All parts are easily produced and assembled. The electronics should be fairly straight forward - a few counters and stuff in an AVR chip will suffice. Next step is to lay out the PCB.
I'm annoyed about the accuracy of the speedo, tacho and fuel gauge, and TBH the speedo is well passed its best since the odometer stops nearly every 1000 miles (when I get time to drive the car) and the speedo tells awful non-linear lies.
So the answer seemed to be a nice set of stepper motor instruments. The cost is considerable, and doesn't quite get me what I want. Plus they don't look quite like I want them to and have all the features I'd like.
So I decided to make my own. After all, how hard can it be...
An evening with a CAD package later, and I have the following:
Front:
Back:
Wireframe:
All parts are easily produced and assembled. The electronics should be fairly straight forward - a few counters and stuff in an AVR chip will suffice. Next step is to lay out the PCB.
Yes the inaccurate speedo readings which also make you look as if though you have done more miles that in fact you have and temperamental taco are a real pain. On my drive back from collecting my Griff the wife's car showed 280 miles while the Griff had clocked 320 miles, that's quite a difference over many thousands of miles.
Just another thought.. nothing technical but worth considering.....
Whilst out in my car last night (first time this year ) in noticed the bottom LHS gauge reflects quite badly in the winscreen when the lights are on... the rest are shrouded by the overhand on the dash top, but this one is quite distracting.... so you may want to lift the outside ones to a level where this won't happen??..
Whilst out in my car last night (first time this year ) in noticed the bottom LHS gauge reflects quite badly in the winscreen when the lights are on... the rest are shrouded by the overhand on the dash top, but this one is quite distracting.... so you may want to lift the outside ones to a level where this won't happen??..
MuffDaddy said:
Here is a thought, why not add in the Rover diagnosis software on to a touchscreen. It's written in QT and if you can find someone to do the dev I can provide a test BlackBerry Z10 I am certain it will work on. Electronic speedo and tacho?
Nice idea as all the gauges are there already execept the poor old 1 MHz 8 bit processor in the 14CUX runs out of puff at higher RPM, and stops updating the serial port so the readings freeze, as the ECU is far to busy dealing with important things like injectors. You might get away with just a couple of gauges, and turn the rest of the inputs off in the software. It's been a while since I did anything much car related so Thought I'd better update this. For some reason work keeps getting in the way - specially when I get paid to go on sea trials in sunny parts of the world...
I got the pieces of dash laser cut at the end of last week. The picture shows the gauge assembly without the steel dash panel and gauge bezels in place. The PCBs are made and populated. "All" I need to do now is test the software, finish assembly and install them in the Griff.
Apart from the colours, it looks the same as the CAD drawing.
I got the pieces of dash laser cut at the end of last week. The picture shows the gauge assembly without the steel dash panel and gauge bezels in place. The PCBs are made and populated. "All" I need to do now is test the software, finish assembly and install them in the Griff.
Apart from the colours, it looks the same as the CAD drawing.
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