Digital boost fits neatly under trip computer

[han]

Where is the mpgs or the temp displayed then?

 

For the 07+, they are displayed underneath the RPM gauge.

 

Where the 05'06 clock/mpg/temp displays are is just a clock.

[lossol]

dmiller5 - i will keep that in mind, thanks!

 

Man, you 07 guys have a nice cluster! And you have MPG analog? hmm so how big is the clock in that car under the cubby? I need to find some pics.

 

As for the project I will keep you guys updated on my progress.

 

I'm spinning a proto layout with vaccume and boost 32 leds total, no numerics for now, just cant get them under the display with room to spare without cutting.

 

| | | | | |

-------------------------

 

<vac---|---boost--->

 

 

Kindof the idea now for the led layout. Tick marks at the 5 marks.

 

...Tired must go to sleep

[han]

I tri to get some pictures of the 07 clock tomorrow.

[Impulse]

wow 32leds, this sounds sweet, i think that'd be enough 'information' to exclude numbers (as long as its logically segmented, whether by different color LEDs or otherwise)

 

real interested to see how this turns out =D. i'm a physics major, so i love testing/analyzing things out, but i'm always amazed at how you engineering guys come up/make these things

[han]

Here is pic of the clock, and of the gauge cluster.

[lossol]

10 Days till the board will come in, I guess that gives me some time to pick the colors I want to use. I might toss a poll up here to see what people think is cool. I'll do that when I get a chance. sugestions?

[lossol]

Okay no one has any input?

[han]

I think i'd like Red on the left (vacuum) and white on the right (boost), and if it will be noticeable, the small led thing on top to be white as well.

 

But is just what my inexperience to these things is.

[lossol]

I guess seeing is beliving ,so I will be sure to take pics when I get this thing in and assembled. Thanks for your input.

[lossol]

wHOA - I just saw your post han, that clock looks so lonely up there by itself. looks like the gauge might still work though. cool, thanks for the pic!

[Impulse]

32LEDs? so thats 10 vac, 22 boost? if so, White vac, orange boost till 10, and red thereafter or something would match well with our current gauge theme and might even look stock heheheheheh =D

[NSFW]

I already gave my suggestion. Christmas tree FTW.

[TSiWRX]

32LEDs? so thats 10 vac, 22 boost? if so, White vac, orange boost till 10, and red thereafter or something would match well with our current gauge theme and might even look stock heheheheheh =D

 

^ I like this idea.

 

Just as a side-point, though, I think it would be good to have some kind of end-user selectable end-point at which the "boost" level LEDs would transition into yet another (fourth) color, which would allow signal of "overboost" warning (or even five colors, with a transition color [4th color] that takes up perhaps "2 PSI" to allow for weather-induced spikes, and then another color [5th color] to serve as warning).

 

Nifty idea, best of luck!

[BlackHole]

How distinguishable and bright are different colors under a smoked panel? Simpler is usually better, and the brightness should be similar to the stock display. Too many colors / too small / too low a contrast between LEDs and it becomes visually confusing to ID at a glance.

 

I think a poll would be very helpful - I don't need vacuum and would limit it to <=3 colors, but I do like mattszero's idea - how about this (assuming 1psi/LED scaling): RRRRORRRRW(vac)OOOOWOOOOWOOOOWRRRRWRRRRWRR

[TSiWRX]

How distinguishable and bright are different colors under a smoked panel? Simpler is usually better, and the brightness should be similar to the stock display. Too many colors / too small / too low a contrast between LEDs and it becomes visually confusing to ID at a glance.

 

^ Very good point.

[lossol]

Okay the layout is 10 leds vaccume and 16 leds boost. The other 6 leds are marker leds. Sorry for the confusion. This is the current layout and I am awaiting the board delivery, it is currently in production. (See the attachment)

 

Blackhole,

 

I agree, the smoked glass adds a level of ambiguity to the whole thing, My previous testing with my proto layout leads me to believe it's going to look okay.

