To answer the Frequently asked questions: How does it connect to the ecu? - Via USB connection from the Megasquirt MS3 ECU direct to the RasPi. Why didn't you use XYZ off the shelf product? - Because I like to tinker, and I can customise this how I like. What about OBD2, or some other aftermarket ECU? - Sorry, I have never tried this for anything other than the Megasquirt family of ECUs... You can check out a product called 'OpenAuto': bluewavestudio.io/shop/openauto-pro-car-head-unit-solution/ Or if you have a different aftermarket ECU, or OEM ECU with OBD2, or even a carby car, consider trying this software instead: OneGauge, theonegauge.com Or, I am sure you can find other info online though for software options that might work for your car!
@@Tarun_Kausthub Hi Tarun, sorry to say that is quite a different solution to what I presented here, a bit too far outside of my realm - you are effectively starting from scratch from a software perspective.
Years ago, building my first turbo miata, I found your channel and you had the exact videos I needed at the time! Today I'm here because I bought a 7" and 10" touch screen to build a pi dash for this season and low and behold the perfect video pops up aging from you! Thanks you for the forever great content 🤘
This is really awesome. You might think about modifying your shutdown script to take advantage of a relay instead. Connect the relay to your 12v + and - so it detects when the car is on. When you turn the car off it would then close the relay invoking the clean shut down sequence.
I have considered it, and definitely that would make sense for some people/cars, but for my purposes i like the simplicity and control i have with the current setup.
With a race car, you won’t want to wait 30 or 40 seconds every time you’ve switched off the ignition. My Fiat ignition switch goes from zero to start no problem. But just switch on but don’t start and you have to switch it off & on to start the engine. A Pi dash would need its own switch. Or maybe a relay connection with the door locking.
Got mine up and running last night! Just wanna say thanks for making this video. My oem dashboard just shorted out and almost caught fire due to a design flaw in BMW's Rxd diagnostic bus wire. I had a 7 inch screen and a pi 4 laying around for another project so setting this up was the perfect solution. I downloaded some of your dashboard designs too, great work!
Dude, this is amazing! I have looked into this many times before and always turned away because the results looked unpolished, but this is clear, concise and polished. Thank you so much for sharing!
Bad ass I had a similar idea years ago but never got ahold of a mega squirt back when gen 2 came out and they were a really small company selling there own stuff to people. Killer video. When things start going better I'm going to try to do a build with this in mind makes all the gues work taken out lol thank you so much for the video!!!!!!!!
This was LEGIT! I LOVE it when people have thought out and kind of practiced what they are going to say. I can NOT stand videos full of blah blah blah. Saved and Bookmarked for sure.
Wild idea brought to light. Theres just not enough new automotive video tutorials on the web anymore. Sort of tempted to do this on my Audi mk1 TT centre console.
Thank you Steve. I think I tend to agree. My view is there are a lot of automotive vids on youtube, but they are more about doing crazy builds or making click bait, as opposed to more traditional info/how-to type videos.
love the idea, simple enough, and looks useful for those of us needing a new dashboard where either a new one is too expensive or in my case nonexistent for my project. Thanks for the set-up idea!!
Might have to give this a go to update my current dash. I mounted mine in the center console and also removed the stock climate controls. Since it's a street car I have a tuner studio dash on it but also wrote a python app to control an Arduino that runs some relays and servos to have touch screen control of my climate control. Not fully implemented in the car yet but prototype is currently working.
@@Bbeavis He doesn't realize you need an aftermarket ecu to make it work yet. LOL You probably should have let everyone know in the beginning that you can't do this project with an OBDII stock ecu. Or at least these instructions won't help you with that project. I am sure there is a way to take a Pi and pickup the neccesary pids for the gauges from the OBDII it's just not in this video.
Stumbled on this video a few weeks ago, and today ordered the parts to build my own. Aftermarket digital dashes are all really small and would look weird in my stock gauge cluster (excluding the fact they're $1000+). I bought two screens to run independently and line up with my 1978 Hilux stock dash bezel. Never messed with a Raspberry Pi so I'm looking forward to this! I'll have an EMU Black talking to it, hopefully I can get the Tuner Studio to play nice but if not I'll just run the EMU Black tuning software and configure a dash inside of that to display. Thanks for all the info, I'll be watching this video a few more times!
A nice bundled answer - I’ve had similar luck using ASL’s solutions with my AIM and standalone data loggers in RR cars. You’ve got a great build, thumbs up x100.
Big thanks! Just did this successfully. One quick tip is right click the etcher app on the desktop and run etcher as administrator first. I had to do it that way or it etcher would give an error trying to upload the OS from file. I’m on windows 10 btw
Awesome work! I created a very similar dash, the only difference is that I designed a safe-shut down circuit that utilizes the ignition signal and a little bit of hardware logic to automatically boot and shut down with the car keys. The initial prototype was just kluged together on a breadboard but I turned it into a PCB but have yet to get it made. Hopefully one day...
Nice work Cyrus, thanks for sharing your setup. For me, I have a hard battery kill switch, theres no ignition key in my track car, so that wasn't really going to work for my setup.
