I happen to have the pleasure to drive a 2001 Corvette a few days ago.

With the HUD system. I have seen it before, but never driving, and I have to say it is one of the sweetest guage display I have ever seen in a car.

And I think it could be incorparated into cars running this new software quite easily.

Using a dedicated computer monitor in the dashboard, and messing with the brightness settings and what-not; project the guages onto a peice of light tinting film on the windscreen.

I think im going to get a sheet of glass and do some experimenting.

Ill keep this thread updated with what I find.

also, just looking online, I cant find anything smaller than a 14in monitor. Anybody know of one smaller, like 10in.

A special version of the software would have to be created, to display the guages normally on the laptop, and reversed for the projecting monitor.


but I think it could work.

aslo, does anybody have a full size screenshot of the guage page, that would make this easier.

 

not that I need any more guages in my car

 

Good idea, I am willing to work with you on making specialized versions for this application.

Don't hesitate to contact me via email if you need any help with the software or need some changes done to make it work better with your project.

Best of luck with it

Also, it may be more effective to use a small bright LCD, I could add support for something like lcdproc to e6tuner:
http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/?continue=yes

You'd probably connect it to yet another serial port and could install that small lcd display anywhere in the dash, maybe even facing up to reflect on the windscreen for a HUD.

 

The main problem im having is finding a small enough LCD display.

Sitting in my FB, it looks like it would have to be about 6 or 7in diag. and the only thing that would have to be changed would be reversing the display so left is right and vise-versa.

There is not much space in a FB, a FC or FD might have it easier.


Im not very computer literate but your link is interesting. I not sure it would work in a HUD system, as it is back-lit and would project too much light at the screen, and obstruct vision.

The Guage display page on your program is ideal, as it is White (or color) on a black backround, The only thing you would really be able to see is the guage numbers and needle. Making a minimal obstruction of your view.

 

heres a good start.

Chassis mount, 6.4in display.

http://www.generaldigital.com/produc...onitor_kit.htm

still a bit large for a FB dash

9x7x2in

 

Found something else.

http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAu...roductID=12064

5.8in car TV, + it has Reverse image capability.

Can your program work with the S-video out on laptops?

 

wether the s-video output works is laptop-specific. Some of the video adapters automatically use the s-video or composite tv output when its connected, others require the software to instruct the graphics chipset to turn on tv output. If it is the latter, it won't work as-is because the software does not have explicit support for your specific video chipset. If it does it automatically without software support it should work, as it would with any software.

 

Here's what I'm planning. Just a $150 screen connected to a laptop or maybe a carputer.

 

this is starting to look like it would have to be a custom made unit. Which = money I dont have.


im still going to play around with the extra LCD screen I have and some panes of glass and see what I find.

 

could you just use this?
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...&highlight=HUD

http://www.bigbuddyperformance.com/holo.htm

 

Okay, update on my testing.

Played around with the S-video out on my dell inspiron.

no, it does not come on automatically, BUT, and this is a big but,

it turns on automatically when the monitor is in the closed position.

I think this is the ticket, simple installation and simple hookup.

I still need to contact the Alpine and confirm that the "reverse image" capabilty is of horizontal nature.

I think this could work.

 

Hey Peng,

What do you think about a handheld controler for the Haltech? or even a display screen pure and simple, with all the values on the Engine Data Page, connected directly to the Haltech serial connector in the harness?

How complicated would it be?

 

It wouldnt be very complicated, I've kept the software lean and simple and used linux largely to keep this an easy possibility.

The software side has most the work done, all that would be left is putting together an embedded computer with a decent screen that has at least a serial port on it, put linux on and a specialized e6tuner for this application. There are many such embedded systems out there designed specifically for use with linux.

It would require a significant monetary investment to get started on the hardware side though, all this stuff is done in bulk to make it affordable. Do you see enough haltech users who would be interested to make it worth doing?

 

Well i know Haltech is thinking about it, and i am pretty sure that haltech sales will pickup even more, and that for a lot of the current owners it would probably be a pretty cool thing to have if it can be made affordable. But, i understand where you are coming from in respects to the hardware and monetary needs.

I guess we'll have to let haltech decide to build it or not.

