Custom dash display panel (Arduino + LCD)

[Se7enLC]

I'm working on a new project, looking for some ideas/suggestions!

Summary: I'm installing a 16x2 character backlit LCD in the dashboard to display a bunch of stuff: battery voltage, gear indicator, tachometer, ambient temperature, and notifications from my smartphone. It will have a bluetooth radio to get notifications from the phone and also feed data to the phone for recording/displaying (voltage, tach, speed, etc).

Cost: It's very inexpensive (<$30). $13 for the Arduino Nano microcontroller (any arduino will do - that one just happens to be small and cheap). LCD is ~$3 on eBay. $8 for the blueooth serial module, $1 for the air temperature sensor, and maybe at most another $5 for other random components (schmitt trigger, some diodes, some resistors, wires, connectors, etc). I'll also need to box it up to make it at least water-resistant.

So far I have working:
1). The voltage measurement
2). Tachometer readout simulated. I generated a 4-pulse-per-rotation square wave and then read it back in - I'm waiting for parts before I actually tap into the tachometer wire, because the microcontroller can't handle the high-voltage.
3). Bluetooth connection to the phone (to send alerts to the device or read raw serial from it) is working.

The ambient temp display is waiting for the sensor IC to arrive.
The wheel speed sensor connection is waiting for a schmitt trigger (gear indicator will be calculated from engine speed and wheel speed).

Here's a Bench Test Video
(Voltage is being measured off a supply, tachometer is cycling between 1000 and 10000 RPM. Temp and gear indicator are just fake display placeholders currently)

Questions
What else would be useful to have on here?
What kinds of things would you want to be sent automatically from the phone to the bike display, or bike to phone? (incoming call/text notifications? weather alerts?)
Is there anything else you'd want to measure on the bike?
Any other sensors worth including? (GPS, accelerometer, gyrometer, tilt, sound, open discussion!)
Do you think there's any need to have a button near the display for any menu or display type? Or is having a passive display preferred?

Thanks! I'll post the whole finished product when I'm done (might be another month or so - shipping takes FOREVER from china!)

 

[Guitar Man]

Sounds interesting. Subscribed.

 

[patrickb37]

Might be nice to have add a bright LED as a shift light (and you could program the desired rpm into the microcontroller).

 

[Gelvatron]

Can't wait to see updates looks cool

 

[TheRabbi]

If possible, don't forget to have a night time/day time mode. This doesn't have to have a fancy sensor or anything, just a switch on the side would be fine. But it would be incredibly annoying to have a bright LED screen shining in your eyes when it's dark.

I would definitely go all out, if you can incorporate GPS then someone may be able to develop software to tether to the phone and display a map. If you include an accelerometer you could eventually replace the entire speedo unit for a seriously sexy looking setup.

 

[mave2911]

Looks great!

Is there word wrap or scrolling functionality for the receiving of messages?

One thing I'd love to see on a bike is a 7" touchscreen that would be a display of your gauges, but could also display any number of other things.

Bike diagnostics, service intervals, GPS navigation etc.

Surely we have the technology to achieve it?

Cheers,
Rick

 

[PosterFZ6]

I'm working on a new project, looking for some ideas/suggestions!

Summary: I'm installing a 16x2 character backlit LCD in the dashboard to display a bunch of stuff: battery voltage, gear indicator, tachometer, ambient temperature, and notifications from my smartphone. It will have a bluetooth radio to get notifications from the phone and also feed data to the phone for recording/displaying (voltage, tach, speed, etc).

Cost: It's very inexpensive (<$30). $13 for the Arduino Nano microcontroller (any arduino will do - that one just happens to be small and cheap). LCD is ~$3 on eBay. $8 for the blueooth serial module, $1 for the air temperature sensor, and maybe at most another $5 for other random components (schmitt trigger, some diodes, some resistors, wires, connectors, etc). I'll also need to box it up to make it at least water-resistant.

So far I have working:
1). The voltage measurement
2). Tachometer readout simulated. I generated a 4-pulse-per-rotation square wave and then read it back in - I'm waiting for parts before I actually tap into the tachometer wire, because the microcontroller can't handle the high-voltage.
3). Bluetooth connection to the phone (to send alerts to the device or read raw serial from it) is working.

