I have been wanting to get into building some projects but i just dont really know where to start. But i think i have come up with a project i want and am looking to see how to go about it.
I have an atv, and currently it has led indicator lights that illuminate for neutral, reverse, 4x4, high beam, low oil, and engine overheat. When i want to do is build some sort of arduino with a tiny oled screen. When the atv is put into reverse instead of the led coming on, it sends the signal to the arduino and it displays "reverse" on the oled.
So mainly my question would be, what is the easiest way to achieve this? Is there way to build this so that the display will show reverse when a certain pin receives voltage, and drive when it receives power an another pin and so on? Or is there an easier way to do this?
What is the cheapest hardware i can get to achive this build. I dont want overkill hardware? But something that will perform the job nicely.
Should not be very difficult or expensive. What experience do you have with electronics and programming? Ar you willing to disassemble the ATV display you are referring to and find if connections are possible. Are the LEDs on leads or surface mount on a circuit board? Do they have plastic light pipes from the LEDs to where you can see them?
Sti1471:
I have been in IT for 10 years now. I have good experience with hardware, but programming is where i struggle.
The lights on the atv now have wires running from them. Is it is full analog atv as far as switches and lighting goes.
The atv does not have a display, only a row of led lights. I plan to buy a small oled or led display that is arduino compatible.
Well, you seem to be on the right track. Learn how to program for switches and the display. Get that to work as you want, then investigate the voltage on the wires going to the LEDs on the ATV. All LEDs require a series resistor to limit the current. The resistor may be at the LEDs or it may be where the wires come from. The answer will tell you how to proceed with the connections.
Ultimately, you will probably use am Arduino Nano or similar very small circuit board. Keep in mind how you want to mount the Arduino and display.
The ATV is an automatic transmission. It has a gear shifter lever on the right side of the ATV that has 3 positions.
Center = Neutral
forward (towards the front of the ATV) = forward gear
straight back (towards the rear of the ATV) = Reverse Gear
from center position, + Right+forward = Low gear
The ATV has an indicator for reverse, and forward, but not low gear. When in low gear, the light just indicates that you are in forward.
I want ti display to indicate that I am in Low range, or even forward and with an L in another section of the screen. So what type of sensor would work best with this? Since the stick has to move away from the atv, and up, I am not sure how a pots would work. would a proximity sensor work or something?
This is an important part of the build as leaving the ATV in low range too long can over heat things, so I do want an indicator reminding me I am in low range.
Yeah. It is a 97 Polaris Sportsman 4x4 500. it has an analog speedometer, carburetor, vacuum controlled fuel pump. The only thing that is electronic are parts such as the CDI, RPM limiter, reverse limiter, and a few other modules. But as far as indicators, and what not it is just wires and switches.
ATV's did not start using PCB boards until around 2004. Fuel injection is still kind of a luxury as many of the new 2016 models still have carburetors.
The temperature of the machine is between -15 - 225F. Anything over 225 is getting into the overheat range.
The ds18b20 looks a lot like the LM35. one part on the temp sensor that I am not sure of is how would you mount something like this on the radiator? Is it water proof? If I just drilled a hole in the radiator near where the current temp sensor is, and fed it through that and sealed off the hole, so that the sensor is completely inside radiator, would that work, or are these sensors not waterproof to that extent? Currently the ATV has a temp sensor that connects to an analog gauge. Would I be able to use that temp sensor instead of a new one?
Does anyone have any ideas for a sensor that will work with the shifter to detect what position the lever is in so that it can tell the different between drive and low range? Here is a drawing of how the gears are on the atv. I need a sensor that can detect the differences between D, and L positions.
OK so I seem to have hit a road block. I am looking for the display that I was to incorporate into my build. I decided to go with the elegoo 2.8" tft. However it appears that this display uses almost all of the pins on the Uno R3 board. So if the display takes up 90% of the pins, how do I wire in the 4 other sensors I plan to use to detect gear position, temp, and so forth?
will a breadboard solve this issue? If I have 2 sensors that call for the same analog or digital pin, can I hook them both up to that same pin on the breadboard?
Perhaps you can't wire anything else up with that shield. I am not a fan of Uno and shields. I can understand that they can be fun for beginners to play with, you just plug them together, simple. If you can find a shield that does all that you want for your project, then great. But if you are designing something yourself, Uno and shields seem to me to be a dead end, limiting your creativity to what others think that you need.
Perhaps you can get another shield that fits between the Uno and the display that will allow you access to the other pins so that you can connect your other sensors. Although the display blocks the pins, I doubt that it uses many of them.
If you are looking for more pins, go with the Mega. Then you can start adding all kinds of new sensors.
One thing to keep in mind though, Polaris spent a bunch of time making that machine able to operate in the rain, mud,and snow, as well as a hot sunny day.
As far as the gear selector goes, a strategically placed microswitch can indicate Low Range input. To keep it inboard, it would actually indicate NOT Low Gear.
Other than that, you just need to deal with getting the 12v signals down to 5V, which isn't that difficult, but must be done
Ok so the reverse and neutral have lights currently. Forgive me as i am still leaning how arduino boards work. So can i splice the wire from the light, drop it from 12v to 5v and plug it directly into an analog or digital pin? Then tell the board that when it gets a simple 5v signal on that pin to display something on the screen? Or do i need to have something between the oem power wire and the arduino board that converts the signal into something that the aruino board can under stand?
Sti1471:
So can i splice the wire from the light, drop it from 12v to 5v and plug it directly into an analog or digital pin? Then tell the board that when it gets a simple 5v signal on that pin to display something on the screen?
Yes.
Sti1471:
Or do i need to have something between the oem power wire and the arduino board that converts the signal into something that the aruino board can under stand?
No, but you will need a voltage regulator to knock down the 12V to 5V. If you don't, you'll fry the Arduino.
Tie an AttoPilot Voltage and Current Sense Breakout into the power wire going to the LED you want to display. then attach an OLED to it. Write your sketch to detect the current and display the message.
