FalconFour's MPGuino mods

[FalconFour]

Eh, I've got this thread on email notification, and my email is IMAP, so you reply and *BING*, my email pops up, I click the link, come here and reply

[Cooluser23]

Originally Posted by FalconFour

But... what do you mean by VSS pass through? You mean, reproduce a VSS signal on a signal pin to drive the speedometer? Hm... I don't really have a use for that, so I dunno if I could really develop and test that... :/

Yep, that's exactly it. My car currently needs 4000 pulses for the VSS, but once I change the tires to a larger size (for less rotations per mile) my speedo will read slower than the actual car speed. (and the odometer will read incorrectly, etc.)

So I wish there were a way to adjust for that deviation. A) for the MPGDuino to read correctly, and B ) to replace the input wire to the Gauge cluster, so it can read correctly.

Originally Posted by FalconFour

And a bigger screen? Not sure about that one either... if I get my hands on a bigger LCD I might play around with it, but the 16x2 LCD format comes in a wide variety of physical dimensions... doesn't help to put more info on the screen at once, but I think the instant/current/trip screen setup is already an information overload as it is while driving!

I wasn't thinking to add more information onto a screen, but to highlight certain information with a larger font, while other less important information is still displayed, but doesn't catch my eye as quickly, unless I look for it.

I think increasing/decreasing the importance of some of the information would make it easier/faster to scan the screen at a quick glance.

Hope my explanations make sense.

[FalconFour]

Ah, I see what you mean, then. Hmm. I wouldn't really know how to go about tweaking VSS pulses, though... I mean, consider this:
|______|______|______|______|______ = your VSS at some speed
|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____|_____ = modified VSS by just removing 1 time mark (underscore)
Notice how the second (modified) line doesn't really... doesn't really line up with the first at all? That makes it really difficult to make any sort of "pass-through", as the "effect" would have to be triggered by the "cause" directly (the original VSS pulse). Without a direct cause-effect, the MPGuino would have to basically re-create the VSS signal, perhaps with a delay, or maybe by re-calculating the difference between VSS-input-rate and VSS-output-rate on each VSS pulse, however "Instant" does it... baaaaah, the math is making my head hurt. >.< Yeah, see the problem, though?

As for information on the screen, well... there's really no way to "format" information on the screen (bigger, bold, highlight, etc). All screens that aren't prohibitively difficult to program, are simple character-based devices... I can imagine a 20-character-wide screen (as opposed to the current 16) would help put some space between the cramped-together figures. That would be pretty easy, and pretty useful, I think...?

[Cooluser23]

https://www.makershed.com/v/vspfiles/photos/MKLW1-2.jpg

Add touch-screen control to your Arduino project! The TouchShield is an Arduino-ready 128×128 pixel OLED screen on a PCB shield that brings advanced I/O capabilities to the Arduino platform. This is the new Stealth Edition, which has an all-blacked out board that looks pretty slick on top of the dark blue Arduino.

$99.95

Amazon.com: LCD Module for Arduino 20 x 4, White on Blue: Everything Else: Reviews, Prices & more

20 x 4 LCD, 5 volt, based on the popular HD44780. White characters on blue background, with back light. 4 rows, 20 characters per row.
We include instructions and Arduino software for using this LCD with Arduino.
We even include the header pins and a resistor for the contrast pin. We're good like that.

$15.95

What do you think?

[Cooluser23]

Hi FalconFour,

what have you been up to over the last month? Any cool new updates?

[msc]

What version of code are you working from for these mods?

What development environment are you working with, Arduino or other?

Mike

[FalconFour]

MPGuino version 0.86, Arduino IDE version 0021. If there's a newer MPGuino version, it'll be a bit of a huge PITA to migrate all the changes now, lol... but I'm sure the first time I do it, I'll be sure to find a cleaner way to do it

[FalconFour]

Come to think of it, I think it's due time to just post my full modified version.

Currently set up for 20MHz board (MPGuino). Select the block of 16MHz parameters (top of the code) and Ctrl+/, then select 20MHZ and Ctrl+/ to toggle between the two (uncomment one, comment the other).

[krizt]

Hej Falcon that's great work!! Almost exactly what I wanted. Could you please do the METRIC version to?? Pleeease

[FalconFour]

Bleh, I put a bit of work taking metric out of the code, lol... I guess when the next version ever comes out, I'll have to redo it, and leave the metric stuff in there ... maybe!