Custom lettering on radio display??

[aliengravy]

Very interested in this.... how did you interface the cheapo OBD and the arduino?

 

[Chet]

The ELM327 (or in most cases some knockoff emulator) is connected to PC/phone either by a usb or bluetooth serial converter, all you need to do is remove that and connect the uarts together.

Figured out how to get the decimal point displaying today and also how to activate the scrolling text.

 

[Bert.C]

Any update mate?

 

[Chet]

I've been working on the hardware end and how to get it working the way I want.

I've managed to sniff and decode the stalk control signals between the radio and stalk but haven't figured out how to read the commands myself.

I've pretty much completely reverse engineered the commands for the display giving control of the icons and also flashing text.

 

[aliengravy]

Do you want to share? or do I need to keep doing it the hard way?? ha ha.

 

[Chet]

I will share everything when I'm happy with it but if you have any specific questions I'll try to help.

 

[Bert.C]

I've been working on the hardware end and how to get it working the way I want.

I've managed to sniff and decode the stalk control signals between the radio and stalk but haven't figured out how to read the commands myself.

I've pretty much completely reverse engineered the commands for the display giving control of the icons and also flashing text.

What ic are you using to send the commands etc? I've got an arduino that I'm wanting to use mate that's all. Are you sending just a single byte for each letter? Or an array of bytes? Just wondering what your sending?

Also are you using baud 9600?, I read somewhere that that was the speed for Renault.

Also is the stalk using serial as well or is it the matrix I suggested before?

 

[Chet]

None of it is serial comms, it seems to be a unique protocol with a clocked data line but there is also a third wire too. I've been calling it i2c but thats not what it is.

Theres a couple of bytes to initialise the display then you can send the bytes for the characters with the header.

I think the stalk is a matrix but its decoded by the display and sent to the radio

 

[Bert.C]

Oh right! That all seems a bit over-complicated to me haha.

 

[mikeh]

Hi,

I started something similar to this, but I started with the stalks. They are indeed a 3x3 matrix. with the scroll wheel having three "switches" to give you a direction.

I wrote something using a HD44780 based LCD controlled by the stereo stalks but never got around to getting any further or fitting the LCD (I couldn't quite find a nice way to fit it in the existing slot).

My next port of call was finding the thermocoupe connection and figuring how to get accurate values from that.

Would you care to share your findings on communicating with the display so far? I don't even have a standard stereo to reverse-engineer the protocol from :/

 

[Chet]

Yeah I'll share when I have it written up, it's all over the place at the minute.

I'll have a couple of test boards shortly that will send data to the display so I'll be looking for guinea pigs to give it a good test as I've done minimal testing.

 

[Ezra-RS]

Sign me up
I'd really like to have something of a ASCII type information screen. Like that better then those flashy obd screens. I know yours is maybe far from that but I'd like to help with testing!

 

[Bert.C]

^ This. I'll Guinea pig it mate. Love stuff like this.

 

[Chet]

These are just dumb boards that connect instead of the radio so if you have the standard radio you'd loose the display and remote for as long as it's connected. It'll need wiring to 12v power.

 

[Bert.C]

These are just dumb boards that connect instead of the radio so if you have the standard radio you'd loose the display and remote for as long as it's connected. It'll need wiring to 12v power.

Not a problem mate. Would they be pre programmed to display something that you've set or be programmable?

 

[Ezra-RS]

Same here, won't be a problem. I'd like it pre programmed though. Maybe something like a voltage readout?

 

[Chet]

They'll be preprogrammed and I've included facility to read battery voltage I'm not sure what they'll say/do yet

The boards just arrived but I see I only have enough components to make 3 up, I'll need to get ordering

 

[Ezra-RS]

I was just thinking how awesome it would be if in the end the screen could be hooked up to something like the obduino!

Also, let us know if you want covering of shipping costs.

 

[Chet]

What I'll do is sent the boards out on the condition that people will send them back if I need to make any code changes.

The final board will read all the standard obd pids that are available.

 

[Chet]

In case anyone is watching this thread waiting for anything to happen, my electronics lab has been flooded (again ) so I'm having to put everything on hold

 

[Ezra-RS]

Ouch! Hope all your equipment is high and dry?

 

[lee922]

Interesting thread, sorry to hear about the Flooding, hope everything gets sorted

 

[Chet]

The bathroom is above my office/lab and we had a blockage. I poured a couple of litres of drain cleaning acid down not realising it was leaking downstairs so it came through the ceiling and made its way everywhere. Laptop and a few random bits spent a few hours in acid so aren't working too well!

All the code and random bits are synced with Dropbox so that's one good thing.

 

[Andy_con]

looks an amazing thread and im very interested.

its a shame you cant get the radio info to be displayed as well as all the other info, but your doing an fantastic job.

when the units are read for sale put me down for one

 

[Chet]

The final units will allow you to switch between radio and OBD display via the stalk

 

[Andy_con]

amazing, 100% sign me up

not sure where these units need to be mounted in relation for the actual display but if you need any custom brackets or anything made up to hold them let me know as i can help

 

[Chet]

"somewhere behind the radio" is as far as i've got on making that decision! The annoying thing is that i don't think you can get any sort of obd cable to fit with the ashtray in place which is a pity

 

[Andy_con]

bugger very annoying.

no option to store in the glove box and run a cable?

 

[DannyR]

You can unmount the plug but then the ashtray won't fit as it hold its up

 

[Chet]

The plug holds the ashtray up? thats a bit stupid!

 

[Andy_con]

um there must be something we can do, when i get some time ill take a look

 

[Chet]

Test board

 

[DannyR]

The plug holds the ashtray up? thats a bit stupid!

Yea did a Ph2 dash conversion on my Ph1. But as running standalone the OBD port was tucked way and the bloody ashtray would not sit in.

 

[JamesS]

The plug holds the ashtray up? thats a bit stupid!

On a ph2 172 or on the 182 you can move the OBD port without any problems. There is a metal bracket you need to loosen, lift up, and then you can move the OBD port to allow you to either easily splice into the wiring, or add an extension for the OBD cable and run it into the glove box.

On my old 172 I moved the main OBD connector, plugged in a y lead, and then ran a new OBD port into the glove box, and used the other connector for development. There were no problems at all with the ash tray.

 

[Ezra-RS]

Also think it shouldn't be a problem! Would splicing the obd port give any problems though? Like when 2 things are pulling information from it, or doesn't that matter?

 

[The Fatty]

one of the reasons the ODB port is so large is to protect against shorts... I wouldn't be splicing into it unless you are good at wiring.

 

[sbridgey]

The ideas in this thread sound really cool, I need to get it hooked up in my car. Someone post a basic guide.

 

[Dr HMS Derv Destroyer]

can this be used to display boost figures?
thinking of using the display instead of putting an actaully boost guage in

 

[Chet]

The ideas in this thread sound really cool, I need to get it hooked up in my car. Someone post a basic guide.

There is no guide, certainly not a basic one!

can this be used to display boost figures?
thinking of using the display instead of putting an actaully boost guage in

What ecu?

 

[Andy_con]

looks ace

Test board