The ambient temp display is waiting for the sensor IC to arrive.
The wheel speed sensor connection is waiting for a schmitt trigger (gear indicator will be calculated from engine speed and wheel speed).

Here's a Bench Test Video
(Voltage is being measured off a supply, tachometer is cycling between 1000 and 10000 RPM. Temp and gear indicator are just fake display placeholders currently)

Questions
What else would be useful to have on here?
What kinds of things would you want to be sent automatically from the phone to the bike display, or bike to phone? (incoming call/text notifications? weather alerts?)
Is there anything else you'd want to measure on the bike?
Any other sensors worth including? (GPS, accelerometer, gyrometer, tilt, sound, open discussion!)
Do you think there's any need to have a button near the display for any menu or display type? Or is having a passive display preferred?

Thanks! I'll post the whole finished product when I'm done (might be another month or so - shipping takes FOREVER from china!)

I would say weather alerts would be the bomb!
GPS sounds interesting too.

Anyway, I like you project very much. And if you ever decide to sell/build an extra one, I want to have dibs on that. You can count me as the first customer.

 

[SANGER_A2]

Music player with headphone socket and control buttons that can display the current track.

Also, if you use gps, you could use it as a speed camera warning system...

 

[Se7enLC]

If possible, don't forget to have a night time/day time mode. This doesn't have to have a fancy sensor or anything, just a switch on the side would be fine. But it would be incredibly annoying to have a bright LED screen shining in your eyes when it's dark.

Adjustable brightness would probably be good. I'm not sure how bright is too bright or not bright enough without more testing. Right now, the backlight is just adjusted with a potentiometer knob. It depends a lot on the LCD for how bright it is. A switch could add/remove a set resistance pretty easily to brighten/dim the display, it would just be a matter of deciding how much to brighten or dim.

I would definitely go all out, if you can incorporate GPS then someone may be able to develop software to tether to the phone and display a map. If you include an accelerometer you could eventually replace the entire speedo unit for a seriously sexy looking setup.

Well, if you are tethering to the phone anyway, there's no reason to incorporate the GPS - phones already have GPS and mapping, and a nice screen to display the map.

My current plan is to directly interface the speed sensor, so I won't need an accelerometer to get speed - I could just display it right on the screen (but I don't know why, since I already have a digital speedometer)

 

[Se7enLC]

Looks great!
Is there word wrap or scrolling functionality for the receiving of messages?

I can do whatever I want with the text. At the moment I have it set to display line 1+2, delay 1s, then display 2+3, delay, 3+4, etc. I don't plan on doing any automated word-wrapping on the device itself - but perhaps the Android side could be intelligent and send 16-character-long clumps as needed. I don't think I would want to read any kind of long message (text) on a 16-character-wide screen. Waiting for something to scroll to read it takes the eyes off the road! The idea is that you would set up very specific events and plan out what text would show up on the screen to match.

I think the ideal goal would be to have it flash a message quickly on the screen for a few seconds, and then put an icon somewhere. "Incoming call" could just take over the screen for 10s and go away, for example. A rain alert could pop up on the screen for a few seconds, and then become an icon in the corner. Same with an unread email or text indicator.

One thing I'd love to see on a bike is a 7" touchscreen that would be a display of your gauges, but could also display any number of other things.

Bike diagnostics, service intervals, GPS navigation etc.

Surely we have the technology to achieve it?

We sure do!

You buy a 7" tablet (Asus/Google Galaxy Nexus 7 is $200), and you interface it with an arduino device like this to measure you gauges. Touchscreen is a pain on a motorcycle, of course. GPS navigation would be something you'd be best off just using the phone or tablet itself for (data plan or standalone navigation application needed, of course).

