LED meters:
The National Semiconductor LM3914 chip is perfect for this. It is a $4 part,
a 12-segment LED driver with comparators in it and it is designed for
exactly this purpose. It allows settable range and level through resistor
selection, daisy chaining, led brightness control, lets you pick between
bargraph and single segment display, and runs off a variety of voltages. You
could configure it for voltmeter, ammeter, oil pressure, temperature,
air/fuel mixture, and others just by using it with the appropriate sensor. I
am going to add bungs in my headers that I am building for oxygen sensors,
which I will use for fine tuning my new 2 deuce Edmunds/Stromberg setup on
my 235. I already built one of these circuits for my car for about $5 in
parts. O2 sensors are self powered and cost about $20 for the one wire
units. They all send out the same signal levels no matter what brand (just
have differant connectors and warm up times). I am going to build up a set
of hidden led meters to mound in the slots of my radio grille in my '50. You
won't see them until they are on. I will build a tach, 123 mixture, 456
mixture, oil pressure, temp, and vacuum. This will probably be a next winter
project, but if enough people are interested I will have a PCB made and I
will make the plans available. The tachometer will require a bit more
circuitry but I think it would preserve the original dash lines nicely while
allowing me modern instrument function. The other option I was thinking
about was to make the dash radio blank plate hinged with instruments behind
it so I could pop it open to see them, or make a piece of smoked plexi to
replace it and put them behind it. I have to get the truck painted and put
the engine in before all that though.
-Josiah Bartlett
Electrical Engineer
(I actually design electronic instrumentation for a living)
-----Original Message-----
From: Brian J Luebke [mailto:luebkeb@zibsoft.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 1:07 PM
To: GremlinGTs@aol.com; luebkeb@zibsoft.com; oletrucks@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: [oletrucks] Electronic Gadgets for trucks...some ideas (
long)
Wow, some great ideas Jerry, I like em. thanks for the ideas, I hope
others will feed off your ideas too.
So, how much would that battery level indicator be worth? just curious if
it can be done for what guys might want to pay for it.
Brian
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net
> [mailto:owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of GremlinGTs@aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 8:37 PM
> To: luebkeb@zibsoft.com; oletrucks@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [oletrucks] Electronic Gadgets for trucks...some ideas (
> long)
>
>
> Hi, Brian. Glad to hear bout you...I have a LOT of
> ideas, some strange,
> some not so weird. So I'll give it a go to offer up some
> ideas of things that
> I would like to see.
>
> 1) Underhood accent / work lights. What I mean is, a
> single underhood
> light isn't very useful, you can't get much light down by the
> starter,
> suspension, steering box, etc. What I'd like to see is a
> "set" of lights
> that's run around the engine compartment to "light it up" and
> show off the
> engine bay of a restored truck, or a work-horse version for
> helping work on
> "driver" type trucks. They could be run along the frame near
> the engine
> mounts, have some point towards the oil pan, etc. They
> wouldn't have to be
> 1,000 watt jobbers, just some nice bright lights to help see
> all the working
> parts. Maybe along the lines of Christmas light string, but
> with less lights.
> But similar, and obviously 12 volt.
>
> 2) Electronic LED Voltmeter - I'm an electronic test
> technician, and used
> to subscribe to some of those Electronic hobbiest mags, and
> they had some
> wonderful gadgets to build and experiment with. What I'd like
> to see is a
> small, cheap, durable LED voltmeter that has graduated LEDs
> that come on when
> the voltage gets over 10 volts. Red for 10 and under, yellow
> for 11 , and
> green for 12 to 14, then yellow for 15, and red for 16. I
> saved a bunch of
> LED "strings" off some old scrapped circuit boards from my
> now-defunct job,
> I'd be willing to donate them to you for "research purposes"
> for this idea.
