GARETH T

For anyone intrested in programming there's an intresting project going on at the moment, it's called raspberry pi, (http://www.raspberrypi.org/) It's a cheap capable computer.
I've been thinking of personal uses for it, and one that I thought of was a nice digital dashboard like that what gems offer but without there price tag.
http://www.gems.co.uk/?content=pages...colour-display
I thought with it reading the serial ( or even the CAN) information from a ecu alot of useful information can be displayed. Without the use of millions of expensive gauges.

What's your thoughts?

Jay,

iTrader: (4)

Along comes Gareth and along comes trouble note to self standard ecu's are great dash with dials on work just fine and stay away from Gareths tech threads as they normally end up with me pluging NASA into my car

wes

I think thats an awesome idea Gareth, lots of work involved but possible I reckon. I wouldn't know where to begin on reading from the car's ecu but as ODB II etc are a "standard" it should be possible.

Only this morning I was thinking of how to make a cheap (really cheap!) bullet camera recording solution, and this maybe the answer, one of these, a cheap usb webcam, and hours and hours of learning linux and it might be do-able

GARETH T

Have a look though there forum, your project isn't hat much different to what people are doing

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Interesting little unit this Raspberry PC!

GARETH T

I'm goin yo buy a few, not sure what for yet lol

foreigneRS

that's a very interesting find

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Just because you 'can'?

GARETH T

ya i guess so,, i might buy one through work as i can think of a few work related projects i could do aswell

fraser9764

iTrader: (3)

interesting! i will probably buy a few too, just because i can lol.
i did consider a while ago, buying a cheap 10 inch netbook and splitting the screen away, extending the connector and remote mounting the screen in the dash with the rest in the glovebox, a little crude but effective. i just couldn't be bothered modding the dash to suit.

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Interesting that it will also interface with Nokia spare parts although a 3" touch screen probably is a little small for a car display. Could be an interesting though.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

you might find there is already a software solution out there in linux. CCTV software packages are available in both linux and windows.

The problem you will find with such small computers is having the graphics processing to record high quality video and audio. You might do it with just one camera on such a system, but you might struggle to get high quality video off 3 or 4 cameras.

Im in the process of building a carputer to record upto 6 cameras and audio and i chose a micro ATX form factor motherboard so i can use decent processor and memory. Also it supports a proper CCTV card to give the graphics capability i want.

Mad Matt

iTrader: (2)

Yea thought also about making my own TFT display like the GEMS one. I know bit of programming and displays programming (omron) but would have to study how a pectel unit works (or better say how the information are taken from the ECU and under which form the infos are converted) so then it is possible to use gauges and stuff like that reading the ECU infos.

So computer software is needed to program the pages, like the GEMS software you can get to program the DA36 (escort WRC displays).

Shame I don't have computer programming knowledge to make software or a full working engine under the hand on which I could experiment things. But I'm keeping an eye on that topic !

GARETH T

I guess your talking about omron HMI screens? Will be slightly more difficult than that sadly.
It's so tempting to have a go. I got a pectel t6 sat here doing nothing umm

Mad Matt

iTrader: (2)

Yes, omron HMI ! We used to program a drilling/milling machine that you could control both by "physical" commands and by the screen. Not really difficult, it just takes bit of time. But yes I would imagine its more difficult with our stuff.

On the other hand, I would say that the CAN systems are difficult to understand, not our analog systems. You think ?

GARETH T

i dont think it would be too hard,, its just like decoding any serial message

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

thats going to take a lot of programming

GARETH T

But the rewards could be great

foreigneRS

CAN is piss easy if you have the right tools

Mad Matt

iTrader: (2)

That's right, because you just have to chance "bits" here and there, but I still think it is more difficult than analog signal !