Some clarification - the code which talks to the ECU is exactly the same as the original. Errors are spelled out to a maximum of 20 characters on the screen; to get a more detailed error message - the magic numbers - you need a terminal and USB connector. You'll still have to decode those numbers by hand, I'm afraid - there isn't room on the display for all the information that's available.

What's changed is that the resolution of the screen has increased, and the shape is a little taller. That has meant that I can improve the font for better legibility and that the measurement bars are proportionally taller - again, that makes them easier to read.

All the screens are back-lit. There's a single LED - sadly, cast into the plastic housing so probably impossible to change colour once decided - and while I can't find a guaranteed lifetime for it I would expect it to be more reliable than the green/yellow MK3 versions since it's mounted differently and I can be conservative in its current feed.

Colour screens are prohibitively expensive, but also computationally so; they require a minimum of three times as many writes to the screen and more usually twenty-four times. With the processor I've used, that would make the screen writes too slow to be useful.

Separating the screen doesn't really help. The circuit board (it won't be the one shown in the teaser pics; that's just an old MK1 board I use as a test mule) is about the same size as the display, just a few mm longer. The HK mount is possible; I'll be talking to Baracoupe about mouldings but I'm making no promises. The initial offering will be on a carbon-fibre/fibreglass sandwich composite plate, as per the original.

<sigh> It's so much easier when you expect to sell a few hundred thousand... you can go to manufacturers and get their undivided attention, *and* their best prices. Effectively, I'm doing everything buying at retail here. It's expensive, and it's annoying.

when you say this will be significantly different to the other versions neil, do you mean it'll do extra stuff or is it mainly cosmetic changes, or is it still a secret?

im tempted anyway, just curious.


...and that post above has just answered my question........ lol

If anyone wants to develop a colour interface then it would be better to get one of the these http://www.roalan.com/Bluetooth%20Wireless%20Serial%20RS232%20Converter.htm (or similar) and plug it into the widget and find a pda that has bluetooth and supports the bluetooth serial port protocal and do it that way. I would imagine that it wouldn't be *that* hard to build using VB (famous last words !!) as all you would be doing it decoding a stream of numbers and converting those to a graphical output.

You could then hide the widget away and place the pda where ever you like, I always liked the idea of embedding something into the sun visor as thats about the only place that I can see as being free apart from from sticking out of the dash:)

Dont quite know if it would work with the later usb widgets.

Sorry if offtopic.

Out of interest, providing all goes well and the new widget works... Can we expect a rise in price from the previous model? if so roughly how much are we talking?

Nathan.

p.s Interested!

i am 100% intrested in one off these

paul

Price is as yet undefined - the PCB chap charges in Euros now instead of dollars, the git, and I haven't totalled the parts yet since I haven't confirmed everything works.

But it is my intention that this goes at approx the price of the last one - £125-140 inc european postage.

oh im excited, get a riggle on

Although I'm not sure that you intended this thread to be a list of those with intent to buy I'd also like to register my firm interest Just don't go stooping over a hot soldering iron too much with the back as it is!

maybe pushing my luck but whats the chance of getting one with the picture changed for a Marea?



does look really interesting!

Zero...

Don't think it would work with a Marea, anyway - aren't they all post 2001? In which case, they'd be OBDII compliant.

But you can have it in a choice of English or Italian.

Or Scottish:

1). Warning! Broken. Expensive

2). Warning! Broken. Fccuking Expensive

3). Warning! Broken. Sell the bairns!

4). Warning! Broken. Sell yer kidney!

Lol stan, that would have to be a ross special edition to say things like that on the screen.

Seriously, Italian is easy. The Italians bought a big pile of the Mk1 and did all the translation for me; I just have to change one line of code and it all happens!

Neil

Nah. Mines would be...

1. Its broke, try fix it yourself, but fail.
2. Its broke, you'll need to spend money.
3. Its broke, you'll need to scam money off someone
4. Its broke, you'll need to start again

Ross

You could use your phone, if it was of the PDA variety.

You could *use* it, but you couldn't *see* it. One of the problems I've had has been finding displays big enough to see at a glance at arm's length.

The PDA idea works well, but of course costs the price of the PDA on top of the widget. If you can find a serial adaptor (and a reliable version of WinCE - it's buggy as hell on comms functions) then the simplest way to do this would be to use a microwidget and modify Star Trek to work on 20v and WinCE.

And before anyone asks, NO. Do it yerselfs! That's why it's open source

Neil

Hi Neil,

The PDA idea would provide people who already have them (e.g. on their phones) the ability to display more info should they have the inclination to develop the required software

Cheers

Scott

PS If I still have my car when they start coming out of the Barnacle Factory Ill take one!

put my name down for one!

Okay, stuffed it into a bodged plate and got it in the car. 'Tis a runner! Now I feel I can get the quotes for the carbon fibre plates and the circuit boards.

http://www.nailed-barnacle.co.uk/public/p3180039.jpg

(Er, the final version will only show the active area of the screen, not the entrails... )

I like the idea of using my Palm phone/PDA and bluetooth to communicate with the widget, I already use bluetooth for GPS and SatNav, but I have no idea how to program the PDA with Palm OS. I have written a few very clunky programs in SmallBasic, and you could get a lot of useful info on the 320x320 screen

Looking good Neil.............I'll take 200

Funnily enough I did try to use smallbasic and did a small test but unfortunalty the graphic processing was so slow for even the most basic of drawing. This was done using a palm 111e I think so maybe the later ones are better/faster and have the capability. What Palm pda do you have by the way ?

Treo 650 (using it now ) haven't felt the need to upgrade, it's mature technology - like me!

erm, lets say i have a 1997 20vT in the shape of a Marea.... now what are the chances?

Well, I can do it in 20vt flavour

Basically, there are four bitmaps in the source code; they're displayed depending which of the four coupe variants you use. I'm not about to change that part of the source code; at the moment it works and I really don't want to mess around with it.

So, if you have a 20vt engine *and* ECU in your Marea, then a 20vt logo is what you'll see. But only for five seconds.

(Just went out to see how bright it is at night... plenty bright, plenty green! )

if its just a case of a bit map can you send me over and example one i could modify for my design and just load it onto the device you send to me in place of the 20vt one?

In theory yes; in practice no. I really don't want to mess around with working source code. No reason why it should stop working, but...

Also, and more importantly (to me!) is that once I start getting into personalised versions, there's no telling where it will stop. *Any* change to the default code is an extra version to track, to maintain, to back up, to keep separate. I'm not a software company; I'm a bloke doing this when I'm not at work (and currently still suffering pain and fatigue as I recover from a broken back and internal injuries).

Looking very good in the test picture dude, does it just need plugging into the ecu for it to work?

no theres a free magic wand, just wave it in front of the display and all will be reveiled lol

If we could get one mounted in a box that is removable or separate I would be interested.

i would expect this to come at a higher cost though