@@blaneandgame9 automotive electronics (battery/alternator) are inherently noisy and contain a lot of transient voltage spikes. That said, sensitive electronics like RPi’s need protection from these voltage transients to avoid eventual death from the shock treatment they will certainly receive. Additionally, memory for computer systems like RPi’s can be corrupted when not safely shutdown (eg: yanking the power plug without pressing “shutdown” in the system menu). My circuitry provides three main features: 1. Protection against high voltage spikes, 2. Turn on with ignition on, 3. Safe shut down of the RPi when the ignition is turned off. Meaning the control circuitry has hardware logic working in conjunction with a Python script in the RPi to shutdown the RPi safely despite ignition telling the circuit to turn off… I hope that helps highlight for you the problems I encountered and the methods I took to address those problems.
This is impressive. I've been thinking of doing something like this to supplement my vehicle's existing dash. Add gauges for things that currently only have dummy lights, or nothing (like the turbo).
This is awesome. I'm goofing off with getting a speeduino ready for a car and saw this and was like this is definitely an alternative from using Dash MS on a tablet.
This' very good. I had no idea there were guys out there taking raspberry pi / car combo setups seriously .. I've been using an Android headhunt to get all my data and it's been "not so good". RPM lags behind actual RPM, temps are okay, but vacuum pressures are sketchy, and voltages are a little hit or miss.. Bookmarked all the way :). Thanks much, I've got my winter project defined now :).
Thank you. I initially ran an Android tablet and found the feature-set and responsiveness to be inferior to this solution.... but maybe with a more modern tablet, and the newer Apps on the market it would be worth a revisit now.
Not sure if you're still responding to comments on this video but I am super interested in making some type of retrowave/vfd type of display for my bike. I assume when you know how to it isn't that hard but would be interesting to see with the old 80's font types and VFD blue/green/orange/red colours.
This particular software probably wont be suitable for a bike. But the visuals I use in the dashboard are all just designed in photoshop, so anyone could do it - if you want a particular aesthetic, it should be possible.
This is great! Can you show us how you assembled the raspberry pi electrical in the last bit of the video and put links where to buy the parts or what they look like? Truly love this build!
The circuit is rather basic, as follows: crcit.net/c/76405c09cb11400ab9f697d3f3d343a0 Parts required: - Raspberry Pi 3+ / 4 / 5 - Toggle switch - 12v to 5v DC converter - Optional: 5v or 12v fan to suit Pi, to your preference - Various cables/wires/solder etc.
@@BbeavisThank you for the diagram! I have one more question (I apologize as I’ve never worked with Raspberry Pis before). I am looking for the 12vto5v step down, but I’m unsure how to find one that will connect to the GPIO pins. Is that something I can buy premade or do I have to create those connections myself? If I do have to make them, is there a name for those types of connections?
@@exsimedia73 You will find some good examples of the 12v to 5v DC converter via this link: www.amazon.com/s?k=12V+to+5V+3A+Step-Down+Waterproof+Miniature+DC-DC+Converter+Power+Supply+Module&ref=nb_sb_noss Then, you will need to solder the wires, or use "dupont connector leads".
This is awesome and has definitely encouraged me to try to build a pi dash. Although Ill be using an ecu masters standalone instead of the ms3 but I believe it should still work via their extension port
Very nicely done video! I've been making my own diy VW Digifiz inspired software for a dashboard in my classic pre-obd car. Good fun! Thanks for your perspective.
Hello Gavin, did you find any doc or info how to wire RPI to stock ECU? I'm currently thinking about how to make it in my 93 honda delsol. I can't find any sources how to do this without standalone ecu
I looked at Dash options and saw several solutions but, needed something I could make a custom dash with. In particular I wanted something like retro Smiths instruments and options were limited. I looked at Pi Dash but was uncertain on what it could and couldn’t do. Noting how powerful a little Pi is, I considered starting from scratch but, that’s a little beyond me. Your solution looks good but I’d want to use it with a non-MS ECU via CAN. I’ll look into you solution a little deeper. Nice clear presentation by the way!
Clearly no one reads comments before posting a comment…ugghh. Sorry you have to keep answering the same question over and over again. “NO IT DOESNT WORK ON YOUR MAMAS STOCK PCM COOTER MOBILE!!”😂
Thanks mate! I am just glad lots of people are discovering these solutions are out there, yes a lot of people ask the same thing, but its an opportunity to give them more info in a new video for the different people and their different needs.
@@Bbeavis is it possible to us the gpio pins to run a VSS to tuner studio? I don't have a spare io on my microsquirt and want to get my car road legal with this set up. TIA
If your RPi doesn't write any state to flash memory during runtime, you could set it to mount the disk in read-only mode. This should allow you to skip the power down button, as I believe data corruption is the only concern not to unplug it directly. To apply patches, you would need to remove the read-only filesystem flag when needed.
This is really cool. I want to build this for my Overlander. I'm going to watch more of your videos because I want to find out how you connecting the pi to the can lines. Thanks so much!
18 sec Desktop 34 sec Dashboard It is really nice! And I appreciate your presentation. Now I know - it is possible. Looks good and gives possibility for creative design.
