So this project has been in the pipe line for a good while, I actually started planning this before I'd even bought the car. What I wanted was a couple of basic gauges to accurately keep an eye on oil pressure & temp & battery voltage. Originally I was going to measure current as well but after much reading the consensus seems to be that on modern cars it's not necessary so I plumped for just a volt meter.
Me being me I wanted to come up with something different rather than use standard gauges, even though their cheap & easy to source.
My first plan was to use a
Infinity E3 Universal Engine Monitor made by MGL Avionics but even though it used standard automotive (VDO) sensors I dismissed it a being a little OTT for what I wanted, still it's a neat piece of kit all the same.
Then I found a small company called
Zada Tech & after a chat with the very helpful Matin, I placed an order for this;
An OLED dot matrix display with a micro joy stick & a warning buzzer which can be set to sound when Oil pressure drops or voltage takes a dive.
While my order was being built I contacted Vlad at
Jass Performance about a custom radio pocket to fit my new kit into, after many emails & a lot of patience of Vlads behalf (thank you for you time Vlad, much appreciated) I finally got my radio pocket.
Radio pocket after paint.
Next I had to put it all together. After the radio pocket was painted satin black I fitted the display behind a piece of 3mm green tinted cast perspex (I wanted thinner perspex but I couldn't find any despite a couple of hours interweb searching). I used to some sticky backed soft foam material intended to make camera's light tight as a cushion between the metal display casing & the perspex screen & then bolted it all together using teeny tiny 8BA nuts & bolts tightened up with a comically small spanner.
Next up was fitting the mini joystick used to navigate the options on the gauge, it caused me a little head scratching but in the end I mounted the joystick on some plasticard with a small dab of superglue & then glued that onto the inside of the pocket using Gorilla glue.
Here's the finished article;
So there it is all fitted together, because I'm a clumsy oaf I damaged the paint fitting the radio pocket to the console, I'm planning on fitting a new head unit soon so when I strip it down to fit that I'll repaint the pocket.
I then took the whole lot to a local auto electrician (Elecanic in Bilston) to have the wiring connected, auto electrics isn't my strong point & having invested so much time & money into this so far I didn't want to blow it up through clumsy wiring on my behalf! Turns out the the guy I went to also owns two MX-5's! He did a tidy job of running the wiring into the engine bay for the sensors so I'll think I'll be taking my car to him again in the future.
Here's a shot of it all lit up taken on my phone so it's not great but you get the idea, the clocks in the wrong place (should be at the top) but once the sensors are wired in it sorts its self out.
Right. What's next? :amuse: