Alternative Display

J

JamesS

Platinum Member
I was going to retro fit the RS Monitor in my 197 over the Christmas period, but I got a little distracted and decided to have a go at putting one of the displays we had at work into the car instead.

I'm quite pleased with the results!

Apologies for the videos being 90° out, but I couldn't mount the Go Pro at a sensible angle in landscape view. They're much clearer if you change the quality to 720p and watch them full screen.

[YOUTUBE]58KBcXbsqvQ[/YOUTUBE]
Engine speed, vehicle speed and gear (the calculation still requires a little tweaking, but not bad for a first effort) are displayed in this video.

[YOUTUBE]g7OZBuS4eyg[/YOUTUBE]
Steering angle, coolant temperature and throttle position are displayed in the first screen, and then I swap back to the above screen.

I'm planning on doing some more work on it in the new year (this was only a couple of hours) to bring in the accels for a little G meter, and also linking in my TPMS to give me tyre pressures and temperatures, plus rigging up GPS and a data logger so I can log everything.

Will keep this updated as I go on.
 
You done a really good job there mate. I'm well interested in this,
would there be any chance of doing them and selling them on when they have finished?
 
jakehewitt said:
You done a really good job there mate. I'm well interested in this,
would there be any chance of doing them and selling them on when they have finished?
Click to expand...

At the moment that display is circa £2k, so I think there's a fairly limited market for it!

There may be the option in a few months to make available an alternative, but you'll still be looking at the best part of £900 for it.
 
I'm still trying to find a touch screen display of the right size but you could make something similar for a lot cheaper than that.

Raspbery Pi + 5.8" touch screen and android OS. Just need to find the right hardware. The software already exists.
 
GrumpyTwig said:
I'm still trying to find a touch screen display of the right size but you could make something similar for a lot cheaper than that.

Raspbery Pi + 5.8" touch screen and android OS. Just need to find the right hardware. The software already exists.
Click to expand...

A bit of an over simplification!

First challenge: find a readily available display that is daytime viewable (more difficult than it sounds) and sort out the relevant filter for it (the filters greatly improve the readability).

Next challenge, get everything connected together and interfacing with the Pi (as it doesn't natively support CAN, a daughterboard will be required).

Then, package it all up in a nice compact unit, with a power supply to get it running off 13.5V.

Finally, decode the car's CAN stream and display all the data.

So in summary, yes it is possible, but it's a little more complicated than you've made out. Also, if it was a commercial venture, you have to have all of this paid for somehow, so actually you'd be surprised at how much it would have to sell for!
 
JamesS said:
A bit of an over simplification!

First challenge: find a readily available display that is daytime viewable (more difficult than it sounds) and sort out the relevant filter for it (the filters greatly improve the readability).

Next challenge, get everything connected together and interfacing with the Pi (as it doesn't natively support CAN, a daughterboard will be required).

Then, package it all up in a nice compact unit, with a power supply to get it running off 13.5V.

Finally, decode the car's CAN stream and display all the data.

So in summary, yes it is possible, but it's a little more complicated than you've made out. Also, if it was a commercial venture, you have to have all of this paid for somehow, so actually you'd be surprised at how much it would have to sell for!
Click to expand...

Why would I need to decode anything or connect to CAN directly when I can use a bluetooth or USB canbus unit readily available for about a fiver off ebay and a bluetooth dongle off the Pi or USB. No daughter board required.

Little packaging would be required as the display could sit in the dash (using the satnav enclosure) and the other hardware be hidden in behind the dash. The power supply could come or be based on a similar design to a basic USB charger again readily available very cheaply.

I wouldnt need to decode the stream as I mentioned there is already software out there that does this for Android OS.

USB ODB reader £5
RaspPi £25
Display £50-200 at most
Power supply £5 at most

I'm not trying to belittle what you've done, just saying it could be possible to do something similar for far less.
 
Last edited:
The touch screen will work fine providing you sort out the rest of the electronics and receive and decode the data accordingly.
 
JamesS said:
I was going to retro fit the RS Monitor in my 197 over the Christmas period, but I got a little distracted and decided to have a go at putting one of the displays we had at work into the car instead.

I'm quite pleased with the results!

Apologies for the videos being 90° out, but I couldn't mount the Go Pro at a sensible angle in landscape view. They're much clearer if you change the quality to 720p and watch them full screen.

[YOUTUBE]58KBcXbsqvQ[/YOUTUBE]
Engine speed, vehicle speed and gear (the calculation still requires a little tweaking, but not bad for a first effort) are displayed in this video.

[YOUTUBE]g7OZBuS4eyg[/YOUTUBE]
Steering angle, coolant temperature and throttle position are displayed in the first screen, and then I swap back to the above screen.

I'm planning on doing some more work on it in the new year (this was only a couple of hours) to bring in the accels for a little G meter, and also linking in my TPMS to give me tyre pressures and temperatures, plus rigging up GPS and a data logger so I can log everything.

Will keep this updated as I go on.
Click to expand...

Looks very interesting! Definitely something a lot of people on here would be interested in I'm sure. :smile:
 
Small update.

The display is now installed on a more permanent basis, and below is a photo of it taken this morning.

Will do a more detailed write-up over the weekend, but I'm very pleased with it!

Blue%2520Comedy%2520Car.jpg
 
Great work James! Looks good and very oem and as robo said looking forward to the write up.

I see you leaving off work tonight as I was filling up in shell, looked very clean and sounding pretty nice.
 
Robo_#1 said:
That looks pretty good! Looking forward to a write on on how you achieved it and the costs involved :smile:
Click to expand...

I saw it first hand yesterday. It's way cooler than the pictures can put across. It'a also WAY more expensive than anyone will be prepared to pay for a road car. Super ultra cool
 
For those who have asked what the display does, here's a quick preview.

[YOUTUBE]T7tz04ond4I[/YOUTUBE]
 
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