I have a tablet and a smartphone. Tablet is way too big for a bike, but I do use the smartphone for GPS tracking and navigation on the bike. My goal was to stay MUCH cheaper than that, though. $3 for an LCD panel is kind of awesome, and I have no hesitations about permanently installing it on the bike along with a $13 microcontroller. A $200 tablet PC is something I'd want to put on and take off the bike (both for anti-theft as well as "I have a tablet, I want to use it!). But really, you can get the best of both worlds by getting a mount for a smartphone on the bike. GPS navigation is simple enough. With the right software, it should be pretty easy to feed back the sensors I am measuring via bluetooth to the phone for display. I don't know about odometer and other gauges, but the speed and tachometer are well understood and easy enough to interface.

 

[phranK2k11]

Oil pressure
Can you incorporate a tire presure monitoring system in it?
Lap timer
Peak RPM recall
A coolant temp readout for us 06' owners...

What skills/talents would a person need to build one using your build as a guide?

 

[Se7enLC]

I would say weather alerts would be the bomb!
GPS sounds interesting too.

Anyway, I like you project very much. And if you ever decide to sell/build an extra one, I want to have dibs on that. You can count me as the first customer.

I'll certainly be giving out the parts list, Arduino code, and whatever level of instructions makes sense for assembling (basic schematic). The process is pretty straightforward, nothing too complicated. Most of the work of putting it together will actually be integrating it into the bike (dremeling a hole for the LCD, tapping into the tachometer, speed sensor, and battery)

I don't really have any plans on going into the market of manufacturing these things, but maybe once I'm done with my own I'll think about doing a handful of them for sale.

I'm really excited about the idea of a rain alert, but it will be a tricky thing to do. I found an application for Android called "Rain Alarm". It tracks your position and radar maps, and will alert you when you're about to hit rain (either you are moving closer to rain or rain is moving closer to you). I don't know if I can integrate with that, but perhaps I could work with that developer to get a hook. Would boost his sales and stop me from reinventing the wheel!

 

[Se7enLC]

Oil pressure
Can you incorporate a tire presure monitoring system in it?
Lap timer
Peak RPM recall
A coolant temp readout for us 06' owners...
What skills/talents would a person need to build one using your build as a guide?

Peak RPM recall I can definitely do. Should be trivial to record RPM to graph, as well (graphing after in excel or something = easy. Graphing real time would be more work, but certainly possible).

No idea about oil pressure. It depends on what the sensor puts out if there is one. I'll look into that. EDIT: Looked into it. No oil pressure gauge on the FZ6. The Service Manual outlines the process for checking the oil pressure as warming up the bike, turning it off, removing the "oil gallery bolt", and attaching an oil pressure gauge. Perhaps an electronic oil pressure gauge that can attach at that location might work, but it's a risky mod that I won't be attempting.

Tire Pressure Monitor would be hard to do. You'd need to replace the valve stems with stems that monitor pressure, and you'd need a reader for them. I suspect it would be expensive to retrofit (at the very least, you'd have to pay to have both wheels re-mounted and balanced when you replace the stems, so that's already $100 right there. Stems for my Jeep are around $120 each, so I imagine it would be similar for a bike, if they exist. Something to read them in is tricky - it's probably a proprietary system, so it would be a bit of work to reverse engineer it, and you'd need to also have whatever wireless receiver is needed. Total cost probably like $500. I dunno about you, but I don't mind checking my tire pressure manually! (THEN AGAIN - I did just find out that I was on the highway on a long trip with a rear tire at 21PSI and didn't know it. Scary stuff)

Coolant Temp. Might be possible to piggyback on the existing sensor if there is one. If there isn't one, you'd have to somehow add a sensor to the coolant (drill a hole, mount a sensor, seal it up). Scary modification, IMO. If the sensor exists and just isn't being displayed, it might be a very easy thing to do.

