one thing i think would be really cool to do would be make a circuit that does a gauge needle sweep test link a lot of the newer cars have everytime the key is turned on and everything does its "bulb test". wouldnt be all that hard. findout what the max voltage and signal is to make each needle do a full sweet and replicate it. something like an atmega or some other controller of the sorts would be needed. more planning, designing and testing would need to be done of course.
I know this is mostly about DIY stuff, but I've heard Speedhut can do the sweep if you buy a gauge cluster from them (not just the overlays)
I know this is mostly about DIY stuff, but I've heard Speedhut can do the sweep if you buy a gauge cluster from them (not just the overlays)
This is true. For right now, they will charge you $10 extra per gage to make it do the "sweep & set", (sometimes called "opening ceremony"), HOWEVER, I just talked to Aaron at Speedhut this past week and he tells me that the "sweep & set" will be able to be added at no additional charge soon. Right now they have to alter the stepper motor programming of each gage "manually" and individually, but he expects to have the equipment soon that will allow them to "automate" this so that there will be no additional charge.
I can't say enough good things about SpeedHut. Great people, great American Made products and fantastic service.
I will have *all* of the gages in 87 GT converted over to SpeedHut sometime next week and I'll post about it either in the Tech section or General Chat. Stay Tuned The SpeedHut oil pressure, water temp and volts gages I already installed have the "sweep & set" feature added to them. It's pretty cool.
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 04-21-2010).]
...and yes, it is possible. I don't have any factory Fiero gauges here right in front of me to dissect and re-engineer, but it definitely could be done with a standard microcontroller, some creative programming and a few choice external discretes.
It seems pretty much everything in this thread so far has been about electronics and comfort features, with the only exception being the Vette brakes upgrade (looking through the items on the first page). What about more mechanical modernizations?
Engine swaps - 05/06+ 3800 Series III (first SULEV certified ICE) - 06/07+ LSx swap (E67 ECM, 58x reluctor, 4x cam sensor, better oiling, drive by wire, returnless fuel injection) - Ecotec - Hybrid - Eletrical
Exhaust upgrades - Modern catalytic convertor (better flowing, better metals/emissions, mostly o2 and water vapor evaporative emissions) - C6 muffler tips - Manifolds, muffler (better flow)
Digital Cruise Control (less vacuum/cabling in engine compartment) Ceramic Heater Core (less water lines, better heating) Electronic AC Compressor (mount up front, less lines, better cooling) Electronic Vacuum Pump mounted up front (no 20ft long brake booster vacuum line, cleaner engine compartment) Power steering rack (better ratio, easy wheel turns at stop) Electronic power steering pump (don't have to run more hydraulic lines)
Trans Swaps - Modern Getrag 5 speed (F35/F23, better final drive and gearing vs. MG2 for performance) - F40 6 speed (better cruising gear, better MPG, 1st gear sucks for low end torquey motors though) - 6 speed auto (more gears in the auto, better cruising gears, TAPshift?)
Suspension Upgrades - Hub swaps (can use Vette/F-body/etc... wheels) - Big brakes (already mentioned, good for stopping powerful V8/3800 swaps) - Bump steer fix for 84-87 - Adjustable Coil overs - Lower/better stance
Originally posted by americasfuture2k: excellent list dobey! That's just what I like to see and needs to be listed in this thread. Keep the modern technology ideas comming!
Hah. Plenty of them are exactly things I plan to do to my car.
BTW, I have a couple pics of your car, from when your brother had it out here in VA. I'll get them posted up somewhere.
Digital Cruise Control (less vacuum/cabling in engine compartment) Ceramic Heater Core (less water lines, better heating) Electronic AC Compressor (mount up front, less lines, better cooling) Electronic Vacuum Pump mounted up front (no 20ft long brake booster vacuum line, cleaner engine compartment)
Originally posted by jeffdean42: Digital Cruise Control (less vacuum/cabling in engine compartment) Ceramic Heater Core (less water lines, better heating) Electronic AC Compressor (mount up front, less lines, better cooling) Electronic Vacuum Pump mounted up front (no 20ft long brake booster vacuum line, cleaner engine compartment)
Digital Cruise has been done (search for exactly that to find the thread by DarthFiero).
The others I don't think have been done in a Fiero. Maybe in one of the EV conversions? I plan to do them in my build, though. The only belt-drive accessories I will have in my car when I'm done will be the alternator and maybe the water pump. I might have to go electric depending on what fits, and if I can get a fill neck in with it. I won't be using the stock LS4 water manifold though.
