Thanks buddy! Until I get the dash in my hands and they write the image for TS Dash on the Pi 5, I feel like I'm still miles away.

 

Well, I guess it's real.

 

It fits decently

This edge is a little wonky, but when it was screwed down it didn't seem so bad.

I'll try to heat up this corner and shape it to fit tighter. The other end of this edge is kinda weird too.

The screen still has the protective sheet on it, so it'll look better. I also might use the other screen still too. I'll either use filler and sand it, or just try sanding the nylon directly. It was SLS printed and shot peened after to try to remove some of the lines. There aren't too many lines anyway, but it still needs some finishing. I bought some SEM Landau Black from Amazon to finish it. I have some threaded heatserts to install too.

 

Wow, this is definitely the coolest project I've seen for the FD in a while! Too bad you couldn't find an OLED that would work, but like, who knows how durable/reliable that'd be in the long run in a car like this.

 

Thanks! Yeah I'm not even sure where I'd find an OLED this size, but that would be awesome. Would probably be even more clear. I doubt it would be any less reliable or durable than what I'm about to use though.

I've been sanding and heating/reshaping the hood and I think it's really good now. I'll sand the rest of it with 180 grit, use some sandable primer, and then paint it with SEM Landau Black.

And I'll be making the mount for the display. But I'm still looking for someone that can write the image for the Pi. I'm leaning toward using ChatGPT. I posted on fb in a Linux group of 533k people and 10 people have liked my post, no one has responded about writing the image lol. I really don't want this project to die.

 

I'm almost finished making the mount. I'm not crazy about it, it looks so janky, but it should work and it'll be hidden until maybe someday I can design a better mount. I need to add a leg for the other bottom corner because it sags when I hold up the cluster by the plastic. I'm not sure why Shane didn't add the provisions for the stock mount there. I also noticed it doesn't have two little tabs on the passenger side of it to hold that edge in like the stock one does. Those would make it fit perfectly along that side because it looks great when I hold it down. I have reshaped that side pretty well, but there is still a little bit to go before it fits as well as stock. I'm not sure I'll be able to get there without those tabs, but I'll get close. I decided to use the other screen that I can add the touchscreen to, only because it had mounting provisions on it already and I have to build a frame for the other one. The other one is so much lighter though, and would be a little more shallow. I measured from the OneGauge hub to the back of the cluster and there is enough space for everything, but the aluminum piece might be sticking down too far. I can always cut it though and it should be fine.

I transferred the gauges over from my laptop to the Pi, but the sizes didn't stay the same. All the other properties did. Even after resizing to the same as on the laptop, the gauges were still way too small.

I had to move the board because one corner was resting on the mount bracket and I think it might have shorted the board by making contact with a couple pins. The screen went dark and the only thing that worked was swapping the board. I have this whole thing mounted now, so all the bolts are in, but I still need that fourth bracket.

I wasn't able to easily transfer the design from the laptop to the Pi because the Pi wouldn't recognize the thumb drive for some reason, even after formatting to exFat. So I had to transfer all the files through email, luckily I have wifi on it at the moment. This was when I hadn't transferred ALL the files, only the ones I thought I needed.

This was before fully mounting it. I haven't finished resizing and moving the gauges yet. The round gauges are in place, although I might make them a bit bigger, they look somewhat small on this display. I still need to move and do a little more resizing on the digital gauges and warning lights though.

I thought I'd be able to make changes once it's in the car, but I didn't think about parts of the screen that I'll need to access will be covered. So I guess any modification to the screen will be done on the bench.

 

I made the top two brackets about 1/4" too tall. I didn't realize they were pressing the screen forward far enough to push the top of the center piece outward and create a gap at the top, so I added a couple nylon spacers rather than remake the brackets haha. Maybe another time.

I'm also thinking about adding the two fans on the ends, one facing inward and one outward, and then sealing all around so air is forced through there, and the one on the left side of the pic will blow air directly onto the Raspberry Pi. Or I could just add that fan to blow on the Pi and seal off all around aside from a small gap along the bottom to try to pull in cooler air. The problem with any of this is that it will be blowing warmer air onto the Pi, but I figured it would be more efficient than facing that fan toward the screen and pulling air past the Pi. That air will probably be pretty warm anyway. IDK, just trying to add some longevity to this.

