Hello Everyone

As part of my bodywork refresh I have scrapped my old fireblade clocks so looking for something new.

eBay is awash with nice 5.5" replacement clocks, some that look very nice as well for under £50, however I moved a new XC60 Volvo a couple of days ago with a tablet dash. I have seen these before although discarded the idea as overly complex for what I want.

As I am running mega squirt and this is now supported by an Andriod app it has got me thinking about simply dropping a cheap tablet into my car which should provide all I need + logging facilities for similar money. It would also be light as well

Having searched I can see notes where people have thought about this, has anyone actually done it?

My concerns are vibration, cold, what happens if I just leave in the car for a few months, will it forget? But mostly reading the display ? I can easily bury under the scuttle at this stage.

Cheers Mark

This will be interesting.

Good luck with things.

My thoughts-

Tablets don't work well in cold weather
Or wet
Plus what will the mot person say?
Androids crash a lot so it's a risk
Updates? How you planning to run updates etc.
What happens if they pull the apk?

There was a guy developing a dash based on the raspberrypi with an lcd display, not sure how he got on though.

Visibility might not be great

MOT just needs odometer so I can drop in an ancillary pushbike digital display maybe, thinking about it I have an iPad so with a Bluetooth connection I could just install on the days I am running the car even cheaper.

Viewing may still be the issue of course

Visibility isn't a problem, put a matt cover on it. I use them on my phone and it's perfectly visible in anything other than direct sunlight (which obscures the speedo just as much).

My concern would be reliability, considering how many times I have to reset my phone I wouldn't want it for anything that I depended on to avoid a speeding ticket. A raspberry Pi solution seems to be a better option though, especially as you can buy touch screens now that come with mounting brackets on the back for the Pi.

A hard wired odometer in a discreet location would be a prudent backup, it's the only thing that needs to be 'permanent'. MOT requires one to be present, not sure it says visible?

I have a samsung s3 phone as my datatlogger in my clio. Runs race chrono and a couple apps to add a screen power button and to lock it in landscape mode. Works well as dash but only as its linked to obd2 reader so repeats main dash speed amd revs. Also its linked to a 10hz gps for superb accuracy over regular 1hz u get in phones etc.

A fair few newer phones (samsung s5 etc) are ip rated and 1m rater resistant. However, water on the screen plays havoc with touch ability.

quote:

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Originally posted by mark chandler
MOT just needs odometer so I can drop in an ancillary pushbike digital display maybe, thinking about it I have an iPad so with a Bluetooth connection I could just install on the days I am running the car even cheaper.

I believe you are required by law to have a working speedometer and fuel gauge as well as a method of recording total mileage

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nelmo - 4/1/16 at 08:02 PM

That's a cool idea - I'm going to look into it as well.

It must be OK legally because have a look at the Tesla - no gauges or buttons at all, just 2 flatscreen displays (one about 20 inches across in the centre console).

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loggyboy - 5/1/16 at 08:49 AM

This is the fairly basic install I did on my tintop.

I bought a 99p cover/case with a plastic back and rubber surround. Screwed the plastic back to the old clock frame and ran a charging cable behind the dash.



IN the background you can see the 10hz Qstarz GPS receiver, this makes such a massive difference to GPS accuracy.



Running Race Chrono (with in-app purchased Bluetooth functions for a few quid).

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swanny - 5/1/16 at 09:57 AM

i had one of these as a hire car a few weeks ago, the main screen looked exactly like a tablet, (i',m sure it is underneath) but didnt remove.

neat idea though


[Edited on 5/1/16 by swanny]https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwip7eDrs 5LKAhWDBBoKHbEACBsQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.carbuyer.co.uk%2Freviews%2Fcitroen%2Fcactus%2Fsuv%2Finterior&psig=AFQjCNHG9p16C818DpUx9jhyV95a2 FurGQ&ust=1452074138377663[/img]]cactus

[Edited on 5/1/16 by swanny]

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obfripper - 5/1/16 at 02:43 PM

I have used a nexus 7 with MSdroid for datalogging and as a temporary speedo, and use my note 3 for datalogging, only with the free app version though.
It was reliable enough as far as the dash display functions go, i did find that a few of the datalogs taken over bluetooth had errors that required manual editing to make useable, i think was due to data rate fluctuations/inteference, not the actual app itself.

Shadow dash looks to be a more suited app as a dash replacement, as it does have an odometer function, and any dash layout that you can create in Tuner studio can be imported to Shadow dash, however i don't have any experience of how reliable the app is & there is no free/lite version available to test it out.
Both MSdroid and Shadow dash can use the internal device sensors for displayed data, ie gps speed, 3 axis g-forces etc.

The external gps is a good idea for a more accurate speedo, also you may be able to use an existing speed sensor as an input to your megasquirt depending on version, and be able to log/display this with the app.

Dave

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yngndrw - 5/1/16 at 09:57 PM

Android Auto may be of interest to you:
https://www.android.com/intl/en_uk/auto/

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ravingfool - 5/1/16 at 11:33 PM

nexus 7 is quite popular for this as they're dirt cheap now.

I've got one in my mx5 although for media and navigation in what is a daily driver rather than for dash/datalogging.

Others are using theirs to monitor and tune megasquirt/ run shadowdash gauges.

Big thread over on nutz about it in the mx5 realm. A lot of it related to audio which is of no interest to you but if you need pointers on the installation of USB rom (if you go down that route) there's lots there plus links to other resources.

nexus thread on nutz

With a better external gps apparently the data logging is good although I've got no direct experience as I'm only using mine for the occasional navigation and the onboard gps is fine for that. (decent external gps will cost a few quid too).

Lots of info on the nexus all over the web, particularly on the ice forums and android forum at xda devs.

If you want to do this you will want some special android features though and need to consider USB rom or autodroid or one of the other small implementations which will require a small amount of reading to work out how to install and make use of these things! Not complicated but if you're unfamiliar (as I was, and now am again) then it may take a while.

I will be interested to hear if you take this any further, I have this possibility in the back of my mind for the striker once I go megasquirt but only as an engineering exercise really - suspect that real gauges are going to be much better aesthetically and practically (waterproofing etc).

good luck!

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