new Cluster project
 

Hey there guys. Ive been working on a project. Recently i upgraded my car to the Cluster on the 2017+ cars. But i feel like although its cool, its missing alot of features that cars with LCD's have. Ive been testing dedicated LCD drivers for micro controllers called FTDI EVE. That are able to push up to 800x600 resolution screen with plenty of video memory and capable of drawing alot of graphics.

So what do you guys think? im working with a 5 inch screen for now. It covers most of the middle but not enough for the whole thing. I have a 7 in coming soon and il be messing with that.

But im looking for some inspirations... right now i got a Lexus f sport cluster graphics looking thing. And im trying to find some Cartoonish photos of a FRS /BRZ to animate Door open/close trunk.. but does anyone have any input on what i should add or change?

I will be adding the gforce meter, oil temp, water temp, Accel, Brake.
http://www.geraldjustprojects.com/wp...1538855557.jpg

http://www.geraldjustprojects.com/wp...1006397607.jpg

this looks very interesting. Are you just modding the middle cluster? So will we still be retaining the original left and right clusters? aka the gas tank/warning lights






following.

Very cool concept and idea. Can you go bigger on the screen? I honestly feel like the mph gauge is a little to close to the edges of the edges, have you thought about possibly buying an Lexus RC cluster and modifying that?

I've thought about doing a similar project with something like this panel but I'm not sure if it would fit well under the gauge hood...

Well the way the cluster is constructed there are three layers. Im planning on replacing the middle plastic with a 3d printed one. That will have the screen cutout to basically drop it in. I will keep the OEM PCB. It calculated fuel consumption, and controls also the dimming and a ton of other stuff. So il be keeping that. But i desoldered the stepper motors. and that gives me enough room to fit everything. I think i can safely put a 7 in display. But im not sure if i want to keep the original gas lever and Temp.

@Mazikowski
I think thats a great LCD. dimension wize i think it will fit with minor trimming. But im using the FTDI EVE ft813 controller. so i dont think it can drive that many pixels. If i use something larger i need to use a better processor. But then power consumption has to be handled differently.


@Chrisgalactic
Oh yes originally i already reverse engineered the entire is250 cluster.BUT... well it doesnt fit the BRZ lol. So rather then cutting into the OEM dash i rather just make another Cluster with screen. That way i have the option of adding my own little animations. Or adding more data that i can get though canbus.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUVm8Tk7gQ"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyUVm8Tk7gQ[/ame]

My thought was to run it with a cheap ARM based board like the Raspberry Pi. With that you could just display via HDMI.




If you don't mind, I'd love to see the code you have running that IS cluster! Is it being driven by an Arduino (or similar) also?

subscribed looks interesting

Im sure any cheap ARM board can handle that many pixels. And i was thinking the same but i have some engineering challenges. Like low quindecent current in sleep mode. Which with the FTDI EVE im able to achive below 5mA @12.8v (Including the uC). But getting low power out of the PI is very dificult without hardware modifications. And not to mention bootup times. uC are instant on. So when you open a door. i can turn on all registers, read canbus and turn the LCD on and display a door open annimation in around 1-2 seconds. I can probably get sub 5 second bootup time with compiling a OS for the PI but not too familiar with linux...

And SURE! but i got to look for it .. its been awhile so got to look though some older folders.

http://www.geraldjustprojects.com/wp...5105270233.jpg

So a 7 inch screen with resolution 800x480 (like the Raspberry PI official screen is) ALMOST fills out the main circle. but cuts off a but on top and bottom. The one im showing on top has a one inch thick border around the actual screen so looks bigger that it should be.

So now im thinking of pushing it to a 8 inch screen with a resolution of 800x600. Its more of a 4:3 aspect ratio. So im sure it will cover the round main gauge. But it might shorten the edges, and i was hoping to use them as the fuel gauge and oil temp and water temp. Prehaps also adding MAP to it too, as thats transmitted though the OEM can bus.

EDIT:

After going trough tons of datasheets... and printing 1:1 lcd squares of different screens.
A 8 inch 800x600 4:3 aspect lcd will fit the cluster circle. But a ton of trimming is needed from the black plastic on top and bottom.
A 7 inch 800x600 4:3 will barely fit the main circle.. and have around 3/4th of a inch on each side of the outside circle. Best for the tradicital analog speedo and fuel and temp guage?
A8 inch 800x480 16:9 screen barely fits around the gauge face. But gives extra screen on the sides for things. Cons less vertical resolution.

Seeing how that 7" (that's the display size not overall, right?) fits, I bet you could get an 8" raw panel to fit just fine.