I did a test fit with the screen installed and discovered that it was resting on the SGI-100BT, so I had to cut the excess off the bottom of the back plate. I thought that might be the case when I saw how far it extended downward. Surprisingly it didn't contact the center piece of the dash behind it. Now the bracket barely clears the converter, but enough to where I don't have to worry about it.

There was also a bonus to creating that last bracket. It pulled the whole edge of the dash inward that I was having issues with before. I had already sanded off a bit to get it to fit better, but now I'm regretting that lol. I can always use filler for it I guess, or use heat and pull it back outward a bit.

I talked to Mike at OneGauge today about just installing the OS and all the controls I need to get this going. He told me before that they've gotten it to boot up in about 20 seconds. That's fairly slow compared to what I was hoping for, which is why I decided to take that on myself, but it was much more work than I expected and I'll keep working on that. I just want to get this all installed and going already. I can deal with a slower boot speed for the time being.

I talked to a guy on fb that was able to use the headlight switch to swap gauge designs, the one for night being dimmer than the daytime gauges. So when he switches on the headlights, the screen swipes right, and swipes left again when the switch is turned off. It's not really what I wanted, but it would work. I'm going to see how bright it is at night first before I look into that more.


I made those top two brackets too tall, and I'm thinking about adding those two fans.

The fourth bracket barely clears the cruise control converter.

The fourth bracket also had some unintended consequences, but it turned out better.

 

I sent the Pi to OneGauge about a month ago for him to install the OS and I got it back Friday night. While I was waiting for it, I installed the two fans and taped up the openings and sanded and primed the dash, but it's been near impossible to get rid of all the crevices. It actually looks pretty good when it's installed and it's difficult to see the discrepancies, but you can see when you get close to it. And it fits the rest of the dash really well now.

I had to remake the gauges yet again Friday night because I couldn't find them on the Pi anywhere. I worked on it for about two hours, making decent progress, and TS froze and I lost everything and had to start all over. But I did realize an easier way to get the look I'm going for with half the gauges. I did change it a bit since last time too, but I'm really liking the new design.

Here are a couple pics of the screen while running the car. You'll probably notice some discrepancies lol. I have a fairly large list of things to fix.



I didn't realize the screen was so blurry until looking at it on my phone today.

1. Fuel level seems to be off, but I'm not 100% sure. It read 100 when I had 7.5 gallons left, and it reads 114 after filling up. The gauge is set 0-100 for minimum and maximum. He has to program the ohm readings for the fuel level into the INI file, so I'm asking about that, because I hadn't mentioned it to him since March. I checked the fuel sender and it's 93ohms empty and 15ohms full, but I was trying to get empty set to 80ohms so I can have some wiggle room since I'm basically out of fuel with about 3 gallons left in the tank.

2. RPM seems to be missing the fourth digit. At first I thought it was just off, but then I realized how specific it was. The number is somewhat correct, but it's only showing the first three digits of the number, so 3500 shows as 350, or in the pic, the real RPM is 1160ish. And I know it applies to both gauges because the larger circle around those gauges is also RPM and that white needle doesn't move much from where it is, because it's only reading hundreds, not thousands.

3. Fuel pressure is too high and all over the place. My base fuel pressure at idle is set to 43psi. My ECU says it's around 36psi, so the chart for the sensor isn't quite right anyway, but the dash is reading it much higher and much more erratically even than what it's actually set at, and over 10psi difference in either direction when the car is just idling and the pressure is constant.

4. Several gauges are really slow updating. I'm not sure if this is due to how I have it set up, or if it's more on the ECU end, but all the temp gauges, AFR, and boost are really slow to respond. I'm going to check with Haltech about this too, to see if this is a problem on the UC10 and IC7, or someone here can fill me in. I had read that OBDII was slower than CAN, and all the temp gauges on OBDII have been really slow for me, but AFR and boost were still fast. Or I wonder if it's because I still have OBDII connected, if that's causing communication issues in the ECU having both CAN and OBDII connected.

5. Ethanol % doesn't read anything at all, nor do the tire pressure sensors. The output channel I chose for Ethanol is 'flex', so I would assume that's correct, especially since that's what is assigned when it's done through the main dropdown as well. I've been watching ethanol % on OBDII so I thought it was possible for the dash as well. For the tire pressure sensors, they go to sleep after sitting for a bit and don't wake up again until after you start moving past a certain speed I believe, so I expected them to read zero or something when sitting still, but they never did anything while driving either.

