Hi!
I'm currently transplanting a turbodiesel into my boat and would like a "dash" or display to monitor temperature, pressure, rpm, flow and so on... The engine is pre-OBDII era so a simple ELM327 won't do. Does anybody know if there is a "universal engine monitoring system" already available? I'd imagine it's fully possible to do it with an Arduino, but I can barely write a code to make a LED blink, so to code a EMS is out of the picture.
Any ideas..? ;D
http://megasquirt.info/ could be worth a look, there is companion tuning and display software , http://www.tunerstudio.com/, an android dash app, and various add-ons for general pupose IO, fairly good support and community.
There is a fair bit of DIY in building/setting up, wiring in sensors etc, but no coding! If you can access or create an rpm sensor, that's all it needs to run, and can monitor a host of sensors, eg coolant temp, air intake temp, intake pressure/vacuum, various kinds of MAFF/airflow sensors, O2, egt, etc.
Electronic compatible dashes are available too, at a price though. There also used to be a graphics/TFT screen, but that didn't turn that up in my brief search. The MS is a non-diesel efi, but can also be used just as monitor, while it can also control relays/outputs based on various input parameters.
There may be (is -edit!) even be some Arduino projects https://speeduino.com/wiki/index.php/Overview that interface to tuner studio, but the advantage of MS (and variants such as DIY-PnP) is that it is intended to be a replacement/conversion EMS so physically boxed to mount and connect in a vehicle.
Hmm speeduino has really moved along since I first saw it. It's a universal ems like the megasquirt but fully open source. There are boards designed including one with screw terminals for connecting to bare wiring. V0.3 Board | Speeduino Manual and could be partially populated for monitoring.
Also has a gpio board that can drive two displays.
If the engine has some sort of pre-OBD2 connector and that was what you were hoping to connect to, unless extensive searching turns up a product or project suitable for that engine, something like a speeduino or Megasquirt hooked up to sensors is probably the best bet. Extra sesnors could be installed possibly if there was a concern about the monitor causing any problems with the existing system/loom, or the sensors don't exist on the motor.
"I'd imagine it's fully possible to do it with an Arduino, "
Well, what makes you think that? There are numerous "proposed" projects listed daily looking for an "easy button" to make them happen. I suggest you look into a wifi board that can handle the engine inputs, and use a web based tablet to display them. The ESP wifi chips seem to be popular and easy to setup.