Home made HUD system

[POS carb]

I'm holding out for the Lexus LFA style gauges

[Buzo]

There is only one technical problem with those fancy gauges: Resolution. All the Displays that might fit behind the steering wheel are very low resolution and instead of giving a modern look would give a retro (attari) look.

But I've been collecting all the pieces I need to implement something similar to this photoshop instead:



I have all the gauge covers and a lot of ultra bright LEDs, I just need some time to put hands on. Maybe by the December holidays...

[Ayeobe]

I'm all good with the Atari look.

Cool stuff so far man! I doubt i'd buy one, but that's just cos im keeping mine stock..

[POS carb]

I want a DANGER lamp

[Buzo]

A few random pics. There is room to put more info in the HUD, I just had been busy with other stuff.

[Buzo]

I finally drew the HUD mask, so I can use the left section of the HUD display.
This is going to be printed in an acetate (the ones for the old overhead projectors) using a laser color printer. Then the acetate will be just glued to the glass of the VFD.

The numbers still will be like made of small squares, but it should improve the reading.

There is clear advantage because now I can add the color gradient and I can give the increasing aspect to the bar graphs and the increased resolution to draw the symbols.

More during the weekend...

[Buzo]

The hardest part is done. Matching the printer's scale with the VFD.



I'll be working in updating the code during the day to light up the correct pixels behind the mask. Fortunately I don't need to be out in the car to do this. I'll be inside the house and programming while watching the football games.



As usual, its only a theory at this point. I hope it looks as good as in the 1st pic.

[2ndGenGuy]

Ah man that's gonna be sweet!

[EbidaDragon]

Oh my, sign me up!
Guessing you need a FI ECU for this, though, correct?

[Buzo]

Oh my, sign me up!
Guessing you need a FI ECU for this, though, correct?

No, it reads the signals directly from the cluster gauges. Tachometer, Odometer, Temp gauge, fuel gauge and directly from the oxygen sensor's output.

Ah man that's gonna be sweet!

Thanks John, I ran the first testing and realized that I need to put double mask, so the black sections really block the extra light.

Didn't finished today, but made the masks, ran the testing, and upgraded the original circuit with a new micro with more memory capacity.

[Buzo]

I can't see the imageshack link below anymore...
The masks are on top of the LCD and I guess meets the expectations.
But I can't upload the pics.
Next step is put it back in the car.

[Buzo]

Though I was going to get the imageshack link to attach pictures with the new look of the forum, but still missing in all my computers & different browsers.

Anyway, here is how it looks now. I wrote the code to be filling/unfilling the bars just to give me an idea of how it looks in all cases. Next step is to make the connections.

[griffs68]

any new news on this?

[Buzo]

Long time since the last update to this thread.

But here I am again with another version of an HUD. Its based in a POV (persistance of vision) system where a small motor is spinning and a microprocessor turns on and off LEDs to draw something that seems to be drawn in the air.

A POV can be purchased by anyone over Internet and there are USB programmers already available to draw almost anything with it.

I decided to build my own and here is how it is going so far. The idea is to put the POV above the instrument panel to see the car's info as if it was floating in the air right in front of me. It doesn't make too much noise or wind. I guess its quiet enough for the car.

I am testing here with numbers, but I want to simulate 4 gauges into the same circle, divide the circle in four parts for RPM, MPH, Fuel Level and Temp and draw a small pointer to the current level to make it less busy.

The next step is to make a heavy duty PCB and add red LEDs to the warning sections of the indicators, because this one is just glued together and I put a lot of flying wires.

Edit to add another picture.

[conozo]

On the other system, Instead of regular tint, is there tint available that gets darker with the sun is out. I'm thinking of those glasses that get dark when outside automatically.

[2ndGenGuy]

Oh man! POV gauges! How cool is that going to be?! :-o

[conozo]

just had another idea, what about using those rear view mirrors with the backup camera screen built in, could that be connected to display data.

[Buzo]

Finished the mechanic portion of the project. I used a bigger DC motor taken out of an old deskjet printer to get more RPM / less blinking.
Hope I can install it in the car today for a quick demo.

[Clockworkz]

This is turning out pretty good. I never thought about putting in a HUD in ny car until this.

Nice work

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

[Buzo]

This is to show how you can see through the device while it is spinning at high speed.
Also a couple of views of the motor and pcb.

I see the following technical things that we need to resolve:

1) We need to put at least one brush to pass the + to the spinning PCB, the negative can be sent through the motor shaft.
2) Add counterweights to balance the PCB, or there would be a lot of vibration
3) In this case I selected a thin PCB because I wanted to reduce weight, but I fount it get twisted with the speed and the components. A standard 3mm PCB is better

The idea is to put the motor right on top of the plastic cover of the instrument panel, so the word FUEL can be seen below the steering wheel and the needle indicator on top. I will use the mirror adjusting control to navigate through different things to display.

In case you didn't notice it, the fuel level is almost half tank hahaha.

[Legend_master]

This is to show how you can see through the device while it is spinning at high speed.
Also a couple of views of the motor and pcb.

I see the following technical things that we need to resolve:

1) We need to put at least one brush to pass the + to the spinning PCB, the negative can be sent through the motor shaft.
2) Add counterweights to balance the PCB, or there would be a lot of vibration
3) In this case I selected a thin PCB because I wanted to reduce weight, but I fount it get twisted with the speed and the components. A standard 3mm PCB is better

The idea is to put the motor right on top of the plastic cover of the instrument panel, so the word FUEL can be seen below the steering wheel and the needle indicator on top. I will use the mirror adjusting control to navigate through different things to display.

In case you didn't notice it, the fuel level is almost half tank hahaha.

That has got to be one of the most unique display ideas I have seen. What about completely removing the cluster and putting that in its place? You could put a dark shade over it, this would make it so you could only when the display lit up. Otherwise would just look like a tinted window.

[Oldblueaccord]

Do you know anything about canbus? I would love one for a tach output.

[Buzo]

Thanks everyone for your comments & ideas.

I finished balancing the PCB by holding it with a screwdriver and adding/removing counterweights I got from a ceiling fan balancing kit.
Then added the positive brush from the brushes left from my recent alternator fix.

The motor works quieter and the brush works very well.

Time to install it in the car, or at least on top of the cluster cover

[Oldblueaccord]

On the other system, Instead of regular tint, is there tint available that gets darker with the sun is out. I'm thinking of those glasses that get dark when outside automatically.

The huds i looked at online you usually have to add a dark tint patch to the windshield to make it show good in daylight.

[Buzo]

Here is a quick test-fit in the car.
The LEDs are too bright for the night but that can be fixed by adding another resistor value in series with the LEDs.
The camera's flash reflects back in the LEDs, so we see those circles in the picture, but they aren't there live.

The objective is to eliminate the ghosting generated with the HUD reflected in the windshield and be able to see it during the day.