Making a Color LCD Dashboard Replacement?

DarkHand asks: "I've recently begun a project that would allow me to replace the analog gauges in my cars dash with a TFT LCD screen displaying a digital representation of the same. A number of animated analog-looking gauges would display the same information the physical gauges display, based on info from the ECU, as well as any other information the ECU has access to, such as intake air and coolant temperatures, throttle position, pop-ups for any warnings or error codes, etc. I'm looking to be able to add, remove, and customize the positions of the individual gauges, and possibly even make the background skinnable. Stability is crucial, so I'm leaning toward a Linux-based system. I have a few software friends who are willing to help on that end, but finding the proper hardware for such a project has proven difficult." "I need something that either boots within a few seconds, or draws very little power when idle so as to remain active and run off the cars battery. A laptop or small computer boots too slowly, and draws too much power to stay on all the time. A high powered PDA with a larger screen would be perfect, but as far as I know it's not possible (or at least not easily doable, both in hardware and software) to change out to a larger display. The best option I've found so far is the venerable Gumstix board, but as far as I can tell, LCD support is still shaky. Has a similar homebrew project been done before, where I could go for wisdom? What kind of hardware would the Slashdot crowd use in such a situation?"

Comments

Safety Issues

[TinheadNed]

I don't think your car would be road-legal with a software speedometer. What you might be able to do is use an FPGA as that does not strictly count as software (sometimes). Use an FPGA and an LVDS driver chip and not much else, and you might be able to get away with it.

If you don't know how to do that I would *seriously* reconsider your idea of replacing a piece of hardware that you trust with your LIFE.

Let's be honest, you don't want your eulogy to be "Well, he wanted his car to play the Back To The Future music when he got to 88 mph."

Re:LCD?

[over_exposed]

Are you kidding me? Get a 21" CRT! YEAH!! And while you're at it, replace the steering wheel with two joysticks and the gas and brake pedals with infrared sensors that detect the position of your feet relative to an LED grid on the floor... Seatbelt? HA! Just run about 8 standard power cords in parallel - those things can be used to tow a frickin' CAR! Man, we're all just full of great ideas.