I hope ya'll having a wonderful day and week so far.
I am a complete newbie in arduino but have wanted to learn for quite some time, but been put off due to the big djungle.
But yesterday I thought I would give it a try and ask for some help to get started. I have some mechanical and experience and some troubleshooting in electrics, I actually work as a mechanical technican at a food factory. So I do a lot of troubleshooting, maintenence and repairs.
My goal for now is to build a digital tachometer for my car, an old Volvo where I switched my engine for a newer BMW diesel. In theory I thought it shouldn't be to hard as long as I find the correct parts to recieve and decode the signal from the ECU.
So I thought why not try to build a simple osciloscope and see how the signal works and after that a tachometer.
Is there any good "starter kit" or is it better to buy separate parts for projects? Any idea where to get good parts for fair price?
Would I still need a hall sensor even though the engine allready have one. I have a functioning signal to my current tacho, but I'm not happy with it as the RPM range is 0-8k, wheres my engine red lines at 4,5k.
It's a 6cyl engine, so should be 3 imp/rev from what I read.
If you are able to interface the engine's built in hall sensor with your Arduino, and can read the sensor's output, you do not have to use an extra hall sensor.
Usually, the hall sensor has 3 pins. VCC, GND and output. You have to figure out the pins first. VCC and GND should be connected to the positive and negative of the power supply. The output pin must be connected to an analog pin (like A0,A1---- etc.) of the Arduino.
Do you have any arduino module that you would recommend and tft? The tft should be able to handle cold enviorments as we have cold winters here in Sweden.
Thank you again for taking your time to help me. I appreciate it alot. <3
You may need or want to start with some of the very simple things the Arduino can do, like turn on and off a LED, or read a pushbutton.
Or turn on and off a LED with each button press. Or count and report the number of times a button is pressed. Or how long it has been between the last button press and this button press.
You can do all that while you wait for advice, wait for parts to arrive and keep saving up for larger actual purchases by using the wokwi simulator.
has lotsa parts beyond the basics, and almost every part has documentation and examples.
Read read read the code to gather questions to answer by read read reading on the internets, or watching a video series.
Don't expect instant or even nearly instant success. Build step by step. The IDE also has examples starting from zero. study them line by line, ask questions.
Good luck, but it is more a matter of putting in the time and effort. Hard until it is easy… there are so many things I don't remember not knowing.
You could read the Arduino Cookbook while you are waiting for the parts, it will probably save you $$$ over time as you will know what not to do. Here is some simple rules that also save $$$:
Gil's Crispy Critter Rules, they apply to processor hardware:
Rule #1. A Power Supply the Arduino is NOT!
Rule #2. Never Connect Anything Inductive to an Arduino!
Rule #3 Don't connecting or disconnecting wires with power on.
Rule #4 Do not apply power to any pin unless you know what you are doing.
LaryD's Corollary's
Coro #1 when first starting out, add a 220R resistor in series with both Input and Output pins.
Coro #2 buy a DMM (Digital Multi-meter) to measure voltages, currents and resistance.
Violating these rules tends to make crispy critters out of Arduinos.
Hint: It is best to keep the wires under 25cm/10" for good performance.
I was taught FAIL (Forward Action In Life) was a good thing, we are both on the same plain. If you do not have one a VOM would be a great addition even if it is $5.00 one. If you do not have experience with one do not use the current scale until you understand it. Have Fun!
