Aaron's Custom ST16x Econometer

The neighbours were actually kicked out for the time they almost burnt their house down and all the smashed windows! :lol2

The amp? It's in pieces right now waiting for me to bring it upstairs and do some soldering, but it does have RCA inputs and it's 4 channels with about 50W per channel @ 4Ohms IIRC. Home theater speakers are usually around 20W 8Ohms so it's more like 100W per channel. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Thanks
I can make it display US units pretty easily, I'll be making a firmware for all 3 measurement systems if there's interest from countries using each.

 

Just a small update;

I'm upgrading the Econometer's brain to a microcontroller with 9 more I/O pins including an extra hardware interrupt to make reading the injectors firing more accurate, double the amount of program space and double the amount of EEPROM ( user data/logging ). It also uses the same instruction set, so I won't need to reprogram anything.

With the extra I/O pins I'm thinking about upgrading the screen to a graphical 128x64 LCD so I can have more control over what is displayed and also have graphical representations of what measurements are being displayed ( it's quicker to recognise a picture than words ).

I also plan on adding a microSD card slot and detailed logging capabilities. I'll be writing a PC program to extract your logged driving/engine information from the microSD and display it in a user-friendly way with fancy graphs and averages etc..

I've done quite a bit of program design work since my last update, but not so much more coding until I get the new bits and pieces to play with.

Obviously having fancier parts is going to bump the price up a small amount, namely the new microcontrollers which are around $15 each but you guys don't mind paying a bit more for a cooler toy now do you? :biggrin

 

Just a quick update to let you guys know where I'm at..

I've ordered a bunch of new bits thanks to a generous donation :thumbsup:
Namely the new microcontroller, bigger LCD and a bunch of other necessary bits.

The new microcontroller gives us 6 extra external interrupts, which will make reading the injector pulses quicker and more accurate. We also get 16 sensor ports via some multiplexing, a microSD slot for data logging and there's a bunch of I/O ports left over so I can definitely make a multi-stage shift light!
I've also designed a power circuit that tells the microcontroller to save all the data and write to the SD before it turns off it's own power completely when you switch the key to OFF, then it powers back up when you turn the key to ACC.

The control scheme has been changed too. Now you can choose between either 5 buttons arranged in a D-Pad style with a select button in the middle or a joystick with a center click.

I'm pretty excited to start programming for the new LCD, so I've made some mockups of how I want the main screen and menus to look. They appear very small on the computer screen but are actually meant to be displayed on a ~7cmx~4cm screen.





As always, comments and suggestions welcome and encouraged.

 

Not taking any orders just yet, I'll be getting everyone's orders at the same time to get bulk discounts from my suppliers

Thanks

I love that quote lol
That's actually the colours of the LCD that I ordered, I just did the mockups in B/W for simplicity's sake.

The main thing holding me up is getting bits shipped here, most of the parts only take 1-2 weeks but the LCD is coming from China so it takes around 3-4 weeks.
That's not to say I can't program while I'm waiting for it, but I can't test anything on the new hardware till it gets here.

I hadn't actually thought about doing software updates through the SD slot, but I'll look into it! I was going to add a USB port or something for software updates but through the SD slot would be a lot easier.

haha I don't think I want the local kids playing in my garage! Nah I haven't done anything to the garage yet, but I got my gearbox fixed today
I bought a pair of jack stands in preparation for dropping my box out and ripping it apart, but it turns out I fixed it last time I was farking around with it, I just needed to put the engine mount back in and try to reverse. It just popped right out of gear! I lost 5th in the process, I'm guessing the fork is bent but that doesn't worry me too much.
I took her out for a spin with the missus to get some groceries, it feels so good to have power under my foot again

Back on topic, I'm super excited for all the upgrades I'm doing. Especially the new LCD and the joystick control scheme

I'm loving how much the project has evolved from being just a fuel consumption monitor with T-VIS control to an everything monitor with fuel monitoring functions :thumbsup:

 

I had the selector assy out today, I had to pull the arm off and reposition and straighten it. Check my thread for details, but I didn't see anything wrong with the actual assembly when it was out so I'm putting my money on the fork being bent.
How much do you want for the 5th gear set? I most likely won't be dropping the box until I get a new clutch and seals so I only have to do it once, but it'll be good to have for when I decide to do it.

:lol I know you're not for serious about me hurrying me the f'k up. I'm waiting for it as much as the next person, only difference is I'm the one building it

 

Great to see another new 162er on the forums :thumbsup:
No, we don't have an OBD port in our cars. All of the connections that the econometer needs come straight from your engine harness and ECU, I just read all the data, parse it and display it on screen.

 

Just a quick update to show you guys the new screen and joystick :hurray


iPod Touch for size comparison.


A much better, more logical control scheme.

I'm still waiting on the new microcontroller, so can't show you guys anything on the screen just yet.

 

So I got the rest of the new bits in the mail yesterday :naughty

I actually didn't notice there was a package sitting on my front stairs until the afternoon, it was a very busy day.

I spent the last hour or so putting together the new (much bigger!) prototype board and hand soldering the new microcontroller to it's breakout board with only a big soldering iron, a solder sucker and a roll of 0.8mm solder. Anyone who has ever done that before will know why I'm definitely building a reflow oven for the end product!

I've yet to make all the connections to the LCD. I was hoping to finish it and have a nice message to you all displayed on the screen before I posted my update but alas, it's too close to bed time!

As usual, some nice pictures!

My lovely soldering. It's hard to appreciate how tiny those pads and legs are without seeing them with your own eyes!


Everything comes apart this time! It'll make adding connections so much easier.


Size reference again.


The In-Circuit-Serial-Programming header and USBtoSerial dongle all connected ready for programming!