@@Bbeavis Cheaper overall maybe, but price to performance and reliability never. My normal Pi starts faster than his Dietpie and for the price, somehere in the comments he assumed 20$ for the SD-Card, I just ordered an 256GB SSD for 17€. Then add a cheap USB3 to SATA cable/case for 5€(AliEspress or from 8€ on Amazon) or less. Hmm after checking AliEpress now, such USB-SATA cables start at less than 50 Cent. So for a similar price you can get ~10x the read speeds. An if size matters for you you can still remove the case of the SATA SSD and reduce the size even further, they are usually less than half of the 2,5" cases size.
@@StefanHajdu Indeed I agree there are many options. For my needs, the 30sec boot up time is absolutely no issue for me. Some others who want a more instant-on setup may want to follow your method for even quicker performance.
Love it, can’t wait to create some scripts to make it like a newer car, preferably to make it only turn on when receiving power on ignition and shutting down after turnt the key over
The Raspberry pi5 looks like it would immensely speed up the boot up procedure. I am gonna use this guide with the pi5 since boot times are much lower now!
That's one sweet dashboard - I tried building a similar dashboard for my Volvo XC90 but the bloody cars electronics were too sensitive... the slightest unexpected power draw from a line pulled up error message after error message.
Damm, i would have never thought of this. this is also usable for all the speeduino guys out there. Ad you can have a keyboard/mouse combo with you and change things when needed
I thought of doing something similar but with a different approach: automating the windows, air conditioning, and many other features of an 80s model car using a Raspberry Pi. However, from what I've seen, the operating system takes around 10 seconds to boot up on the screen. So, I thought of implementing this system with a PLC, using Arduino or Raspberry Pi to collect some data and sending ON and OFF signals to the PLC's HDMI unit. Maybe an external set of buttons could also be added, as it makes more sense to use the screen solely as a display behind the steering wheel.
Nice ideas. In general all of these things are pretty much 100% possible its just being wise around the electronics/technology and spending the time to learn how to do whatever it is you want to do.
Nice setup. Going to have to update my OS. Only thing I did different was instead of the shut down button I used an on-screen shutdown button through TS
Pretty darn cool. Didn't know about the dash board project but had thought that a pi or the like would be a great way to present info. Fantastic basic tutorial there! Thanks!
looking awsome. just getting into cars myself. Just one comment: maybe keep the power input for the fan away from the pi. just using it for signals makes them live longer ;)
Good luck! Since you have a different aftermarket ECU, perhaps either the OpenAuto software, or OneGauge theonegauge.com, may work for you. Hope that helps, thanks very much for watching.
For anyone looking to use this for more of a daily driver application, where you might not want to use switches and buttons to turn it on and off, connect the raspberry pi to constant 12v (through 5v adapter). Connect the gpio to switched 12v(acc), and modify the script so when power is lost on the pin, the pi shits down. Power the screen off of switched power, so the dash "turns off" as soon as you turn off the car, and shutdown happens in the background. And lastly, use a rising edge trigger to turn on the car when switched power is restored. The only real downside is that you probably couldn't turn the car on right after turning it off, instead having to wait for shutdown to finish.
Great video... actually covering the software installation not just the physical installation.... for your power requirements there is a couple power supplies that would remove the two switches (main power and momentary switch). One is called the M2-ATX and the other is the M4-ATX both of which are ignition controlled power supplies that are designed to turn on/off PC motherboards much like a standard car amplifier. They can be set to turn off the system while leaving enough time for the operating system to save details and boot up the operating system like OEM systems with the key.
Thanks for the detailed video , i was actually thinking of building one for my daily driver but it has a stock ecu so i don't know from where to pull the parameters from.
Hey Suyash, So sorry, that is something I glossed over, if you wanted to use OBD2, perhaps the OpenAuto software would work for you... or consider trying this software instead: OneGauge, theonegauge.com. Hope that helps, thanks very much for watching.
if you want to get a bit more technical there should be a way to completely disable the desktop manager/environment and have just the dash software load up in full screen, probably eliminating about 10 seconds from the boot time. i'm not familiar enough with linux to get into the specifics but from what i know it should be possible (see retropie)
You are on the right track - I do something like this for my HomeAssistant dashboard... when I find some more spare time I am going to build a new image that does this for my car dash display.
This is used in a race car, so it doesn't have a traditional ignition switch with accessories, its all cut via a battery kill switch, so I'm comfortable with using the push button for now.
If there was a way to put the pi in hibernation, so it boots up quick on the next start . Of course , you shut it down after hibernation saved state . Two relays in sequential operations. One to initiate hibernation and the other shut it down. If these two outputs could be programmed from megasquirt .
This is sooo cool.. thanks for sharing. If you can help me a bit will be more than appreciated. I’m planning to do a project that is going to collect a lot of data and store it. The data will be coming constantly from some devices connected by Wi-Fi. Data can be few Mb. Additionally, I’ll need some computer power to do some simple calculations and transmit some results over Bluetooth. All this needs to be powered using a regular cigarette socket found in a car. To be fair, I’m kind of stuck because not sure if a pi can be powered using the cigarette socket (12v
To answer the Frequently asked questions:
How does it connect to the ecu? - Via USB connection from the Megasquirt MS3 ECU direct to the RasPi.
