As many of you know, Dad's truck has gauges - several of them. It has the factory gauges and an aftermarket set that includes a temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, and volt meter. And, an ICVR that means the factory gauges read the best they can. Further, the ammeter works well. (Not to mention the vacuum gauge and air/fuel ratio meter.) Sounds like a well-instrumented truck, right?

Well, apparently several times of late I've "lost" the alternator and didn't know it. How can that happen? With only the engine running there is apparently not enough current draw to register enough to notice on the ammeter. And, with my headlight relays getting their power from the solenoid, even having the headlights on won't show on the ammeter. Yes, the volt meter was surely showing 12v instead of 14v, but that meter is down under the dash and it isn't easy to read. (That's my excuse and I'll stay with it.) So, I missed it, even though I scan the gauges like a hawk.

That got me to thinking about the future, and hopefully the distant future, when the truck is turned over to one of my kids and/or my grandkids. If I missed the alternator failing then I'm sure any or all of them would miss it as well. I grew up with gauges and equipment in 30's to 50's era vehicles where you expected it to fail 'cause it frequently did. But people today are blessed with equipment that is much more reliable and don't have the habit of scanning gauges - even if they had them.

Given that, I'm thinking I will eventually need to change things to provide better indications to the driver that something is wrong. And, I see three approaches:

• Warning Lights: Looking at the EVTM it looks like it wouldn't be that difficult to change out the ammeter and/or the oil pressure gauge for warning lights. In fact, I have a set of gauges with warning lights. And, I'm condident I can make the wiring changes needed to incorporate them. This combination would seem to give me the best of both worlds - in-your-face warning lights and accurate gauges to consult when the lights come on - or preferably earlier if you scan gauges.
• Volt Meter: I know there's a guy out there that changes our ammeters over to volt meters, which would give me an indication, although not a warning light, that would be much easier to see than the meter below the dash.
• Arduino: I could get into electronics again, like Dorsai is doing, and use something that scans voltages and turns on an alert of some kind when something like voltage, oil pressure, temp, or even current goes out of whack. (Current would be easy as the shunt is already there and it would just take monitoring the small voltage across it.)

I'm looking for your thoughts and ideas on this. I'm not ready to do it, but want to kick it around so I can be thinking about it, watching for options, and collecting parts. So, am I missing options? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the options?

 

Write yourself some code that monitors things and, um.... I dunno, plays an MP3 of an annoying burglar alarm.. NO, I'VE GOT IT! SETS OFF AN ANNOYING BURGLAR ALARM SIREN YOU HAVE STRATEGICALLY MOUNTED INSIDE THE CAB!

Could also flash some strobe lights cleverly hidden in the cluster?

How might you do this monitoring, you ask?

Well, to someone of your advanced electronic abilities (programming chips and writing OSes and such) I'm sure you could get yourself a Raspberry Pi and make yourself some sort of embedded controller-like device. I'm actually totally serious here.

 

You haven't read about the Arduino? IIRC it has 6 analog inputs, several outputs, and a standardized language. Plenty to handle the voltage inputs for voltage, oil pressure, temp, and current.

 

No, I haven't read about it. Well, very little.

This just seemed like a kinda-geeky way of monitoring and alerting you that I'm sure you could do.

 

Hey, I didn't say its the way I wanted to go. I said it is one of the options I came up with. You are the one that suggest all sorts of ....... strange things like sirens, strobes, Raspberries, etc. (That's a Raspberry, btw.)

 

Not that I'm really recommending either, but between the two I'd go for the Arduino; it's got more than enough inputs and outputs to handle a truck of this era, plus it's actually designed to interface with 'real' things - so the interfaces are easy to work with. The Raspberry Pi is cool, but it's more of a general-purpose Linux computer that just happens to have some GPIO pins you can address.

Speaking for myself, I *like* having a truck that doesn't have an operating system to worry about. Heck, my truck barely uses electricity. Attaching a Pi to it would ruin the whole experience for me.

 

Right. You wouldn't have any analog inputs, how blasé are those? That's already been invented and is nothing new.

No, man... you'd have a USB interface to all your monitors (would probably need a hub - at least, that's how I'd be inclined to do it, unless it's possible to serially send data from multiple monitors into one port).

The burglar alarm siren, well, it's a self-contained unit that contains all the circuitry and just needs power. Easy to do.

The strobe lights? Um, just for a visual indication in case the driver is deaf.

 

Actually, my favorite of the three is the warning light approach. Little to go wrong and gives feedback to the driver for both alternator awa oil pressure problems. And it is basically all Ford, just a mix of their offerings.

