Digital Dash Project, What values would you like to see? (Speed, RPM, Mpg, ect.)

About 6 months ago I decided I really didn't like the digital display in the 2014-2017 cluster. As many have stated before the Avg. Speed value is basically pointless and everyone wants to see a real time current speed on the digital screen.

I decided rather than try to hack the Toyota LCD and programming I would just replace the 3.5" LCD with a 3rd party one that I could send my own data to from a microcontroller.

After several months here are the results, my prototype LCD taped to the font of the cluster. All of the data is read off the CAN Bus, interpreted by the microcontroller and then displayed on my screen. The CAN Bus data is instant values that the ECUs of the truck are sending to each other so this is very accurate.

Boot time is under 2 seconds, I have an intro Toyota animation programmed in. Including it data is displayed approx. 6 seconds after startup. Display has 4 pages you can scroll through by using the factory button on the steering wheel. Every page shows Time, Outside Temp, Gear Selection, and Odometer. (I might add a Trip A Odo on Page 2 instead of the full Odo)

My question to you guys is what over values would you want to see on a digital dash like this? A guy on Facebook suggested Transmission Temp which I have found and programmed in. (Its is not on the display yet).

I am considering trying to read the LIN Bus (Kline) to find the TMPS value for all 4 wheels and tires. Could display these on a page of their own.

Page 1 - Speed Mph


Page 2 - Fuel Data - Instant Mpg, Avg Mpg, Range, Fuel Tank Level Gallons. (Avg Value Still needs Calibration)


Page 3 - Engine - RPM, Throttle % (0-100)


Page 4 - Engine - Voltage, Coolant Temp

 

Long Term Fuel Trim.

 

INCREDIBLE!! I am all about this as I feel the DIC (Digital Information Center) is lame AF!

I personally like the options you have thus far and really, the only need for me would be a trip A and trip B and/or Odometer reading...

 

Transmission temp, and tire pressure are important I would say. The way my steering wheel and seat are configured, I use the MPH reading on the display a lot so that would be a must for me. Any idea if this will work on the 2020s?

 

That’s impressive. Honestly with all the information you have displaying there, a need for the entire gauge cluster is not even needed.

 

I thought about going to a bigger display. The current on is 3.5" but a 5", 7" or even 10" is an option. Doing this would cover up or eliminate some of my needle gauges.

 

you could probably cover them all up with a panel and just have the screen.

 

August of 2017 is when Toyota added the TSS (Safety Sense) to production. 2018+ have this as well as the newer style instrument cluster. When the Safety Sense was added, Toyota added nodes and remapped alot of the addresses on the CAN Bus. Forward Facing Camera and Radar were added among other things. Essentially the CAN bus network got much bigger with the new safety ecus on it.

During this update Toyota also moved the location of some of the data to different CAN IDs, (Speedometer, Coolant Temp ect). This is why a 2018+ cluster will not work on a 2014-2017 truck. The newer cluster is looking for the Speedometer data among, other things, in the wrong place on the CAN Bus.

Long story short, Yes this will work on 2018+ trucks but the code would be different. I would have to remap my display to go look in the new CAN locations for Speed, Coolant Temp, ect rather than using the older (2014-2017) CAN Bus location. I only have a few of the 2018+ Can addresses mapped so it would take some testing with a 2018+ truck (which I don't have access to) to refine this more and find more of the data addresses. For example I do not know the CAN Address for the 2018+ Fuel Gauge or Trans Temp. With some time testing a truck I could find it however.

The 2018+ Cluster has a digital speedo on the home page. My original idea was to just use that intil I figure out the 18+ cluster wouldn't work in my older truck. My solution was this, just build my own LCD display reading the know values I mapped off the CAN bus. I have a few months of work alone in just looking, searching, and decoding data on the 2014-2017 CAN Bus.