Why didn't you use XYZ off the shelf product? - Because I like to tinker, and I can customise this how I like.
What about OBD2, or some other aftermarket ECU? - Sorry, I have never tried this for anything other than the Megasquirt family of ECUs... You can check out a product called 'OpenAuto': bluewavestudio.io/shop/openauto-pro-car-head-unit-solution/
Or if you have a different aftermarket ECU, or OEM ECU with OBD2, or even a carby car, consider trying this software instead: OneGauge, theonegauge.com
Or, I am sure you can find other info online though for software options that might work for your car!
I want to use this for my Bike, which doesn't have a ECU. Can you help me with a possible solution?
@@Tarun_Kausthub Hi Tarun, sorry to say that is quite a different solution to what I presented here, a bit too far outside of my realm - you are effectively starting from scratch from a software perspective.
@@Bbeavis Ok, Thank you for the reply!
Hi, reckon this can work with a haltech ecu?
For a different ECU you may need to try the OpenAuto software or instead: OneGauge.
Crazy to see how people figure all this out and build it themselfes. Gets me very motivated
Thank you.
Years ago, building my first turbo miata, I found your channel and you had the exact videos I needed at the time! Today I'm here because I bought a 7" and 10" touch screen to build a pi dash for this season and low and behold the perfect video pops up aging from you! Thanks you for the forever great content 🤘
Awesome! Thank you for the kind words of appreciation Jaren, glad I could help - again!
First?
Am I the only one impressed that he’s still using Netscape? great job on the video by the way. 😅
I swear Netscape Navigator peaked in the mid 90's.... what a time to be alive.
I wish it was still around
Lol
Not "still using", check the URL just "about" while 'clicked' 🤭
He couldnt escape from it
This is really awesome. You might think about modifying your shutdown script to take advantage of a relay instead. Connect the relay to your 12v + and - so it detects when the car is on. When you turn the car off it would then close the relay invoking the clean shut down sequence.
I have considered it, and definitely that would make sense for some people/cars, but for my purposes i like the simplicity and control i have with the current setup.
With a race car, you won’t want to wait 30 or 40 seconds every time you’ve switched off the ignition.
My Fiat ignition switch goes from zero to start no problem. But just switch on but don’t start and you have to switch it off & on to start the engine. A Pi dash would need its own switch. Or maybe a relay connection with the door locking.
basicly acts like a sense pin (looking fo acc. min.) for key turn i take it?
Got mine up and running last night! Just wanna say thanks for making this video. My oem dashboard just shorted out and almost caught fire due to a design flaw in BMW's Rxd diagnostic bus wire. I had a 7 inch screen and a pi 4 laying around for another project so setting this up was the perfect solution. I downloaded some of your dashboard designs too, great work!
Great to hear!
Dude, this is amazing! I have looked into this many times before and always turned away because the results looked unpolished, but this is clear, concise and polished. Thank you so much for sharing!
Glad I could help!
Hands down for your build! Everything you do has a purpose and you give us all that Info for free, you are absolutely killing it!
Thank you Felix, you are too kind.
Netscape? Hot damn, using that in its self is an impressive flex.
I can't let go of the 90's.
I had to google that on Alta Vista
Bad ass I had a similar idea years ago but never got ahold of a mega squirt back when gen 2 came out and they were a really small company selling there own stuff to people. Killer video. When things start going better I'm going to try to do a build with this in mind makes all the gues work taken out lol thank you so much for the video!!!!!!!!
Thank you :-)
This was LEGIT!
I LOVE it when people have thought out and kind of practiced what they are going to say.
I can NOT stand videos full of blah blah blah.
Saved and Bookmarked for sure.
Thanks mate, appreciate that a lot.
THIS BRO! I was literally thinking of a way to make something like this yesterday lol. Hell yeah man thats sick, im 100% doing this!
Thanks mate, hope it goes well :-)
This is a great guide, I will be using this info to remake the dashboard on my megasquirted 280Z
Good luck!
I’m researching making a pie based dash for my ski boat and this is great help to show how the basics work
Thanks, good luck with your build Jack!
Wild idea brought to light.
Theres just not enough new automotive video tutorials on the web anymore.
Sort of tempted to do this on my Audi mk1 TT centre console.
Thank you Steve. I think I tend to agree. My view is there are a lot of automotive vids on youtube, but they are more about doing crazy builds or making click bait, as opposed to more traditional info/how-to type videos.
love the idea, simple enough, and looks useful for those of us needing a new dashboard where either a new one is too expensive or in my case nonexistent for my project. Thanks for the set-up idea!!
Glad you like it Rich!
I've wanted to do this for years but was unclear on a few things. You cleared up so much, thank you for a great video!
Glad it was helpful!
Might have to give this a go to update my current dash. I mounted mine in the center console and also removed the stock climate controls. Since it's a street car I have a tuner studio dash on it but also wrote a python app to control an Arduino that runs some relays and servos to have touch screen control of my climate control. Not fully implemented in the car yet but prototype is currently working.
