[sti robot]

^^ I've thought about going all the way and building a full race computer (digi dash, solid state data logging, radio transponders, obd-II, gps, accelerometer, etc.) and its a lot of work/$.

The arduino boards are finally back in stock. So hopefully I'll be able to order one.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...roducts_id=666

^ Phidgets are pretty sweet. But expensive for what you get. I'd rather use a dedicated accelerometer.

[royalsti]

Robot, I think its a great idea! I love new gadgets. I have my defi's in the center pod, so I may put it in my lower din or elsewhere.

[sti robot]

How about if it was a datalogger too. i think it might actually be easier to do...haha.

http://www.olimex.com/dev/msp-169lcd.html plus an accelerometer should be around $80. This would be a pita to program...but would look pretty sweet with the fullblown nokia lcd.

Or it could go the other way and I could get an accelerometer data logger board and just add some display to it (http://www.olimex.com/dev/mod-mma7260q.html). In this case the display would be a simple backlit 16 x 2 character lcd.

[Meridock]

Originally Posted by sti robot

How about if it was a datalogger too. i think it might actually be easier to do...haha.

http://www.olimex.com/dev/msp-169lcd.html plus an accelerometer should be around $80. This would be a pita to program...but would look pretty sweet with the fullblown nokia lcd.

Or it could go the other way and I could get an accelerometer data logger board and just add some display to it (http://www.olimex.com/dev/mod-mma7260q.html). In this case the display would be a simple backlit 16 x 2 character lcd.

Datalogger would do nothing for me...

Personally - I would love the display that Speed Channel uses for the on board shots. Gradiant left and right G on the left and right axis. acceleration on the up axis, braking on the down. display the values at each each axis.

[ace996]

Datalogger, accelerometer, engine vitals display...it's all good.

Having the display that Speed has wouldn't be worth much without the ability to record and play it back...how much watching can you do when you're driving?

Be good,
TomK

[sti robot]

hmmm...good ideas guys.

I asked about the last two links i posted on a microcontroller forum...one comes with usb port and if I can program through that it would be awesome. What meridock is talking about is actually easier than any of the other ideas. (I could probably have it running on my macbook in a few minutes).

Here are the current issues:

-I've already learned how to program an arduino board...as in the code is written, but I don't have the board yet.
-The arduino boards don't do well with datalogging...it'd be to an EEPROM and it wouldn't be much space (maybe a couple of autox runs).
-Do I really want to learn to program an ARM7? It is gcc compatible but...there are issues.
-How nice should the display be? Numbers, pseudo-analog? Do people want to see the braking and acceleration too? What about vertical? This dictates if I get a 2 or 3 axis accelerometer and what its range is.
-Playback is nice idea...I'll look into that...I was thinking about hooking it up to the computer or using an sd card after the fact.

Raw materials prices for the curious...arduino $31, the ARM boards ~$60, another EEPROM ~$4, a serial display ~$25, etc.

[Meridock]

Originally Posted by ace996

Datalogger, accelerometer, engine vitals display...it's all good.

Having the display that Speed has wouldn't be worth much without the ability to record and play it back...how much watching can you do when you're driving?

Be good,
TomK

without datalog it would all be bling... at least I can entertain the passenger!

[sti robot]

How about a compromise...

Accelerometer is about the size of the clock and is roughly the same red tint as the cluster. It displays 3 things:
1. LED's for braking an acceleration. A green and a red. One for go and one for slow.
2. 1's line of the 2 X 16 character display will show an analog aprox of lateral G forces and it'll look something like this:

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ | / / / / / / / .... all displayed
| / / ...slight pull in one direction
\ \ \ \ \ \ | ... a lot of pull in the other direction
3. The second line of the 2 X 16 character display will show a numerical value for the G forces.

But what about datalogging? How about I write the code so it outputs all the accelerometer info to the serial out. This means that if you plug in the unit to your computer you get logging output. So, you'd have bling during normal driving and the like, but if you were doing a serious test and tune day you could bring a laptop and datalog.

So it would look like this...I think:

   
      LCD                   LED's       USB port
______________________________________________
|             | /  /  /    |    +   |         |
|                          |        |   USB   |
|        -0.801            |    *   |   ==    |
 ______________________________________________

horrible ascii art aside...what do you think?
Most of the work that goes into this will be on the hardware end, as the software is pretty much written already.

I also though that this thing lighting up like KITT would annoy the carp out of me on a long road trip so I guess if I get around to doing this the kit would come with a switch to turn it off.

[Mack]

i like the idea.

question is, what kind of gross margin are you looking at? with $120 or so in parts, plus labor, this is getting expensive.

i think it would be fun to see what kind of g's i pull, but there comes a point when the cost is more then the benefit.

any way to reduce the cost and still have the same functionality?

[sti robot]

I've though about that too. I mean for $160 I can get a beltronics unit that does some of the same things plus does calculation of HP.

I'm on the fence about selling these things and I might just make a handful of them for friends and such. Not sure yet.