$3 Tacoma voltmeter

Annoyed with Toyota for all the widgets that my '91 had that they could not manage to install on the much more expensive 2013, I put one in my clock panel. I found a little .36” voltmeter module on Buyincoins.com for $2.94. Item (P011851). My detailed install doc is too big to attach, so I'll summarize with a few pics.
Pull stereo panel, pop clock panel out of back.
Pull hazard switch out of front (pops out)
Pull rear cover screw, release tabs and pop out rear PCB
Unscrew clock to get it out of the way
Carefully pry off front panel with a putty knife. (Held with double stick tape)
Cut opening to fit voltmeter module behind silly car icon
Mask and strip black paint from rear of front panel to make clear opening for the display. I used brake cleaner and electrical tape.
Pick up power and ground from existing pins on PCB and solder voltmeter leads.
Reassemble. Very clean, no new wires or connections.

 

That's a new one.. Nice job

 

That's pretty sick

 

Nice!

 

You'll see in the pic's that you can retain your flashing key LED if you wish by relocating it with a bit of wire and drilling another hole in the housing behind the front cover.

You'll want to put a bit of tint between the display and the front lens so you don't see the segments when it is powered off.

The module needs to have the mounting tabs cut off to fit between the clock and seatbelt LED. I secured it with some clear packing tape from the front and silicone globs at the rear.

 

Looks good I like the idea and the price is right

 

Buyincoins has a variety of sizes and colors of these modules. I used blue as I have that undimmable audio display and blue/white dash lights. you can get green, red or yellow as well. You could do this to most any car with the tiny .36" display. You could just double stick tape it to the dash or under the instrument hood-

 

Extremely cool mod! Nice work!!!

 

+1 rep for you sir!!!

 

the other night i saw the pics on another thread and was going to ask to post pics on how you did it...very clean sir

 

yup and scangauge too...also my radar detector
might add this to the top right infront of the lcd screen for the temp gauge

 

Nice! Does it turn off with the truck or stay on? On second thought, you probably attached it to an accessory power source, so naturally it probably turns off...

 

from looking at his 4th pic, he got the power directly from the board itself which imo would be the 12v for all the lights on that board (clock, airbag lights passenger seatbelt) so long story short, yup it turns off when the key is out

 

If you want the voltmeter to stay on after the truck shut off, you could pull the power from the clock memory pin on the PCB instead.
I would not suggest it unless you drive every day as it it will drain your battery. I think it was rated at 200mA, although that seems high to me.

If you want to check the voltage without the key on, you could add a momentary push button switch to connect clock memory power to the voltmeter red wire, but I'd add a diode to avoid backfeeding the Accessory circuit and maybe blowing a fuse from the extra load

Can anyone tell me if all the 2nd gen Tacomas use this same clock panel?

Does $2.94 qualify as a cheap/free mod?

( I tested the current draw- it's only 7-8mA, ignore the 200 figure )

 

only difference between the 05-08 and 09-13+ is that the 09+ runs on leds...everything else the same

and ya i think so.

 

There seems to be some interest in this, here's some missing pic's of removing the tape and masking paint from behind the front lens and what the key LED looks like with power off.

Be careful cutting away the adhesive tape, you don't want to scratch the front lens from behind!

I had -just- drilled into the clear plastic a bit from the back to give a little diffuser effect for the relocated LED.

 

So I might be missing it here but what is this for?

 

It's a voltmeter for a simple way to tell exactly what voltage your battery is sitting at if i'm not mistaken. Someone correct me if i am wrong.

 

sub'd +1 good sir, never even thought about doing this. I commend you and those with the creative minds like you.

 

That's a pretty unique mod. Good job OP