Nice work mate, sounds like you have it all under control already, but maybe theres a few options offered here that you can get some benefit from.
Of all the car videos i've watched over the years, this one is by far the one I've waited for! AMAZING
Wow, thanks very much, may I ask what did you find so valuable about it?
@@Bbeavis He doesn't realize you need an aftermarket ecu to make it work yet. LOL You probably should have let everyone know in the beginning that you can't do this project with an OBDII stock ecu. Or at least these instructions won't help you with that project.
I am sure there is a way to take a Pi and pickup the neccesary pids for the gauges from the OBDII it's just not in this video.
Stumbled on this video a few weeks ago, and today ordered the parts to build my own. Aftermarket digital dashes are all really small and would look weird in my stock gauge cluster (excluding the fact they're $1000+). I bought two screens to run independently and line up with my 1978 Hilux stock dash bezel. Never messed with a Raspberry Pi so I'm looking forward to this! I'll have an EMU Black talking to it, hopefully I can get the Tuner Studio to play nice but if not I'll just run the EMU Black tuning software and configure a dash inside of that to display. Thanks for all the info, I'll be watching this video a few more times!
Great, thanks for your interest, hope your build goes well.
A nice bundled answer - I’ve had similar luck using ASL’s solutions with my AIM and standalone data loggers in RR cars. You’ve got a great build, thumbs up x100.
Thanks very much Eric.
Big thanks! Just did this successfully. One quick tip is right click the etcher app on the desktop and run etcher as administrator first. I had to do it that way or it etcher would give an error trying to upload the OS from file. I’m on windows 10 btw
Glad it was useful! And good tip. :-)
Underrated PC nostalgia FTW.
That 90's school library PC experience.
This is one of the coolest things I've seen all year
Thanks mate you are too kind.
Awesome work! I created a very similar dash, the only difference is that I designed a safe-shut down circuit that utilizes the ignition signal and a little bit of hardware logic to automatically boot and shut down with the car keys. The initial prototype was just kluged together on a breadboard but I turned it into a PCB but have yet to get it made. Hopefully one day...
Nice work Cyrus, thanks for sharing your setup. For me, I have a hard battery kill switch, theres no ignition key in my track car, so that wasn't really going to work for my setup.
@@Bbeavis ah yes of course, because racecar. I love it! I’m definitely going to check out dietpi now though. Thanks again for the amazing content.
Could you elaborate a little more on this? I'd like to be able to use this setup on mine as well.
@@blaneandgame9 automotive electronics (battery/alternator) are inherently noisy and contain a lot of transient voltage spikes. That said, sensitive electronics like RPi’s need protection from these voltage transients to avoid eventual death from the shock treatment they will certainly receive. Additionally, memory for computer systems like RPi’s can be corrupted when not safely shutdown (eg: yanking the power plug without pressing “shutdown” in the system menu).
My circuitry provides three main features: 1. Protection against high voltage spikes, 2. Turn on with ignition on, 3. Safe shut down of the RPi when the ignition is turned off. Meaning the control circuitry has hardware logic working in conjunction with a Python script in the RPi to shutdown the RPi safely despite ignition telling the circuit to turn off…
I hope that helps highlight for you the problems I encountered and the methods I took to address those problems.
@@cyrusleggI've used OSH Park to have small batch PCBs made for my own car projects. Very affordable and fairly fast turnaround.
I love how the clock on the dash is outputting something (gforces?) as well. Nice project mate.
Thanks :-) Assuming you mean the blue digital gauge, which is AFR.
This is impressive. I've been thinking of doing something like this to supplement my vehicle's existing dash. Add gauges for things that currently only have dummy lights, or nothing (like the turbo).
Thank you Black Dragon.
😊😊😊😊
This is awesome. I'm goofing off with getting a speeduino ready for a car and saw this and was like this is definitely an alternative from using Dash MS on a tablet.
Awesome, good luck! I found the android ShadowDash app to be a little less usable than the Pi based solution.
I would definitely run this in my car. So glad you did. Now if we could just get that sequential.. 😂
Still on the wishlist :-)
You are a legend man great tutorial and I hope to see many more like this in the future its time for tech guys into cars to start more DIY videos!
I appreciate that!
Amazing Raspberry Pi project. It's awesome, the amount of things you can do with that tiny board.👍
Thank you! Cheers!
This' very good. I had no idea there were guys out there taking raspberry pi / car combo setups seriously .. I've been using an Android headhunt to get all my data and it's been "not so good". RPM lags behind actual RPM, temps are okay, but vacuum pressures are sketchy, and voltages are a little hit or miss.. Bookmarked all the way :). Thanks much, I've got my winter project defined now :).
Thank you. I initially ran an Android tablet and found the feature-set and responsiveness to be inferior to this solution.... but maybe with a more modern tablet, and the newer Apps on the market it would be worth a revisit now.
Not sure if you're still responding to comments on this video but I am super interested in making some type of retrowave/vfd type of display for my bike. I assume when you know how to it isn't that hard but would be interesting to see with the old 80's font types and VFD blue/green/orange/red colours.
This particular software probably wont be suitable for a bike. But the visuals I use in the dashboard are all just designed in photoshop, so anyone could do it - if you want a particular aesthetic, it should be possible.
