Thread: LCD / Display Under Bonnet/Hood - Heat Issue ???

The ambient air temperature in my engine bay when the car is not in motion varies depending on the location, but I'm pretty much guaranteed to be above 120-150 at any particular point on an average temperature day (72F?). Granted, the car I'm talking about has a very large engine, smaller engines and engines with heat covers may differ.

On another note, I'd expect you'd also need something waterproof.

Cooling would be a large part of this project, Thinking to test with the usual method of fan forced cooling along with a sealed unit and a duct feed from the thermo fan. Its something i will try at some stage with an old TFT i have laying around.

Has anything like this been done on the commercial side?

LCDs seem to have problems above 50C (120F) - they tend to go black, but maybe rebiasing might solve that (though I don't think so).
Maybe LEDs are the way to go....

Keep in mind that displays will probably conform to the usual halving of life for every 10C or 15C (18F & 27F) increase in temperature. (Up until the destruction temperature).

In Darwin, I think you can kiss this idea goodbye unfortunately.

The temperature, as well as the humidity up there will kill that screen in a short time, unless you are willing to invest serious dollars in IP54 sealing for it, while still finding a way to shed the heat.

I think inside your engine bay will be a definite no no.

However, why not make up a wiring harness that ends in a set of plugs on the underside of the bonnet, with a dust proof cap on them, and just have a screen you can clip into place when the bonnet is up?

The removable single clip screen was an idea as will work ideally with out many issues...

Well looks like the ruling is leading to it should not be done or at least not with out a great risk. So will work on a simple plug n play for the bonnet...
But being the destructive person i am, I think i will still try something with this and see how it goes over time. Where there is a will, There is a way.

OH WOW, in the hood? Well dont you also have to worry about water? Like when its raining, its going to splash up inside there. Only thing I can think of is adding a fake hood scoop, then recess the screen into the hood scoop and make a water tight and heat proof door. When you need it, simply flip open the door and the screen will flip out of the hood scoop. Just make sure its a hood scoop that is closed on all sides. When you attach to the hood, make sure it has a tight seal.