I have a PC in my car now, it plays MP3s, games, and displays a GPS enabled mapping/navigation program on an 8" touch LCD that sits perfectly in the stock cup holder (amazing fit!).

I'm pretty happy with everything it does, especially when I get stuck in traffic and can play video games..

But I want to interface the PC with the ECU to display info on boost, EGT, charging levels, etc.. It would also be the cat's ass if I could tweak the ECU with the PC connection, but primarilly I just want to use it as a 'digital dash'.

Any suggestions or recommendations of products that do this? I've found a few things that look close but know nobody with actual experience with the products so I can't get any good info! :(

TIA!

www.ecutek.com
A Delta Dash would be your best bet as it is capable of live monitoring of all the ECU parameters, and has a customizable "digital dash" mode. You won't be able to tune your car with it unless you have an ECUTek reflash with user-tuning enabled, even then your tuning options are limited compared to what the original tuner is able to do.

Sounds cool. How about a pic?

Just click on the link to ECUTek in my first post and you can see it there along with all the info.

Yeah that software looks like it can sorta do what I want but I guess I'll have to get into the forums to find people who have one so I can chat them up.

www.scantool.net

hks camp system :)

Mike

the single best thing to use for your app is the Deltadash. You can take some time to make a VERY SLICK DeltaDash In-Car Dashboard display so it doesn't look at janky. Check out what the guys on the ECUTek forums did with a touchscreen:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~rrhedey/lcd.jpg

that's a 7" LCD touchscreen with a Motec display on at the moment, but you can easily make a Deltadash display just like that. You can even do something like this with some effort:

http://white-elephant.homeip.net/pics/dd.jpg

Yeah that 7" looks great in the console like that, so slick and professional. I had to have the proper aspect ratio and higher native resolution for doing work in the car. So I went for the 8" and even though the cup holder turned out to be a pretty good mount, I'm getting a custom steel bracket made that bolts into the din slot above my stereo and holds the monitor from a single point on the back.

Looking at the software for what it does and the time it took to develop it, the price is actually pretty attractive. The company I work for sells software for that more and charges double to set it up.

Having said that, I don't see any options to buy just the software/cable/adapter.. I could care less about the tuning, I'm still under warranty and don't want to mess with my ECU setup. So for my particular needs, I would love to buy direct from ECU Tek and skip the install/tuning fees till later if and when I want to upgrade. I bet they aren't allowed or something, but I will keep on drooling and dreaming.

If you buy the Delta Dash alone, and don't have your ECU reflashed via ECUTek, the tuning feature will not be available. Even with the reflash, the tuning function only operates if the tuner has enabled it. So, you won't be able to change anything critical in the ECU with just the basic product. The only adjustments possible with the DD alone are idle speed and a few degrees of overall timing (to compensate for bad fuel etc) and you can just leave those adjustments alone.

DeltaDash can be purchased from one of their US dealers, such as Vishnutuning.com. It's reasonably priced. One thing I would recommend though is to upgrade to the PCMCIA keycard though isntead of the USB version. The USB version sticks out, is fragile, annoying, and takes up valuable USB ports in a world where laptops don't have enough ports for everything.

Mulder is correct about the user tuning parts, ignition timing is not actually adjustable on most of the modern cars, only idle speed. The product, as a logging and data-display device is still FULLY capable for literally a hundred variables and you can even hook up external sensors like your own EGT sensor, oil pressure senders, Wideband O2 sensors, etc (although the external sensors require an additional $100 interface box).

If you get it and are having trouble making your In-Car Dash screen to look (and operate) how you want it, feel free to ask for help from me or from the people at the ecutek forums. We are all pretty good at it.

Well, since it is a mailorder product, I just have to find the lowest price with shipping and crap. I'm trying to go local and work my way out but I have to wait till Tuesday evening to get all the replies from Canadian dealers. Best price I have so far is $400(US) shipped, but that's out of the country and if I buy it locally I'll presumably save the cost of duty and extra shipping/brokerage.

I really wish there was some great website like xe.com that allows you to select an object, provide any info you know about it, including the city of origin, and destination.. Then it would take that info, find the cheapest way to get the item delivered, and then tell you if you had to pay taxes, duty, brokerage, etc.., how long it would take, and how much everything costs with exchange. I know I'm dreaming..

As for the interface, I will want to fiddle around with it for sure. I am a control/gadget geek and I'd want all the available sensors mapped to a spot on the digital display. I almost want it to look like a friggen airplane. :)

I'd love to add simple on/off toggle switches to control my amps, emergency flashers (obscured by the panel), or any other addons like IC sprays. For the IC spray a smart switch would be very nice, watching boost and applying IC spray to cool things down (if enabled) would be so slick. :D

With all this hardware in my car, the stock/oem car alarm is starting to freak me out.. I'm thinking at some point I should upgrade to a two-way alarm system to protect all my gear, but I gotta stop buying this stuff if I want to spend money on a good alarm. Haha! :huh: