[tamathumper]

For the past decade I've installed Evolution Edge or Evolution Insight gauges in all my trucks, and I've gotten quite used to them. They are electronic gauges that display any number of data points on the fly, which is relatively easy with OBD II.







I'm looking into options for the 968 and of course there being no market interest in OBD I, it has to be something analog or custom, and it must be integrated and above all attractive. With our limited space in the cockpit, this is the only way I'll fit all the things I want into a tiny space, not unlike the Cayman and Boxster I rented this year which had lots of screens in one of the dash pods, selectable with one of the column stalks.



Things I am interested in monitoring include AF Ratio, Boost/Vac, Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT), Transmission Temperature, and for grins MPG. I don't even know that all of those things are possible on the 968, but like I said, those are the things I am interested in at the moment.



I searched for pillar gauge pods, and have sent questions to Lindsay Racing and two other outfits, but I'm quite certain their units only fit the 944 and only the coupe at that. But it might be a starting point - I could buy one, cut it down and vacuum form some Kydex to it, which would be better than starting from scratch.



Has anyone seen something that I could research to fit the bill, even if only partially?

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[flash]

lol - welcome to my world. i've spent probably 100 hours searching for the things to do exactly what you are looking for. no soap. to make it work, i would have to completely rework the dash and cluster. this would ruin the look, and become very ricey or cobbled looking.



even the a-pillar is undesirable. i had one here and popped it on there, just to see, and it was very ricey, the finish was not right, and it just wasn't in a good spot to actually see, as they are too close to you, whcih defeated the entire purpose. when the gauges were lit up, i was blinded by the glare. it went straight into the garbage.



in the end, i mounted a 951 boost gauge (which required reworking the tach, and merging a 968 tach with a 951 guage, resilkscreening the gauge, and adding a klr to run it, as a map sensor would not work) all in, it cost me a grad, and a whole lot of work, but it looks right.



the oil temp will likely be a switched sender, utilizing the coolant temp guage, so that i can have both coolant and oil temp at the flip of a switch. i could make it a multi-position switch, and have as many senders as i wanted attached to it, as long as i used the same sender.



ultimately though, much of this is unnecessary. nothing much can go wrong that a gauge will help you with. boost/vacuum is a good one, just to tell you if you have an odd problem, but in decreasing order, a/f readings, oil temp, trans temp, and exhaust temp are really not much help, unless you are on the track. you just won't get anything up into the danger range on the street, no matter how hard you drive, and there's nothing you can do about it but stop driving, even if they did tell you something.



an a/f gauge is a REALLY bad idea. the readings fluctuate so fast that trying to watch it at all will be far too distracting and likely cause you to crash the car. trying to drive and tune the car, while watching the gauge, was incredibly dangerous, and i frequently found myself nearly hitting something or moving out of my lane. it was far better to either have somebody else drive the car, or merely use logging. in either event, an a/f gauge is a bad idea for the driver.



oil temp can be helpful on the track, or if you are really going to push the engine, but even that is less of an indicator than the coolant temp, as the oil reacts much more slowly to change, and will tell you later than you need that you have a problem. the oil pressure gauge will be a better indicator of an oil system failure, and the coolant temp gauge will be a better indicator of climbing temps.



exhaust gas temps are pointless to watch. unless you are tuning, and looking for timing limits, there is no need to watch that. once you are done tuning, you no longer need those readings. it's not like any condition would change them.



trans temp is helpful in a tow rig, but useless in a car. it is what it is. if you change your fluid regularly, temps will always be within tolerances, again, unless you are on the track, and a high speed one at that. trans temps are very slow to change, and a gauge will not give you any indications until it is too late anyway.



mpg is a simple calculation. your vacuum gauge will give you just as good of a reading. i use my mpg readout in the denali all the time, and do like it, but could just as easily do the math in my head.



i love gauges, and had a whole lot of them in the mgb. that was when i was young and hung up on silly stuff like that though. now that i am older, and have learned a lot more about what i need to pay attention to, and more importantly, what i don't, i am letting function rule form, and only putting in the car what i really need.