> They are very small ones, about 1/8th inch size or less, use
> roughly 1. 5 - 2
> volts to activate. An expensive voltmeter isn't for everyone,
> and I and
> others could use this as just a quick system checker to
> verify operation ,
> and it could be mounted to use continuously, or plug into a
> cigarette lighter
> for monitoring, etc. Or mounted under the hood near the
> battery, with the
> pretty lights showing what's up with the charging system. :)
> I also have some
> scrapped plastic "boxes" from small electronic items that my
> company throws
> away, they can be used to house the breadboard as well. But
> this is an
> extremely useful tool that could be used by anyone, just plug
> and play as it
> were. No fancy digital or analog readout, just lights as
> indicators. I've
> seen the circuits in the mags, just never got around to
> acquiring all the
> goods to try to build one myself. Oh well.
>
> 3) Underdash lights ( same principle as under-hood lights
> ) - Ever tried
> to work on your truck wiring broken down on the road? Never
> have a flashlight
> when ya need one. Need some lights run to shine UP under the
> dash, run off a
> switch, to check the systems up there as well. Could be
> pivoted to act as
> floor lights, and swung up to view underneath as well, so
> you'd get twice the
> value for the cost. Not many of the old trucks have floor
> lights like modern
> cars ( or trucks, either ).
>
> 4) Miniature AC generator/alternator - I've seen kits to
> convert a
> standard alternator to tap into the AC potential to run 110
> AC devices. I'd
> like to know if the current ones on the market are worth
> buying, and if there
> is a better alternative. It would be VERY HANDY to have
> access to AC for like
> a small work light ( those 12-volt work lights arent' always
> around when you
> need them, especially if you break down AWAY from your
> garage, as your
> friends rarely collect such tools which true fanatics of old
> vehicles do ),
> and you could run AC accent lights on your truck with them
> too. Something
> like a small bicycle style generator that produces standard
> AC power for
> small jobs might be interesting. Not sure how it could be mounted.
>
> 5) FAR OUT ELECTRONIC GADGET - how about some modern
> headlights with a
> major twist - looks like a standard glass light, but inside
> it has the
> removeable small replacement bulb, and also a COLOR WHEEL you
> can activate to
> turn your headlights different colors at shows ( or
> surreptiously while
> cruisin' ). This would obviously entail some serious
> engineering effort, as
> the lower part of the headlight would have to have a slot cut
> in it for a
> color wheel to protrude into the housing, or totally
> redesigned. But that
> would look AWESOME to see red or green or yellow or blue
> headlights. Not easy
> to do I'd venture, this would take some serious
> brain-draining work to come
> up with a viable solution. But it would be so cool! Or,
> better yet, how about
> a Fiber optic solution to take the light to the reflective
> housing, and then
> you could color the light at the generating end, not in the
> headlight itself.
> THAT might work better, but still alot of work.
>
> 6) ANOTHER far-out idea, for exhaust tailpipe outlets -
> How about
> putting some small sealed lights in the exhaust pipe at the
> rear bumper
> exit, so when you're cruising, you can have a
> red/yellow/white incremental
> effect as you increase speed. Might be strobing or flashing,
> tuned to the RPM
> of the engine - would look even better if you have
> straight-out facing
> exhaust pipes. Obviously wouldn't want them TOO bright, or
> you'd face the
> wrath of The Man...but some low-light effect would be just as
> effective. The
> deeper they're in the tailpipe, the better the effect would
> be. A 2-foot
> stainless tailpipe with lights in all the way back would look
> good. Might
> have to make the lights removeable for periodic cleaning.
> Just snap into
> place, facing the rear of the vehicle. Heat would be an
> issue, but that far
> away from the engine , you might make them survive.
>
> 7) Heck, I've forgotten more zany ideas than I can
> remember at the
> moment, someone else insert a suggestion here! LOL. Oh, wait
> a minute...I DO
> have one more...a strobe light underhood pointing at the fan
> and moving
> pulleys, pulsed off the coil....might give a neat effect at
> shows, like a
> timing light pointed at the fan blades to show them briefly
> "stopped" in
> action. Haven't seen THIS put into effect yet by those
> wonderfully creative
> Californian citizens. Has anyone else? Ok, I'll leave it
> alone for now, I've
> exhausted myself with this creative burst. Good luck with
> your R & D, Brian!
>
> Jerry
> '55 2nd project Chevy Suburban, still sitting after 10 years... :(
> oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between
> 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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