using busted ipod screen as fuel consumption/clock?

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
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Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Hey guys, ive got a spare Ipod Nano, and Ipod classic lying around..
the Classic has a dud battery from heat cycles sitting in the glovebox and im pretty sure the Nano has a dud battery too.

my idea (similar to the fuel consumption guage that goes where the clock is)
is to make the ipod screen connect to a setup of some kind to display fuel consumption, a clock (similar to the existing ipod one?) and whatever other features we can think of.

How hard would it be to make this work?
i'd assume a display would need to be designed etc but how hard is it to get the circuit board talking to the ipods display?

just an idea in the clouds if anyone has any idea how i could make it work?

Cheers, Cameron
 

rockit

Leaving Skid Marks
Location
SA
First Name
Robert
Drive
2000 Legnum
Unless you can find very good info on the display (pinouts, control signals, timing, driver circuits, or someone who has done it before who knows these things) it is very difficult to interface with anything .. ontop of that you will need at a very powerful micro controller to write to the lcd at a decent rate.

I looked into using cheap mobile phone screen replacements from ebay for various projects but found that almost no info was available on them anywhere, and when it was it was vague at best..

At the moment I'm working on one that uses a 320x240 full colour display with a dedicated arduino to manage the display, interfaced with a few cheap weak micros to gather various data. im hoping to display things like distance to empty, instantaneous and average fuel consumption, basically any of the loggable data from the ECU and a few extra features i'm still working on.. also will have a touch screen interface to switch between the various data displays (well assuming i can figure out the touch screen programming)..
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Thanks Robert..
I either need a lot of money or a lot of brains(Microprocessor wise) to get this to work then..
Just saw a guide the other day about hard wiring the IPod and using the clock display and artist info as aux in and wondered how hard it'd be to make a mini info display (like many new cars these days have)

next option- colour climate control display? Same problems as above?
 

rockit

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if you just want to change the backlight colour that's usually a matter of swapping the backlight LED for a different colour one (may not be so simple though, would actually have to open it up to be sure how to do it)..

anything different will be more complex.. the climate control screens are specifically made for that purpose, they only have a few pixels (im sure there's a more accurate name but cant think of one right now so using pixel for lack of anything better) that turn on and off. each airflow arrow is a single pixel , not like phone lcds where it would be made of many pixels. it could be done (its actually fairly straight forward how to do it) but comes down to how much money and or time you want to put into it..
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Yeah changing colour is easy, I've already swapped mine out for blue(though I'm considering going back to stock because the display is unreadable in daylight)

Yeah, I'm thinking of changin the screen on the climate unit for a full Colour screen from the iPod... Same function, just pretty colours (so lower temp numbers would be deep blue-17deg, and say 32deg would display as red digits; the snowflake icon light blue etc...
How involve/ who would I get in contact with to make something like that happen?
 
G

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If you are really interested in doing this, go order yourself an Arduino kit from somewhere like http://littlebirdelectronics.com/ then Google 'arduino tutorials'. There are a heap of websites and YouTube videos about it. Ditch the whole idea of the iPod screen and get one that is known to work with the Arduinos (from that same site) and has the datasheet readily available.

Once you take the first step at trying to work it out for yourself you'll figure out how hard/involved/difficult it is, as that really comes down to your own ability. If you just want the graphical climate control, then it will be easier to do an MMCS swap if you can source a whole system including loom.
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Cool that gives me a good idea of what to do, I've vaguely heard of Ardunio systems, but never really looked into it.
ill have a look around and see how I go.
cheers guys
 

rockit

Leaving Skid Marks
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SA
First Name
Robert
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2000 Legnum
i agree, ditch the ipod screen it just massively complicates things. You can get screens from ebay for under $20 (i got one with SD reader and touchscreen for $10) that can be easily interfaced with arduinos and use the basic code libraries that are easy to find...

you will also probably need to familiarize yourself with some basic electronics (if you aren't already), especially when it comes to interfacing with anything in your car. You will really need to be aware of voltage levels of everything you are working with. Arduinos are either 3.3v or 5v depending on the model, most IC will operate at either 3.3 or 5, but many automotive IC will accept wide inputs (over 12v) so they can be powered directly from the battery without any voltage converters, so it is important to know the levels things work at.. obviously wiring a 5v arduino to 3.3v or 12v chip may cause problems (either for the arduino or the other chip.. the last thing you want to do is fry something!

another thing you may want to do is open up your A/c controller and try to work out exactly how things work, look for part numbers printed on chips and work out what they are and what they do, it can get very complicated, but if you can figure out how something works it can simplify things greatly when you go to modify it! for example if you can work out how the circuitry responsible for the display works you can easily interface your micro controller up to it.


If you find yourself over your head then send me a PM, like i said i'm working one a similar thing at the moment, so could probably give you some ideas of where to go..
 
G

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But remember installing mmcs is not simple, you need entire crash bar dash loom, both lh and rh side to rear looms, lh cabin to engine bay fuse box loom as well, done it once. Won't do it asin lol
 

Oggie

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Location
Nu Zeeland au!
First Name
terry
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1999 Vr4 Legnum
OP, there is a android/iOS app out there that will I spose double up as a guage pod. IE rpm/boost/speed etc..
As seen here

I am sure google will help you out in finding out more info.
 

rockit

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Robert
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not sure if something like that will work in our cars.. Mitsubishi don't use the common OBDII interfaces (the plugs are OBDII, but the protocols aren't).. so unless the app is specifically for a mitsubishi car (such as evoscan) then it probably wont work..
 
G

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Afaik that is true as TME Steve pointed out to me previously with the obdII by device
 

Oggie

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Location
Nu Zeeland au!
First Name
terry
Drive
1999 Vr4 Legnum

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rockit

Leaving Skid Marks
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SA
First Name
Robert
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2000 Legnum
haven't looked at it, but i would say the evoscan one would work (the evoscan computer program works so i would guess that would as well)

the other one would also most probably work (again i haven't looked into it in detail). It doesn't actually query the ecu for data, it simply reads various sensors you connect into it. So it should work assuming you can find the various sensors it wants to be connected to and are comfortable connecting it into them.
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Thats the kinda thing i was orignally aiming at trying to produce Terry (The Telwis on board computer), instead having a colour screen from the ipod possibly..
But alas my electirc skills and knowledge are about as advanced as installing a stereo..
i've only just got my head around resistors thanks to Uni.

but that screen looks nice too and would mean i can ditch the Apexi turbo timer.
might look into that one!
 
G

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Yea terry that's an Aksum find.. Thanx fir searching .. I'm liking that!!! I'm going to buy some I tthinks I if I read right we can select screen colours or order them in the colours?
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
Order them in different colours Q.

about 8 colour choices for LED and an OLED option too (unsure if i'll for the Black with white text LED or the OLED yet..)

I'm guessing that'd just be a case of splicing the wires on the display control box into the associated wire off the ECU pinout?
 

dwarfmarine

1 AYC Bar
Location
Windsor, NSW
First Name
Cameron
Drive
Previous: Black PFL Legnum
Current: TD5 Land Rover Disco
i'm familiar with that trip computer, but (albeit more expensive- $160ish if you opt for the OLED screen-$35 option and postage is $35)
but this one looks to have alot more functions- including boost gauge, and is a proper LCD/OLED display rather than the one thats in 'text blocks'
 
G

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Unregistered
^^ I agree, no offence to Craig for doing such a great job and probably the first to do such s mod, but OLED display is better ...
wish it was OEL but meh...

now I have a reason fir making a new guage pod face lol
 
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