I love VFDs! Some day, when I finally have some disposable $$$, I will be adding a VFD or at least an OLED made to look like a VFD to a car.
As well as a HUD.
This is great! Can you show us how you assembled the raspberry pi electrical in the last bit of the video and put links where to buy the parts or what they look like? Truly love this build!
The circuit is rather basic, as follows: crcit.net/c/76405c09cb11400ab9f697d3f3d343a0
Parts required:
- Raspberry Pi 3+ / 4 / 5
- Toggle switch
- 12v to 5v DC converter
- Optional: 5v or 12v fan to suit Pi, to your preference
- Various cables/wires/solder etc.
@@BbeavisThank you for the diagram! I have one more question (I apologize as I’ve never worked with Raspberry Pis before). I am looking for the 12vto5v step down, but I’m unsure how to find one that will connect to the GPIO pins. Is that something I can buy premade or do I have to create those connections myself? If I do have to make them, is there a name for those types of connections?
@@exsimedia73 You will find some good examples of the 12v to 5v DC converter via this link: www.amazon.com/s?k=12V+to+5V+3A+Step-Down+Waterproof+Miniature+DC-DC+Converter+Power+Supply+Module&ref=nb_sb_noss
Then, you will need to solder the wires, or use "dupont connector leads".
This is awesome and has definitely encouraged me to try to build a pi dash. Although Ill be using an ecu masters standalone instead of the ms3 but I believe it should still work via their extension port
Great David, good luck I hope your build goes well.
did you get it to work with your ecu master?
Ngl i would 100% buy this setup from ya. Im terrible with tiny wires. So i can see me messing this up so quickly if i were to do this on my own
It's all achievable for pretty much anyone, the video takes you through it all... you can do it!
@Bbeavis def gonna be trying my hand at it soon 😁
Very nicely done video! I've been making my own diy VW Digifiz inspired software for a dashboard in my classic pre-obd car. Good fun! Thanks for your perspective.
Sounds great! Thanks Gavin.
Hello Gavin, did you find any doc or info how to wire RPI to stock ECU?
I'm currently thinking about how to make it in my 93 honda delsol. I can't find any sources how to do this without standalone ecu
how you do it
I looked at Dash options and saw several solutions but, needed something I could make a custom dash with. In particular I wanted something like retro Smiths instruments and options were limited. I looked at Pi Dash but was uncertain on what it could and couldn’t do. Noting how powerful a little Pi is, I considered starting from scratch but, that’s a little beyond me. Your solution looks good but I’d want to use it with a non-MS ECU via CAN. I’ll look into you solution a little deeper. Nice clear presentation by the way!
Thanks woznaldo, there is some CAN based dash software out there for the Pi, that may work for your needs.... You'll need to get a little inventive.
Clearly no one reads comments before posting a comment…ugghh. Sorry you have to keep answering the same question over and over again. “NO IT DOESNT WORK ON YOUR MAMAS STOCK PCM COOTER MOBILE!!”😂
Thanks mate!
I am just glad lots of people are discovering these solutions are out there, yes a lot of people ask the same thing, but its an opportunity to give them more info in a new video for the different people and their different needs.
@@Bbeavis is it possible to us the gpio pins to run a VSS to tuner studio? I don't have a spare io on my microsquirt and want to get my car road legal with this set up. TIA
I wonder if anyone reads the comments. Hey will the work on my ugly buddy’s hot mom’s cooter?
This goes hard as nails bro can't wait to put this in my car whenever i buy a car
Thanks very much.
If your RPi doesn't write any state to flash memory during runtime, you could set it to mount the disk in read-only mode. This should allow you to skip the power down button, as I believe data corruption is the only concern not to unplug it directly. To apply patches, you would need to remove the read-only filesystem flag when needed.
This is a good point, thanks for sharing.
Well done! What an awesome build.
Thank you for watching!
Thats pretty. Awesome job, now i just have to figure out how to port and mount this concept to my Harley.
Hah Harley isn't a use case I had envisioned but no reason why you cant give it a go!
This is really cool. I want to build this for my Overlander. I'm going to watch more of your videos because I want to find out how you connecting the pi to the can lines. Thanks so much!
Have fun!
this is pretty badass and might end up making one, would wire mine to ignition for power on and off. thanks for the starting point
Thanks. There's some clever add-on circuits people have made to auto power on/off their pi with car power if you want a more automated power solution.
Great stuff mate! Inspired me to build a digital dashboard for my motorhome, currently converting from a coach bus.
Go for it!
18 sec Desktop
34 sec Dashboard
It is really nice!
And I appreciate your presentation. Now I know - it is possible. Looks good and gives possibility for creative design.
Glad you like it!
@@Bbeavis why not use a cheap SSD? It should be much faster
@@xxxxshxxxx SD card is way cheaper for me, and an SSD is much more bulky physically.
