Gripless

All tested and working live plugged into my car. DCCD with small lcd 3x7cm screen showing status similar to dash. Currently not fancy build, just obd2 cable with circuit board cable tied to it. Can customise it to look like any aftermarket dash or OEM eg even animations. some ideas…

Early version of TPMS testing layout and colouring. Currently the magenta lines are grey and text is white unless alarm then red or orange. Screen is 1.3” and outside is about 52mm similar size to 08 aircon dials. Thinking 3 will fit across a single DIN stereo panel size, so could have TPMS, G force sensor and something else.

Have made some esp32 gauges and displays for my car. does anyone want something like this or have any suggestions? All these are setup over wifi with webpage to enter settings. It’s pretty basic so far but could add presets to auto configure for different generations. Tire pressure over Bluetooth round display that you turn outer ring to see different pressure units, and push to turn off display. It comes back on for new alerts etc. Can add sensor ID and working on a discovery feature. I theory the 2012 or newer cars could have this canbus the data to the OEM screen. The older cars have a physical wire to the dash lamp. RPM bar display 16-40 led F1 style. Has rpm limits and flash rate etc settings. Currently only canbus but could do pulse counting so works with older rpm signal. DCCD display. Currently no settings just smart watch screen that can show auto with +- manual and the diff lock level. Graphics need a lot of work. canbus keypad. There is a opencan version online so could be auto configured by most aftermarket ecu brands. Or web page where set canbus id and then ecu can receive messages when buttons are pressed. Could also receive messages from ecu to turn on/off illumination behind keys, or set colour.

Just checked this on my car and live canbus view while changing switches shows it matches the above ID and dash display.

The chassis code tells what transmission it had, which comes up anywhere they enter a plate like WOF etc. the text on the reg label isn’t worth worrying about. You’ll also need radiator if you don’t want of to notice, the oil cooler at the bottom is a dead giveaway. certs are easy if you call the cert place first and ask what you need to document first. They have some odd rules that don’t apply to modern cars vs the classics they write them for.

made some good progress. Can set custom rpm redline, flashing options, set brightness options etc all via webpage. Even added a light sensor so it dims based on light level. Still have plenty of work left but better than most options I’ve seen to buy. Found buttons with Icons to order for turning display on and off, as well as enable wifi web page. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006666132955.html

@Joker No-ones been able to explain the funky backwards lines but I think you can see the VOD there on the PSI chart. The plot X axis is road speed and the line from data logged over time plotted in time order, so the run started at 90kph then dipped back to 85kph likely caused by operator error, you can rule out car if you have other good plots. -Wheelspin from not being strapped down well. 1 strap and not at steep angle rushed at dyno day. Or too much power applied too quickly. -starting run and not giving it more gas so dyno load drags speed down.

Yeah I started looking at custom ones a month ago because of exactly the conclusion you came to. It’s why I posted the canbus topic. Old cars rpm reading is just counting pulses and dividing that based on the number of cylinders. Eg 2 ignition events per revolution for a 4 cylinder. Every cheap micro controller can either count pulses or the time between them so it isn’t complicated. Newer cars the ecu runs multi coil and the rpm signal is over canbus so you have to read the canbus messages and decode them. In some cases they do have a rom pulse from the dash cluster, but if you start opening dash clusters it raises flags if you ever want to verify the odometer. Over the weekend I think I have some basic canbus reading working but before I can test I need some more parts to look after the power and now waiting on an order for that.

Looking at bar design one with option of 16-40 LEDs. Dims automatically so not bright at night.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005952894041.html 3.75” one for 27 +gst shipped. for Ali add things to cart, then there are 3 small icons next to item, the first is find similar, then add to Wishlist, and remove from cart. the find similar works pretty well. Im looking at the F1 style ones with a row of LEDs that change colour until set point and then flash the whole bar.

Last week swapped rear hatch gas lift struts. Ones supplied are for newer model. turns out only need right side anyway. The side with the handle, pretty typical that side goes first. being 2cm short it makes hatch open 10-15cm less height so if you aren’t under 5-9” it’s not ideal. Would be good if you are short so you don’t have to reach up so much for the handle.

Anyone running one? Looking for feedback on what people like and what features or layouts are good. I know the 2008+ cars have a beeper and tiny led but that really isn’t effective. There are some nice F1 style LED strip ones but they are $300-450. Also digital dashes that have them built in do they work well day and night and have any dimming?

Downpipe and tune is still best value upgrade though it costs more every year. Stock 2L cars are only really about 185kw at the wheels, with down pipe and tune can hit 220kw at the wheels. But that’s just peak power which isn’t where the big gains are. What you want is more area under the line on the dyno graph. Useable power is consistent and found in the mid range. Stock turbo won’t put out much more than a few extra psi at the redline so up there there is only a little gain up there. What it can push 5-7psi more or about 23psi by 4K which is a 30-40% gain. Turbo comes on a little earlier and ramps up way quicker. That’s where the push you back in your seat comes from. Look at the power on some dyno graphs posted on here or other forum that have stock and tuned. In some it’s 45kw in the 4.5k range. But likely it’s 35kw from 4.5k all the way to 8k If you add a bigger intercooler you may get more power, but what it mainly gives you is more time at those dyno numbers. Normally after slower twisting roads at high boost in lower gears the intake temps rise and it won’t make the same power as on the dyno. Or cheaper option is water spray kit.

That used to be the case but the newer ones run of PD or QC so 20v 3-5a from laptop power supplies. The one I have is 60 watts and some are 100w and they use the same changeable tips as the mains powered ones. I only did a couple of speaker wires and some microcontroller stuff and it work very well. Other than the grounding issue that is solvable once you know it exists.

When running from battery there is no issue since nothing is grounded. Same applies to running from power banks. TLDR; keep them away from car electronics when powered from the wall. Wires etc are ok to solder if not connected, eg making a loom disconnected from the car. Anything with integrated circuits, chips will likely suffer some damage. Seems this is well known in electronic circles but not communicated widely outside. When powered from wall socket they have floating ground which while super low amperage can be in the 40-70v range between tip and you skin. You won’t feel or notice this at all. Wearing a grounding strap actually make it’s worse as then all that voltage will have somewhere to go. The irons are built correctly and connect the tip to usb shielding, it’s a power supply issue. The problem comes from the fact modern USB or DC power adaptors do not ground the shielding of the cable that the iron needs to discharge the static ESD. Eg Apple used to ground there adaptors but newer usb-c ones some are some aren’t. Seems the USB standard does not specify which end should be grounded as grounding both ends and having more than one thing plugged in can cause more issues. There are fixes I won’t link to as playing with wall plugs even if just plugging into the earth terminal needs some understanding. Many irons now come with special grounding wires to plug into the wall so if you have this then you should be ok.