my electrical engineer and i are looking at offering an led tachometer like what is seen in supertouring cars. basically a range of leds in a line housed in a long rectangular plastic case. it will be made to wire in like a normal tach: hot, ground, and signal. the box is universal so mounting is up to you. normal mounting location would be on the top or bottom of the instrument cluster hood. the leds will start with a blue (on), green as you rise, two yellow before redline, and then a red at redline. we were also thinking of offering a redline buzzer option if so desired. there will be 3 slide switch units inside used to set the number of cylinders (yeh its for all cars), redline, and increments that the leds represent. this also means that this will only show rpms from say 4k to redline depending on your settings. but it is designed to help you keep your eyes on the road while racing so if your that low then you should have shifted and you lost anyway, lol. i thought i would present this here to see what you think, what you would pay (be reasonable please), and anything you might think you would like to see in the product.

 

You should also consider a programmable shift tach light (big RED led with very low impedance on the current limiter => BRIGHT). You could make it operate with the buzzer (and an option to turn it off).

Since you're going to have the signal input, you could have a seperate controller that will store the RPM desired and use a comparator to activate the shift light.

J

 

true but there are already quite a few companies making shift lights. i was trying to come up with something a bit different. this is mainly for racing applications were your eyes need to be on the road. you are thinking more along the lines of drag racing.

 

I'm talking about integration of the shift light with your tach LEDs. It makes sense to integrate it and reduce the cost of discrete components (shift light, etc).

It's not only used in drag racing. I saw a nice programmable shift LED with the most recent line of Yamaha R1 bikes. I wish my 2000 R1 had that option.
These bikes are used more in road racing applications than drag.

You wanted more ideas.

J

 

true but then again that is what the red light for redline is for. trust me, with these mounted right in front of you, you won't miss it. greeeeeeeen, yellow, red, shift. i think they would probably need to be able to be dimmed so they don't blind you at night. we have some very bright leds.

 

Maybe when we see some pictures of it!

 

thats one of the reasons i was asking these questions. your thoughts on it performance shape and ability are going into it. hopefully within the week i'll have a cad model finished.

 

Costs?

I like blue lights

How large would this unit be?

Just curious?

thesaint

 

4-5in L x 1.5in W x .5-.75in H approx

blue lights are a could be. i'm going to try to keep the unit below 100. hopefully around 75.

keep it coming guys.

 

Where would the input signal be coming from?

It would also be nice if there was a tach signal output so you could datalog from it.

thesaint

 

it will hookup like any aftermarket tach. tach signal output noted. that should be an easy one.

 

Adjustable LED brightness is also nice. No point in going blind at night with bright lights flashing in your face.

thesaint