DIY OLED Gauge Panel - Work In Progress

[Tannerjpowell]

I'm planning on setting up a DIY multi gauge for my suburban and I figured I would post some information / pictures for anyone willing to help and / or try it out on their own.

The goal is to have an OLED display setup to show at least 4 sensor outputs at a time. The system will be standalone, but I may add the ability to handle some ALDL data and a USB port for data logging later.

The system will generally consists of:
- controller (PICAXE 40x2 microcontroller) and mother board components
- PICAXE configured 20 Character x 4 Line OLED display,
- Type K thermo couple,
- manifold absolute pressure sensor (I found one for an 01' duramax on rockauto for a discontinued AC Delco supplier for $25!),
- oil temp probe.

MOST of the work is going to go into controller design. The PICAXE system is relatively easy to program on, but you will need to construct the 'motherboard' before you can play with it.

Components the motherboard will need:
- A voltage regulator to go from whatever your vehicle happens to be running to 5 very steady volts. I believe you can use a 5v (PN 7805 at radio shack) I think I will be stacking a 12v regulator ahead of that (PN 7810T).
- Some hardware based noise reduction (especially for the thermo couple). Thermocouple outputs for K-Type (most diesel EGT probes are k-type) are in the -10 to 50 millivolt range and every wire surrounding it in the engine bay carries a voltage several orders of magnitude higher. Induced current in the cable could easily wipe out your EGT reading. There will probably be a single post later dedicated to this topic.

My suburban has an aftermarket radio installed, so I'm going to use the factory location to mount the LCD, a few dummy lights and two buttons to cycle through display configurations.

You can find all the parts listed above scattered around the web and some of them from site vendors (such as the individual sensors). I ordered my PICAXE parts from the original source in the UK and bought an extra of everything but the OLED (total was $110 shipped).
Prices are as follows:
PICAXE 40X2 microcontroller and mother board components - $30-50
PICAXE OLED - $46
Type K EGT probe - $60 shipped
MAP Sensor - $25-50
A couple common two wire coolant / engine oil temp sensors - $15 each

Project Total ~ 190-240

plus lots of time. I'm hoping that MY time can be substituted in place of your time and you can copy this system as desired.

I'm developing all of my own programs and circuit designs and will be releasing them for public use once they are polished up. I'm hoping to have the kit functioning sometime shortly after the new year (Jan 2013) God willing.

I'll post up the first pictures in a few weeks after all the parts are here and I've got some play time in with the PICAXE controller.

[matuva]

suscribed to thread. Please do it

[Octane]

Originally Posted by Tannerjpowell

I'm planning on setting up a DIY multi gauge for my suburban and I figured I would post some information / pictures for anyone willing to help and / or try it out on their own.

The goal is to have an OLED display setup to show at least 4 sensor outputs at a time. The system will be standalone, but I may add the ability to handle some ALDL data and a USB port for data logging later.

The system will generally consists of:
- controller (PICAXE 40x2 microcontroller) and mother board components
- PICAXE configured 20 Character x 4 Line OLED display,
- Type K thermo couple,
- manifold absolute pressure sensor (I found one for an 01' duramax on rockauto for a discontinued AC Delco supplier for $25!),
- oil temp probe.

MOST of the work is going to go into controller design. The PICAXE system is relatively easy to program on, but you will need to construct the 'motherboard' before you can play with it.

Components the motherboard will need:
- A voltage regulator to go from whatever your vehicle happens to be running to 5 very steady volts. I believe you can use a 5v (PN 7805 at radio shack) I think I will be stacking a 12v regulator ahead of that (PN 7810T).
- Some hardware based noise reduction (especially for the thermo couple). Thermocouple outputs for K-Type (most diesel EGT probes are k-type) are in the -10 to 50 millivolt range and every wire surrounding it in the engine bay carries a voltage several orders of magnitude higher. Induced current in the cable could easily wipe out your EGT reading. There will probably be a single post later dedicated to this topic.

My suburban has an aftermarket radio installed, so I'm going to use the factory location to mount the LCD, a few dummy lights and two buttons to cycle through display configurations.

