I finally broke down and had a 4" exhaust and gauges added on the truck. I am currently in the process of buying a 4 position performance chip from Dale at Tymar.

My question for you guys: Have any of you found something other than a plain old rotary selector switch? I'm after something a little more stylish. I have been looking for something like 4 lighted switches that automatically toggle between each other. This way I don't have to turn one off and then the other one on. I'm not sure I want to go the route of a custom touch pad but I'm not finding anything close to what I'm after.

Any of you guys seen or have something like this??

 

Ok, I got no responses back so I'll assume I might be the first to try this.

I found a small electronic company that made a computer controller for my performance chip. I just couldn't stand the circa 1950s era rotary switch. Thinking about it I also incorperated the controls for my powershot system.

Dash Computer / Performance Chip Selector

The two momentary buttons on the left control the chip in an up down fashion. The display shows; Stock, Tow, Race, Extreme.

The top momentary button on the right turns on the propane system with the bottom one engaging the propane.

The display will then show "Race--Engaged" or "Tow--Off", "Stock--Idle" or whatever combination you select.

I'm already working on a version 2.0 that also includes the controls for the incoming water/meth inj system.

Though you guys might want to see a pretty cool solution to an asthetics nighmare!

 

Very, very cool.

 

great job I wish you were my neighbor

 

Very nice! where might I find somthing like that.How far did that gadget set u back?

 

Very nice, I was thinking on how to make something similar to that when I read your first post, but that great, much better than the old rotory switch. With the next rev. you might want to think about adding another push button or two, you could use them for fog lights or what ever you decided.

 

Sorry it took me a couple days to get back to this. I got a digital camera to take some shots of the computer . I told my wife that the camera was for an "upcoming vacation". So I had to make good!

The computer is designed to work with my Diesel Power 4 position flip chip. The computer trips a small bank of micro relays (behing the dash) to the configuration specified by the programming. You can set any of the switches to control any function you wish. The powdered coated aluminum plate we fabricated needed to fit in the space by the accessory power outlet. As the room on the plate is at a premium the amount of switches is limited right now to 6 + the display. The next version will have two more push buttons that will contol the water/Mehtanol system due to arrive soon. I am currently planning on using two button (total of 6) for each of the 3 systems. We are looking at dropping down to one button for the water/meth and propane controls and that would leave us with 2 spare buttons for something else. You can program each button to either, toggle on/off, control a menu, momentary, or interact with other switches, just about anything you can think up.

I'm even considering having the computer not allow the propane or water/meth to activate until the engine reaches a normal operating temperature range. The flip side would be to have it automatically turn on the water if the engine heat goes above a certain threshhold. It's all in the programming and what you can think up.

As you can tie any thing you want onto the relays, you could control any 12V DC system on the vehicle. Talking with the designer, he can set something up for just about any type of # position flip chips out there, I wound up putting out $500 because of the time it took us to trial and error the electronics and the original machining of the plate (CAD Design and milled). The new 2.0 model is already set down to $300 as we are just tweaking and modifying a few things ( the hard work is already done). The cost doesn't so much come from the hardware as it does from the guy sitting down and etching and soldering the tiny computer boards. I even be getting rid of the first one when 2.0 gets installed.

The only real work on my part was actually installing the plate on the dash. I used a dremel to open up a square that the back of the display could sit in. Took all of 20 minutes and a set of calipers. It went in so easily that you can't even tell that a gorilla fisted ape (me) put the thing in. It's engineered that precisely!

The guy says he is more than willing to generate them as needed. Check out his companies website :

Franks Development LLC.

 

Since space is at a premium for switches, you could use one switch to toggle through your different options, then two for the up down selection. Or if it is easy enough to program, set each switch up for momentary push, toggles up one, hold (i.e. 1 sec or so) toggle one down. With the second one, it would be harder to setup software wise, but the options, as they are now, endless. Good luck and have fun.