Looking for 2 things,

Red LED clock,
Red LED Volt meter,

The volt meter is the important item here, I want something that is very responsive, to tell me how much voltage drops when I switch on different items. (Yes I have a volmeter, but I want this to be on my dash :) )

I want as inexpensive as possible, the don't need any special mounting hardware, they are going inside of the Factory Gauge housing and I'll figure out a way to mount them. I don't think I should have to spend much over $20 for this, even better, does anyone know how I can make one??? :devil:

I have a readout on my Capacitor for my car stereo that is exactly what I'm looking for, only w/ a green led, that and it is toooo large, I would like the height of the screen to be roughly 1"

I should have put more thought into it before i finished this post, but ideally, I would have this setup:
- I would have one display which I could switch between:
Clock->Volts->Temp(s) Where I could switch between different thermocouples on the temp readout (yes I understand the theory behind thermocouples and the different compensations which must be entered for each type,)

And I figure that ~$20/function should be reasonable. I know you can buy the entire display for $3 it's getting the inputs to display that I don't get.

More realistically, I would have 3 different LED readouts, one for clock, one for temp, one for voltage,

For now I'll be happy w/ voltage.

check my post in this thread .. some other info there too.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=310953

Yeah, saw that one, I think it's what got me started thinking about all of this, but the only one I liked was the dakotadigital unit, which was $140, nice but overpriced. I wanna do it cheap, I've been giving my old EE roomates phone calls, and have started getting my brain ramped up for what is involved. The more resources, tips, etc the merrier. What I know...
I need to get a multiplexer, line driver, and the LED display, I still haven't figured out the DA-AD stuff. I don't want to mess w/ and/or gates, yet don't want to buy a 1-chip does all, because they are too much $$$ and will put me over budget.

If JCwhitney can include the clock and temp for $14 then I think I can do just clock, just temp, or just voltage for $20, I don't care if they are mass produced and made in china, I can get components made in china too, (although I'd rather not)


something like this for the temp, now these models allow diff thermocouple types, and are .05% accurate, which is a little extreme for this application.Omega (http://www.omega.com/toc_asp/frameset.html?book=Temperature&file=DPF50)

oooh and w/ control outputs...
Omega (http://www.omega.com/toc_asp/frameset.html?book=Temperature&file=DPI8C)

I'm sure it can be done cheaply
DIY kit (http://www.web-tronics.com/dualtemmetki.html)
If I could modify this kit to use a multisegment LED instead of an LCD...

Go HERE. (http://www.speedshop.org/store/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=22)

Scott Buchanan

Thanks for that one, that's what I'm looking for, but.... for about $40 less :) Keep the ideas coming, it's looking like I'm going to end up making these things, the clock will be the easiest, followed by the voltmeter and the temperatures will be the most difficult if I decide to go w/ multiple thermocouples especially.