Re: LCD Dash......Can It Be Done??

[Brad Sheridan <brads@mindspring.com>]

At 03:56 PM 10/19/98 +0100, you wrote:
>My dad is an Electrical Engineer BSc Honours Degree in Electrical
engineering,
>with 30 years computering experience.Currently builds and programs CPU's  
>that control fire alarm system in nuclear reactor plants.He seems to think a 
>LCD dash could be done....I'm not going to argue with him.
>
>So,I guess thats one for no and one for yes

Vic didn't say it couldn't be done, just that it would be a big task, and I
agree. And so would your dad. Now some comments on the original post:



	> I feel
>	> thats its time cars caught up with technology and join the digital
>	> revolution,

I like my analog gauges, much easier to read than digital equivalents.
Digital is OK for some stuff(coolant temp being a good example), but I
still find an anlog meter movement easier to decipher quickly. Even the
digital bar graphs aren't as good, IMHO. And yes I have worked with digital
dashes in the past. PI offers them as an addon to their data acquisition
packages. They have some really nice features, but I still like the analog
tach better than their bar graph. And don't bother asking how much, to use
the dash, you need the full data acquisition system, which'll only set you
back $20,000 or so.  

	
>	IMHO technology should only be added if it improves the usability of 
>something.
>	I don't think this is true of an instrument cluster.

You can add usability to an instrument cluster over what it is now. But
most digital dashes suck. 

	
>	
>	> Anyway,does anyone on the list have comments,opinions or ideas about 
>this???
>	> I think it could be done relatively easy,probably the hardest part 
>being
>	> fitting the LCD itself.

You've obviously never done any real electronics design work. It would be a
very big task, and very expensive, as custom LCD displays aren't cheap,
you're looking at a few thousand US$ just for the LCD display, no driver
chips or anything. Making it just work the bar graph tach and speedo, with
a few numeric displays for sensors, wouldn't be too difficult to do in
programming. But thats only if you've done this before(I have, on a serial
LCD display). Anything more complicated, and the programming complexity
will jump up exponentially. But the scope of the project is very big, and
if you don't have microcontroller(not microprocessor) programming
experience, forget about it. If you want to make something that looked and
functioned like it was built by a second grader, that would be easy. But to
design a somewhat attractive piece that worked better than the stock
system, you're talking about serious work.

Brad


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