Tablet in place of gauges?

V

VWRalf

Well-known member
For next year, I will be converting my ITB car to HP and have been toying with the idea of going with an MS3 system. In my research, I have seen tablets used in street cars alongside the factory dashes/gauges. So I was thinking, why not use a tablet exclusively? This would allow me to get rid of the dash and a lot more wiring/weight. Besides, tablets are a lot cheaper than gauges.
So, anybody already doing this and have you had any troubles with that setup?
 
I have mine sitting right here. The best way is to have a tablet that has an onboard GPS. I was scrounging around today and did not find any that have the GPS like a droid phone does. I am doing tire test and would like to use the Track addict for the lateral G. values. You can have most of the data but not speed from what I have found. The tablet should be able to data log the run with the MS data saved , Very usefull either if the car runs really well or blows up..
There is a very good chance that I have operator error.
The tablet does work for monitoring the MS data. I found a discrepancy in the temp readings.( even post resetting the values) I actually added a old school temp gauge, oil pressure gauge, and tach .
FWIW you need to use a separate power line to the wifi antenna from the MS, along with powering the tablet. I have the wifi antenna and would not recommend it. use wires if possible.IMHO.
Again, I am new to the MS/data/ tablet, thing but spent about 6 months getting it to work . YMMV . MM
 
Mike,
i tried this last year in the street car and was going to get i working over the window before i bought the CRX with the data system. I have the Bluetooth receiver i paid about $100 for, yours for $50 if you are interested.
 
Mike, so did it work other than the GPS signal? Right now, I'm not interested in GPS data but more looking at saving $500 by not having to buy "regular" gauges.
 
Yes. the shadow dash works, if you power the tablet and the BT antenna .
The dash only shows what the MS sees. If any wrong data gets used , you only see what the MS sees. IE my temp gauge showed 210 when the actual temp was near 190 on two mechanical senders. Kinda like the classroom when the first kid tells the next kid a line and passes it down to kid # 22. The line changes just enough that I dont entirely trust the readings.
It may be fine and the norm. You may like it and it could function perfect after getting it all right. We spend so much $ doing this that I hate coming into the pits for prep failures. I give each system a failure or two but after that it gets tossed and I go back to known good values.
I am going to use the tablet and maybe the Iphone 5 for data logging and watch the simple reliable old school gauges. I hate blowingshitup due to faulty gauges.
 
If your Megasquirt temp sensor doesn't read correctly, how do you get the tune right for cold starting, etc. Seems like you should address that problem -- likely just a calibration issue in the MS.
 
It's on the list.
Ran the car on the dyno for one hr wed. .Trimmed the cam timing and a few mixture boxes. Ranperfect, made more power than expected. Loaded it up back to the shop.
I looked at the dyno pull logs, the temps looked a little high as iwas watching the mechanical gauge most of the time,never over 205. The logs said 215 HOH temp. I switch the mechanical gauge to another that reads the same as the first and both correspond to my IR gun.
Start the car on fri am to go to Daytona- it hardly runs. Link up and the temp says 10* .
Disconnect the sender. MS temp reads 180 ,car runs perfect the rest of the week .
 
VWRalf":2wpgsghq said:
So, anybody already doing this and have you had any troubles with that setup?
Click to expand...

I haven't used it as a dash or gauges but I have used it a few times. Initially I used it (pre MS3) just for datalogging a few times. First time was actually on track and since I didn't have anyplace to mount it in the car I just stuffed the tablet inside my suit after starting the car and the datalog. Surprisingly it worked great! I've since gone to the MS3 so don't need to do that any longer.

I did use it quite a lot when I was trying to tune the MS2 in my street CRX last year. That worked quite well, it's just that the gauges are a little smaller than I would prefer to see in the race car.

Regarding the temp issue comments, I've never had any, my datalogs have always duplicated what my gauges show. I've also always used my OE Honda temp sensors instead of the GM ones though. It either requires you to address the differences in the software (I forgot what they call it) or, in my case I just changed the value of the two resistors related to the water and air temp inputs to the board. Helps when you build your own boards though, not sure you can do that with the pre-assembled surface mount stuff.
 
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