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Old 03-19-2008, 06:54 PM   #45 (permalink)
s2man
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Location: Kansas City, MO
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Porthos - '96 Chevrolet Cavalier
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post
It occurred to me last night that doing this on a programmable, expandable platform opens the door to getting all kinds of groovy additional features we've been dreaming about in a FE gauge.
As I posted in that thread, I want something to control the mod's instead of a bunch of toggle switches on the dash. If someone else takes the FE logic, I'll work on the relay board, or maybe the built-in EFIE . I used to do industrial controls, and I've looked at the micro PLC's for my needs. But by the time I add high-speed counters and analog, they are $300. *Plus* the programming software. So I've been looking at micro controllers for a while now.

I'll third the motion for ATmel's AT controllers (fourth I guess, since Darin just bought one). AT chips are also available with CAN interfaces, if someone decides to hack into that.

I hadn't seen the Arduino wrapper for the AT processors before, but I really like that too. It's open source (hardware & software). Free programming software. Meets all cost levels: from schematics for the DIYers, to kits, to completely assembled units. Provides a higher level language, but can still be programmed in C. So we can elicit help from both Arduino and AT freaks. I think that building on an existing platform gives us a edge, as opposed to starting from scratch with just a chip, a breadboard, and a C compiler. We can tell folks "build or buy this board, and download the latest version of our software". That simple.

As for the name. For the linux geeks I suggest YAFEG. For the rest of the world I suggest OpenGauge.

Dang, I'm excited. Just hacked my router last weekend and rarin' for more. More thoughts are swimming in my head, but I'll stop for now. <another >
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Last edited by s2man; 03-19-2008 at 08:17 PM.. Reason: typo
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