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[tamathumper]

LOL, yeah, but if it was about "need" Bob, I wouldn't be driving or upgrading a 968. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.png" class="smilie" alt="" />



I wonder if Dakota Digital has ever done a car like ours. They've got some real custom stuff, albeit all of their examples are for the muscle car crowd, and they're pushing the blue/teal color scheme (blech).

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[flash]

fair enough. don't get me wrong, i'm all for gauges and stuff. but, as i said, i looked into this extensively, and was prepared to spend at least $5k to do it, but i could not find anything that would not require completely new electronics, changing every sender in place, and even if i did all of that, i still ended up with things i could not read.



as somebody who spent enough hours on the track to know better, gauges are read at a very quick blink. anything that requires thinking or adjusting your vision is useless, and even sometimes dangerous. on my track cars, i always had the gauges oriented so that the needle pointed straight up in nominal condition. that way, you only had to see if it was to the right or left of that to know your condition.



what may be able to be adapted though is a completely new cluster, with multiple quarter sweep gauges in each gauge location. i have an extra cluster here, that i planned to use as a development of that, if i ever got around to it. it won't be easy or inexpensive, but it could probably be done. you would gain backlighting at the same time.



something to think about.

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[tamathumper]

Even if it were just a single LCD panel recessed tastefully into the existing gauge cluster, with a "selector" button for the different modes, I'd be happy. Not this color scheme obviously, but you know what I mean - heck my wife's VW EOS and my Ford F-150 with Sync both have multi-selectable modes for all kinds of things.



http://www.dakotadig...prod/prd846.htm



Hmm, now that I think about it, a better place for all this would be the Double-DIN stereo spot... I could put in something running Android and develop my own apps for capturing whatever analog or digital signals I want with Bluetooth and Arduinos!



Or... how about this.

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[flash]

lol - i've actually been thinking about the mirror idea. i saw that about a year ago and it started me thinking.

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[ds968]

Geez, what are you guys trying to do , make your 968 cabins look like the space shuttle's instrument panel , or the Vegas strip at night ?

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[Rap]

Boy I don't spend a lot of time looking at gauges at the track but what do I know. I've got the sound of the rpm's down so I know when I'm close to 7200. Just kidding Flash 6000 is my number!

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[biosurfer1]

If you're going to run android, might as well look into the "Torque" app, although I don't know if they have an ODB I dongle (or if they even make one for that matter)

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[tamathumper]

The nice thing about the mirror is that it wouldn't change the look of the interior at all - it's only visible when it's on. Same for the stereo. Most of the current crop of Double DIN stereos seem to be running an ancient version of Android, 2.3-ish, but we'll see what CES brings.

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[TheDude]

ultimately though, much of this is unnecessary. nothing much can go wrong that a gauge will help you with.

[color="#000000"][size="3"]Another gauge I found/find fairly useless was the voltage gauge. [/size][/color]



[color="#000000"][size="3"]Either there is power, i.e. battery is charged, and the car starts or there is no power, i.e. the battery is discharged, and the car won't start. In either case, a voltage gauge tells only what is obvious anyway.[/size][/color]



[color="#000000"][size="3"]MN[/size][/color]

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[tamathumper]

I've come across some good research and projects that use Arduinos and OLED screens, but I need to ask someone about the instrument cluster - specifically I want to embed a small square screen somewhere and I need to know the depth behind there - the bottom of the tachometer has a good expanse of unused space for a multi-function OLED display, so long as there's a few MM of clearance,...



Anyone?

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[tamathumper]

Nobody can tell me what's behind the lower face of the tachometer?

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[flash]

lol - my boost gauge

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[flash]

   

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[Cloud9...68]

I think Tama means on the backside of the tach.



Sorry, been years since I had mine out...

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[flash]

i know. the gauge is behind the tach. only the needle is in front of it.

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[tamathumper]

I'll start another thread with what I'm thinking of doing. flash, you had your redline(s) removed?

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[flash]

i had the entire gauge face re-silkscreened to my spec. that is not a 951 tach. it is a 968 tach, with new silkscreening, and a 951 boost gauge added to it (along with the klr and 951 tach guts buried int he dash)

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