Originally posted by americasfuture2k: ADDED COOLING SEAT IDEA
There's also the option of thermoelectric cooling options for the seat, and potentially steering wheel as well. The cooled front seats option in the Buick Lucerne is thermoelectric, I believe, rather than an air bladder with fan, and there's also http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/thcosecu.html as an option.
Be careful with the heated washer solvent. I work for GM with the legal group and the company that did the units for us did a crappy job. I believe that they went out of business, they were in metro area of Detroit MI. The way they ran the solvent I think it leaked into electrical parts and caused the heaters to run away. There was a 60 amp fuse for the system. GM is taking them off of the models that were sold with them. Lots of problems, BEWARE.
ColorSHIFT Gauge lights... gauges change colors at a preset, yet adjustable perimeter. in this videos case, VTEC. they also say that it can be used with the tach... which i think is far more practical than VTEC. you can feel VTEC kick on. i asked if they have a universal kit or if they would implement it onto late mode C4 gauges or fiero gauges. bet we get enough people ready to flash them some cash for this on out cars, they would make it for our cars. or we can just make an RPM trigger that changes from a certain color led to another color. for our case, red then white for the shift light...
ColorSHIFT Gauge lights... gauges change colors at a preset, yet adjustable perimeter. in this videos case, VTEC. they also say that it can be used with the tach... which i think is far more practical than VTEC. you can feel VTEC kick on. i asked if they have a universal kit or if they would implement it onto late mode C4 gauges or fiero gauges. bet we get enough people ready to flash them some cash for this on out cars, they would make it for our cars. or we can just make an RPM trigger that changes from a certain color led to another color. for our case, red then white for the shift light...
When I get around to building my custom dash, I'll also be making an entirely custom gauge set-up, using LED displays, and run off the GM-LAN system in my LS4 swap. I'll be able to make the gauges look and behave however I want, with a little programming. I'll also be using the same sort of set-up for my custom HUD displays.
thought of something else today when i was rolling up (hand crank) the windows on my aveo and thinking back on my friends GTI he was showing me today. i remembered with VW's you can turn the drivers door lock to the unlock position and hold it to unroll the drivers window or do it again for all of the windows. and turn in the lock position and hold to roll up all the windows. i think a third time was for the powered sunroof.. we dont have those. :P but this would be an interesting feature to rig up. shouldnt be too difficult to do. i have many ways and things flying through my head as i think of this. sorta like a beautiful mind...
Originally posted by americasfuture2k: thought of something else today when i was rolling up (hand crank) the windows on my aveo and thinking back on my friends GTI he was showing me today. i remembered with VW's you can turn the drivers door lock to the unlock position and hold it to unroll the drivers window or do it again for all of the windows. and turn in the lock position and hold to unroll all the windows. i think a third time was for the powered sunroof.. we dont have those. :P but this would be an interesting feature to rig up. shouldnt be too difficult to do. i have many ways and things flying through my head as i think of this. sorta like a beautiful mind...
My Mini does the same thing. In fact, it doesn't even have a key cylinder on the passenger side. Only on the driver door. But if lock and hold, it closes all the windows and sunroof. And if you press the unlock button on the remote a second time, and hold it, it will roll the windows down and open the sunroof.
The way it works is that windows, sunroof, and locks are all integrated into the body control module. The key cylinder itself doesn't do much. There's a huge complicated black box module inside the door, and the lock cylinder just has one cable (or maybe it was a rod, I don't remember at the moment), connected to the module. There's another cable or rod that actually unlocks the door, and the unlock motor is inside, as well as the controls for the window. I had to replace the one in my car once already.
I think the new GM vehicles can all do this too. And I think they might have a better design to them as well, though I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't looked at the mechanics of it. But, on any of the 08+ cars (some bodies also have it in slightly earlier models), with the high speed GM-LAN on the CAN bus, all the windows, sunroof, hardtop, door locks, stereo, pretty much everything, can be controlled electronically.
came across a web site that has some pretty good info on it. espcially for the gauges. www.revlimiter.net . might want to copy everything you see useful into a M$ office word file and save it. looks like a personal site, and we all know those arent around forever.
Alrighty, here we go.... Sorry for low quality, the only video-recorder I've got is my cell-phone, and it wouldn't let me record in high-res, and still be able to send...
Originally posted by Australian: The knight Rider tail lights well as much as i like them i think your right it would be defected first time a cop saw them here.
I think they're actually illegal in most places over here too, but people do them anyway. Here, that law is made by the states, and most of them have laws that lights can not have motion (strobe, rotating, etc…), except for emergency vehicles.
the newest Mustang GT's have em STOCK. dont think the cop has any real reason to slap anyone with a ticket. must have his panties in a wad. this blink rate/fashion was stock on the old cougers and now on the new Mustange GT's
