pomwah Posted February 2, 2016 Posted February 2, 2016 Been messing with a CNC router lately and to take best advantage of it I needed to learn a CAD package. Enter Fusion 360 from Autodesk (the AutoCAD people), best way to learn ....... do something useful with it. Hence the binnacle below. I think I'll be able to make it on my little machine. The instruments will be standard Toyota/Denso units, aluminium bezels, polycarbonate or acrylic "glass" and the faces will be white acrylic sprayed with a matt black paint and the router will engrave the numbers, symbols etc. revealing the white "substrate" which can be lit from behind. I'm yet to decide where to site the telltales, I could drill holes and insert "Triumph Jewels" but is that the best solution? Folks have mentioned Arduinos in several topics, strikes me I could use an arduino to control the telltales, indeed, why not light the whole dial with a different colour as a pre-determined event occurs. The Tacho turns red at 7500 RPM for example, similarly for high temperatures, low fuel etc. etc. Has anyone progressed a data capture project, seems pointless trying to reinvent the wheel. Cheers, James
pomwah Posted February 7, 2016 Author Posted February 7, 2016 (edited) Guess I'll start playing with data capture and Arduinos. On a vaguely related matter, when I was drawing the instruments I wanted to use the font Jaeger/Trimuph used way back when. Seems it was never released as a font, or at least I couldn't find it if it was. I spent a week learning FontForge and imagining what the font may have looked like. Anyhoo, I now have a TrueType "Spitfire" font on my machine, my only problem is I can't get the descenders working properly for the lowercase letters. (see below) Lowercase "G" is complete but it's not generating it all, I've moved "j", "p", "q" and "y" up until I work out how to generate them properly. ......anyone out there had experience with FontForge???? Feel free to comment on the design ...... Oops, forgot to put the 6 in, no matter, the 9 is an upside down 6. Edited February 7, 2016 by pomwah
Nick Jones Posted February 7, 2016 Posted February 7, 2016 This might be vaguely relevant http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/186150/aftermarket-ecu-tablet-gauges If you fancied going "glass cockpit" with a tablet. Nick
GT6_sleeper Posted February 8, 2016 Posted February 8, 2016 Arduinos Are pretty easy to take read inputs from, if you want I can write you a little program or send you one with some comments that take a sent of given read inputs and power different outputs for leds on the Arduino.
GT6_sleeper Posted February 8, 2016 Posted February 8, 2016 Arduinos Are pretty easy to take read inputs from, if you want I can write you a little program or send you one with some comments that take a sent of given read inputs and power different outputs for leds on the Arduino.
pomwah Posted February 9, 2016 Author Posted February 9, 2016 Arduinos Are pretty easy to take read inputs from, if you want I can write you a little program or send you one with some comments that take a sent of given read inputs and power different outputs for leds on the Arduino. Thank you. If I run into difficulty I'll chase you up. I've had some experience "cutting code" and from the examples I've already seen I don't think writing sketches for an Arduino will be beyond me but you never know. Cheers, James
GT6_sleeper Posted February 9, 2016 Posted February 9, 2016 It's pretty easy tbh. Also might be worth adding an SD module and data logging readings for analysis as its only a couple of extra lines of code and big SD cards are really cheap.
pomwah Posted February 10, 2016 Author Posted February 10, 2016 It's pretty easy tbh. Also might be worth adding an SD module and data logging readings for analysis as its only a couple of extra lines of code and big SD cards are really cheap. One step ahead of you this time, I have an SD card module on order along with a pair of Arduinos. Cheers
GT6_sleeper Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 (edited) If you want to go one step further you can buy an sd card that is sd one side USB other then plug to an android tablet and write a Java app that will give you full digital gauges. The Card will thread inputs fast enough for you to read and write at the same time. It's very simlar to a program I have already written That takes vacuum pressure readings and 4 wire lambda readings to map an SU needles efficiency live. Works very well. If interested happy to share some info of how to program it all Edited February 10, 2016 by GT6_sleeper
Nick Jones Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 This is all sounds amazingly clever..... but I fear that I'm only understanding the short words like "the", "a", "and"........ Doh! Nick
GT6_sleeper Posted February 10, 2016 Posted February 10, 2016 Can have a chat about it at stonleigh if you want Nick?
pomwah Posted February 11, 2016 Author Posted February 11, 2016 If you want to go one step further you can buy an sd card that is sd one side USB other then plug to an android tablet and write a Java app that will give you full digital gauges. The Card will thread inputs fast enough for you to read and write at the same time. It's very simlar to a program I have already written That takes vacuum pressure readings and 4 wire lambda readings to map an SU needles efficiency live. Works very well. If interested happy to share some info of how to program it all Very interested, but let me crawl before I walk. I'll give reading data and lighting warning telltales a go first. followed by logging various parameters and then something a little more complex like a tablet app. One thought occurred to me as I read your post, "Bluetooth, between the Arduino and the tablet"? Have you explored BT and Arduinos? Cheers
GT6_sleeper Posted February 11, 2016 Posted February 11, 2016 Very interested, but let me crawl before I walk. I'll give reading data and lighting warning telltales a go first. followed by logging various parameters and then something a little more complex like a tablet app. One thought occurred to me as I read your post, "Bluetooth, between the Arduino and the tablet"? Have you explored BT and Arduinos? Cheers I have not used BT with them but have with the raspberry PI. I did look into Bluetooth file access on the arduino from the SD card but it meant making the files network files and the code for what I wanted to do plus that was to much for the Arduino. Out of interest what model arduino did you buy?
pomwah Posted February 11, 2016 Author Posted February 11, 2016 Bought two Unos but I'm thinking I might have to start with Dues, faster, stronger higher etc.
GT6_sleeper Posted February 11, 2016 Posted February 11, 2016 (edited) The uno should be fine, the shield sensor boards for the uno are pretty good and cheap I like this one: http://m.gearbest.com/development-boards/pp_64753.html?currency=GBP&gclid=CJXfq-OR8MoCFaoy0wodPEIPtA It plugs straight on top Edited February 11, 2016 by GT6_sleeper
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