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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 3:37 pm 
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.. to the 1960's look, I think one of these would be pretty slick, and very easy to incorporate into our cars!

The size is pretty nifty, and is pretty universal.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intellitronix-6 ... pH&vxp=mtr

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 4:13 pm 
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Interesting.... Here's a YouTube of it in action.



Some of their gauges don't have very good reviews (Amazon) though and since these are refubs, I'd wonder how they'd survive?

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 4:35 pm 
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I think its a classic case of "you get what you pay for"

My experience with electronics though, particularly low end ones, is that refurbd are often better than the originals since they are actually repaired with human hands.. and not just assembled by a couple Chinese robots with blinders on.

they also sell a "make your own dash kit" Which includes all the electronics, but not in the pre formed housing.

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 4:46 pm 
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Tend to agree on the refub units... had pretty darn good luck with them in general. You know they are better tested than the mass produced counter-parts, but if the parts are low quality, then even reworking and retesting won't help in the end. Replace 20 out of 100 LEDs and you still have 80 candidates likely to fail!

Kinda thinking of this as a Plan B if the Shadow Dash for the Megasquirt doesn't pass the inspection process. No one can tell me if a physical speedo gauge is actually required (or if a tablet GPS version suffices) and those that should be able to, say they'd need to see the car to determine that. WHAT?!?!?! Gotta love NC!!!

Thanks for the viable option!!

KS

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 5:08 pm 
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botbasher wrote:
No one can tell me if a physical speedo gauge is actually required (or if a tablet GPS version suffices) and those that should be able to, say they'd need to see the car to determine that. WHAT?!?!?! Gotta love NC!!!

Thanks for the viable option!!

KS

The vehicle wont be moving during the inspection so buy the cheapest speedo gauge you can find and zip tie it in place with the lose wires disappearing behind the dash.

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 5:09 pm 
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If you need ammo for that argument - there are now dozens of entry level model cars in the US that use digital only speedometers/odometers/ dash units!

Why can't my locost have it, but a Honda civic can!

I'm having that trouble with whether or not a windshield is required in CT.. there are all sorts of size requirements FOR windshields and specifications as to what they need to be made of.. but nothing as to whether or not it HAS to be there, or if a windscreen will suffice.

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PostPosted: February 23, 2016, 5:10 pm 
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My experience with electronics though, particularly low end ones, is that refurbd are often better than the originals since they are actually repaired with human hands.. and not just assembled by a couple Chinese robots with blinders on.
I can say that I have been in the High-End PCBA business for many years. We never repaired boards that did not pass test the 1st time. It was our QA dept's feeling that human hands could introduce latent failures due to any number of reasons. They didn't want to take the risk. That being said, I have never been disappointed with "refurb'ed" electronics.

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PostPosted: February 24, 2016, 9:27 am 
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1055 wrote:
Why can't my locost have it, but a Honda civic can!
The "grey" is that the tablet isn't actually part of the car and if removed, which it can be because MS is running the car, the car has no speedo.

I've got a better than average chance since they'll be looking at other things that I can fly past, but if they look too close, they might make the "connection" and realize it's not truly part of the car!

I'm kinda in Wright's book with strapping on a $10 electronic speedo and calling it good, but we have to do yearly inspections here in NC, so if it's a major block, then I might need something a little more permanent. I am trying to keep the dash clean, so this would fit in nicely!

Bureaucracy... You gotta love it!

KS

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PostPosted: February 24, 2016, 9:35 am 
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What if you just made a case of sorts for the tablet hard mounted in the car, with a hinged side for easy removal.. Would "fool" the inspectors into thinking it was permanent, but you could easily remove it every time you enter/exit the car?

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PostPosted: February 24, 2016, 10:24 am 
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1055 wrote:
What if you just made a case of sorts for the tablet hard mounted in the car, with a hinged side for easy removal.. Would "fool" the inspectors into thinking it was permanent, but you could easily remove it every time you enter/exit the car?
That's the plan. Going to hard mount a silicone case to the dash. Slip the tablet in and out as needed.

I'm just one of those that plans for the worst.... hopes for the best.... and never gets disappointed!

