Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 22:29:38 -0800
Reply-To: David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>
Subject: Re: Computerized Gauge Setup
In-Reply-To: <0.89cde210.25524d19@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I took two years of school to learn about the stuff you are talking about.
Most of this stuff is ULTRA simple and ULTRA cheap. Most are simple $5
DACs based circuts with most parts coming from Radio Shack. This was back
in 91 / 92 so I was working with 386s and asembly language at that time -
todays PCs are a little more difficult to program in that nature as Windows
xx wants to treat your serial or parallel port as mouse and printer ports
and accessing the hardware at the machine level is a no no. So, I don't
have much experiance in programming Windows apps.
Now that I work for the local school district during the day I have access
to old 386 lap tops that are being junked - this would be more than ample
for this kind of task. The think I don't have is time as my large order of
round-to-its have been backorders for many moons.
On a side note, I have found some pass-thru connectors that will work with
our Digifant / Digijet / CIS-E boxes... this coupled with a small
"worthless" laptop would be the ultimate Digitool!
One of the big advantages to a lap top is that you could program it to take
snap shots of the data and store it for later use.
Again, just like you, thinking out loud!
At 09:44 PM 03/11/1999 EST, KENWILFY@AOL.COM wrote:
>Here is my latest brainstorm on my quest for the ultimate Gauge cluster that
>doesn't take up alot of space and require cutting or drilling:
>
>I was thinking, why not just get one of those small note pad computers with a
>back lit screen (like palm pilot or whatever). Then mount it's docking bay
>on my dash next to the instrument cluster and secure it with a velcro strap.
>Now all I have to do is setup all my senders and then wire then into some
>type of plug that will plug into the computer (I have no idea what this
>entails). Then all I have to find is a program that would take the sender
>readings and display them in either a number readout or some type of bar
>graph, etc. You could have several "layers" of gauges that you could scroll
>through by pushing a button, basically telling you everything that is going
>on back there (thinking of installing a camera in the engine compartment to
>actually watch the motor itself but I wonder if this is overkill/could be a
>distraction while driving? :)
>
>So what do you think? Am I dreaming? Could this be done without spending a
>million dollars? I mean you could use the small computer for other things
>too and just plug it into the van when you were taking trips and wanted to
>keep an eye on things. If I bought 6 gauges and some instrument pods I would
>be out around $200 so buying a small computer would not really be that much
>more money.
>Any ideas?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Ken Wilford
>http://www.vanagain.com
>John 3:16
>Office (856)-765-1583
>Shop (856)-327-0027
>Fax (856)-327-2242
>
>
-- David Marshall - - Quesnel, BC, Canada --
-- 78 VW Rabbit, 80 VW Caddy, 84 VW Westie, 85 VW Cabriolet --
-- 87 Audi 5000 Quattro, 88 2.0L VW Syncro Double Cab --
-- David's Volkswagen Home Page http://www.volkswagen.org --
-- Fast Forward Autobahn Sport Tuning http://www.fastforward.ca --
-- david@volkswagen.org (pmail) or vanagon@volkswagen.org (list) --
