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This was a pretty and OEM style solution, to add a temperature gauge that also has more functions.
However, I found it annoying that it doesn't show turbo boost without adding extra -expensive- PLX equipment.
The Torque Pro app for Android only costs a fraction and offers more functionality.
That's why I decided to go for MultiGauge Project 2.0
Of course you could drive around with an Android phone showing Torque, but I like it to be a bit more OEM style.
First step is a proof of principle experiment. I bought a cheap Chinese Smartwatch that runs stand alone on Android, with a round touchscreen display.
I installed Torque and it took me some time tweaking the display of the gauges in a decent, screenfilling way.
See below pics for my yest setup in my car. Don't pay attention to the looks of it, the appearence I will address later... If all works...
All values in celcius and bar (I'm from the Netherlands) but Torque can display in Fahrenheit and psi as well.
Cooling temp
RPM
Test with 4 parameters in 1 screen: air/fuel ratio, fuel tank perxenperc, environmental temp and air intake temp.
Air/fuel ratio seperately
Turboboost and engine cooling temp combined. Pretty hard keeping a phone steady to takea picture with some boost haha! Of course this picture was taken on a closed racing track with an unprofessional driver (me) 😉
Thanks! The Race Capture is new to me, but cool stuff!
The display you linked would actually fit the Always open timer that I used in my version 1.0. The gauge size is about 60mm / 2.5 inch.
My idea is to do exactly that
I have searched for an affordable gauge solution for a while now. While I mostly was concerned with boost, I also wanted to have coolant temp at the very least. I really like the Torque/Dash Command app option for the most part. My biggest issue with it, and maybe it’s because of a crappy dongle, I don’t know, but there is a little bit of lag between what the car is doing and what is showing. It’s not bad, but for monitoring boost, I needed something more real-time, so to speak. I really like the look and functionality of the P3 multi-gauge, but dang! It’s spendy $$. At over $300 for just the boost gauge, and $450 iirc for the multi-gauge set up. That is just a bit steep, and for the price, I would live with the app. But I ended up getting a prosport EVO boost gauge and mounting it in a pod on the steering column next to the tach. And I use the phone app for monitoring things like temp, timing, AFR, IAT, fuel rail pressure, etc. It’s not ideal, but it works. I really like the smart watch thing you have come up with here! I’ll bet you can remove the band and possibly mount the watch in a gauge pod or something for a finished look without a lot of fabrication. Just an idea. I really like it though, and now I’m thinking about looking for a cheap smart watch! Lol.
Nice gauge solution!
Agree with you that the boost gauge in Torque is laggy. But it could indeed be because of the cheap bluetooth dongle, mine is a 4 dollar thingie from China. I think there are better ones available with higher refresh rate.
Also, the more gauges you have shown in the app, the slower it gets.
As for using a smartwatch as a gauge, and putting it in a gauge pod:
it is quite small, smaller than the original JCW gauges. A slightly larger display would be better for readability.
You can take the wrist band off, I did that with mine as well. However, the GPS and phone antennas are actually built in the band.
The lag is one of the reasons why I want to go USB with the Pi. The other thing about the RaceCapture system is that it has dual CAN buses - one to monitor the car and one to monitor custom telemetry (e.g. thermocouples in the engine bay, potentiometers on suspension components, accelerometers/gyros to look for the source of vibrations, etc.). It's just a grocery getter (for now), but it has the soul of a race car!
Oh really? I did not know the antenna was part of the band. I’m old, lol. For now, having the boost gauge with the other parameters available for me when I want them with the app seems to be working pretty well. It’s not perfect, but it’s fairly inexpensive and works for me. The biggest expense was a decent boost gauge. I went through a couple before settling on this one. I had originally wanted an analog gauge for boost, but I was not happy with the 2 I tried. The first was noisy and inaccurate, and the second bounced around too much. The digital one I settled on works really well, and I’m guessing that it’s pretty accurate since it gives me the exact same reading as the app does from a different source. And it looks good too! Lol. So the gauge was about $80, but everything else was under $10 each for the dongle, app, and gauge pod.
My only concern I had at first about using one of the apps, either dash command or torque, I think they are very similar to each other but have only used dash command, because apple....anyway, I was a little iffy about trusting the accuracy of the measurements with a cell phone app. I was skeptical, and figured you should take the readings with a grain of salt, kind of like the hp reading on the older version of mini connected like I have. At one point, before the mods began, it told me that my bone stock R60 All4 was putting down 216 hp. Soooo....not very accurate, ha ha.