This video shows how in daylight how bright the leds shine through the smoked lense, The LEDS are very bright and can be dimmed for night driving. This is a shot from the prototype build and doesnt include marker leds. we will have to wait and see how those look.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNcttkJPHo]YouTube - Subaru legacy gt boost gauge[/ame]

 

My idea is also to have some cabability of shutting vaccume display on/off.

maybe even setting max boost level, where the leds will blink?

 

The input to this display will be no buttons but the user will just toggle the parking lights to disable or enable functions, I will explaine more on that later.

[laz]

Super nice work that you are doing here! You may have a W1NNAR!

 

X

[BlackHole]

Before I say anything, let me complement you on this effort. This really looks good and I'm very interested in one when they are done. Constructive criticism can come across the wrong way in words and I don't want to come across as completely negative. As a product developer in the real world, I over-analyze everything.

 

Okay the layout is 10 leds vaccume and 16 leds boost. The other 6 leds are marker leds.

 

Will they all be scaled the same? If so then for 1psi per LED there is -10psi (-20 in-hg) vac and +16psi boost. For 1.5psi/LED there is -15 psi (-30 in-hg) vac and +24 psi boost.

Might I suggest 8 vac and 18 boost LEDs to yield -16 in-hg/18psi @ 1psi/LED and -24 in-hg/27psi @ 1.5psi/LED? My thought is this: at cruise, usually vac is >-20 in-hg, usually closer to -10 so a -16 in-hg range is probably enough, but will also allow for 18psi boost which seems to be typical for the stage II that most people seem to run.

 

I agree, the smoked glass adds a level of ambiguity to the whole thing, My previous testing with my proto layout leads me to believe it's going to look okay.

 

The vid looks good and those are definitely very bright. A dimmer setting would be a good thing, but they still are really nicely done - congrats.

 

My idea is also to have some cabability of shutting vaccume display on/off. maybe even setting max boost level, where the leds will blink?... The input to this display will be no buttons but the user will just toggle the parking lights to disable or enable functions, I will explaine more on that later.

 

Very interesting ideas that would add a lot of flexibility. Definitely subscribed - this is way cool.

[lossol]

Blackhole,

 

I really like your suggestion. 8 for vac and 18 for boost. Unfortunalty, the board right now has been sent out for proto - build, so the most current configuration is locked in at 10 for vac and 16 for boot at least for this first build.

 

I was not so sure about vaccume pressures (or lack there of) but what your saying is -10psi is a strong vaccume i guess, in this case I would only scale the boost leds differently depending on how much pressure the users expects (modded vs. stock) and always keep vaccume pressures locked at 1psi per led. I can do this easily all in software.

 

I am assuming the vaccume stays about the same for everyone.

 

The options for scale on the pressure would be 1psi per led or 1.5psi. But I like your idea better because you always keep it 1 psi per led. (easy to count)

 

Everyone stock should be expecting under 16 psi I would expect. what does a stage 1 or 2 give interms of increased boost?

 

Heres a latest picture of the board in production.

[TSiWRX]

I like BlackHole's suggestions/setup, too.

 

Typically, "Stage I" setups should come in well under 16 PSI, spikes and other variations may cause it to peek just over.

 

Most "Stage II" setups are at or just under 18 PSI, but some run as much as 19 (and a few, even more). Again, there can be slight variations that causes pressure to peek just a tad over the usual, too.

[BlackHole]

Great work lossol!

 

the most current configuration is locked in at 10 for vac and 16 for boot at least for this first build...

 

...-10psi is a strong vaccume i guess, in this case I would only scale the boost leds differently depending on how much pressure the users expects. I can do this easily all in software.

 

I am assuming the vaccume stays about the same for everyone.

 

Okay, so 10vac/16boost is the design criteria. The fact that the scale can vary is software gives you a lot of options. My original comments assumed that a fixed ratio of boost/LED applied to the whole scale and I'm glad to be wrong.