For visibility's sake I REALLY wish there were some decent resolution color OLED panels available... But it seems the sizes go up to about 2" then you jump up to 20something" small TVs with nothing in between. I looked at using phone displays but driving them (at least from an HDMI source) is a huge pain.

Oh yes by 7 inch i mean the active display area. So my thoughts will be buying both the 7inch 800x600, and a 800x480. See which looks best. They Both have a small bezel around but it could interfere. so some minor trimming may be needed.

Well OLED might actually be a bad idea although i love the high contrast. OLED tent to have burn in if they display the same thing all the time. And In our application like a instrument cluster. It need to be Static for most of what its displaying.
Might think of it if i chose the 4:3 ratio display. And i will add a 2.42" oled display.

Prehaps a IPS display will be a better choice.

I've played around w/ the idea but after running a tablet as my headunit for years, I learned that something like this needs to be almost production ready before this goes into my car. In my opinion, the unit must provide everything that the OEM does + whatever features you want in it.

I haven't heard of FTDI EVE but I'd have a look into spinning your own linux distro and running QT. EVE looks like it has relatively basic editor but how would it handle screen transitions? Do you need to program the animations yourself or can it do it for you? Although, it does have the advantage of running on something like ESP32s so it's definitely more portable.

Anyways, good luck w/ the project. Maybe you can find a 21:9 aspect ratio screen that may fit better in the cluster :D

Well the EVE is a neat little chip. It can drive upto 800x600 screen. Though parallel RGB. It can import assets using PNG files. and manually animate them. So its basically the animations have to be programmed. But it saves me in the cost of parts. Its robust enough to be hardware rather then being driven more by software.

I too have looked at making my own distro using QT. But i aways ran into issues. It would crash... ETC... maybe i wasn't the best in linux and OS level programming TBH.

But what most auto makers other go for FPGA, or dedicated Graphics chip (like the EVE), AND some newer cluster now started to use ARM processors. But that's because there getting better of polishing the software to be robust enough.

OH! Also, im using the OEM canbus data coming though the network. NOT OBD2 protocol. So OEM stuff I already have supported 100% lol. So its better then a android tablet with a bluetooth dongle.

Have you figured out the icons on the cluster, abs and traction lights when they activate?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Do you mean the signals for it though canbus or the Actual Icons. Well i plan to put it next to the bottom of were the gear indicator would be. But the canbus stuff i already figured it out.

Hi I read about retrofitting on older BRZ of new cluster/instrument panel. Is it real?

http://www.geraldjustprojects.com/blog/
Is this process easy to manage on 6MT, LHD Euro/Japan cluster?


https://youtu.be/rhLV551YVm4

YUP itrs real you can take a look for more details here:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129867

Here is a update. Trying to update some of the code. and came up with this.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYdE-TcDU5w"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYdE-TcDU5w[/ame]

Sub because neat.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

This looks really interesting. Would bring some real polish to the instrument cluster.

any updates on this?

Kinda, i did a ton of changes since the last time ive messed with this concept. But i did run into some hiccups so that caused me to pause this project while i fishing the universal module for Engine swaps. But for now i do have some updates. i did switch to a samC series of chips for the main processors. I am still using the EVE810 chip as its very easy to make a PCB interface with the standard RGB ribbon cables most lcds of that size interface with. I dont have any fpga experience so for me that not a option to replace it. Although it would be the best solution for power efficiency and boot up times. Unless someone out there can program a raspberry pi to have aboot time of 1 sec. (because i would want the py to shut down as it still drain a fair amount of current even in a suspended state). i did sort out the issues with the lag times. and got it down to were you cant even perceive it.

But the two things that stumped me were the fact that i can run the EVE chip upto 800x600 pixels. and that fine since if i want to replace just the tach part and have a small bit off the sides for fuel gauge and temp (like the ISF sport clusters) but finding one that can fit within the constraints is difficult. And when i did find the lcd model number it seems they are way more expensive than i realized.

Lastly was the fact that in the cluster plastics, they are 3 main pieces. one is the black one. then a middle one, and then the end plate that has the screw holes. and i need someone to do a full 3d scan of that part for me then to start adding it on and cutting the right size for a screen to fit into.

Hey Gerald,

If someone sends me that plastic 3-ring shroud I can scan it. I can't commit to making a perfect model of the existing rings but I can atlreast get generate a point cloud or create a new shroud that looks clean.

It's too bad this thread has died out. I have thought about this exact kind of mod in the past but hadn't come across this thread until now.


Not sure if it's around but that 3d scan or even measurements of the cluster would be huge. Not a fan of buying one or yanking mine out to plan out prints and parts.


With those measurements I think it would be quite simple to piece together a cluster and run the data off of the open source CAN projects that have surfaced.