@@Bbeavis Cheaper overall maybe, but price to performance and reliability never. My normal Pi starts faster than his Dietpie and for the price, somehere in the comments he assumed 20$ for the SD-Card, I just ordered an 256GB SSD for 17€. Then add a cheap USB3 to SATA cable/case for 5€(AliEspress or from 8€ on Amazon) or less. Hmm after checking AliEpress now, such USB-SATA cables start at less than 50 Cent. So for a similar price you can get ~10x the read speeds. An if size matters for you you can still remove the case of the SATA SSD and reduce the size even further, they are usually less than half of the 2,5" cases size.
@@StefanHajdu Indeed I agree there are many options. For my needs, the 30sec boot up time is absolutely no issue for me. Some others who want a more instant-on setup may want to follow your method for even quicker performance.
Love it, can’t wait to create some scripts to make it like a newer car, preferably to make it only turn on when receiving power on ignition and shutting down after turnt the key over
Thank you. Yes you can definitly make the boot and and sleep/shutdown process more streamlined if you wanted to.
Thank you for such a in depth vid! figuring out how to connect via OBD 2 atm
Glad it was helpful! That's my next project to share here, how to connect via OBD2
Man that's something I've always wanted to do. Now it is within reach. Thank you for sharing
Glad to hear the video could help you.
The Raspberry pi5 looks like it would immensely speed up the boot up procedure. I am gonna use this guide with the pi5 since boot times are much lower now!
I have recently purchased a Pi5 myself, hope to find time to update and test it out... will be great to see how it compares in performance.
That's one sweet dashboard - I tried building a similar dashboard for my Volvo XC90 but the bloody cars electronics were too sensitive... the slightest unexpected power draw from a line pulled up error message after error message.
Wow, interesting to hear, good on you for trying at the very least! More modern cars are definitely getting complex.
Damm, i would have never thought of this. this is also usable for all the speeduino guys out there. Ad you can have a keyboard/mouse combo with you and change things when needed
Exactly! Lots of possibilities. Thanks Gasper.
Thanks bro, this is the video I've been looking for! Testing in a lancer DD then either replacing or monitoring a built honda
No problem 👍
Thank you for the step by step guide, I need to figure out a way to use it with my factory ecu but I guess I gotta keep searching youtube for that one
Good luck!
I thought of doing something similar but with a different approach: automating the windows, air conditioning, and many other features of an 80s model car using a Raspberry Pi. However, from what I've seen, the operating system takes around 10 seconds to boot up on the screen. So, I thought of implementing this system with a PLC, using Arduino or Raspberry Pi to collect some data and sending ON and OFF signals to the PLC's HDMI unit. Maybe an external set of buttons could also be added, as it makes more sense to use the screen solely as a display behind the steering wheel.
Nice ideas. In general all of these things are pretty much 100% possible its just being wise around the electronics/technology and spending the time to learn how to do whatever it is you want to do.
@@Bbeavis you are right
Thank you for this video! I have been planning on doing something like this for my motorcycle, but wasn't aware of these dash projects.
Sure thing!
Im glad you've done this, I was going to ask after watching your recent video, the dash looks amazing.
Will watch it later after work.
No worries!
Awesome video mate, thanks :)
Thanks for watching!
Brilliant. Will be adding this to our BMW race car build
Good luck with your build :-)
This was extremely useful! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video and the dashboard models!
You're very welcome!
Nice setup. Going to have to update my OS. Only thing I did different was instead of the shut down button I used an on-screen shutdown button through TS
Good idea, well done.
Pretty darn cool. Didn't know about the dash board project but had thought that a pi or the like would be a great way to present info. Fantastic basic tutorial there! Thanks!
Happy to share with everyone, thanks for watching!
looking awsome. just getting into cars myself.
Just one comment: maybe keep the power input for the fan away from the pi. just using it for signals makes them live longer ;)
Cool idea, thanks for the advice, I'll re-wire it direct from the cars power source.
Mate. Unreal video. Thanks for the info. Cheers
Thanks mate! Glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome video, you helped me confirm what made me doubt a little on my project which was if using volt converters on the dash was a good idea
Glad I could help, thanks!
Very cool mate, love to put this in my beach buggy
That sounds like a fun project!
Ohhh this will be a perfect project for my engineering degree!
Thanks Chris, good luck with your degree :-)
Loved the detailed, step by step instructions.
Hopefully I will soon have a project to build in with, since I already have the Pi lol.
Thanks, good luck with your projects :-)
Very cool. Always wondered what was involved in setting up a raspberry pi
It's a "tinker" type of project, but eventually the end product is pretty valuable.
DUDE that's so amazing, I can't believe it.
Thanks :-)
I run a Haltech on my MX5 and want to try this hopefully i can figure out a way to run the Haltech application instead! Ty for the tips!!
Good luck! Since you have a different aftermarket ECU, perhaps either the OpenAuto software, or OneGauge theonegauge.com, may work for you.
Hope that helps, thanks very much for watching.
For anyone looking to use this for more of a daily driver application, where you might not want to use switches and buttons to turn it on and off, connect the raspberry pi to constant 12v (through 5v adapter). Connect the gpio to switched 12v(acc), and modify the script so when power is lost on the pin, the pi shits down. Power the screen off of switched power, so the dash "turns off" as soon as you turn off the car, and shutdown happens in the background. And lastly, use a rising edge trigger to turn on the car when switched power is restored. The only real downside is that you probably couldn't turn the car on right after turning it off, instead having to wait for shutdown to finish.
