| I've spent a bit of time lately working with PDAs and developing a data acquisition system that can be used to display information about various operating conditions of the vehicle - namely the powerplant. The final product would be all of the hardware and the software application for Palm PDA units of which would have connection provisions for items such as: EGT probes - or any other temperature measurement you desire.
Pressure - be this fuel pressure, manifold pressure, oil pressure, etc etc.
Any of the existing sensors within the vehicle can also be connected to the hardware and displayed, datalogged.
Wideband O2 data displayed, datalogged. There really is no limit to the flexibility of this setup in terms of what you can connect to it and monitor, datalog. There will also be provisions to allow control sequences such as something simple like a shift light, or could be used for more elaborate setups like water injection control and even boost control would be possible. Up to 14 different sensor inputs is possible as well as provisions to control up to three external devices. The ability to write the supporting code for any sort of setup pretty much leaves the imagination as the limit here. All of this in a wireless package as well given that your PDA is bluetooth enabled - will make for much easier installation of the hardware as well - no cables to run through the firewall. I'm using a Palm Tungsten that has a color display and touchscreen that I picked up new off ebay for $110. The software and hardware for something like this with all the "frills" and options would be in the neighborhood of $500 (this wouldn't include the PDA unit, of course). This would include all of the hardware for a setup something like this: 1) Boost control (power drivers for solenoid, solenoid)
2) Four thermocouple inputs with probes
3) Two Pressure sensors
4) Two frequency to voltage conversion inputs
5) Three additional inputs for connecting any type of 0-5V sensor
6) Three additional inputs to monitor any switching type device (monitors on/off states of devices such as relays, solenoids, switches)
7) Two outputs (ON/OFF type) for controlling items such as relays, solenoids, etc. The software would be structured such that the user can specify scaling formulas for the different inputs (for converting raw input information into unit values), datalogging all of the input information, definable limits of input values with warnings, user-configurable output controls, in-car dynomometer, etc - these ideas are just off the cuff but as I said before, imagination will certainly be able to add to this small list. Given the price of boost controllers, gauges, etc etc, this would be a rather competitive price: ProfecB: $350
2 EGT setups: $250 ....and you are already looking at $600 for just those 2(3) items, so it looks like there would be some room for a product that integrates all of these "gauges" and controls into one single unit with digital display and all the other bells and whistles already mentioned... It would certainly be a fun project regardless of whether it is something that others would be interested in paying for. The plan is to build one as time permits as I could really put something like this to use in a lot of different kind of testing. Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Would love to hear from the community -
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