Questions about mpguino

[mhmitszach]

sorry if this is redundant, but I just have really been able to find answers.


Would an arduino board with usb work with the source code being developed?

Does the code specific the 16x20 lcd screen/could it easily be changed to work with a different sized screen?

Does it interface with the obdII port/how many different wires need to be spliced into from the car?

would it work with my 97 escort?

some of you seem to be powering it from 9v batteries or simliar, I could splice into power from somewhere else in my car, no?

Does it keep average/trip mpg along with current mpg?

I just really want to have a constant read out of my mpg, and I don't really want to spend 150-170 dollars on that.

Plus DIY or die.

keep up the great work.

thanks, zach.

[DifferentPointofView]

Well it's supposed to work with any car, even from the 50's and such, so the 97 escort would be covered. And I'm pretty sure it does the Average/trip mpg and current mpg, plus maybe a little more. As far as the power source, I don't know, but you could probably run it off of your cars power. It depends on whether or not it was designed for 9v or not, cause your car runs around an average of 13.7-14's-ish. So that's quite a bit more power to the gauge.

As for the rest, I'm not sure, someone else will have to chime in. The gauge from what I hear costs around 40 bucks or less to build.

[AndrewJ]

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

Would an arduino board with usb work with the source code being developed?

Yes, the USB (decimilia) board works, dcb is just using the serial to claim it's lower cost on the project total.

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

Does the code specific the 16x20 lcd screen/could it easily be changed to work with a different sized screen?

Yes, It'll work on a different screen, at least one with the same pinout.

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

Does it interface with the obdII port/how many different wires need to be spliced into from the car?

Four: +12v power, Ground, VSS, one injector wire.

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

would it work with my 97 escort?

As long as it has fuel injection, then yes.

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

some of you seem to be powering it from 9v batteries or simliar, I could splice into power from somewhere else in my car, no?

Yes, you can use up to 15v, so your cars 12v will work.

Originally Posted by mhmitszach

Does it keep average/trip mpg along with current mpg?

Yes.

[mhmitszach]

Thanks much.

Wait, I need another power source besides the 12v?

How close to being tried and true would you say it is right now?

I can't seem to tell how well it is working for everyone.

[diesel_john]

Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView

Well it's supposed to work with any car, even from the 50's and such,

an off the shelf, store bought, fuel flow meter is about $120 for a carbureted engine, so we are in need of less expensive fuel flow meter ideas. to keep the price low for non-injected engines. see the thread about a mileage computer for a carb'd engine.

no, the MPGuino does not use the OBD port.

The MPGuino is currently in the working prototype stage of development.

[mhmitszach]

Just a thought....

Wire 12v, ground, vss, and injector wire into a female ethernet connector, and then have a another connector located under dash and wire accordingly to that connector to simplify everything into one cable.

Although really, this could work for any cable/connector with at least four wires.

Would work , right?

[AndrewJ]

yes, it'll work. In fact that's basically what I'm doing, I'm just using a 6 conductor phone wire. Four wires for the current prototype, and two more for later expandability "just-in-case"

[JustThisGuy]

Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView

Well it's supposed to work with any car, even from the 50's and such, so the 97 escort would be covered. And I'm pretty sure it does the Average/trip mpg and current mpg, plus maybe a little more. As far as the power source, I don't know, but you could probably run it off of your cars power. It depends on whether or not it was designed for 9v or not, cause your car runs around an average of 13.7-14's-ish. So that's quite a bit more power to the gauge.

As for the rest, I'm not sure, someone else will have to chime in. The gauge from what I hear costs around 40 bucks or less to build.

Wait, how exactly does this work with really old cars, circa the 70's? If it actually well then I really need to start reading up on this project.

[dcb]

It doesn't. There are some discussions about making it work with carbs and old diesels (diesels are pretty straight forward actually), but no working models yet. It is just a matter of time though.

[JustThisGuy]

Ok, so it doesn't work yet, but in theory it will work for that in some capacity if someone decides to put the time and effort into it.

[dcb]

To clarify, it isn't a question of "if". People have been working on it already and continue to work on it.

[JustThisGuy]

Aha. Gotcha. It'll be interesting to see how that will work.

[dcb]

A lot of the carbureted stuff is here, it has a ways to go but we are learning more all the time:

http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...gine-1123.html

John is still making progress (and I will be stealing his cheap fuel flow sensor if he gets it going for the masses), I had to take a break from it after a frustrating effort on the motorcycle.

I need a volunteer or three with an old diesel or three who can hook up a couple sensors to their old diesel rabbits or mercedeses or mack trucks to get anywhere on the diesel side.

[Johnny Mullet]

Originally Posted by dcb

I need a volunteer or three with an old diesel or three who can hook up a couple sensors to their old diesel rabbits or mercedeses or mack trucks to get anywhere on the diesel side.

I work on Diesel trucks every day and we have a local company that parks on our lot and we service them weekly. All have Cat engines in them. Need help?

[dcb]

Tell me about it? Are they strictly mechanical injection?

I'm thinking with a "simple" sensor to count the injection pump revolutions and a throttle position sensor that the fuel consumption can be computed. Add a speed signal and you've got a DIY MPG gauge for semi's.

[Johnny Mullet]

We have regular customers with older "mechanical injection" pumps on them, but the newer engines are electronically controlled. The speed signal could be tapped in at the rear of the trans, but no TP on them.

[dcb]

Yah, the mechanical diesel version is probably going to need some sensors installed, nothing fancy: rpm (or pump revolutions), throttle position, and vss if it isn't handy.

[cowtown]

- If you don't mind the added expense, would the new Nano model make any difference?

- Does it matter if your car has throttle-body injection (i.e.- just one injector)?

- Is there an even more basic way to convert the two inputs (vss and injector) into a single instantaneous number? A dedicated one-inch high digital readout of XX.X with "mpg" would be fine for me.

Thanks for any info
Russell

[MilesPerTank]

You could definatly implement some 7 segment LEDs to run a simple gauge.

I'm actually deciding between using a 40x4 LCD, and 4 7segment LEDs. I dont know if I want to see it all (40x4) or just some of it (7 segments).

There are nice 4 7 segment LED i2c controllers that would cleanup a lot of the wiring (at least off load it).

[dcb]

Just FYI, the target display for mpguino version 1.0 is a 16x2 LCD. It isn't hard to get more items to display on a larger LCD if you can figure out the program, but don't go out buying a jumbo LCD/LED of arbitrary size and expect it to magically fill up with useful data

Here was the agreed upon model if you want to eliminate some variables in yoru setup and improve your chances of getting help: http://nkcelectronics.com/16x2-lcd-m...backli162.html