Completely digital cluster! *Update "3" 9/8/07*

[25Horseplay]

9.) Whenever you are going over 75 on the freeway the doorframe will start flapping.

That's hilarious!

[htchbck]

9.) Whenever you are going over 75 on the freeway the doorframe will start flapping.

That's hilarious!

That happened to me one time when me and my best best friend an my then girlfriend took a trip to myrtle beach... did it for close to 350 miles... but I didn't have to fill up the gas tank until we were already back on the freeway on the way home

[Motoxpress]

Archie why not use Cyberdyne gages and just make adapters for Festivas. If you really want to get slick you could make a custom face plate that would make it look factory. Just an idea

Will

[archiebold]

Is the lm3915 an op amp? Im pretty sure it is.

I just thought of something else last night. You could probably very easily convert the fuel and temp to use the bar graphs and LM3915 since the fuel and temp guage use varying voltage to control the needles. That way besides maybe a few resistors and diodes all you would need for each of those would be a chip and 10 segment bar graph.

I looked at the info for the lm3915, just as you said it was. I was thinking the exact same thing using these for the fuel, temp, ect. Im glad someone else is getting into this... amazing how some of these threads can get incredibly off topic :roll: I found a site that i can get the two inch 7 segments and they come in this stellar deep blue *drools* (yep...ima nerd)

Archie why not use Cyberdyne gages and just make adapters for Festivas. If you really want to get slick you could make a custom face plate that would make it look factory. Just an idea

Will

That would prolly work too.. i would just like to make the whole darn thing myself, keep my interest in electronics alive and learn some new things while im at it Thanks for the idea tho.


RJV

[htchbck]

i would just like to make the whole darn thing myself

I know exactly where you're coming from there... precisely why I built my analog cluster the way I did. Dunno if you saw that thread or not, but here it is: http://fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtop...208&highlight=
The finished pics are on page 3... as an electrical engineer you will probably have a fit when you see how I made the circuit board :lol: but hey, I'm a carpenter by trade, lol

[archiebold]

i would just like to make the whole darn thing myself

I know exactly where you're coming from there... precisely why I built my analog cluster the way I did. Dunno if you saw that thread or not, but here it is: http://fordfestiva.com/forum/viewtop...208&highlight=
The finished pics are on page 3... as an electrical engineer you will probably have a fit when you see how I made the circuit board :lol: but hey, I'm a carpenter by trade, lol

I did actually see that, and i must congratulate you on the superb job. I hope mine comes out that well. BTW... LOVE the wiring job you did

[archiebold]

Just hypothetical, but how much would you guys be willing to pay for something like this? I will try to get some visual prototypes togather so you have an idea what you are looking at. If someone could get me a pic of a cluster square to the front that would be a big help. I just might go through with this one :twisted: The easy parts are going to be the temp and fuel gauges using the linear bar driver (thx to htchbck) the hard part... the tach and speedo. :? I will figure it out tho. Thanks for showing the interest 8)
RJV

[htchbck]

here's the face:


And here's a link to a slightly more giant pic if ya need it.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/rcpro_am/cluster024-1.jpg

I really wanna see this thing come together... I rootin for ya man!

[archiebold]

Check out some MS Paint art :twisted:

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6070/dc1wx2.png

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/5156/dc3eh2.png

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/1453/dc5nq3.png

[warlocke]

looks decent man, if i had a festiva id def be interestred but i got an aspire so the cluster wont work lol

[archiebold]

lmao... we'll see how successfull it is, I might expand to the aspires Keep in mind guys, this is done in MS Paint, the final product will look ALOT better.. I hope :roll:

[htchbck]

looks good... except the green one... blue is definitely the way to go!

[Motoxpress]

Archie Also add a Oil Press and Voltmeter possibly BOOST :twisted:


Will

[archiebold]

Alright. It has been a long time since I have posted here, but I do have a few updates that you might like. First I have still been working on the cluster, just once a week on the weekend, but the end is still far off.

One of the major setbacks is that the entire project will need somewhere in the ballpark of 62 IC's to drive all the seven segment displays and such. On top of that, I will need probably 100-150 LED's for the sweeping speed and tach. With the price of the IC's being around $1.50 ea. and the LED's being $.40 ea. the price will add up to right around $150 to $175. That doesnt necessarily sound like much, but to a college student it is.

There is one major way that I will be able to cut the cost down significantly and that is by introducing Programmable IC's into the circuit to take the place of nearly every one of the current IC's. This will drop the chip count down to around 5 or so. (no joke) The only problem with that is now I have to learn how to program and code for these chips.

I was under the impression that I would learn about these at school, however this being my final quarter, it looks as if I will have to be self taught, which will further delay it.

On a slightly side note, anyone who knows how to program PIC chips can feel free to give me a ring. Thanks so much for your interest, and I hope to be able to show some progress soon.

RJV

[Sho_tyme_psi]

9.) Whenever you are going over 75 on the freeway the doorframe will start flapping.

That's hilarious!

HAHA, yes I to had that problem. You can open the door and bend the frame air tight again. First time I drove my car was at night and was like WTF cause I couldnt see where the noise was coming from.


On the gauges I would probally agree it would be cheaper to buy didgital gauges and build your own cluster with them. But the fuel unit will be the hard one to do.