Possible Instrument Cluster solution?

[Howard_Casto]

http://dealnews.com/Quirky-Nimbus-Wink-App-Enabled-Assistant-for-30-6-s-h/1476529.html

I'm kind of on the fence on this one.  I've seen them hacked on the net, but I don't have any clue how hard it is to hack them.  The small gages and modular design would make it fairly easy to fit on both arcade rigs and home made ones.  The text areas are a nice bonus as well.  It's a lot of product for 30 dollars. 

Opinions?

[drventure]

I like it. Kind of reminds me of that colored cube that came out a while back that could be set to change colors based on some statistic it got off the web.

Could completely see this in a driving rig. And 30$ seems like a deal, esp if there's info out there for hacking it.

[Howard_Casto]

I looked into it a bit further.  To hack it properly you'd just about have to gut it. It has an imp inside which is good, but it's an internet only device... meaning you send commands to the server and they are sent back to the nimbus, resulting in a 2-3 second delay. 

Oh well.... the company is going bankrupt... maybe when they get down to 15 bucks a piece or something. 

[Howard_Casto]

Oh... the only hacking video I could find... which is admittedly pretty awesome. 

[Fursphere]

I tossed around the idea of 'real' gauges for a long time with my cabinet, but the (insane) cost is stopping me - since they provide very little in the overall picture.

For now I have an HTC One smartphone setup below my monitor - which pulls data from the various sim games I play (mostly Dirt Rally).  I'm running DashMeterPro on it.   The phone was going to be recycled because its got a couple of dead spots on the touchscreen, but I was able to mess with it enough to get it to load the software. 

http://www.sensadigit.com/

[Howard_Casto]

Well I've come to a similar conclusion.  Planetjay clued me in on the fact that many of these "no contract" smart phones have the ability to bypass the activation screen so you can use them as a tablet.  So I'm waiting for a couple that fits my needs to come up and I'll snipe them.  There is one right now at best-buy for 15 bucks.... quite cheap. 

The only reason I came to the lcd screen solution is the wide range of top speeds in the various games, especially the rpm values.  It makes having a single- static gauge impractical. 

[Howard_Casto]

just a heads up... in case anyone wants one just to play around with, the nimbus is on sale for 30 again.