Thread: Where is a good palce to put a 15in' Monitor?

Interesting dilemma. I considered using a 9 or 10" CRT mounted in the glove compartment. A lot cheaper than an LCD, but I decided against it (even though I, too, am poor). One thing you could do is write software so that everything is sent to the monitor backwards, so you could mount it in your back seat and look at it in the rear-view mirror. If you wanted to chop up your dashboard, you could get a smaller display, mount it in your glove compartment facing forwards, cut a hole above it, and stick a mirror in front of it so that the image is reflected on your windshield. My cousin did that with a digital speedometer, it's nifty.

Well, that was all hypothetical. I really wouldn't know where to start. Sorry. I'm sure someone else can help you, though. You could just use a mirror to reverse the image, although if you get in an accident, all those broken mirrors will bring you a lot of bad luck. As far as the speedometer goes, my cousin didn't use an actual computer or computer monitor to display it. I was just using it as an example. I think you can buy digital speedometers like his at auto stores or most certainly on the internet. The thing was bright enough that he could reflect it off of a small mirror and onto his windshield.

I'm implementing a data-logging and realtime info display into my in-car computer system.

To get information such as speed, etc., you need to either install sensors for each parameter you want to measure, or tap into the wiring harness (can be a real pain!) and intercept the signal if the vehicle is already using a sensor.

Either way you'll probably end up needing 1 or more ADCs (Analog to Digital Converters) or frequency counting circuitry.

I'm developing a system to allow me to monitor all engine and vehicle sensors, for use with such things as ABS brakes, as well as for performance monitoring for race situations.

It's pretty involved; a lot of hardware and software is required to get it working right.

--Jason