Gauge cluster mod?

[kALMIGHTY]

I was thinking about the gauge cluster in our cars and how there are "notches" on the silver circular surrounding the tachometer, and how they happen to line up exactly with 1k rpm increments.

I thought it might be cool if you could add a sequential LED rev indicators, kind of like how Formula 1 steering wheels have on the top but in a straight line.


And they light up sort of like


I'm no electrician, hell I don't even know how to use t-taps lol, but I'm assuming putting LED's into those little notches would be a nightmare, especially if you'd want it to look like it came from the factory, so the LED's don't just look "stuck-on".

I decided to do a little photochop (not even real photoshop. Just some online image editor lol) type thing to see what it might look like on our cars, and I think it might actually be pretty cool if done cleanly.

I made this during my lunch break, so excuse the terrible copy and paste image editing that I did. Can't upload any higher quality.



What do you guys think? Would it look good? Could this be done cleanly?

[JustBoostin]

Damn, that would actually be pretty cool I think!

[kALMIGHTY]

I think so too. Unfortunately I have neither the expertise or the resources to try something like this.

[kALMIGHTY]

Anyone know if there is even a way to do this?

[mitosis]

Oh it's definitely doable... just a matter of finding someone who's willing to let their gauge cluster get drilled into.

I'd try to drill some small holes in the locations of those marks, then find some light pipes (basically fiber optic things) that fit those holes and install them there so that the LEDs could be mounted behind the cluster for a clean look.

[jkr]

I don't know if installing the lights is the issue... somehow connecting the lights to the tach data seems like it would be really difficult.

[mitosis]

Originally Posted by jkr

I don't know if installing the lights is the issue... somehow connecting the lights to the tach data seems like it would be really difficult.

Funny, as an EE I was thinking quite the opposite... all the drilling sounds quite scary, but the tach data could be tapped into in a number of ways. Impossible to say exactly how without studying the circuit a bit, but my first instinct would be to bust out a scope and a logic sniffer and attempt to tap into the data lines for the tach needle. It is likely that the needle is just an ordinary analog meter being fed by PWM at the very lowest level of the circuit, directly where the needle is being driven. Once a suitable tap-in point for the circuit had been established, it would just be a matter of adding some kind of high-impedance buffer to keep the hacked in circuitry properly isolated from the needle's circuit and then have the output of the buffer fed to you microcontroller of choice for driving the LEDs in any manner/pattern you so please.

[jkr]

Originally Posted by mitosis

Funny, as an EE I was thinking quite the opposite... all the drilling sounds quite scary, but the tach data could be tapped into in a number of ways. Impossible to say exactly how without studying the circuit a bit, but my first instinct would be to bust out a scope and a logic sniffer and attempt to tap into the data lines for the tach needle. It is likely that the needle is just an ordinary analog meter being fed by PWM at the very lowest level of the circuit, directly where the needle is being driven. Once a suitable tap-in point for the circuit had been established, it would just be a matter of adding some kind of high-impedance buffer to keep the hacked in circuitry properly isolated from the needle's circuit and then have the output of the buffer fed to you microcontroller of choice for driving the LEDs in any manner/pattern you so please.

hmm it sounds so doable that way aha. I'm not at all familiar with any ee though.
if you do end up trying this, please post !

[kALMIGHTY]

Originally Posted by mitosis

Funny, as an EE I was thinking quite the opposite... all the drilling sounds quite scary, but the tach data could be tapped into in a number of ways. Impossible to say exactly how without studying the circuit a bit, but my first instinct would be to bust out a scope and a logic sniffer and attempt to tap into the data lines for the tach needle. It is likely that the needle is just an ordinary analog meter being fed by PWM at the very lowest level of the circuit, directly where the needle is being driven. Once a suitable tap-in point for the circuit had been established, it would just be a matter of adding some kind of high-impedance buffer to keep the hacked in circuitry properly isolated from the needle's circuit and then have the output of the buffer fed to you microcontroller of choice for driving the LEDs in any manner/pattern you so please.

Well we already have a customizable shift light in the gauge from factory, right? And something has to be sending the signal to it, telling it to light up when the customized rpm's are reached?
I'm sure that computer or circuit or whatever it is could be tapped into and instead of setting one custom rpm's, you could set up multiple (i.e. one for each "notch") and have it run that way. Not sure if you'd lose the functionality of your stock light that way, but who cares at that point?