T&L Publications

I want to put together a digital display (on lcd screen, not graphical YET; text for now) for my car ('84 camaro z/28 carbed) I want to get such information from the senders such as: Oil Pressure, Oil Temp., Water Temp., Speed, etc. what kind of modules are out there and also how hard would it be to figure out the reading from the sender and put it into real text on the screen?

Cheers,
Dan

Hello there,<p>In most cases, unless you want the very least
functionality you will need to use a CPU or
controller microprocessor. If this sounds
ok to you, then you should proceed. If not,
then you may wish to stick with individual
analog devices. A Basic Stamp might fill the
bill as well. There are some already built
comercial units out there too.<p>Good luck, and i hope you post some results
from your work here too so we can all read it
and check it out.<p>--Al

I would like to put one in my 79 deville as well. I always had digital dashes and now that I am back to my old 79, It'd be nice to have in there.

You can get an old '286 or '386 for somewhere between dirt cheap and free. Run an LCD module on the parallel port. The software can boot from a minimal hard drive. You might even be able to run two displays on the same port. I'm not sure, but I think I saw something about one of the nine pin port lines being some semblance of analog (though not very good). An lm335 is an inexpensive thermometer with good linearity. For tach., timing the ignition pulses would be the ticket. For speed there are several options, one of which is multiplying the tach. by the gear ratio and tire circumference. Good luck on your project.