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OEM+ FD Dash

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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 01:10 AM
  #1  
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From: wisco
OEM+ FD Dash

Some of you may have seen this on FB already but I figured I'd post it on here for those who haven't seen it.

Custom digital dash I made because I wanted to keep the interior as OEM as possible. Headlight retract, turn signals and cruise buttons still function are normal. The dash is fed data from an MS3 ecu via canbus.

Old Jul 9, 2021 | 05:07 AM
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Very cool!
How’s it look in bright daylight?
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 06:10 AM
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Very very cool. Any pics of the back side, construction, etc?
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 07:25 AM
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Indeed, that's very unique! It'd be interesting to see a bit of background on this. I can't imagine it to be easy...
Does look very cool though!
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 09:01 AM
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Saw that & commented on FB last night, very cool! I'd love to see this come to production. Being that the ECU interface is via CAN bus, it should be pretty easy to support most of the popular crop of ECUs out there.

I'd be happy to be an alpha/beta tester and assist with development if you develop a version for the Link G4+ or G4X family; running a Link G4+ in my FD now.
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 09:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Pete_89T2
Saw that & commented on FB last night, very cool! I'd love to see this come to production. Being that the ECU interface is via CAN bus, it should be pretty easy to support most of the popular crop of ECUs out there.

I'd be happy to be an alpha/beta tester and assist with development if you develop a version for the Link G4+ or G4X family; running a Link G4+ in my FD now.
Don't forget the countless people who still run PowerFC...
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 10:19 AM
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Originally Posted by Neo
Don't forget the countless people who still run PowerFC...
Another good reason get your engine management into this century and not run PowerFC
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 10:23 AM
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I would love to purchase this if it were ever to come out in production. Im not tech savvy enough to create my own. Haha
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Old Jul 9, 2021 | 10:31 AM
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Originally Posted by Pete_89T2
Another good reason get your engine management into this century and not run PowerFC
Nope.. PowerFC till my grave!!
No need to tinker with something that doesn't need tinkering.. she runs smoothly as it is.
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Old Jul 14, 2021 | 02:45 AM
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From: wisco
Originally Posted by Sgtblue
Very cool!
How’s it look in bright daylight?
Thanks and the displays are 1000nit, sunlight readable so they are pretty vivid in the daytime.

Old Jul 14, 2021 | 02:48 AM
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From: wisco
Originally Posted by ZacMan
Very very cool. Any pics of the back side, construction, etc?
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures. I'm pretty horrible at documenting my work, I'd probably take a few years to finish anything if I even tried...lol

Originally Posted by Pete_89T2
Saw that & commented on FB last night, very cool! I'd love to see this come to production. Being that the ECU interface is via CAN bus, it should be pretty easy to support most of the popular crop of ECUs out there.

I'd be happy to be an alpha/beta tester and assist with development if you develop a version for the Link G4+ or G4X family; running a Link G4+ in my FD now.
I'll keep everyone updated on what route I want to go with this.

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Old Jul 19, 2021 | 10:59 AM
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Curious about the display(s) used. Are they round with one for each gauge? Or is it a few square ones with clever positioning of the graphics in the code?

Did you program all of the gauge graphics and such yourself? If so, you did a really good job. The OEM FD gauges don't bug me so much, but I've always thought about doing something like this for some of the other older cars I own that came with fugly gauges.
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Old Jul 20, 2021 | 10:07 PM
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From: wisco
Originally Posted by SpinningDorito
Curious about the display(s) used. Are they round with one for each gauge? Or is it a few square ones with clever positioning of the graphics in the code?

Did you program all of the gauge graphics and such yourself? If so, you did a really good job. The OEM FD gauges don't bug me so much, but I've always thought about doing something like this for some of the other older cars I own that came with fugly gauges.
The displays are rectangular. I had just enough room to fit them behind without cutting anything.

As for the graphics, they are jpeg files I created that are loaded and then the things that move are coded on top.

