I was doing some research today on heads-up displays and found some cheap versions that basically just sit on your dash. I thought, I've seen some pretty technologically in depth fiero mods. How cool would it be to have a Fiero specific HUD? Even if it's just a random idea that ultimately gets trashed I feel like I can't be the only one who thinks it'd be really cool.
This link is a basic type that is cheap, but generic.
See link below (I'm bad at this posting thing)
Comments?
[This message has been edited by DPoppelll (edited 04-19-2012).]
If you have an Android cell phone you can use an app called Torque. That is if you have a different engine with OBD II on it. Then you can display anything that comes through the OBD II. If not you can still use Torque with the GPS functions for Speed, Distance and some other things like acceleration and inclination. There is a version that is free and a version that costs a little bit, but both will work. If you have an OBD II engine you will need to buy a Blue Tooth adapter to plug into the OBD II connector. They are pretty inexpensive too. I bought one through Ebay that cost less than $10 and it works fine.
I have been trying to get this to work with an Android Tablet, but until now I have not found the proper combination of things that will work well with Torque without paying a whole lot of money for the Android Pad. I now have a Galaxy 8.9 Android Pad and have Torque installed on it and it works great with my Fiero with a 3800 SC III. Although I cannot see using the Galaxy Tab as a permanent display since it cost me too much and is too useful for other things. Maybe someday I will have a cheaper Android device to use and then I will replace the whole dashboard with an Android Pad.
Years ago, member Riceburner on here made one and actually sold quite a few. It sat between the speedo gauge pod and the dash and supposedly worked very well.
You can get a cheap Android tablet for under $100 if you want to go that way...
I found a source for early 2000 Bonneville HUD for a lot less than that. I have one of the older models in my car right now and I intend to upgrade it. The catch is that the thing is huge and there is no way to incorporate it into the Fiero's puny pod dash. Fortunately I have the firebird dash and there is plenty of room.
I think I have one of Riceburner's HUDs. I bought it 6-7 years ago and it was intended to sit between the Gauge POd and the windshield. However it was relatively easy to cut into the Guage Pod rear cover and fit the unit almost flush with the rear cover. I found it difficult to see the reading on the windshield, so I mounted a small 1" by 1" piece of blackened glass near the windshield where the front part of the speaker cover meets the dash. It works well and provides a bright reflection.
I got the idea from reading through threads here to use the Grand Prix HUD. I took the casing off and just used the circuit board, switch and the display. You can splice the wires into your existing cluster and just figure out a good place to mount it on top of your dash.
I made a hole for it in my dash swap and would be awesome if I didn't fry it testing leads. I picked mine up from the junk yard for 20 bucks and will be hunting for a replacement soon.
You can get a cheap Android tablet for under $100 if you want to go that way...
I found a source for early 2000 Bonneville HUD for a lot less than that. I have one of the older models in my car right now and I intend to upgrade it.
But I DID get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on my Asus EeePC Netbook recently, a dual-boot with windows 7. It's buggy but it works. I had to install an external USB bluetooth dongle to get that to work, but now I can hopefully get it to work with my OBD2 Bluetooth device I have for my 3800. This way I have a 10" screen for all my gauges if I wanted to. Looks awesome, now to just test it. I have already use my OBD2 device with my Android phone, and it worked great! Problem was the relatively small screen.
[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 04-19-2012).]
But I DID get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on my Asus EeePC Netbook recently, a dual-boot with windows 7. It's buggy but it works. I had to install an external USB bluetooth dongle to get that to work, but now I can hopefully get it to work with my OBD2 Bluetooth device I have for my 3800. This way I have a 10" screen for all my gauges if I wanted to. Looks awesome, now to just test it. I have already use my OBD2 device with my Android phone, and it worked great! Problem was the relatively small screen.
If you can make the Blue Tooth Dongle work with Android you are doing a lot better than most of the people on the Android forums. I have been asking for over a year and no one has been able to get them to work. If you do get it working let me know how you did it.
