Break out the custom race dashboards

te72

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Poodles;1679181 said:
It's why most modern cars have hard dashes now, airbags replaced the need for them to be soft (thus being made of cheap shit). Always makes me wonder why modern cars are so much heavier when their interior panels are so much lighter and cheaper than old cars...
Airbags and 6000 sensors to keep people who don't know how to drive out of the ditch can't be light...

WeDgE;1679299 said:
Here's mine.

It retains the center vents. I might redesign it to keep the driver's side vent, but it'll change the layout of the gauges...

p1680450_1.jpg

I like it man, should look good once you get it in, you'll have to post a few more pics when you install it. :)
 

GrimJack

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I'm still astounded that nobody has put together a good looking digital dash. There are some fantastic offerings in modern cars - the new Ferrari, the LFA, and so on - why hasn't anyone made something similar that you can retrofit into an older car? There's been some incredible one-offs put together, sure, but nothing mass market.

Have a look at the cockpit pictures of this MR2 for an idea of what I mean: http://translate.google.com/transla...3PB3qSJPiLQWKs6GVQ&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en
 

figgie

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GrimJack;1680502 said:
I'm still astounded that nobody has put together a good looking digital dash. There are some fantastic offerings in modern cars - the new Ferrari, the LFA, and so on - why hasn't anyone made something similar that you can retrofit into an older car? There's been some incredible one-offs put together, sure, but nothing mass market.

Have a look at the cockpit pictures of this MR2 for an idea of what I mean: http://translate.google.com/transla...3PB3qSJPiLQWKs6GVQ&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en

those dashes, you are talking Bosch/AC Delco/NippoDenso etc type resources.

that MR2 guy in germany. Took him a "little" bit to do all that and then to have the PC also control the car itself (really just on off relays for the AC etc and some servos for the AC, requires reverse engineering the AC system and all other things, but being an older car, 0-5V for the system themselves.
 

mnracer550

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maybe this is what ur looking for. i made this for my old foxbody mustang.

p1680607_1.jpg


p1680607_2.jpg


was cheap and i just riveted it together, i dont have a tig welder nor am i that good with one :nono: held up awesome though
 

GrimJack

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figgie;1680586 said:
those dashes, you are talking Bosch/AC Delco/NippoDenso etc type resources.

that MR2 guy in germany. Took him a "little" bit to do all that and then to have the PC also control the car itself (really just on off relays for the AC etc and some servos for the AC, requires reverse engineering the AC system and all other things, but being an older car, 0-5V for the system themselves.
Oh, I realize that Ferrari spent a lot of money on their dash design, and so did Toyota. However, it's *not* rocket science. Actually, quite the opposite - more work goes into the menu system on modern video games than the dash animation for the LFA. I could write the code to display a nice dash in a week. Hell, I could make it skinnable, so that anyone could design their own graphics sets. I'd need to figure out how to get the display values into a computer, and I've got a few ideas for that already.
 

hvyman

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That was a crazy dash but its seems a little too packed so to say. Maybe if it was a little more spread out or something i would like it better but still pretty cool.
 

Poodles

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GrimJack;1680614 said:
Oh, I realize that Ferrari spent a lot of money on their dash design, and so did Toyota. However, it's *not* rocket science. Actually, quite the opposite - more work goes into the menu system on modern video games than the dash animation for the LFA. I could write the code to display a nice dash in a week. Hell, I could make it skinnable, so that anyone could design their own graphics sets. I'd need to figure out how to get the display values into a computer, and I've got a few ideas for that already.

Main issue with electronic dashes has always been viewing them in bright light. Wonder if they can get e-ink displays to refresh fast enough...
 

GrimJack

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Poodles;1680660 said:
Main issue with electronic dashes has always been viewing them in bright light. Wonder if they can get e-ink displays to refresh fast enough...

Not any time soon. Current displays are limited to about one change per second, which just isn't good enough. However, there are plenty of LCD style screens that are no problem to read in direct sunlight. Pretty much everything they use in the military has to be built with that in mind. They aren't cheap though...
 

te72

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GrimJack;1680614 said:
Oh, I realize that Ferrari spent a lot of money on their dash design, and so did Toyota. However, it's *not* rocket science. Actually, quite the opposite - more work goes into the menu system on modern video games than the dash animation for the LFA. I could write the code to display a nice dash in a week. Hell, I could make it skinnable, so that anyone could design their own graphics sets. I'd need to figure out how to get the display values into a computer, and I've got a few ideas for that already.

Well get to work then Grim! :D
 

Poodles

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GrimJack;1680759 said:
Not any time soon. Current displays are limited to about one change per second, which just isn't good enough. However, there are plenty of LCD style screens that are no problem to read in direct sunlight. Pretty much everything they use in the military has to be built with that in mind. They aren't cheap though...

Yeah, it's one of the main reasons I've always been iffy on buying black face gauges. I like to ride around with the targa off a lot, and the stock dash is hard enough to see at times.
 

Poodles

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Kindles's refesh is slow, and the Nook isn't e-ink :( They're getting better all the time though, I can see e-ink being used all over the place if it ever gets to a faster refresh rate.

Sadly, much like the LED tech on cars, the car industry is always slow to adopt the newest technologies. Modern LED's are far brighter, use far less power, and generate far less heat than those used on new cars.

If money was no object, I'd probably run a HUD instead of a dashboard. Was looking at a unit a while back, but just couldn't see hacking into my clean dashpad :(
 

figgie

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Poodles;1681014 said:
Kindles's refesh is slow, and the Nook isn't e-ink :(

Nook color isn't "e-ink" but can be used in direct sunlight ;) And at $250 (199 on ebay now). Can't go wrong...Only thing is the serial bus (hack to mount a hard drive/SSD drive) and anythihng else like a radio which makes it a full fledged carPC.
 

te72

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Poodles;1681014 said:
If money was no object, I'd probably run a HUD instead of a dashboard. Was looking at a unit a while back, but just couldn't see hacking into my clean dashpad :(
I drove a C5 Vette I was going to trade my first Miata in on (didn't happen though) and the HUD on that thing was awesome. Perhaps to distract you from the fact that everything else in the interior came from the Grand Am. :nono:

Rajunz;1681314 said:
Here's one that I built for the 2JZ Maverick..............
It would be fairly easy to build something similar to fit into a MKIII dash.......

Such a strange mix, but such a clean car, well done man. :)