HUD Build Thread

[2003protege]

I wanted to document the building of my heads up display without totally swamping the HUD concept thread.

I have several components already in, and I have completed some work thus far. Be warned though, that this will be a slow thread since I have two little babies to worry about.

The attached picture is the work I've gotten done thus far on the electronics of the system. I assembled my iDuino v3 and have resistors installed with the 74LS47's to drive the digits. This will be a 3 digit HUD - each 74LS47 drives a seven segment digital number.

The LED hole pattern and digital number pattern is also attached.

That's it for now. God bless.

[2003protege]

09-30-09 - ...Back..But Slowly
I have applied the LED display template to a 1/2" piece of MDF. I will drill the hole pattern and then chisel away the channels of each segment down to the hole. I hope I'm doing a good job of explaining it, 'cause I don't want to draw it. Hopefully I can have that done within a day or two, and start getting an idea of how this display will function in full daylight <--VEEERRY IMPORTANT haha.

09-21-09 - Project is Back

I haven't taken much time to work on this project since the OP. I have a renewed sense of purpose toward this project, and should be able to hit the ground running (the project was boxed, but not forgotten!). I haven't lost sight of the goal, and I think my intentions remain pretty much unchanged.

I want the LCD to be a three-digit display (cutsom fabrication). I plan on using one button to cycle through the various options (Speed, RPM, instant MPG, trip(tank) MPG) and also reset the trip.

Up next on my agenda will be the fabrication of the LED display. My chief concern, even though I'm moving forward with the display fabrication, is the amount of memory the binary conversion will use within the program (the iDuino will output 3 x 4-place binary signals to control the individual digits of the LED display, thus it will need to convert the output numbers to binary). I probably could use some programming expertise when I get to that point

Anyway, be on the lookout for updates.




9/30 390

[2003protege]

Well, you can wish in one hand...............

I made some time to work on this project recently. I wanted to do a quick test of the seven-segment display controller.

I don't know yet if it's working correctly, but it's turning the LED's on. I realized after I sat down to type this that the 9V battery was driving the LED's and not the 5V voltage regulator...so I imagine they'll be much dimmer w/ the 5V supply.

The bad news is that the viewing angle of the LEDs isn't big enough to really cover an individual segment. I cut a piece of milk carton out to serve as a diffusing layer, but it still doesn't help enough. Maybe I'll settle for a straight up LED display and not proper "segments". We'll see.

Next up is building the full circuit.

[2003protege]

Update:

The iDuino works!! lol, I had been a bit concerned because I hadn't successfully uploaded a program to it. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I have found that I have to first click the Arduino program "upload" button and THEN reset the iDuino, and even then, it works about 1/5th of the time.

Anyways, I wrote a program to flash some LEDs and it worked. No big deal, just somethign else I don't have to worry about.

Still gotta build that LED display!!!

[passat19tdi]

hi
mpguino could work with LED display?
there is also a sketch?
is code for that?
is an interesting idea
LED display is cheaper
Excuse me English but Romanian

[2003protege]

Originally Posted by passat19tdi

hi
mpguino could work with LED display?
there is also a sketch?
is code for that?
is an interesting idea
LED display is cheaper
Excuse me English but Romanian

Actually, since I'm building it from scratch, it's not necessarily much cheaper, just less time consuming.

The problem is that the pre-assembled LED displays generally aren't as bright as the one I'm building and they are significantly smaller. I'm sure there are exceptions but this is the route I've chosen for now.

[2003protege]

But first, a picture.

This bad boy's got it all:
The 5V voltage rectifier (supplied by a 9V battery)
The programmed iDuino (although it's not running a decimal to binary conversion yet...big deal =P )
The 74LS47 binary to seven segment display IC
And an actual mirrored seven segment LED layout.



Now that I think about it...I need to upload the vids to YouTube, but I'll post links after I finish that!

[2003protege]

Got the vids on to YouTube

I wrote a program to just run from 0-9 in 1 second intervals.

The first movie is as viewed in a bathroom mirror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqU-Knosras

The second is actually as viewed from the car. There's a bunch of light spilling all around, but it'll be much cleaner when it's all said and done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4-TgL1mxUc

Full steam ahead!