Project Feasibility - Truck dashboard

Hi everyone. While I'm working on the nightlight, I figured I'd check the feasibility of my real reason for getting into arduino in the first place.

A while ago, I built a truck-bed for my son, and I had decided from the start that it should have a dashboard. The original idea was a wooden board with a steering wheel, and some switches that turned off and on lights (Including a 12V blinker relay for the indicator), but as the idea grew, I started playing around with the idea of using Arduino to make this the coolest bed ever.

I plan on doing this in stages, where basic functionality comes first, and then I'll be adding parts as I go (I have built the physical dashboard, and it's made to be removable, as well as it's own extension USB mounted on the face)

The stuff I now am hoping to put in is:

  • 4-6 lamps with different indication
  • 4-6 switches of different types
  • 1 ignition key/switch
  • 1 display to show images pretending to be gps (Planning to add sensors on the steering wheel axis later)
  • Different audio files, like truck start up when ignition key is turned etc.

I have an Arduino Due (UNO and MEGA are also in my collection) and a TFT Touchscreen, all the switches, and other components I need, but I was wondering if it in the end is at all possible to do this with one DUE, or would I need several Arduinos?

What order would you suggest building this in software wise? (Hardware is almost finished, woodwork is ready for paint)

The Due has plenty of capacity to deal with all your lights, switches and ignition. You might be able to run your GPS simulation from the Due too, though it depends just how fancy you want it to be. That's the piece that will take most coding although perhaps you can just cycle through a few set piece screens.

Then you'll need some external hardware to store and play the sounds, but the Due can likely be persuaded to control it.

wildbill:
The Due has plenty of capacity to deal with all your lights, switches and ignition. You might be able to run your GPS simulation from the Due too, though it depends just how fancy you want it to be. That's the piece that will take most coding although perhaps you can just cycle through a few set piece screens.

Then you'll need some external hardware to store and play the sounds, but the Due can likely be persuaded to control it.

Thanks for input. The GPS is not planned to be more advanced than that, just cycling through a set of image files (And then later, when sensors are up on the steering column, images change depending on position of steering wheel)

On the UNO, I used a SD card reader, and put just an audio file on that, that was called by the code and played through a speaker, so I bought a Due, as I read this was capable of playing higher quality files. (The sound output is amplified through a small LM386 based stereo circuit, which works fine when used on the UNO version)

Hi,
How do you aim to get your son too sleep? ? ? ?

Tom... :slight_smile:

That's what my wife says too, but that's what the ignition key is for, because if that's not in, then no joy :slight_smile:

Here is the current program for the truck, with double "no play" insurance, in a key lock and a RTC timer that sets the time for when everything is powered on.

And a photo of the working cirquitry.

Also in the photo is an amplifier that will eventually play audio when I get my 3.3v relays and can switch to a DUE board.

Dashboard_knapper_av_og_paa.ino (8.91 KB)