But with the new boost gauge reading from a boost tap on the intake manifold, and the app getting it from the MAF sensor through the OBD2 port, they both read exactly the same, which really surprised me. So now I have swung 180 degrees on it. Now I’m very confident in the accuracy of the apps now. Which is cool, because other than the lag, it’s a great deal for ten bucks for the app and a few dollars for a dongle. Not a bad way to go at all....plus you can data log too.
@MrGrumpy: glad to read about your good experiences with the accuracy of OBD data.
@I_Forge_KC: RaceCapture sure looks interesting, altough more costly than an app-based setup. Does it tap into the OBD or is it connected in another way to the ECU?
I was triggered though by what looks to be the biggest downside of OBD apps, the lag.
Therefore did some digging on bluetooth adapters and there does seem to be faster ones out there, like the OBDLink LX.
But in my search I also found out that Torque can connect though WiFi, and that protocol is much faster than Bluetooth! That is at least worth investigating further!
@MrGrumpy: glad to read about your good experiences with the accuracy of OBD data.
@I_Forge_KC: RaceCapture sure looks interesting, altough more costly than an app-based setup. Does it tap into the OBD or is it connected in another way to the ECU?
I was triggered though by what looks to be the biggest downside of OBD apps, the lag.
Therefore did some digging on bluetooth adapters and there does seem to be faster ones out there, like the LX OBD Link.
But in my search I also found out that Torque can connect though WiFi, and that protocol is much faster than Bluetooth! That is at least worth investigating further!
There probably are some faster dongle options available. The lag bugs me too. For some reason you have to use a WiFi dongle to use dash command with an iPhone, WiFi is laggy too.
The RaceCapture is OBD2 to the DME and then in my application it is USB connected to the Pi.
The RaceCapture has a funky RJ45 Jack on it (LAN port) that has connections for dual CAN connections. That way one CAN bus can poll the DME and the other can poll a custom system (they even sell standalone CAN bus adapters for analog sensors if you didn't have a different system already in place).
Definitely expensive... But much faster speed, data logging, customization, blah blah blah.
The more I've looked into this, the more I'm game to go with the PodiumConnect. It doesn't have GPS included but it offers much more capability. Adding a GPS seems trivial to a CAN bus.
Markos, I saw your original project, and strongly considered a DM-6 multigauge with OBDII connection, but what I really want is a wired OBD-II connection and Android board running Torque Pro.
I purchased a used Openometer, and after a lot of searching I settled on this 2.5" circular display, which is a perfect fit. I have yet to find the ideal 50-pin HDMI driver board, however.
I also picked up an Odroid C-0, which has plenty of room inside the Openometer shell. My goal is to fit everything inside the shell, and just have a usb to OBD-II port wire and separate power connection. It would be a lot easier to use an external enclosure and mount it under the dash, but at that point I may as well finish my long-delayed Android nav/speedometer project.
The Odroid also allows for the possibility of controlling the unused LED heartbeat module via GPIO pins, so there is the potential of doing some fun things like indicator for Google Navigation prompts.
I would like to pick up a cheap/for parts Echo Spot to check out that display and driver board. Its buttons could potentially be integrated into the back of the Openometer housing. I want a power button for the screen itself, and for the Odroid, to launch the Android power menu.
Fonseca, great plan! Something like that would also be my ideal setup.
The 2.5 inch display you mention I have discovered as well. I even contacted the company, this is what they wrote back: Hi Mark, This is Samuel from kingtech. Thank you for contacting us on Alibaba.
For your inquiry on the 2.47 display: This one does not include a touch panel by default. Touch panel can be developed by tooling.
There is another recommendation for you: 3.4 inch round 800x800 (PV03400AR39A), this one comes with the capacitive touch panel.
As my intention is to use a touchscreen, this one was not what I was looking for.
No touchscreen would be doable with a bluetooth remote or mini keyboard, but I think swiping the screen to switch between digital gauges is the easiest method.
I'm surprised that aftermarket gauge manufacturers have not already released a digital gauge running android and a proprietary gauge app. Sell it with a wifi or wired OBD-II adapter.
10-11-2018, 09:04 AM