6. Battery voltage is reading a bit low. I still need to get out a multimeter to check this, but OBDII is showing voltage around 14v when the dash is saying 12s and 13s. Not sure if there is a fix for this or some calculation is off.

7. Mileage is showing just over 1100mi. I remember saying at one point that I wanted something like 215k programmed in since that's roughly what the car has on it, but it was showing 1117mi when I installed it. Not that it's a huge deal, I'm just trying to stay as accurate as possible.

8. Warning lights. This one is a doozy. Neither blinker works, nor flashers. The ebrake light doesn't come on when the lever is engaged or disengaged, but it does come on with defrost and cruise control, both of which work perfectly, other than having the brake light come on at the same time lol. High beam light works perfectly. So high beam, cruise control, and defrost work, check engine light I haven't been able to tell yet since it hasn't come on yet, and the blinkers, flashers and ebrake light don't work. I'm going to disconnect the ebrake wire to isolate it from the hub and see what happens, to see if it's crossed wires in the harness somewhere or if the fault lies in the hub. I'm wondering if I damaged the hub at some point. I've had all the wires connected for a while now, and at one point I had ground and power connected but no signal wires. On top of that, only the check engine light and the brake light come on when you first turn the key, and on the stock system, all the lights come on.

9. The mouse icon is right in the middle at all times unless I move it. It's a tad annoying having it right in the middle of the screen while driving lol. I figure there has to be a way to change this, but I haven't looked yet.

10. Altitude is not constant. This isn't a huge deal, especially since the speedo and odometer seem to be accurate. I haven't checked the speedo against a radar yet, but there's one right next to my house so I'll probably do that later. It does seem to be pretty close though. OBDII is reading straight off the transmission, but my wheels/tires are larger than stock, so it'll be a bit off from GPS speed, and it's around 46mph when GPS says I'm doing 40. Anyway, I just thought it was a little strange that altitude was changing back and forth by a few feet when I was parked in the garage. If there's nothing to do about that though, no biggie.

11. Font lettering doesn't match font numbers on the digital gauges. I'm not sure why. If you create just a label, the correct font lettering shows, but on the digital gauges it only changes the numbers. On a dial gauge, it will change both. I'll probably just create labels for each one instead. It'll be a lot more work, but at least it will look right.

12. I created indicators for the water injection pump and solenoid, but neither shows up when I'm boosting. That could be just because of the wiring or the components not related to the dash, because they weren't activating the lights I had mounted before this. So I'll need to look into that more.


I'm going to reach out to Haltech about slow response from the gauges, and about the tire pressure sensors, RPM, and whatever else might be in their wheelhouse. I'm going to finish comparing the dash readings to ECU readings (I've only checked a few so far), and check the battery voltage with a multimeter and compare it to the dash.

 

There are still some issues with it, but we're getting closer to sorted. I now have four digits on RPM but the last digit has never changed from zero.

I replaced the Arduino board, which is the base of the hub, and it solved the issue of the brake warning light coming on with the others. So now the warning lights work properly, but I still don't have blinkers or flashers. We figure the board isn't getting 5v from the flasher relay so it's not enough to trigger the indicator on the display. I tested that theory with a 9v battery and it didn't work, but that was also before I swapped the Arduino, so I'm going to try again. And if that works, I bought some boards on Amazon that will boost the voltage on each wire. I'm also wondering if that's why the water injection pump and solenoid indicators aren't showing, but one step at a time.

OneGauge has written a few more files for me to try with fixes for the rest of the issues, but there is something wrong with the files themselves because the hub keeps disconnecting and reconnecting with the Pi, so much so that it won't even have a chance to display anything. It does seem to even out a bit after a few minutes to where it stops the connection issues and the warning lights will flash every few seconds and the gauge needles will change quickly but not give accurate info.

 

Darn near looks OEM-ish. Just need to replace that flying M w the original FD logo and or perhaps efini brand symbol, and you'll be cooking!

 

Well that's good, OEM-ish is what I was going for lol. Nah, I like the flying M, it's what I have on the back of the car too. I never was a fan of the eternal toilet bowl. The Efini logo is cool, but I still like the flying M better. The cool part about all this is people can have whatever logo they want, or no logo at all.

