MY DIY Digital LCD boost gauge (with other applications)

A few days after JG picked up his GEN4 MR2 from Prime in NJ I dropped off my normally aspirated, now turbo charged MR2 off for the treatment.

What a change doubling the horsepower makes (!).

I wanted to add a boost gauge - but wasn't terribly pleased with the look and fit of a standard circular gauge - so I've built a digital boost gauge.

I picked up a color LCD panel display that is fully programmable (via USB and laptop). You can choose from about 40 different display formats and then specify colors, range and text. Display is available from a variety of electronics distributors but I found the best price on ebay - about $95 shipped.

http://www.panelpilot.com/panelpilotm

I hooked it up to a 3-BAR MAP sensor ($15 shipped on ebay). The MAP sensor requires a 5 volt power source so I built the power supply with a connection strip into a small plastic box that is mounted in the trunk next to the ECU. No, the car doesn't boost to 27.4psi - that was a picture taken while I was testing the display. I now have it programmed to display on the graph up to about 22 psi.

Total cost is about $120.

Here's a shot of the car from last season while using it as the pace car at NHMS for the SCCA regional races (I've been the regular pace car driver for the last 12 years or so).

Pics aren't working.

Fixed.

These look fine on my computer but are upside down on my iPhone. What's that about??

In reply to ColinGiordano:

Wonder what technologies are good for canoes?

In reply to w1jim:

Awesome work on the gauge!

This is awesome. I have had a panelpilot on my shelf for three years now thinking it would make a great boost gauge. I wired it up as a volt meter once.

Now I need to get back to this

Can we get a link to the parts you used for this?

I have a plan to use a LM2917 to get a the rpm signal from a frequency to voltage change and send that to a LM3915 to illuminate a series of LEDs as the voltage (and RPM) increases. If you find the Texas Instrument's pdfs on the two chips they give you the circuits and components needed. Afterwards, I searched and it's been documented online by others.

That way I could hide the LEDs somewhere that would not detract from the interior. The black strip on the top of the dash hides the turn signal indicators and I'd like to hide them behind the black strip, too.

I don't like aftermarket tachs hanging around...

Both LM2917 and LM3915 were developed by National Semiconductor, maybe 30 years ago. They became part of TI in 2011.

That's pretty awesome. I might build one or two for friends.