Electronics bods - Idea?

[Dink]

right there is a display on the dash that tells you tarck number and s**t(well used to lol)

now it is just blank

now i was thinking is the any to use the display to display the electrical system voltage.

i'm thinking it can be done but got no idea where to start

 

[jonesyx]

you'd need to figure out how the interface works, doubt youd be able to get that though. pop the lcd out and replace it with another one.

seen these before for pcs, lcd displays you can program to do things like voltage readouts,

 

[Taiko]

Custom fabricating an interface for it would be far too much work just for that. You should get a LCD commonly used for custom creations (such as PC). Although the PC one would be difficult to incorporate into a car, something similar to that would be the best bet. Unless you are very knowledgable about custom building circuits, I would say you wasting your time.

I know it is a totally different car, but I once saw a kit someone developed for the E46 M3 using a interface port (I-bus) built into the car. Using the touchscreen LCD and software he programmed, he could check almost every aspect of the car's engine, climate control, voltages, Cd changer, use voice commands, Navigation. Pretty cool. Anyway, I'm sure you could find some cable and possibly software that can allow for interfaces with the diagnostic port on your car, so thats probably the best place to start, then a LCD screen solution may be found while looking them up.

 

[Dink]

well it seems fairly easy for you to be able to get it say alpine or whatever with an after market hu so getting it to say 13.8v shouldn't be that hard surely

 

[Taiko]

Thing is we don't have to make the interface, we just buy it.
I have had a quick search, and I can only find complex interfaces for the OBD diagnostics (to connect to PCs and stuff), but I'm sure there must be something simpler.

 

[LegoHead]

right there is a display on the dash that tells you tarck number and sh*t(well used to lol)

now it is just blank

now i was thinking is the any to use the display to display the electrical system voltage.

i'm thinking it can be done but got no idea where to start

easy peasy mate, lol.

get a pic microcontroller, and if voltage measured is greater than 5V use an external ADC.

not too much work to be honest, just a few external connections and writing the program for the pic.

 

[Dink]

so lots of bits from here?