 

The combination of a 3D scanner (I have access to) and a 3D printer, you could scan the cluster and cluster trim bezel. Then just 3d print a piece of plastic to fit in place. Just mount the bigger LCD in the middle and the rest would be molded black plastic.

The entire cluster would be just the digital LCD, no needle gauges ect. I could go this route with a little more work. The mounting and install is the hardest part left.

 

Just for clarifcation ODO reading is in the bottom right corner of every page. My truck currently has 216,xxx miles.
A "Trip A" could easily be added on page 2 instead of the Odo. "Trip B" on page 3 ect. Would have to program a way for the button push to reset the trip counters to 0

 

Can you make it so when you go into sequential shifting, the gear number is displayed really big? It’s so annoying to have to look down at the tiny number next to the D.

 

Yes that could be done. Currently I have only mapped the shift location for P R N D. I did map the S 1-6 on my first prototype and it is on my list to do on this one but I rarely use the S mode.

A simple change of font size would make the Numbers 1-6 as big as you want. Might have to move the location of them on screen so the don't interfere with Speedo

 

Nice work!

 

Hi,
Great work…and an interesting project….I have a couple of questions if I may.
Could all you work be put into an app and sent to either phone or head unit display?
Second, may be a little off topic….but in relation to TPMS….I have been looking for a TPMS SYSTEM that would show eight wheels….4 on truck and 4 on trailer…
Looking for air pressure and temp….while there some systems out there …I find them lacking I. Design and or function….can you chime in with any advice?
Thank you
Michael

 

I personally don’t know of an app that soley reads can bus data without requesting the value. Torque OBD fusion ect all read the OBDII line which moves data much slower. I think some headunits have the ability to read the canbus, but adding in the graphics of the gauges and programming to CAN bus IDs could be another story. One quick solution could be an aux display like mine with one cable that just plugs into the OBDII port. Quick install and you can read CAN bus data from the OBDII port.

Factory Toyota TPMS reads the direct sensors wirelessly. All sensors in the tire monitor tire pressure and temp. The TPMS ecu that processes this data can only store the ID of 5 sensors at a time. All 4 tires and a spare. If you wanted to have 8 sensors at once you would need an additional ecu or just one aftermarket one that can store and read 8 IDs at one time. One additional concern could be the trailer wheel/tire distance from the receiver/ecu. If you had a really long trailer or the receiver/ecu at the front of the truck, the trailer tires might be out or range and not read.

A second thought is this system would need some clever programming. If you unhook your trailer and only want it to see the 4 tires on the truck it needs to know to not freak out when it doesn’t see the IDs associated with the trailer wheels. Basically it would have to know which sensors are where and know if some are missing it is really not a problem. Currently if one is missing the ecu assumes you have a flat tire.

My next step is to really take a deep look at the TPMS ecu and understand how it processes the data, in what form, and where it sends it to. I will just look for the signal of tire pressure from each of the 4 tires to display on screen.

Here is an example screenshot from Techstream of the data coming from the TMPS ECU. Its shows the ID# of all the sensors (for some reason it doesnt display the Spare #5 ID but it will hold 5 IDs). Shows the Pressure, Temp, and Battery status as well. Sensors #4 and #5 were to far away from the vehicle to report back and values. Sensors #1,#2,#3 where in the vicinity but not installed on the vehicle at the time.

 

Yes, I have been looking into this. Unfortunately it seems this is one of the few values not transmitted on the CAN bus, at least I have not found it yet.

The cluster takes in a analog signal from the engine and uses the current RPM value to scale it. I remember reading this a few months back. When I send a signal to move my RPM gauge, the oil pressure needle jumps very slightly. They are tired together

 

I wonder if you could do this with a Raspberry Pi or Arduino with a canbus shield like PiCan and the add a pressure sensor with canbus output for oil pressure

 

My first prototype was built on a Raspberry Pi but used an app for the graphics and calculations. The app ran on Android so every time the truck started you had to boot Android iOS and the app the get the gauges. Very slow, almost a full minute of wait time.