KS

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PostPosted: February 25, 2016, 4:39 am 
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Another big thing is the whole "Odometer must not be easily changed or modified" stipulation.

I myself prefer the looks of the VFD digidashes, from the days of stylized bar graph tachometers.

Chrysler had some sweet ones in the late 80's/early 90's, and Cadillac had some nice ones into the mid 90's.

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PostPosted: February 25, 2016, 10:50 am 
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Do these "universal" kits use your original sensors and senders? The big advantage I see is that they're relatively small and also pretty bright. I've kept my donor instrumentation cluster. It's physically large, maybe a little too large practically speaking. It matches all the sensors and senders of course, but also appears to rely on some aspects of the donor's ECU, which I may not keep in the end.

So, I was just wondering if my donor cluster could be replaced with one of these units? What's the general feeling from those of you who know electronics?

Cheers,

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PostPosted: February 25, 2016, 2:42 pm 
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Lonnie,

Most of these use their own sending units (or OEM based sending units, I see GM/AC Delco sending units along with Bosch the most frequently). This particular one uses it own digital sending units and subsequent wiring direct from the engine components it tracking. Additional wiring, but it also means you have a very limited chance for potential drivability issues by splicing into ECU sensor leads for signals.

Most EFI/ ECU operated power trains from the late 80's up use LIN bus signals from the ECU/PCM to the cluster to display information. Later models (03/05 ish+) Will use can bus signals. Depending on what kind of output your ECU has, you may be able to go direct from the ECU to a cluster like this.

I personally always liked the idea of having separate gauges in the cluster rather than the ECU telling the cluster what it thinks is going on. If you have an OBDII or Scannable OBDI ECU, you can also use separate, isolated gauges as a diagnostic tool against the ECU.

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PostPosted: February 25, 2016, 3:33 pm 
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Thank you, Tucker. My donor is a '94 Mustang. It's OBDII even though most people think that started a year or two later. I have all the wiring harness plus the ECU. But, the harness is very complicated, has lots of big plug connectors, and tons of stuff I'll never use. I even saved the keyless entry system thinking I could adapt it as a security system. And besides, I like the idea of a home-built car with no doors or windows or roof doing the "Yuppie Churp" in amougst all the BMWs, Porsches and Audis around here. :mrgreen:

I keep going back and forth between the project of adapting the donor stuff versus the project of doing it from scratch, simplifying and adding a Megasquirt controller. Either way would be a big learning curve for me. I haven't fiddled with electronics since my physics labs while at university.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

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PostPosted: February 25, 2016, 3:51 pm 
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Lonnie-S wrote:
Thank you, Tucker. My donor is a '94 Mustang. It's OBDII even though most people think that started a year or two later. I have all the wiring harness plus the ECU. But, the harness is very complicated, has lots of big plug connectors, and tons of stuff I'll never use.


My donor is a 95 Camaro. I'm trying to use the EFI as well, if nothing else to save money (the carb + intakes that the Stalker uses is pushing $900 or so). But as you can see, there's a bit of wiring to this thing as well:

Attachment:
wiring2_2013-04-20_13-14-41_709.jpg


Lonnie-S wrote:
I even saved the keyless entry system thinking I could adapt it as a security system. And besides, I like the idea of a home-built car with no doors or windows or roof doing the "Yuppie Churp" in amougst all the BMWs, Porsches and Audis around here. :mrgreen:


Which was my reaction first time I saw a high-end convertible, with its top down, going "chirp chirp". Seriously, the roof is down, what good does it do to "lock" the thing? I was later told that it also armed the car alarm, which was kinda funny in that we were in BFE-istan rural Michigan at the time.

Lonnie-S wrote:
I keep going back and forth between the project of adapting the donor stuff versus the project of doing it from scratch, simplifying and adding a Megasquirt controller. Either way would be a big learning curve for me. I haven't fiddled with electronics since my physics labs while at university. Cheers,


And I have the same oscillations of thought myself. Keep the OBD1.5 (it's got a OBD2 adapter, but it's not OBD2) system when I've already got a hacked ECU, or go OBD1, or maybe go to OBD2, or maybe MegaSquirt... but I've got an eBay search going every day for the carb parts....


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