Slashdot Mirror

The Xenarc screens are supposed to be better than the Lilliput screens FWIW. I've purchased a 7inch version with vid capability as well as VGA for under $400 off of EBAY.

I've been looking into this in order to monitor what's going on with my car's standalone EFI system. Since that EFI system's software allows me to build "dashboards" I can do LOTS of interesting displays. I have been collecting URLs and you can see pics of other's progress and discussion here -> http://forum.aempower.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=9604

Some URLs I've collected in no distinct order or organization:

http://www.logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php? cPath=74&products_id=189
http://logisysus.com/catalog/product_info.php?prod ucts_id=334
http://www.kingyoung.com.tw/s620.htm
http://littlepc.com/
http://www.diamondsystems.com/
http://www.viaarena.com/
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/Griffi n_RadioSHARK_AM-FM_Radio.htm
http://www.xmradio.com/xmpcr/ (I bought one, have added optical output, and have purchased TimeTrax!)
http://www.hauppauge.com/html/wintvpvr usb_datashee t.htm> (have one on the way, thanks EBAY!)
http://store.karpc.com/cat-LCD-Touch-Screen--lcdmo nitor.htm
http://www.mp3car.com/
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/audigy2NX/
http://www.carbotpc.com/products/
http://www.powerstream.com/DC_PC.htm
http://www.powerstream.com/mini-itx.htm
http://www.media-car.fr.st/
http://drivesoft.net/
http://www.gnetcanada.com/
http://www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm
http://skylab.org/~chugga/mpegbox/MPBS1/
http://www.compucar.be.tf/
http://www.autonode.com/ig710specs.html?
http://www.trc12volt.com/
http://www.intraplexcorp.com/tx3.asp
http://www.sfftech.com/
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
http://www.dashmatics.com/forum/faq.php

Hopefully some of those will be of help to others considering this sort of thing, I'd be interested in working with others to research this! My plans are to mock up something with the touchscreen and front-end software working with the WINTV, XM PCR, my MP3 collection, GPS mapping, the RLTC software, and my AEM datalogging software. IF it works well (or even halfway well) THEN I'll buy hardware to put IN the car. No sense spending the money if the interface turns out to suck or be too distracting while driving. I'll likely be able to play DVDs too but honestly that's pretty se

Well, Assuming you are not in CA or somewhere with similar smog laws, there are aftermarket fuel injection computers available: Electromotive, AEM, Wolf, Haltech, Simple Digital Systems and others make engine control computers ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars. It all depends on how bad you want to keep your car.

These are all fully programmable, which of course means you or someone else has to program them before they will work, which isnt particularly an easy task, and most of them wont control things like VTEC/VVTI, but They are an option none the less. And most of them will also require wire harness adaptation (they wont just plug right in) Not an easy solution, but again it all depends on how bad you want to keep your car.

WolfEMS http://www.wolfems.com.au/home

Haltech http://www.haltech.com/

AEM http://www.aempower.com/product_ems.asp

Electromotive http://www.electromotive-inc.com/

SimpleDigitalSystemshttp://www.sdsefi.com/

CA Smog law stuff Basically if its aftermarket it has to be approved, and none of these are, there are a bunch of approved ECU reburns but no full on programmale systems.

This has been around forever. I remember back in high school you could get chips for domestic cars, but they didn't really give you a significant HP increase. Now, a lot of the imports are turbocharged, and in most cases, the computer controls the boost level. The GIAC X-chip I have in my S4 takes the HP from 240 up to 312, and almost 400 ft/lbs of torque. Add a few more mods, like replacing the horribly restrictive exhaust and downpipes, and a few other goodies, you're looking at nearly 400hp and 450ft/lbs of torque. Another thing they do is remove the stock speed limiter, which is usually either 130mph or 155mph depending on the car.

There's a company called AEM that makes a replacement OBDII compliant computer that you can program yourself. They have it for several different models of cars, and a general one that you can splice in yourself if they don't make the harness for it. It's a pretty nifty little device. My friend bought one for his 3000GT and it allows you to remap timing, fuel maps, and just about everything else, and you can set thresholds too (for example, if you see knock, dump more fuel, if that doesn't solve it, back off the timing). It requires a lot of tuning to get it working right, but if you've invested the time and money to make your car put out 700hp, it's something you pretty much need.

The thing that pisses me off, is there is currently no one making "tunable" computers for Audi right now. We're stuck with what the vendors feed us. So if I want to go and put some big ass Garrett turbos on my car, I don't have the ability to tune the computer properly to use them. Since I'd need bigger fuel injectors to prevent it from leaning out, a comparable pulse width with the bigger injectors would supply too much fuel and it would run extremely rich or not at all.

In any case, some of the detuning is done for emissions purposes, some is done to reduce horsepower to get it in a lower insurance class, and some is done to avoid the dreaded "gas-guzzler" tax. Generally, the european version of the same car has way more power. My old Eclipse had a small plastic sleeve inside the boost solenoid, that when removed gave an extra few pounds of boost. The old Chevy CK work trucks had a panel over part of the airbox to restrict airflow, and if you removed it you got another 25hp.

There is a company called AEM That makes somethign called the EMS (Engine Management System)
It's a $2000 drop-in ECU. With completel computer control and datalogging. A geeks dream!

The thing is, t doesn't take much to control a car. Some PWM inputs and outputs, some flash, some ROM. Add some DACs and you have all the hardware you need. The EMS uses a 16/32 hybrid microcontroller. Nothing much. You basically have to adjust the PWN for fuel on throttle position and intake air volume, and throw a spark when needed. The rest is just window/heater controls.

The EMS also has fly-by-wire throttle control, automated launch, and everything imaginable.

I'm surprised there's not an opensource project already.

Plus there are plenty of other "hard" ways you can "mod" your car (cams, exhaust, sway bars, shocks etc, depending on what you need to improve).

It's actually not hard to read ECU ODB-II interfaces -- so easy that a little time spent googling can find howto's -- the big problem is that the code for re-programming the ECU is not available freely.

If there was a good programmable ECU, like this one, available at less than $1200 that worked with 99% of all new cars, it would be worth buying. The problem with AEM's unit is that they have major difficulties keeping up with automatic transmissions on new cars, so if you own a 2002 auto, no joy for you. Oh, the other problem with them is that they aren't legal for on road use. heh.. but that's a minor setback, neither are half the aftermarket exaust systems that people have on their cars.

I think I'm going to tell my next car dealer I want an open-source car. :(