Thanks for sharing your suggestion with everyone, appreciate it.
could try this on my experiment
Dude, ur a legend! Been wanting to do this since discovering your original dash vid from a few years ago! Just need to buy that screen. Thank you!
Glad I could help!
Great video... actually covering the software installation not just the physical installation.... for your power requirements there is a couple power supplies that would remove the two switches (main power and momentary switch). One is called the M2-ATX and the other is the M4-ATX both of which are ignition controlled power supplies that are designed to turn on/off PC motherboards much like a standard car amplifier. They can be set to turn off the system while leaving enough time for the operating system to save details and boot up the operating system like OEM systems with the key.
Thanks good details to give options for people out there who want an auto-shutdown solution.
Thanks for the detailed video , i was actually thinking of building one for my daily driver but it has a stock ecu so i don't know from where to pull the parameters from.
Hey Suyash,
So sorry, that is something I glossed over, if you wanted to use OBD2, perhaps the OpenAuto software would work for you... or consider trying this software instead: OneGauge, theonegauge.com.
Hope that helps, thanks very much for watching.
@@Bbeavis Thanks for the info this will surely help.
I'm planning to microsquirt my ultralight and this would be sick if I can figure out how to convert the speed signal to airspeed.
Cool video, thanks!
Cool idea :-D
Awesome video will definetly try it out on an upcoming cross kart project
Good luck!
Just finished the installation. I think this will be usefull! Thanks a lot.
Glad it was helpful!
This is awesome, got my sub. This coinsides with a long term project of mine, but I'll be attempting to read via Canbus.
Good luck, keen to hear how you go with a CAN based solution.
What a great content, thanks!, really liked bottom index, very organized!. Useful.
Thanks very much, glad you liked it! :-)
Love it man plan on doing this for my 96 tdi Passat
NIce :-)
if you want to get a bit more technical there should be a way to completely disable the desktop manager/environment and have just the dash software load up in full screen, probably eliminating about 10 seconds from the boot time. i'm not familiar enough with linux to get into the specifics but from what i know it should be possible (see retropie)
You are on the right track - I do something like this for my HomeAssistant dashboard... when I find some more spare time I am going to build a new image that does this for my car dash display.
Awesome project, will go nicely with a Speeduino Ecu
I think so too!
Thank you for the video. Really great delivery. Keep up the good work
Much appreciated!
Very cool setup and nicely laid out how to. Gives me an idea for an aux screen in my car for when on track. Thanks!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Cool project, a build using a light linux with yocto would reduce the start up time to about 5 seconds.
Thanks for the tips Jan, I love making these videos when I get comments like yours for even more improvements. I'll give your suggestion a go.
Awesome video! Very well put together! Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
Sir you are a lifesaver, looooove the content. I'm definitely subbing.
Awesome, thank you!
Great tutorial/project. Thank you for sharing !!!
Thanks for watching!
Really nicely done. Thank you for the links and the video. I might be giving this a shot soon.
Appreciate the kind words.
Awesome video! I want to know more about the communication via USB between PI and the ECU, it wasn't clear to me! thanks!!
Thank you, sorry I should have covered more detail on that.
They communicate via USB cable connection direct from the Megasquirt MS3 ECU to the RasPi.
Awesome work. I have a foxbody that'll be using this type display pretty soon. Keep up the good work.
Cool, thanks Rodney.
Aah cool. Glad you're liking the PiDash image.
Thanks for putting in the effort to create your version of DIetPi, appreciate it.
@@Bbeavis no prob. Moving on to designing an instant on dash.
This is exactly the video i was looking for. thank you so much!
You're welcome!
You need to setup a relay to do shut down off accessories rather than manually pushing a button. Nice work.
This is used in a race car, so it doesn't have a traditional ignition switch with accessories, its all cut via a battery kill switch, so I'm comfortable with using the push button for now.
If there was a way to put the pi in hibernation, so it boots up quick on the next start .
Of course , you shut it down after hibernation saved state .
Two relays in sequential operations. One to initiate hibernation and the other shut it down.
If these two outputs could be programmed from megasquirt .
Yes you certainly could do that.
Amazing tutorial, I wonder if it is possible to design the aesthetics of it? Like your own custom layouts/animations.
Thanks. I generally use photoshop or similar type image editing tools for creating my dash layouts.
Ok it’s good to know I can design it with photoshop!
This is great, I've been wanting to work on a custom dash for some time.
Go for it!
This is sooo cool.. thanks for sharing. If you can help me a bit will be more than appreciated.
I’m planning to do a project that is going to collect a lot of data and store it. The data will be coming constantly from some devices connected by Wi-Fi. Data can be few Mb. Additionally, I’ll need some computer power to do some simple calculations and transmit some results over Bluetooth. All this needs to be powered using a regular cigarette socket found in a car.
To be fair, I’m kind of stuck because not sure if a pi can be powered using the cigarette socket (12v
This video isn't the best place to ask a question about cigarette sockets, there are better resources online for that sort of information.