new Cluster project

[geraldjust]

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.

[Soloside]

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.

[Chrisgalactic]

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?

[Mazikowski]

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...

[geraldjust]

Originally Posted by Soloside

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.

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]

[Mazikowski]

Originally Posted by geraldjust

@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.

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

Originally Posted by geraldjust

@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.

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?

[SuperTom]

subscribed looks interesting

[geraldjust]

Originally Posted by Mazikowski

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?

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.

[geraldjust]

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.

[Mazikowski]

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.

[geraldjust]

Originally Posted by Mazikowski

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.

[mabviper]

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

[geraldjust]

Originally Posted by mabviper

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

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.

[mabviper]

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

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