I also like the stock gauges but my tach was going wacko and I did not want to add any gauge pods to the interior. I figured this was the best way to keep the interior as stock looking as possible.
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Old Jul 20, 2021 | 10:29 PM
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Originally Posted by undesiredshoe
The displays are rectangular. I had just enough room to fit them behind without cutting anything.

As for the graphics, they are jpeg files I created that are loaded and then the things that move are coded on top.

I also like the stock gauges but my tach was going wacko and I did not want to add any gauge pods to the interior. I figured this was the best way to keep the interior as stock looking as possible.
Gotcha. That's the thought I had also had in the past, but wasn't sure if circular displays were showing up these days or something. It looks good and all the animations play smoothly. That's no small feat if built from scratch.

I'll have to look for some similar displays. I put a custom display in my RX8s OEM sat nav hood but sometimes during the day it does leave a bit to be desired. These look much better in the daylight.
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Old Jul 20, 2021 | 11:21 PM
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From: wisco
Originally Posted by SpinningDorito
Gotcha. That's the thought I had also had in the past, but wasn't sure if circular displays were showing up these days or something. It looks good and all the animations play smoothly. That's no small feat if built from scratch.

I'll have to look for some similar displays. I put a custom display in my RX8s OEM sat nav hood but sometimes during the day it does leave a bit to be desired. These look much better in the daylight.
Circular displays are getting more common these days but I couldn't find anything with enough brightness for my liking that would work with my microcontrollers. That is really the key for a display being used in a car, you'd need something 750 nit or brighter for it to be readable.
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Old Jul 22, 2021 | 04:08 PM
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That is pretty frickin cool. Got a link to the displays used?
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Old Jul 22, 2021 | 05:05 PM
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That warning function is cool. But you need one that says "danger to manifold!!!!"
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Old Jul 23, 2021 | 03:35 AM
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From: wisco
Originally Posted by gracer7-rx7
That is pretty frickin cool. Got a link to the displays used?
Thanks and the displays are from Newhaven Display, https://www.newhavendisplay.com/tft-displays-c-1.html

Originally Posted by TwinCharged RX7
That warning function is cool. But you need one that says "danger to manifold!!!!"
I may or may not have already coded that into the gauges
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Old Sep 13, 2021 | 10:45 AM
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Awesome work!
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Old Sep 13, 2021 | 12:07 PM
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So when will this be available as a kit?
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Old Sep 13, 2021 | 02:06 PM
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I am huge fan of the stock analog gauges and I must say this thread made me smile. Shoot I'm smiling as type this

Love it.
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Old Sep 15, 2021 | 06:14 PM
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This is very cool! Following to see if I can get some myself
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Old Jul 20, 2022 | 10:36 AM
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Hey do you happen to have a list of items you used to get this setup? I'm bored out of my mind and this is exactly the kind of thing I can throw myself into. I'll be more than happy to provide full documentation on my steps (I'm an IT engineer for 10 years with more time spent technical writing than I'd like to remind myself).


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Old Jul 20, 2022 | 12:03 PM
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I can see the advantages of having the boost/AFR gauges on the dash, but I have never experienced a digital dash that was as easy to read at a glance as well-designed analog gauges. It also seems like these would blind the **** out of you at night since the light is full-spectrum. Cool idea and great execution, but there are downsides that maybe aren't so immediately obvious.
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Old Jul 20, 2022 | 05:06 PM
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Originally Posted by c0rbin9
I can see the advantages of having the boost/AFR gauges on the dash, but I have never experienced a digital dash that was as easy to read at a glance as well-designed analog gauges. It also seems like these would blind the **** out of you at night since the light is full-spectrum. Cool idea and great execution, but there are downsides that maybe aren't so immediately obvious.
Totally valid, but it is the way all the OEMs have gone so should be some good inspiration there with what they have done regarding nigh time dimming and display colours.
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