I tried the 9v batter for the blinker wire again tonight since I put the new Arduino board in, and it still didn't work. So now I'm wondering if I didn't assign an output to the blinkers. I'm certain I did though, I went over every detail on this final design. So I'm not sure what it could be. Between that issue and the lagging gauges or the ones that don't work at all, I'm wishing I could have found a solution that is more plug and play that still met all my requirements.

 

I've still been having issues we're working through, but I may have damaged more than I thought. I think I fried the Arduino again somehow, because the brake light is flashing when the brake is off, but it comes on when the brake is on (so that's normal), and the light stays on solid with cruise control and defog again. I had discovered that the output channel (which wire an indicator is supposed to read) that I had chosen for the blinkers was also what I selected for the water injection lights. So I changed the blinkers to a different selection, but then the blinkers were on solid all the time, so I changed those back.

OneGauge had me try a few different troubleshooting things too. Disconnecting CAN, and then removing power to the ECU, to see if either fixed the disconnecting issues with the newer files he sent me, those didn't work. Then I created a new project in TunerStudio but I couldn't get that to work either, first because I couldn't get the new project to auto-start and I couldn't load it once the display was on either, but then once I got it to do that, it wouldn't connect to the hub anyway.

I discovered another problem too. Every time I would connect to the hub to upload a new file, my dash camera/mirror comes on too. I realized that it's backfeeding power through the fuse block I'm using and turning on the dash cam, the Dakota Digital box, and who knows what else, and that can damage the hub. So I might have fried even more than I thought and that could be why I'm having so many issues. So I'll put that power wire on a switch and disconnect it when I connect to the hub to upload a file.

I'm also considering trying a different setting in NSP for which display I'm using, trying 'IC7' or 'UC10' instead of 'generic dash', to see if I can get faster readings that way.

 

I was able to get the blinkers and flashers working once I was told the correct output to use, and I noticed the indicators for water injection pump and solenoid are coming on, but only for a split second, and I'm still having all the other issues. I've been considering scrapping this part of the project, at least for now, and just using a Haltech UC-10. It would be so much easier to connect and get working correctly (presumably), but it's so much smaller than what I'm using now, so the frame part of the dash would have to be redesigned, and I'd have to make a new mount bracket. The visible area of the UC-10 is only 9.4"x3.5", while the current screen is 11.5"x4.3".

 

This is my UC-10 solution to properly fit.

RHD prototype just finished, some slight changes needed. LHD coming soon.

Can also fit other screens with an adapter like IC7, Holly 6.86, CanChecked etc

 

Looks good!

I'm going to stick with the hood that I already have and remake the center frame portion, that way I can still mount it behind the dash for a more OEM look.

 

I sent the Pi and hub to OneGauge for him to fix the remaining issues and I got it back this week and installed it. Many of the old issues are fixed, but some new issues have popped up.

1. AFR, and AIT, water, fuel, and oil temps are still slow to update. But at least they're working now.

2. Ambient temp and EGTs are now stuck at 32. They were reading before, but they were also slow then.

3. Battery voltage now reads zero. He thinks it's getting filtered out, it's displaying zero on both gauges.

4. Fuel pressure and oil pressure don't show anything but zero after the decimal. It's not a huge deal, but it's kinda nice to have that option.

5. The fuel temp reads very high. Ambient temp has been in the 30s at night and somehow the fuel temp reads 192F when I start the car. Initially I thought this was an issue with the with the display or something, but it turns out that's what the ECU is showing, so that's something else to look into.

6. I think the fuel gauge is still wrong, but I haven't tested it yet. I'm going to move the float and see what happens.

7. Odometer still reads zero. He thinks maybe the output channel isn't selected, which I haven't checked yet. Although the mileage is changing as I drive, so I don't think that's it. I'm caring less about this though.

8. Tire pressures do change once the sensors wake up, but they're reading WAY off and I haven't figured out why. 26psi reads as 150. I thought maybe it was reading in kPa or Bar or something, but I haven't found anything that converts to that amount.

9. My text blocks with the font I wanted are all gone, so I'll have to remake those. Annoying, but whatever.

 

We're slowly making progress. OneGauge has been modifying the hex file little by lilttle, tryiing to nail down the fuel level and tire pressures and both of those are good now. Even the odometer started reading what he puts in, although I'm not sure exactly when that started working. I just noticed it yesterday. Now just the temp gauges, AFR, and battery voltage need to be fixed and it should all be good to go. I still need to make the text blocks for each gauge again so they show the correct font. And I might tinker some more with the round gauges to see if I can change the background color a bit, just so the background has some color to it and it isn't just a black screen all the way across.

