Habious

OK, so here's how I've been spending my time lately.

When I start my car, my Navigation screen boots up to this.....




So, here's my question....Is this "cool" or just "geeky". Please be honest, I can take it.

To answer some questions before they're asked....

Yes, the image/gauges are much clearer in real-life...this was the best pic I could get of it.

Yes, they really do work. The car was running (at idle) when I took the pic.

robsvdp

I think you need another voting option...

Habious

If someone can tell me how to change the poll, I'll add that third option.

When I created it, I considered making 4 choices....

a) Just plain cool
b) Cool, in a geeky way
c) Geeky, in a cool way
d) Just plain geeky

But, I've come to realize that not everyone gets my odd sense of humor...or that it doesn't translate that well into text.

whokiid

that is FREKIN tite.

im the kind of person that wants to have my car "talk to me" without having a bunch of tacky gauges all over my dash.


nice job.

howd you do it?

4onenight

like whokiid said, how did you do it... by the way how much did it cost you?

bt430

actually buddy it's waaaay cool!!!!!!
Loose the Billy Joel though!!

moose66

Look out Pebble Beach Edition, looks like the SC has a third model . . . . . . . .the SC430 Fighter Jet Edition! Geeky, but cool!

Habious

I knew that SOMEONE was going to take issue with whatever song was playing. I actually thought about it and, I even went through several songs trying to find one that would be the most "universally accepted"...guess I picked wrong.

As to how I did it; I have a CarPC (see previous post on that installation) and this is an extension of that project.

A very smart fella by the screen name of "tgreenwood2" at www.mp3car.com wrote a plug-in for the software I'm using (Centrafuse) that takes data from the OBD-II connector and displays it as gauges like this.

I had to buy an OBD-II-to-USB interface (I bought it from a guy on Amazon). This interface connects from the OBD-II connector (under the steering wheel) to a USB hub that I have in the center console.

The interface was the easy part (other than literally standing on my head to run the wires underneath the dash and tie-wrap them up out of the way. It was tough to find something to strap the wire to...everything under there moves! Steering wheel linkage, brake pedal, gas pedal...had to have the wire secure and out of the way of all of that...a little tricky). It was configuring the software to get the gauges to look like I wanted them to look that took the most time.

The plug-in that tgreenwood2 wrote is EXTREMELY powerful and flexible; The number of gauges, size, number range, number of "ticks" on the gauge front, size of the "ticks", width of the needle...just about everything is variable/adjustable. But, that also means that each one of those parameters has to be configured. There was a whole lot of trial and error (in fact, I noticed this morning that the Lexus gauges are black backgrounds, white numbers and red needles...my needles are white...gonna have to fix that to make them match).

-Habious

Yes

64% geeky. 46% cool. Would be neat to have. but I think the novelty would wear off for me after a while.

bt430

You can always count on me bro!!
By the way I've got that Billy Joel, Neil Diamond and Wayne Newton box set you wanted!! LOL

Habious

bt430...we need to get together one of these days...we don't live that far apart. I would love to check out your ride!

flipicanez

iTrader: (1)

I voted geeky, but I don't think geeky is a bad thing. I likes it!

whokiid

ooooh carputer. dang. i was hopin it was something id be able to do. guess not.

norman52

Very interesting. Now for your summer project how about a forward facing night vision camera that comes up on the screen?

tm510

Jason, remind me not to hire you as an accountant.