Gauges Displayed In Icc

[Pretzel]

  cobrav8 said:

I agree - great job, but I would see this as a $200 type sale personally, and at that level - you would sell heaps of them!  For $500 and up I would be spending my money on making the car go faster.

How is it loaded into the car?  Is it a plug in unit, or somehow modded on your computer?  I guess that determines the cost to you to produce the product.

Also - personally I wouldnt want to play DVDs etc, if I want to watch telly, I will stay at home!  The idea of the display is great, especially as you start modding things.

0-100 readings would be good.  I am sure you can pick up when a car starts moving and when it hits 100, maybe go 0-100-0 as well?  That would allow for some fun competition.

What are chances of providing to NZ customers?  I am happy to be your agent if you need one?

Cheers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

At this point it will be added to the car (an additional computer, see my other response)

The whole idea was because I didn't want to add additional gauges to my car (When the car is off, it looks like every other XR on the road !), but I did want the extra information available to me in the car !

0-100-0 should be no problem to implement into the solution I think.. but starting and stopping it will require some sort of button etc.. Otherwise it is always measuring it everytime you drive the car ! you would need to hit a button to start the measurements, and then again once you've stopped playing to turn it off I suppose

As far as providing to NZ customers...... No problem, if something goes ahead it can be available to anywhere.....

[stang]

seriously, would you be better off licensing the product to a company and letting them build it. You say computer do you mean Pc or circuit board with memory and a cpu on it.Obviously volume will reduce costs and this may be viable for other makes of cars.Seriously if you couldn`t do it for under $500 scrap it as a business venture. People spend under around a thousand tops to set up their gauges but they are also proven products.If you set it up and it damages the screen etc will you take responsibility.

Sorry Pretzel not trying to come down on you.

My understanding was the software was readily available?If it`s not purely business and you beleive you will lose money why not make the information readily available and let others build there own.

The only other thing I can think off is why not sell the design and let others build there own less exposure to your self as if they stuff it there prob.

Anyway I wish you the best on what ever desicion you go with, for me not worth as I aready have my gauges that look sexy but would have been nice to have oiltemp,water temp,EGT in the lcd.

[Pretzel]

  stang said:

seriously, would you be better off licensing the product to a company and letting them build it. You say computer do you mean Pc or circuit board with memory and a cpu on it.Obviously volume will reduce costs and this may be viable for other makes of cars.Seriously if you couldn`t do it for under  $500 scrap it as a business venture. People spend under around a thousand tops to set up their gauges but they are also proven products.If you set it up and it damages the screen etc will you take responsibility.

Sorry Pretzel not trying to come down on you.

My understanding was the software was readily available?If it`s not purely business and you beleive you will lose money why not make the information  readily available and let others build there own.

The only other thing I can think off is why not sell the design and let others build there own less exposure to your self as if they stuff it there prob.

Anyway I wish you the best on what ever desicion you go with, for me not worth as I aready have my gauges that look sexy but would have been nice to have oiltemp,water temp,EGT in the lcd.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Stang,

I would hope that once sorted, another company would want to take this onboard anyhow (Because in theory it will not only work on Fords, but of course the Ford has the display in the dash already !)

By Computer it means either of the options you mentioned.... My preference is a custom circuit board to do exactly what we want (But there is additional development costs there !)

Yes people spend under $1000 to set up their gauges (But only two of them) This would give them almost as many as they want, and with stealth.

Yes they are proven products, but someone had to be first with them too ! In this case I've been running mine for a few months without issues.... what do you class as proven ?

As for damaging the screen, I am only supplying signals to the display (In the format ford have chosen) so it is as likely to damage the display as say a Blaupunkt DVD player is..... (It's basically doing the same as the DVD player is, and both are not Factory fitted !)

The path I take depends on what sort of interest there is, and where the interest comes from...

Pretzel

[cdm]

Call me crazy, but would it be possible to modify and xbox and run the software on that? This way you would have the ultimate in car solution. Not only could it run the software to display the gauges etc but also be able play games/music/movies.

Failing this, what about a palm pilot?

Chris.

[cobrav8]

You are crazy

Good idea though - it is PC based, can play DVDs, pretty cheap, what do you think Pretzel?

[Pretzel]

Yes, that is something I had not thought of.... It is certainly cheaper than getting anything produced...

I might look into what would be required to get the software working on the Xbox... Still have the problem of the interface into the Xbox for the data to come from.....

I'll look into what the Xbox has as far as inputs etc..

Pretzel

[Pretzel]

Xbox doesn't have Serial or USB inputs, so is not a solution we can run with...

Palm Pilots/Windows CE devices, are a possibility we had looked at, but decent display size/resolution is expensive still, and the cheaper ones have poor size/resolution displays....

[Turbofalke]

You need a geek with resources. Try to register the idea so know body steals it, then talk to sombody like Bosch who make electrical components for cars and are experienced in ECU interfacing. Bosch are in Melbourne I think.

Good luck with it, Its a great idea and will become much cheaper when you find the components you need as a minimum and not using existing product design for other functions.

I dont recon I'd pay any more than $500 for somthing like that.

Cheers

[cobrav8]

agreed with above.

though - not sure you could stop people doing it - since Ford could, and others have (eg Skyline).

Where do Skyline guys get theirs, or are they standard?

[stang]

pretzel, what about ps2, Ive heard of people running running linux on it and it has usb as wll as firewire.I am only making suggestions and trying to look at everything here logically please don`t think I`m trying to rock your boat.I like to think I know something about consumers as have dealt both retail and wholesale.