 

-10psi (-20 in-hg, -0.7 kg/cm2) is pretty typical vacuum at idle and you'll see maybe -12psi max under full decel with the throttle closed. -15psi vacuum is the limit: that's outer space with no air at all.

 

Everyone stock should be expecting under 16 psi I would expect. what does a stage 1 or 2 give interms of increased boost?

 

Stock should be about 13psi and stage II is usually about 17-18psi. With software control over scaling, the possibilities are endless... That would also allow you to tailor it to both domestic and metric markets. What about a constant 1psi/LED vacuum and for boost there are a number of useful scales?

• 1psi scale = 16psi / 1.1bar max
  
• 1.25psi scale = 20psi / 1.38bar max
  
• 1.5psi scale = 24psi / 1.66bar max
  
• 0.1bar scale = 1.6bar / 23.2psi max
  
• 0.075bar scale = 1.2bar / 17.4psi max

Personally, I think that the scales should keep in mind how the the LEDs will be colored and the target market - uniform, sets of 4 (e.g. RRRW) or sets of 5 (e.g. RRRRW), psi or bar customers? If uniform, scale doesn't matter as much. Either the 1psi or 0.1bar scales are equally easy to figure regardless of LED configuration.

 

LED sets of 4 yields 4 full sets of RRRW (or whatever) and lends itself well to the 1.25psi scale since every set = 5psi, relatively easy to calculate in the head. Since I plan on running 18-20psi, this of course is my favorite.

 

Sets of 5 yields 3 sets + 1 extra and lends itself well to 1psi set = 5psi, 0.1bar set = 0.5bar, both easy to calc.

 

I'll get off my soap box now.

[NSFW]

How about 6 vac/20 boost (in v2), with lower resolution on the vacuum side? Boost levels are critical to getting power without losing safety, but as far as I know, vacuum levels aren't critical at all. Nice to know, but not something people use to make tuning decisions.

[lossol]

Yeah I like that idea too!

How about 6 vac/20 boost (in v2)

 

It would also add some simplicity to the gauge if the user didnt have an option of psi per led ratio. However then the stock folk like myselfe would never see the top 6-7 leds light up only being at 13 or so psi.

 

Blackhole, Thanks for that compilation of info in that last post. I will be sure to refer back to that in the future. I will be getting the boards soon and will be playing around with led configurations.

 

I have been doing some work on the prgramable settings:

 

Programing mode thus far lets you set a few things (subject to change)

 

-Max boost (blinking warning)

-vac on/off

 

How it works:

 

To enter programing mode the user must toggle the parking lights on/off 5 times within 3 seconds.

 

The gauge then sweeps (like on startup) to let you know you have entered prgraming mode. It will cycle through the programing options giving the user 10 or so seconds to prgram or review each setting.

 

First option is Max boost. THe gauge blinks the led which the max boost is set at. If no user input is returned (if the user doesnt toggle the parking lights) the setting is just reviewed. However if the user toggles the parking lights, the gauge begins to light the leds sequentially so the user can then again toggle the parking lights when the max boost wanted is displaye. The setting is stored in memory.

 

The gauge sweeps again to let you know you are in the next paramater setting.

 

Second option is vac on/off: The gauge displays vaccume setting using the vaccume leds. Sweeping them <---- if it's on, or just dimily lit if they are off. Again the user can wait ten seconds and do nothing just to review the setting, or the user can toggle the parking lights, to select the vac on/off.

 

This is the idea for the programable settings. Obviously the parking lights line must be installed if the user wants to program. The board also contains an ambiant light sensor for night driving, in theory it should allow full dimming to match the clock display.

 

 

Heres a pic of the latest board shot in production:

[dmiller5]

sounds good.. did you get my pm?

[lossol]

Okay gang the board should be in this week, standby for pics and more info.