1st project, replacing gauges in truck with arduino+display

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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I have a '62 International truck with a few broken gauges that I'd like to replace the factory gauges with an electronic display of some sort as well as adding some functionality. For right now, I'm looking at running 2 fuel gauges (I have dual tanks), 2 voltage gauges, oil temp and pressure gauges, 2 coolant temp gauges, coolant level, and a speedometer. Some functions I will keep on traditional analog gauges, such as the tachometer and warning lights.

My intention was to have some kind of display, with multiple lines for text, such as:

Left Tank: 50% Head Temp: 200*
Right Tank: 76% Rad Temp: 180*
Oil Press: 60psi Fan Speed: Low
Oil Temp: 180* Cool Level: Good

I had seen a similar setup on another forum, though his was much more complicated and added a bunch of other functionality that I don't need/want, and it prompted me to jump into the world of Arduino rather impulse like, despite having not coded a thing since the days of BASIC :stuck_out_tongue:

I picked up a Mega 2650, and started working on some code, got some base line functionality going, then hit a wall attempting to get the TVout functions working (never could get the code to compile correctly on the 2560). Bought a Uno to try just the TVout code on, got the code to compile, but never got anything to display on the screen. Some more research, and found a lot of people that couldn't get it going, and it sounds like attempting to run it on an LCD is a big issue. I had been trying to make it work with a Xenarc 7" LED monitor, that does have a proper composite input.

More research in, and I find that it's possible to run a color LED display, even touchscreens! It would be really neat to have something like the fuel gauge lines change color as the tank runs down, say to yellow at 30%, and red at 10%.

I'd like to continue to use the same LED monitor that I've been working with, as it would be easy to install in the truck, and has multiple inputs in the event that I add something like a reverse camera later, or a PC computer setup. The monitor does also have both a VGA and DVI input as well.

This is where I'm a bit lost - whats my next step for display interface? Am I headed down a difficult path for a newbie to attempt to continue to use this monitor? Should I be looking at the VGA interfaces I've seen? Is there another, better, composite interface I could be using? Seems like that would be plenty enough resolution/performance for what I'm shooting for.

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That's one big task to begin diy with. Big but not impossible though.

Post the code you tried and how did you interface your display.

Try this

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You should break your project into a series of small steps - for example displaying stuff, reading a temperature, reading a fuel gauge. If you keep these pieces separate to start with it will make the learning process easier and make it much easier to get help here.

When you have all the pieces working separately it will be time to build them into a single project.

...R

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vikramgupta:
That's one big task to begin diy with. Big but not impossible though.

Post the code you tried and how did you interface your display.

Try this
http://www.instructables.com/id/TV-Out-with-Arduino/

I interfaced it exactly as shown on that page, and was attempting to run the demo code that comes with the TVout library. At this point, I haven't even attempted to write the code to get my data on the display. The closest I got to any level of functionality is a quick blip of a faint white line when powering on/resetting the Uno while connected to a 55" LED projection TV. I also tried adding the 75ohm resistor as shown on several other pages between ground and tip, which didn't make a difference.

I had read on several site others having the same issue, where it would work on a CRT monitor/TV, but not on any LCD/LED TV. Apparently there isn't a proper Vsync signal being sent to the LCD. When I discovered that one could run a color LCD display, I decided that the TVout was a dead end road for my anyways, and didn't attempt any further research/troubleshooting to it.

Robin2:
You should break your project into a series of small steps - for example displaying stuff, reading a temperature, reading a fuel gauge. If you keep these pieces separate to start with it will make the learning process easier and make it much easier to get help here.

When you have all the pieces working separately it will be time to build them into a single project.

...R

That's pretty much what I've done. I got the sensor reading down, at least in basic form, and have moved on to getting it on to a display.

It's not the coding at this point that I'm hanging on (it's actually been surprisingly easy to pick up on the basic elements of the code), but rather what my best route will be as far as the hardware end of the display and interface will be. I was looking at some of the 5 and 7 inch monitors that claim to be Arduino compatible, but they're expensive little buggers, and I'd got enough hardware from other projects already collecting dust after finding out the hardware that they'll be less than suitable for my uses, lol.

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