You can find all the parts listed above scattered around the web and some of them from site vendors (such as the individual sensors). I ordered my PICAXE parts from the original source in the UK and bought an extra of everything but the OLED (total was $110 shipped).
Prices are as follows:
PICAXE 40X2 microcontroller and mother board components - $30-50
PICAXE OLED - $46
Type K EGT probe - $60 shipped
MAP Sensor - $25-50
A couple common two wire coolant / engine oil temp sensors - $15 each

Project Total ~ 190-240

plus lots of time. I'm hoping that MY time can be substituted in place of your time and you can copy this system as desired.

I'm developing all of my own programs and circuit designs and will be releasing them for public use once they are polished up. I'm hoping to have the kit functioning sometime shortly after the new year (Jan 2013) God willing.

I'll post up the first pictures in a few weeks after all the parts are here and I've got some play time in with the PICAXE controller.

your atechy kinda guy i take it, good stuff! oled would make a overkill screen for some data to be displayed but hell itll look perty!, looking forward to pics and info to come!

[lolailando]

I would look into using the arduino platform. It is a newer/stronger opensource platform and really cheap and a much bigger support community...its kind of like linus of microcontrolers.
I was gona start a similar project but have too many on the list.
Look also into the odbII readers they cost $10-20 and you can read everything in your android phone with gauges etc...
I posted most of the info I found in this other forum:
http://beyondbiodiesel.org/forum/index.php?topic=147.0
hope that helps you save a lot of development time. the software for the android phones is great

[BDDiesel]

Subscribed

[Tannerjpowell]

Working through the board layout right now. Most of the parts are here. I'm going to dedicate this post to MAP selection, since all the different models and lack of ANY pressure ratings from the parts houses has managed to confuse me more than I would have guessed.

If you decide to grab an OEM style MAP, use this site as a reference for any pressure sensors you choose (http://www.powerandsignal.com/Products/Pressure.aspx) and then go match up p/n's as necessary.

The part I purchased was incorrectly listed on rock auto as a correct part for a 6.6L duramax equipped vehicle (supposed to be 3.3 bar). Infact, its a 1 bar sensor (09359409 - 103 kPa / 1 bar / 14.9 psi absolute pressure). You will need atleast 2 bar, but I'm only listing the 3.3 and 3 bar options at this time.


Options:

1. P/N Delphi 16235939 or 09373269: 3.3 bar / 49 psi maximum absolute pressure or up to 35.7 psi of 'boost' pressure (this is the duramax part). Also p/n Auber-303 for similar model including harness.

2. P/N Delphi 12219935 or 12223861: 3 bar (up to 29 psi of boost pressure). Old GM Turbo f-body part. ***A VERY similar part can be found under the p/n Auber-103 with a harness for a very fair price. This is the one I selected for my application. Comes with the harness too.

Also, if you decide to do any other pressure sensors, that same brand has many types (up to 28 bar for transmission line pressure measurement!) and good datasheets on them as well.

Auber has the type K thermocouple you will need to measure EGT's. I paid more for mine than they are asking but it looks the same. :/

I'm going to try to make a common GM 3 wire oil pressure sender give me the fuel pressure readings I want.

Will work on the two wire coolant and trans temp sensors next. I'm hoping to use common GM two wire sensors there too...

Will update soon.

[bshull]

I am following! I am looking to replace my glowshift gauges.

I am considering this:

multiguage

I think it will work with most of the existing sensors.

I have also considered using a mini computer running GMTD scantech tied to a small touch screen.

Good luck and keep posting results!

Brian

[Tannerjpowell]

This multigauge won't look QUITE that pretty to start with, but it's fairly expandable. I'm just trying to get some units and numbers for now, and maybe a bar readout for boost / EGT. Dreaming of stepper motors with OEM looking needles and markings or full color AMEOLED touch screen... I think the easiest way to do that will be to add a blue tooth module so that it can stream live data to an android device for display and data logging.

Updates are coming!

[turbonator]

Subbed in....

[Tannerjpowell]

Have a little update. I'm still waiting on MAX6675 chip to process the EGT thermo couple.
Have a couple sensors that I have calibrated under the IAT label shown. One is a two wire coolant temp sensor Master Pro PN 2-8296 (uses BWD connector PN PT191). The other is a 1 bar MAP AC Delco PN 213796. When the 3 bar MAP arrives, I just have to change a couple numbers in the code and it should read just like the 1 bar.

After sensor calibration I will finalize the circuit board and build the prototype for on vehicle testing. Looking at about 2 months before it can be easily copied. It will require a bit of soldering to assemble.