What would a lap timer do conceptually? A button you press on each lap would certainly work easily enough, but that's something an android application or standalone product could do quite easily. I just googled for it, and it looks like the true lap-timers use some kind of beacon you set up on the ground that the bike will detect when it passes it. This one uses an IR emitter and detector. That's a pretty straightforward technology, so I don't see any technical reason why it couldn't work. I don't know if that's something I want to pursue since I don't do any lap racing, but it's certainly technically possible to incorporate it.
http://www.aimsports.com/products/tg/index.html

Coming up with the design for this of course took some research and skills, but once it's done, it shouldn't take much skill at all to put one together:
1). Basic computer knowledge so you can plug something in, click buttons in a graphical interface to program it. Arduino is actually a really simple system. Plugs into a USB port, you open up a GUI. Program is a single text file. You push the program button, and it does it. Done!
2). Basic electronic skills - wiring up pins to other pins. Soldering, most likely. Nothing particularly difficult to solder. If there's interest, once I'm done tweaking the design, I can probably write up an exact how-to with photos showing which pin to connect where.
3). Tap-splices on the bike should suffice for reading the speed sensor and tachometer. If I were making a fancy-schmancy kit, I'd probably buy the correct connectors and make adapters. so it's completely plug-and-play. Those connectors probably exceed the cost of all the other parts in this system, though, so I won't be doing that on my own bike!
4). Dremel Skills! For mounting the LCD. in the dash. It looks like it will fit really nicely on the S2 - no idea where it would go on the S1.

Tools needed:
1). Multimeter!
2). Soldering Iron
3). Solder
4). Wire strippers
5). Dremel
6). A computer

 

[TheRabbi]

Are you planning on writing software for this? Do the Anduino devices support software or are they more primitive and specifically designed for ECUs?

 

[Se7enLC]

Music player with headphone socket and control buttons that can display the current track.

Also, if you use gps, you could use it as a speed camera warning system...

Audio is tricky - the microcontroller I'm using is quite limited, so it would be a mediocre music player at best.

If you use the Android device as a media player, it's possible to send the current track info to the display. Sending the audio itself would require more hardware.

Good idea on the speed camera warning system!

EDIT: Looks like speed camera will be easy! RadarDroid PRO ($8) looks like it has Tasker integration already, and I have a fully-functional Tasker Action Plugin that can send text to the display. So RadarDroid warns you of a trap, sends tasker alert to the LCD. Cool idea!

 

[Se7enLC]

Are you planning on writing software for this? Do the Anduino devices support software or are they more primitive and specifically designed for ECUs?

Arduino runs C code. it's actually a really nice architecture to work with. Lots of community support, great libraries to work with. Writing to the LCD, for example, just consists of setting up which pins you attach it to and the code

lcd.print("Thing to print to LCD");

It's not designed specifically for ECU or anything, it's pretty general-purpose. Lots of hobbyists use them for robotics, LED controllers, and even RC airplane and helicopter autopilots.

The Arduino code is actually pretty much finished - and the parts that will need changing are not very much work at all.

The Android smartphone code will be a lot trickier. All I have for that so far is a proof-of-concept. I can send an alert to the Arduino. Some of the more complicated things like data logging, graphing, and alerting for rain, speed cameras, etc, will take a significant amount of work. That code would all be written in Java.

 

[PosterFZ6]

I'll certainly be giving out the parts list, Arduino code, and whatever level of instructions makes sense for assembling (basic schematic). The process is pretty straightforward, nothing too complicated. Most of the work of putting it together will actually be integrating it into the bike (dremeling a hole for the LCD, tapping into the tachometer, speed sensor, and battery)

I don't really have any plans on going into the market of manufacturing these things, but maybe once I'm done with my own I'll think about doing a handful of them for sale.

I'm really excited about the idea of a rain alert, but it will be a tricky thing to do. I found an application for Android called "Rain Alarm". It tracks your position and radar maps, and will alert you when you're about to hit rain (either you are moving closer to rain or rain is moving closer to you). I don't know if I can integrate with that, but perhaps I could work with that developer to get a hook. Would boost his sales and stop me from reinventing the wheel!

Sounds awesome. That's exactly what I was thinking in regards to the "rain alert".

I am a great DIY type of person, but I know my limitations in regards to computer coding etc. So that's why I asked.

 

[Motogiro]

What would be cool would be an icing alert. They have that on the 2012 Suzuki Vstrom 650 Adventure. Tells you when the temp is 32 and a warning comes up.

 

[Se7enLC]

What would be cool would be an icing alert. They have that on the 2012 Suzuki Vstrom 650 Adventure. Tells you when the temp is 32 and a warning comes up.

Sounds easy to do!

 

[Zipper]

Definitely very interesting.

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