displaying full VGA graphics

Hi all,

sorry first of all if this sounds really stupid, but to me it seems like it should be such a simple task but i can't work it out.

currently in my car, i have a computer, and this computer reads the data from the OBDII port and displays the engine information on a screen as graphical dials. this is great as i can customise how the dials look, and choose which ones i want to see.

but the computer is painfully slow to boot, and some trips i do are over before the computer has fully booted. my original idea was to replace the factory dials completely with the computer ones. but its dangerous and illegal to drive around without a speedometer etc,

so what i wanted to do was to make something single purpose that would take the data and display it on a VGA 7" screen. i want it to be VGA so i can still change the screens input to the computer and back again.

reading the data with the arduino is pretty simple, there are many things that can read engine data, but the problem is displaying it.

i really want something like i have now, which is a picture of dials as a background, and then animated needles over the top.

so i would like to have some kind of system where i can maybe read an image from an SD card, display that on the screen and then put animated needles on top of the image that is controlled in real time by the arduino.

that would be absolute minimum but it would be nicer to have the dials change size, and swap for different dials etc.

i have tried everything i can to get the computer to boot fast, i have even looked at very low down basic linux boxes, but i have no idea how to program a custom OS or program for linux.

any help would be great thanks!

seen this - Arduino Playground - MicroVGA - [used it only text-only in a project ]

or - DUINOMITE-MEGA - Open Source Hardware Board - No arduino but looks quite interesting as it works standalone ... (on my wishlist)

Hi thanks for that,

i have seen the first one before, i am not sure if it does the kind of resolution i am after, but the second one certainly looks interesting but i have never programmed in Basic, i don't know if it is advanced enough to do what i want to do

You might look into the Gameduino shield...

wow, yea that looks exactly what i am after! i will see if i can get one and give it a try, thanks for that!

NeX:
Hi all,

sorry first of all if this sounds really stupid, but to me it seems like it should be such a simple task but i can't work it out.

currently in my car, i have a computer, and this computer reads the data from the OBDII port and displays the engine information on a screen as graphical dials. this is great as i can customise how the dials look, and choose which ones i want to see.

but the computer is painfully slow to boot, and some trips i do are over before the computer has fully booted. my original idea was to replace the factory dials completely with the computer ones. but its dangerous and illegal to drive around without a speedometer etc,

so what i wanted to do was to make something single purpose that would take the data and display it on a VGA 7" screen. i want it to be VGA so i can still change the screens input to the computer and back again.

reading the data with the arduino is pretty simple, there are many things that can read engine data, but the problem is displaying it.

i really want something like i have now, which is a picture of dials as a background, and then animated needles over the top.

so i would like to have some kind of system where i can maybe read an image from an SD card, display that on the screen and then put animated needles on top of the image that is controlled in real time by the arduino.

that would be absolute minimum but it would be nicer to have the dials change size, and swap for different dials etc.

i have tried everything i can to get the computer to boot fast, i have even looked at very low down basic linux boxes, but i have no idea how to program a custom OS or program for linux.

any help would be great thanks!

you could try this out:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=131

don't know much about it though.

i also know that there is an arduino plug-in for RR that is being developed right now. I think you'll soon be able to have the two talk to each other. maybe even have the arduino switch inputs for you when the pc is up in running :slight_smile:

awesome thanks for that! it looks like a powerful device but i will have to look further to see some examples of it in use.

but this is great thanks everyone, i have so many options now, just need the money and time to buy them all and get experimenting!