Thought I'd post this as it might be of interest to you lot

http://public.fotki.com/altman/cars/noble_bits/

Rather a work in progress, but to solve the problem of not being able to mount my empeg in view of the driver in my new car (well, the one which will hopefully arrive in 6 months or so), I've put a small VFD actually inside the revcounter.

More pics when I've finished it. Basically it's a monochrome (no greyscales) 128x32 VFD module from Itron hooked up to the serial port of the empeg with some software changes (though it's simple enough to go into Hijack if required). Currently you only get about 3 frames per second, but I'll sort that out before it gets installed

Hugo

Any chance that you'd also publish the schematic for the interface so that I can update this and this?

The schematic is as simple as a 5v power supply and a 5v<>RS232 level converter (ie, a MAX232). The module has a standard 19200bps serial interface to it.

I'm planning to move to a 115200bps link to another microcontroller (probably a mitsubishi 16c62 series - though if I told you what else that was going to appear in, I'd have to kill you) which will then drive the display over SPI - either that or I'll drive the display direct and try and get greyscales.

Hugo

Hmmm. I was thinking of putting a real real turbo gauge in my car since the stock one is driven of the engine control computer and is simply there for eye candy. Adding this to that would be hella dope.

i have not the words.

Oh my, I so want this.

Thought I'd post this as it might be of interest to you lot

Holy [censored] [censored]!

You've been watching _Scanners_ again.

Twisted, sick, I love it!!! Now, if you can rig a heads-up display, so it doesn't need a dask gauge retrofit and can be done easily...

Umm... dude you have way too much time on your hands. But I love it

flash b**tard

I hope when finished you'll be making this available to buy. My car has a cover for the radio area which I usually keep shut, so it would be nice to be able to see the track info etc somewhere else

A noble way cool have to find a link so our american friends know what it is

its http://www.noblecars.com

Oh my.

Pretty nice little vehicle there, indeed.

At around how much does one of those babies sticker? $80,000 - $100,000 I'd guess?

John

Still excited by this.

How cool would it be to have the option of remote mounting the empeg with this in the instument panel and using steering wheel controls. (Of course this has been discussed before, now it's much more realistic to consider.)

(Be even cooler if the display were 2BPP, but still, that's pretty bad ass Hugo...)

John

At around how much does one of those babies sticker? $80,000 - $100,000 I'd guess?

I'm not sure which one Hugo's getting (they've announced a convertible now, hint hint Hugo) but the basic one "stickers at" about £45,000, so say $70,000.

Peter

It's just a Mondeo in disguise!

Impressive.
What sort of cost are we talking about here?
And what options? would it be possible to drive a serial LCD module?

Hey!, so why the Noble then, I much prefer the T350, but then again I would say that

OK, so I looked at your Motorshow pics, so shoot me

is it possible to inverse the display so you can put on top of the dash and reflect it off your windshield, ala transparent empeg?

don't even have to look away from the road anymore. not even down to the meters =)

Hugo, just don't do this with it!

Gareth

Hugo... what color?!

They start at about US$70k, depending on the exchange rate. Rumoured 0-60 sprint times for the newer 3 litre twin turbos is 3.5 seconds

Hugo

Well, it's going to be Monaco Blue Pearlescent, which incidentally is that amazing blue you get on the 2002 Honda/Acura NSX; didn't much fancy any of the stock colours, fingers crossed I found the right paint code to give to the factory

Hugo

Niiiiice. Wow. That's it, i'm coming to Cambridge just to get a ride in that sucker when you get it. So nice.

Oh man I want this! Please say you will be selling these.

That install is awesome. With some basic voice activated commands... sorry, just dreaming again

Paddle shifters?

Z~

Now that I started to think about it, that display would fit right where my onstar buttons reside in the dash. And the empeg could be controlled by the steering wheel. hmmm....

Nice. I do hope you've got the right paint code though otherwise it could be interesting when your florescent pink Noble with go-faster-stripes turns up

- Trevor