I even bought a KIwi PLX WiFi to OBD II unit and it will not connect to the WiFi on my tablet. It was designed to work on the Ipad and is not compatible with the Android. So it has been a pain in the *** so far. My Galaxy Tab works great, but I don't want to install that as a permanent fixture in my Fiero. Someday I will find the right combination of Android Pad with Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and so on to use for this. Maybe!
I have not tested the Bluetooth dongle with the OBD2 device yet, however I have successfully paired my netbook while running android using that dongle via bluetooth to my Android phone.
I rather use my phone or this netbook, compared to that cheap tablet. Not a fan of Resistive Touch Screens, and it can only run android 2.2. And it has pretty poor reviews.
By the way, in 2002 I was 10.
[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 04-19-2012).]
This is what happens when I'm not busy during the day...
I did a bunch of copy paste work, but image quality aside, I think something more along the lines of this design would be pretty cool. Obviously the warning lights and turn signal indicators wouldn't be on all the time, only when necessitated or switched on, but I feel like a high visibility green where the black is and the rest being the colors indicated would be pretty awesome as well as small enough not to distract the driver, just notify. (My high school English teacher would kill me for all those commas in one sentence.)
Problem is (as Firefighter mentioned, and overcame) typical LED number displays just aren't bright enough to make a readable reflection off glass in sunlight.. OEM HUDs are usually vacuum fluorescent and are much brighter, but also suffer from double / ghost image problems due to the 2 layers of glass. Some OEM installs use a film on the reflection spot, some (like the 'Vette) coat the whole windshield to reduce the effect. That said, a custom fluorescent display with all those graphics and colors would be amazingly expensive! And probably really distracting with the double-images. A video / graphic LCD would probably be worse than LED, at least without windshield treatment. Best bet there would be to mount the iPod Touch / Android 7" tablet / whatever running Torque or something else near the base of the windshield where you can glance at it; still a Heads Up Display but not trying to reflect off the windshield... For a while (still maybe?) you could get a Cadillac that would display a night-vision video of the road ahead on the windshield, I have no idea what they used for a projector but it must have been $$$!
Sadly, I didn't even sell enough of the HUDs back then to break even on parts.. And at $50ish I was basically working for free. I had hoped to make a ton of them and split the profits with Oliver Scholz (who designed them).. I'm still looking for a project to use up the 200 or so LED displays I have left. To be worth it these days I'd have to sell them for $100+ but there are similar LED ones (from China of course) on eBay for $50-ish. Slave labor FTW!
Funny description: "Without worrying about installation issues, looking to carOBDDiagnostic port,Plug and PlayEasy on the grassland,1Minutes to get".
It's for OBDII cars, though.
did you notice that this reads out in metric ? all the "sales" b.s. in their ad and they make no mention of an English version - but they did have an annoying pop-up that tells they ship to the U.S. i think all they want is american $$
quote
Originally posted by jscott1:
You can get a cheap Android tablet for under $100 if you want to go that way...
Be careful when you buy the tablet. you will need (1) USB port for the OBD-ll dongle and another for the tablet's power connection .....
[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 08-02-2013).]
I just bought a 2004 GTP for my swap with HUD... has anyone adapted one of those yet?
Edit Picture:
I don't think anyone has adapted the newer HUD. Like most instrumentation from about 2002+ I believe it uses a serial data link and it's going to be trickier to install versus the older analog units.
I still use this one and it is still free! I can place it anywhere I want on the dash. The sticky pads you can get for holding cellphones works wonders to keep it in one spot.
It'd be cool with a single LED bar light back-lighting a Pegasus somewhere close to that field of sight.
Looks awesome, now to just test it. I have already use my OBD2 device with my Android phone, and it worked great! Problem was the relatively small screen.
To be worth it these days I'd have to sell them for $100+ but there are similar LED ones (from China of course) on eBay for $50-ish. Slave labor FTW!
