Main > Driving & Racing Cabinets
Real Instrument Panels
twistedsymphony:
Sebring cluster - notice the back the speedo and tach both screw into the circuit "sheet" this would make it a prime candidate for removing the gauges from the cluster and mounting them wherever you want.... also no need to source a connector since you can just use a ring terminal
Saturn Cluster - the picture of the back is too small to get any idea of what the electronics are like or if you could remove the individual gauges, pigtails are good and it looks like it has front illumination.
Grand am cluster - I'm honestly not sure if those are connectors on the back of the cluster... the connectors might be on the top (which isn't pictured) this is a really weird shaped cluster too I would avoid it, it looks like more of a hassle than it's worth.
Mazda MPV cluster - this has a mechanical speedo so it's not an option right out of the gate regardless of it's other merits.
Tarus cluster - seems to be the smallest cluster of those listed which is good, the design doesn't look like you'd be able to remove the gauges individually so you'd have to use the cluster as a whole... Personally I hate the PRNDL shift lights but you could probably block them out.
Dodge Cluster - hard to see what's going on electronically since it's all covered up but there are real metal pins for the connectors so you could plug in with small spade connectors or solder directly. nice looking cluster if you're going for a retro look
Howard_Casto:
I think I might give the dodge a shot... found this video:
Notice that the mileage and gear indicator are fully digital. On the one hand that kind of sucks on the gear indicator... I'd probably have to scrap it and make a lamp array, but I could potentially display anything where the mileage goes.
Then again that might make it really hard to interface with so I dunno.
twistedsymphony:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on May 17, 2014, 01:50:02 am ---I think I might give the dodge a shot... found this video:
Notice that the mileage and gear indicator are fully digital. On the one hand that kind of sucks on the gear indicator... I'd probably have to scrap it and make a lamp array, but I could potentially display anything where the mileage goes.
Then again that might make it really hard to interface with so I dunno.
--- End quote ---
chances are those displays will not be controllable via the external connections.
Mileage particularly is usually calculated from the speedometer readings and then stored in the cluster itself (most people seem to assume it's control by the computer.. it's not) ... usually with some security measures to prevent tampering too which can make it nearly impossible to play around with.
unless you desoldered the display itself from the rest of the electronics and built your own circuit to control the display directly it's not likely you're going to be custom displaying anything on it.
as for the gear indicator there will probably be discrete inputs for each gear... so there's that.
See if you can find a FSM (factory service manual) for that car online, they'll typically have wiring diagrams so you can check out how the cluster is actually wired before you drop any money.
Howard_Casto:
Well there are only two to three chips/protocols still used in alpha-numeric displays these days, mostly because alpha numeric displays are so rare... so I was thinking it would be possible directly at the display, similar to how we used to do it back in the day with those little serial displays and the parallel port. That sort of thing is uncertain of course, I'm just hopeful.
I'm going to have to hold off anyway. I could order one but I won't be doing anything anytime soon. Got off my meds Thursday, by Saturday I felt like a dump truck had fell on my head, went all over town to find something actually open on the weekend besides the emergency room, because apparently you aren't supposed to get sick on a Saturday in this country. They've got me on meds again, but basically said they probably wouldn't do any good. I'm going to try and get an appointment to a ear/nose/throat specialist tomorrow.
For whatever reason my head isn't hurting in this particular instance, so I'm wide awake but I doubt that'll last long.
twistedsymphony:
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on May 20, 2014, 12:03:53 am ---Well there are only two to three chips/protocols still used in alpha-numeric displays these days, mostly because alpha numeric displays are so rare... so I was thinking it would be possible directly at the display, similar to how we used to do it back in the day with those little serial displays and the parallel port. That sort of thing is uncertain of course, I'm just hopeful.
I'm going to have to hold off anyway. I could order one but I won't be doing anything anytime soon. Got off my meds Thursday, by Saturday I felt like a dump truck had fell on my head, went all over town to find something actually open on the weekend besides the emergency room, because apparently you aren't supposed to get sick on a Saturday in this country. They've got me on meds again, but basically said they probably wouldn't do any good. I'm going to try and get an appointment to a ear/nose/throat specialist tomorrow.
For whatever reason my head isn't hurting in this particular instance, so I'm wide awake but I doubt that'll last long.
--- End quote ---
Ah yes the Hitachi HD44780 protocol... I used to love playing around with those displays... I still have a few. I've even got one setup on a Raspberry Pi to NetBoot Sega NAOMI games ;D (info here if anyone is interested: http://capane-us.github.io/piforcetools/)
I know what you mean about not wanting to buy until you're ready to start playing around with it... buying parts too early is a bad habbit of mine, enough such that I have boxes and boxes of parts all over my garage and my office for projects where I had an idea and bought stuff and then was too busy with something else by the time it arrived so it never got used. :laugh:
In any case good luck with the medical stuff... I swear most doctors don't seem to know what they're doing. I don't usually go to the doctor unless it's something I consider serious and the last 6 or so times over as many years they just scratch their head pick a drug seemingly at random and it doesn't seem to do anything to actually improve the situation... :angry:
If I had that kind of results at my job I'd be canned... you'd think with as many thousands of years we've been studying the human body we'd have a better grasp as to how to fix things.
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