This new one uses Ardunio with a CAN transceiver to always monitor the CAN bus and boots in 2 seconds. Every value I am displaying currently, except time and volatage, is read in only from the CAN. These are all values the Toyota ecus are sending to each other constantly so I am just reading them in.

I have several logs of CAN bus data and think I have cracked 90% of the codes. I would really like to find a digital voltage and oil pressure value however no luck yet.

I know one option is to use the OBDII protocol to send a message into the CAN bus requesting these which it will return the value on a different addresses. Adding this can be done but them my microcontroller would have to go out to the CAN and request some data at an interval. The read only setup I have now is much simpler with coding ect.

I should add yes I can read in analog sensors with ardunio. Would take some time to setup however once the analog oil pressure sensor was read by the ardunio just send the value to the display. No need to transmit it on the CAN.

The arduino reads the CAN, puts the conversion factors on the data and sends the data to the display via serial. Once the data is in the arduino it’s pointless to send it back out on the CAN

 

If you ever need another pilot truck to try things on, I'd gladly help

 

You would need a digital boost gauge huh?

Somthing I have already thought about adding. Doubtful I could find a aftermarket boost gauge that transmits data on CAN. However might be able to read intake manifold pressure and use to clever math to display boost

 

Haha that'd be very nice indeed. There are ports that can be used to use an aftermarket pressure se sor thatd be far more accurate than IM pressure...regardless, I am interested...paired with Boost pressure, would be AFRs too...great ideas you're working on!

 

This is so cool. Keep up good work OP
Transmission temperatures and TPMS would be awesome to have.

 

Once you figure it out I'll buy a kit

 

Samesies

 

Unfortunately it could be a while if ever that I get to that point. The system works but all the electronic components are just on a development board for now. To really finalize this the right way I will need my own printed circuit board, enclosure ect. The code will probably have to go through a few stages of debugging and refinement. It is working really well now but it has to be close to perfect if you are going to offer them up for sale. Remember I am just a guy at home with a lot of free time. Almost all of this has been self taught over the last 6 months. Literally a yea ago the word CAN bus was a foreign language and I basically just skipped over it when I read it. For my personal truck its easy to have a little hiccup here and there because I know how it works/built it. Cant have those issues with paying customers however.

I have thought IF I get all the components in a nice circuit board, the screen in a nice enclosure, it would be easy to put the display on a windshield mount and just plug it directly into the OBDII port. Very similar to scangauge ect except this would be strictly for 2007-2017 Tundras. As you turn the key to start, the display would come on and you would be good to go. Would need a dash button or something to be able to flip through the pages ect.

Could also do a simple small fixed display of one page. Say just the home page. I know most people really just want a digital speedo, I know I did and thats what started all this. Like a 2.4" display that plugs into the OBDII boots with key turned on and only shows XX Mph would be very easy to make.

A quick update on progress. Transmission Temp is done and working. I ordered some microchips to read the LIN bus that will be here today. These will allow me to request Tire Pressure Psi and Temp from the TPMS ECU. Additionally I am always hunting for more values on the CAN bus/ other possible things to display. I will be adding another page for the 4 TPMS sensors but will probably just display this as Tire #1, Tire #2 ect. The sensors dont know if they are front or rear/ left or right. If the tires are rotated the display would have values in the wrong location ect.

 

I will help by paying you and being a test dummy...that is, when you're ready. I understand the ROM of this endeavor but it's what many of us, including you, could make use of each time we drive our trucks! Keep it up, this is exciting!

 

Very Cool!

 

Mounted the display in my cluster. It looks so much better. Needs some final tweaks in the code like adding a Dim when headlights are on. It so bright at night the photos don’t focus well. Also might look into an overlay to cut down the very faint glare.

Making good progress. 10x better than stock.

 

Absolutely badass! Bravo Jeff! Looks great!

 

Yup very cool indeed!!!