aaronc7
Active Member
Been looking into various digital dash options for the V2 Goblin. I will 100% use the oem cluster initially, but thinking down the road, something like this would be neat. And it's also giving me something to tinker around with and stay busy in the meantime.
Sticking with stock ECU, so need something that works with Canbus and almost certainly will require the ability to custom define my own stuff... because from what I can tell, almost all of the current offerings have support for the common aftermarket ECUs (haltech, holley, megasquirt, aem, etc.) and more common OEM ECUs such as GM stuff. Not a big enough market for MK7 VW stuff, got it.
The other 'issue' is that most of these are $1500-$2000+. I see something like the Ecumasters ADU... which offers generic Canbus support, ability to import/convert DBC etc., which is awesome, but it's also $2k. A lot of these allow easy integration into whatever race system ecosystem, which again is cool, but not really something I want or need.
PowerTune Digital Dash looks like a decent option and the price is a lot more reasonable. It does support OEM ECUs, but it looks like its all baked into the firmware. I emailed the guy about option of adding my own stuff. If this is possible then I may explore this one and I think has a good potential. If not, then that is a show stopper. I'm more than happy to put in the work to get it up and running. Also appears to be sold at Summit Racing etc.
I ran across a video about a guy who is using TS Dash (tuner studio/efi analytics product), that runs on a Raspberry Pi, and he made an arduino that actually connects to the ECU, and then converts the CAN signals into something to simulator a speeduino, which then TS Dash can work with (TS dash can only work with supported ECUs). Neat project, but don't love the idea of this in between board to simulate some other ECU.
Right now I'm playing with RealDash, it has Android tablet app version, or in my case I have it running on a Raspberry Pi 4... I already had one setup with a CANhat, and since it also supports SocketCAN and pretty much just worked as is. Up and running a test setup with a bench ECU and computer monitor right now, but it runs super smooth at 1440p, so it should be no problem on some lower res screen. The bench ECU just spits out garbage data, but it is polling the correct data. Ordered a 7" touchscreen and powertrain CAN harness so I can test this out on a fully functional car next week as a proof of concept.
Biggest gripes/downsides are just raspberry pi things.... it takes 20-25 seconds to boot up (SSD would fix this), and you will want to properly shut it down before power is pulled. All possible I suppose but also complicates it for a car application.
I'll follow up with how things go with RealDash and if the PowerTune ends up being a potential option.
Sticking with stock ECU, so need something that works with Canbus and almost certainly will require the ability to custom define my own stuff... because from what I can tell, almost all of the current offerings have support for the common aftermarket ECUs (haltech, holley, megasquirt, aem, etc.) and more common OEM ECUs such as GM stuff. Not a big enough market for MK7 VW stuff, got it.
The other 'issue' is that most of these are $1500-$2000+. I see something like the Ecumasters ADU... which offers generic Canbus support, ability to import/convert DBC etc., which is awesome, but it's also $2k. A lot of these allow easy integration into whatever race system ecosystem, which again is cool, but not really something I want or need.
I ran across a video about a guy who is using TS Dash (tuner studio/efi analytics product), that runs on a Raspberry Pi, and he made an arduino that actually connects to the ECU, and then converts the CAN signals into something to simulator a speeduino, which then TS Dash can work with (TS dash can only work with supported ECUs). Neat project, but don't love the idea of this in between board to simulate some other ECU.
Right now I'm playing with RealDash, it has Android tablet app version, or in my case I have it running on a Raspberry Pi 4... I already had one setup with a CANhat, and since it also supports SocketCAN and pretty much just worked as is. Up and running a test setup with a bench ECU and computer monitor right now, but it runs super smooth at 1440p, so it should be no problem on some lower res screen. The bench ECU just spits out garbage data, but it is polling the correct data. Ordered a 7" touchscreen and powertrain CAN harness so I can test this out on a fully functional car next week as a proof of concept.
Biggest gripes/downsides are just raspberry pi things.... it takes 20-25 seconds to boot up (SSD would fix this), and you will want to properly shut it down before power is pulled. All possible I suppose but also complicates it for a car application.
I'll follow up with how things go with RealDash and if the PowerTune ends up being a potential option.
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