 

Where are you getting data from? The Haltech?

 

Yep! Most info is coming from the Haltech through CAN. Speed, GPS, and altitude are coming from the GPS receiver. And the indicators and warning lights are connected to the OneGauge hub.

OneGauge sent me another update today and everything is working now. The temps are still slightly slow, but they're much better than they were. They look like they're updating every few seconds now at least. AFR is still a bit slow. They're looking into that more, but so far stumped as to what the issue could be because they said Haltech comms are always fast. Full tank reads a bit high still but I honestly don't care at this point lol, at least it reads zero at empty. EGTs and the ambient and intake temps were a few degrees off from what the ECU read when the key was to accessory before starting it, but I'm not too worried about that especially since EGTs will be so high anyway, a few degrees doesn't mean much at that point. My fuel pressure is reading a bit low because I guess the graph I used for the sensor I'm using wasn't perfectly accurate, but the gauge matches the ECU. I put a mechanical gauge directly off the FPR where the pressure sensor is mounted and the gauge reads 43 while the ECU says 36ish. Pretty much all the gauges (other than the temps I mentioned before) read spot on or within a number of what the ECU says. The odometer is constantly running codes currently, OneGauge is using that info to troubleshoot the slow gauges. Of course after all of this is sorted, I still need to finish the gauge hood with filler and paint. I didn't see the point in doing that while I was still removing the dash piece on a regular basis. My interior has been partially disassembled all summer because of this.

Regarding the fuel temp reading, my buddy mentioned that maybe the flex fuel sensor failed and the readings are backwards now, starting pegged out on the top end and decreasing as I drive.

 

I got another updated file and it fixed speeds pretty well, although fuel pressure and oil pressure are still a little laggy, updating every couple seconds or so. All the temps seem to be pretty quick though. EGTs are updating about every second or so, and it looked like the other temps were a little laggy but they're actually reading about the same speed as the ECU. AFR is quick now too.

There is another issue now though, the fuel gauge is incorrect again lol. I have no idea why because I hadn't actually changed the file or anything and it was already acting up. And when I drove it tonight, it never went back to reading correctly. I've had issues with the fuel gauge for years, even with the stock gauge, but not near this many issues. I did have some issues with the Speedhut gauge being accurate as well, but it was good at least half the time haha.

And it's still disconnecting and reconnecting once when first starting, but I'm pretty happy for the moment.

 

We've been working on the gauge again since the holidays are over, and OneGauge has sent me a few files with different resistance values to try to fix the fuel level issue. None of them are fixing it because the sender seems to be giving ohms values all over the place, different each time I test it. It's a new sender from AI One, I just replaced it a couple years ago. The original stock sender had accuracy issues occasionally too, but this is on another level. I did extensive testing throughout the wiring, checking resistance between the tank and the dash, and even the ground at the tank to the ground at the battery. There's 1.7 ohms between the sender at the hanger and the hub at the dash, so it's not a huge amount, but I'm still going to run a solid wire all the way to the front, and probably a larger wire at that, just to rule that out. I have the sender grounded to a post for the old Bose snake, along with the fuel pump and pump relay, and then all that is grounded straight to the battery. There was 4.1 ohms resistance initially, from the hanger to the battery. I changed the position of some of the lugs on the post, and now there is roughly 2 ohms resistance. Maybe I'll run a solid wire straight from the sender to battery as well to see what happens.

Other than that, the gauges are pretty well finished. Ryan Heinrich remoted in and changed the cal on the flex fuel sensor so it's now reading correctly too.

 

Solid work on the near-finished product!

 

Thanks buddy!

I'm considering running the sender to the ECU then to the display through CAN to see if that helps. Especially since I'm planning on building a new harness anyway and I need a 5v and sensor ground in addition to the input, so the timing works out. I'm also considering switching to a magnetic reed switch sensor and putting it through the top of the tank just to the lower right of the opening for the pump hanger. It seems as though many people have problems with the stock sender and I'm getting tired of dealing with it. I'm going to see if I can submerge that sensor so I can mount it completely inside the tank to avoid drilling an extra hole and possible leak point in the top of the tank, but I doubt that's possible.

KUS 11.5 inch Stainless Steel Single Station Reed Fuel Sender | JKS02195