MSgpio.com read only forums (Jan.15,2018)

Lance,

could we do away with the LEDS to free up outputs and use the MSGPIO serial or CANBUS to
run a Custom display based on something like the LM3S9B92 Development Board and TFT screen

http://www.dhgate.com/f327-network-usb- ... c015b.html

or similar Or even an LCD display via a driver/interface boad

bon,

You already can use the LEDs for whatever you want, as long as the control strategy is based on being on or off in a particular gear: http://www.msgpio.com/manuals/mshift/V22tune.html#e For example, the LED outputs could be used as shift solenoids outputs, if the electrical capabilities of the circuit the user implements are sufficient for the device being driven.

You can also use the LED with a seven-segment driver: http://www.msgpio.com/manuals/mshift/7segment.html to display the current gear numerically.

I don't have plans to turn the LED outputs into full-blown 'spare ports', but I could look at doing this is there is enough demand and it makes sense to do so.

Lance.

Marty was looking into some alternative display devices using tha CAN bus. Not a bad strategy it seems to me. Along with gear selection you could display road speed, engine speed, and anything else that was on the bus such as various instrument readouts. Or you could set alarms which could be really handy. A friend recently toasted his engine because the oil drain plug fell out, and amidst the distraction of driving his teen age daughter to the store he didn't look at the guage until it was too late. There is no doubt that we have the talent here to do that if there is enough demand. I think we could take it a step further.

We already have fly-by-wire throttles and GPS has been added to the MS iirc so it seems a short step to set up cruise control in the display module, perhaps using a touch screen. The next step after that would be to use the downloaded speed limit info that the GPS has and automatically reduce cruise speed whenever the speed limit drops. That would be a great safety feature and would eliminate a lot of speeding tickets.

I know this may not be the right forum, but the lines between tranny control, display, and engine control continue to blur with the sharing of information so I guess the idea could germinate here about as well as anyplace.

Jim

my idea is that we maybe able to add something modern to Megashift with help from the
Community. Megashift currently has visual indicators by means of LEDS or Segmented Displays,
but with TFT technology becoming more affordable, it would be nice to incorporate this as part of
Megashift. As Jim righly says, this opens a new world of visual information available without the
need of a laptop.

The GPIO holds all the information we need to display, and we have 2 options to retrieve this :-
1. SERIAL - Same principals as Logger, ties up RS232 port
2. CAN - fast data rates, leaves GPIO rs232 free, possible to retrieve data from other connected Devices

If enough interest we could start a new thread to pool Ideas and maybe kick off a Project Lance?

Marty

One problem I see is that not that many people do a complete re-design of their dash unless it is a custom or a rod of some sort. Finding real estate in the dash for a fair sized rectangular display is usually a challenge. I'd do it, but how many others would? Probably not as many as would install a MS. As many as would install a Mega-Shift? Maybe. Maybe not.

But, I'm also thinking how good it would be to have something about the size and capability of thes Kindle Fire in the dash if it was reprogrammed and had inputs. We will definitely get there at some point. Several new cars already are.

Jim

well rather than get to complex, and to keep costs low I have been looking at the 4D systems
ebedded displays. They have a dedicated on board graphics and i/o proccessor, on board micro
SSD storage, Serial, and user input/output channels, and are very user friendly to setup via 4D's
software suite.

The modules come in various flavours including OLED units and many different Sizes.
www.4dsystems.com.au

After having a play with the development suite i think this is a great low cost option. To keep
things simple we could use the standard serial port and logging data to fuel the display. As the
Embbed proessor runs its I/O tasks in the background and so wont effect Performance.

Marty, have you looked at the Arduino LCD controller?
http://arduino.cc/playground/Learning/SerialLCD
I just ran across it and thought I would pass it along.

Jim

jim i purchased the 4d systems uvga as it has serial and 16 i/o's, im outputing to a 5" lcd that replaces the stock tacho. the coding is easily applied to all their tft modules. i programmed a simple display demo to get to grips with it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDtzsyd88VU

Marty

Looks interesting Marty, but why does the video show the tach suddenly showing higher rpm without sweeping upwards to get there? Is that something to do with the video, or caused by something else?

I want to stay with your development here and may want to buy the same components. Do you have the part numbers?

Jim

jim that viedo was just me testing how to interact data with the Coding to display results. Basically i have written the software and routines to display the data i would like.
Basically i looked at the Mshift availabe data, and also what was important for the driver.
1. RPM
2. Trans Temp
3. Selector position (P,R,N,D,M)
4. Current gear (1-8)
I then wrote the coding on how to visusally display this info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLyf96kjFjw

in that example im using simulated data values, i just have to write the coding to extract these using serial comms from the GPIO.
This should be fast enough for this purpose and for inital running of the system.
.
Im am about to start building my transmission test bench. Which will although me to do all testing on both hardware and software. Should have it built in next few weeks, and then i can move on to the megashift hardware etc etc


The hardware im using is the 4dsystem UVGAII, which is basically a graphics display module with built in processor and GPIO but outputs to a dsub connector. This is the same as all thier integrated displays with out the actual display as the ones they offer were not big enough to replace my stock cluster
have a look at these products from them :-

4D Systems - uLCD-24PT (GFX) 2.4" TFT module with touch
4D Systems - uLCD-28PT (GFX) 2.8" TFT module with touch
4D Systems - uLCD-32PT (GFX) 3.2" TFT module with touch

Basic spec of each :-
65K true-to-life colors.
LCD TFT screen (LED back lighting).
Integrated 4-Wire resistive Touch Panel.
Easy 5 pin interface to any host device: VCC, TX, RX, GND, RESET.
Asynchronous hardware serial port, TTL interface, with 300 baud to 256K baud.
16 x General Purpose I/O pins. Upper 8 bits can be used as an I/O Bus for fast 8-bit parallel data transfers.
2 x 30 pin headers for I/O expansion and future plug-in daughter boards.
On-board micro-SD memory card slot for multimedia storage and data logging purposes.
DOS compatible file access (FAT16 format) as well as low level access to card memory.
Dedicated PWM Audio pin supports FAT16 audio WAV files and complex sound generation.
On-board audio amplifier with a tiny 8 Ohms speaker for sound generation and WAV file playback.
Powered by the 4D-Labs PICASO-SGC processor.
Comprehensive set of built in high level graphics functions and algorithms that can draw lines, circles, text, and much more.
Display full colour images, animations, icons and video clips.
Supports all available Windows fonts and characters (imported as external fonts).
2 different operating platforms:
SGC the Serial Command platform (factory default).
GFX the 4DGL (4D Graphics Language) platform.
4,0V to 5,5V range operation (single supply).
Module dimensions: 55,1 x 77,0 x 13,8 mm (not including mounting tabs).
4 x snap-off mounting tabs with 3mm holes for mechanical support.

You will also need the programming cable and a 2gb micro SD card.

HOWEVER you could drop the size down even more to their OLED displays
i.e. OLED Module - 1.7" (uOLED-160-G1GFX)
But you lose MOST GPIO finctions and are left with serial comms to get the data, which i supose if fine as all you doing is relaying
info from the mshift.

http://www.4dsystems.com.au/index.php


I downloaded the 4DGL software suite, and with in it is a program called 4dVSI which is a visual drag and drop type affair which alloows you to get started on programming very quicky, as well as have lots of examples to play with

Marty