 

Gary, I have already done this with an Arduino, it works awesome for Monitoring ... Sucks for controlling!

The biggest issues for monitoring is display!
4x20 LCD is about it ... That's 4 rows, 20 columns of characters for those non techies.
Don't get to see much!

The Arduino is programmed in C.

Arduino UNO specs:
Microcontroller ATmega328
Operating Voltage 5V
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins 14 (of which 6 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins 6
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA
Flash Memory 32 KB (ATmega328) of which 0.5 KB used by bootloader
SRAM 2 KB (ATmega328)
EEPROM 1 KB (ATmega328)
Clock Speed 16 MHz

Adrunio Mega 2560 specs
Microcontroller ATmega2560
Operating Voltage 5V
Input Voltage (recommended) 7-12V
Input Voltage (limits) 6-20V
Digital I/O Pins 54 (of which 15 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins 16
DC Current per I/O Pin 40 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin 50 mA
Flash Memory 256 KB of which 8 KB used by bootloader
SRAM 8 KB
EEPROM 4 KB
Clock Speed 16 MHz

My version 1 used the UNO until I hit it's limits, I then did version 2 with the Mega ... Version 2 has:
22 D/A IO ports for Sensors and Controllers (ie: Water temp, Oil Pressure/Temp, Ambient Air Temp ... Pretty much whatever you want)
8 Type K Inputs (8 was as easy as one, No cost diff ... so why not!)
2 VRS Inputs (For Tach and VSS - $85 bux for each chip! ... Want to add two more for CPS, $$$ add up and the MFG tells me they are working on a 4 port for about the same price, they released a two port after I started this proj.)
8 Digital Inputs for mode buttons/switches.
Micro SD for full logging capabilities. (currently 100 times a second)

The issue for me was the Arduino could not keep up reading sensors and controlling a sensitive object with those sensor readings ... Unless it was trimmed to just that functionality, read the sensor, control the object. Even in a stated machine setup.

I'll post a breadboarded image of it on my desk as soon as I dig one up.

I have since moved on to other processors with Automotive protocols.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Festus - My nephew has gotten into Arduinos extensively and I've seen what they can and can't do. And as much as I want to play with one, and probably will, I don't think this is the best application for it. At my decrepit age of 65 I have to be thinking of how my kids are going to be able to maintain it, and none of would be able to do so. But, thanks for the info. And I will know where to turn when I do get into them.

 

Ok, They are amazing ... I control our hot tub, pool, water filtration system, generator/power switching and of course my Re-flo oven.

BTW you win ... you are decrepit!
But I'm right on your heels ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

BTW, this is a guy that does gauge conversion.

Rocketman's Classic Cougar Innovations

 

Actually, you could have both gauges and lights. Right now I'm playing around with a DIY circuit board and a 556 timer chip. I plan to add an additional temp sender to the thermostat housing, and an additional oil pressure switch to the adapter which now has the sender for the gauge in it. The only reason for the circuit board and chip is to make the light flash when one of the senders grounds out in a failed state (too hot/oil pressure too low). I removed the existing graphic windows at the top of the dash where the 'emission' and '4x4' are (I have a 2WD anyway) and made up new windows with TEMP and OIL on them. If you don't care about having them flash then you don't need anything but the lightbulbs...For voltage, I'm thinking of maybe using another circuit I built for a motorcycle which has worked pretty well. It's adjustable such that you can have the warning light turn on at whatever voltage you like. Making these boards is pretty easy and cheap too. Free downloadable software, a laser printer, the copper clad board, an etchant solution (ferric chloride is commonly used) and some cheap components from Radio Shack are what's required.

 

I *really* hate to be this guy, but are you sure there's enough interest in keeping the truck around to make this pretty large undertaking worth your time?

I'd hate for you to do all this extra wiring, only to find out there isn't much interest in the truck after you.

 

Festus - That's quite a few things being controlled. Sounds like you have a lot of experience. Thanks for the input.

F100 - That's the guy. Thanks. Spending $30 might be just the right solution to this as it would be a lot easier to see that meter.

Tempest - You've given me an other option, the 555 timer and it's brother, the 556. I don't know why I didn't think of that because I used to use them for everything, and was able to recite the pin-out in my sleep. A 556, like you are using, would work perfectly for voltage and oil pressure, and a pair of them would work fine for adding coolant temp and high current to the mix. And, the idea of using one of the windows is good as well. I have one left since Dad's truck is a 4x4, so could use that for a warning light. Thanks!

Shaun - At this point there is no one saying "I want that truck", but I'm confident that when the time comes at least my son will want it. However, none of these options are really all that much work, and pale in comparison to what I've done and what I'm getting ready to do - body work.