 

BTW, regarding the actual topic of this thread, I'm in the process of adding a polygon filler routine to e6tuner so the gauge needles will be fatter / more visible (long slender triangles). I already have the basics done but want to make the edges anti-aliased to get rid of 'the jaggies', the lines are already anti-aliased but a polyfiller is a bit more complex.
I took a short movie showing the new method in action:
http://pengaru.com/gallery/tuning/e6...17/polyfiller/

This will probably make a world of difference in HUD use.

 

Looks good, would you consider eliminating the decimal numbers? decimal RPMs arent really needed i think. Just a thought.

 

Not sure I follow, do you want to loose the numerical display on the scale (periphery of the gauge) ? or the numerical realtime display within the gauge?

Or do you just want the number to be whole/rounded? The movie is of a test program that is running off simulated data that is coming from a cosine function scaled to 0-10,000 (full sweep range of the gauge). The results are often fractions and the gauge code takes the fractions happily and deals with it, but the display has #'s like 3.83573 for RPM, totally ridiculous precision for an actual tachometer, and impossible to use.

In practice, you will get RPM's from a haltech as whole numbers that change at least 60RPM, not .001 like the gauge test program <grin>

If eliminating the realtime numerical display is what you wanted, technically it's easy to eliminate but at the moment it must be done inside the code.

After e6tuner starts using a persistent storage it can write to, like a usb thumbdrive for example, I will make the gauge display all customizable from within the program and it will save the customized display settings to a file on the USB thumbdrive.

This will be awesome because you can add/remove/resize/move all the gauges in realtime, the code is such that everything is being rendered mathematically, the only things stored on disk and loaded+drawn (like a movie or image) are the fonts (ttf files). Everything else is tweakable as variables in the program, it's just that right now those variables are all hard-coded in a bunch of data structures inside the program, in the near future it will get loaded from the file that you can change and make it all look however you want.

Hope I didnt get confusing there, but decimal is a number system, and I'm pretty sure you don't want me to stop using decimal because, well... I would probably use hexadecimal as a replacement and you don't want your RPM's being printed like 0x1388 RPM (5000 represented in hexadecimal) do you? <grin> How would that be for confusing.

 

What i meant was, i think i saw (for example) 5000.30 RPMs on the numerical display, i was just saying that i dont think we need the numbers past the decimal point, i think its cool that you have both the needle and the numbers.

Sorry if i was confusing in my observation.

 

Your right on the guage needle.

I have been testing this using a 17in moniter and my dual plane dorm window.

Numbers are clearly visible, but the pointer is week.

on a thick windsheild and a peice of light tint (like 75 or 85) it should look perfect.


and the reverse imaging is the color, not the perspective.

what are the possibilities of a version that shows the guages backwards, and maybe tweaked to fit the 16/9 display

 

yeah you never get fractional data on the actual tachometer in e6tuner, the haltech doesnt give that much precision in the rpm data stream.

its just the test program using a cosine.

 

Since I mentioned breifly the customizable gauges, I took a few short clips of another test program running. This one is a fake MAP gauge (2 bar) in standard units. Not only does it demonstrate more of the new needle code, but I change some fo the layout variables on the fly to show the dynamic nature of the gauge rendering:

http://pengaru.com/gallery/tuning/e6.../polyfiller.2/

readme.txt in the directory has more in-depth information if you like to read

I think customizability and the improved gauge needles will both be extremely important for HUD use. It's not possible to hard code the guage cluster layout and have it be even close to ideal for everyones cars. Just give me some time to get a persistent storage system worked out (probably USB thumbdrive at this point) and things will start getting very interesting.

 

I'll have to see how much work it would be to change the code for reversed scan, it might not be too bad. However, I do know many LCD panels have a pin you can set low or high to change the direction of the horizontal scan.

Actually, this contract job I'm working on right now, the LCD panel is very cheap and can only scan right to left in the orientation we are using it in. I have to look at it in a mirror to read any text on it The same manufacturer has a slightly more expensive LCD that can change it's direction with simply grounding a pin. It seems to be a pretty common feature and would be the preferred way to achieve what you want.

 

yeah, I would rather have working guages on the HUD and the laptop if needed.
Thanks for your input

 

wow those little videos look awesome. i think the current gauge software with those type gauges (with those nice needles) would look totally awesome.

 

just watched the videos, looks great.