Feeler for Dash LED mod 2.0

So, here's the deal.

I had some extra components lying around and decided to have a little bit of fun and toss some full color RGB (Red, Green, Blue) LEDS into my dash and a small microprocessor to keep track of things... and... well... things got out of hand and I know how well that goes with most things done on this site

This is a video of what I came up with (forgive the potato cam quality, LEDs are notoriously hard to record/picture accurately)



This is when the truck is turned on...

Boot loop 1 (there's another 5 or 6 patterns bouncing around in my head that may or may not go into the unit)



*Scroll down to the bolded text if you're not interested in the technical information*

Basic breakdown of what is so fun about this particular "mod": it allows you to change the color of your dash on the fly. No need to pull the dash apart each time you'd like to change colors if you're like myself and have new tastes almost weekly. It uses a small rotary encoder that can be discreetly installed behind the dash OR installed next to your "Clutch Start Cancel" (or whatever is on Automatics, frankly, I have no idea).



As pictured, there is no knob for the switch, it takes a standard 6mm D-Shaft knob so there are multiple choices and I've yet to source out something as this is still in its infancy.

Programming the module is done while the car is off (sorry, had to make sure no one was trying to set colors while driving) while mode selection between any of the saved colors can be done on the fly at any time.

The current programmable modes are:

• Gradient fill (starts at one color, smoothly transitions to the second with an adjustable direction code *See the bottom most paragraph for explanation*)
• Section fill (total of 5 independent sections, from left-right, temperature gauge, RPM, speedometer, gas gauge, trip/odometer)
• Individual led (control each of the 25 LEDs independently for ultimate control)
• Rainbow fill (not recommended for driving as it is a rotating color wheel between the start and end of each individual section)

Programming the leds is as simple as booting the module into Programming Mode (holding the button of the encoder down while powering up the unit) and selecting the desired mode to program, then viola, you're programming the LEDs. (This of course would be broken down into a nice PDF but it really is quite simple to understand, easier than your alarm clock, that's for sure).

All of the colors you have saved are available to you at any time; simply press the button during normal operation and it advances to the next mode; I have included an easy to reach "Full White" mode for safety/convenience.

With the amount of work that went into this, I a) wouldn't feel comfortable with giving someone a DIY kit as it stands, b) wouldn't be able to do it for under $300 if someone shipped me their gauges.

So now is where the title of this thread comes into play, this is a feeler for a DIY kit to do it by yourself or just general interest.

If there is sufficient interest in people doing this to their own trucks, I will be more than happy to make a full kit that would take out all of the struggles that I had throughout the install of this prototype.

The install would be as easy as putting in 4 PCBs into the gauge cluster and connecting 4 wires behind the dash (THIS WILL REQUIRE REMOVING THE GAUGE NEEDLES FOR THE SPEEDOMETER AND RPM)!.

The kit to do it yourself would be anywhere from $120-$200 depending on interest (more people=lower price: lower manufacturing price, bulk discount ect, ect...)

I would charge $60 to install regardless of what the kit ends up coming to which would include a full bench test and power-up of the gauge cluster but the install is doable by a competent person in under 1 hour (not including dash removal).

As it sits, this is ONLY for first gen Tacomas. HOWEVER, I would love to be able to do this to a Second Gen +. If there is sufficient interest, I will offer a spot to the first person with a Second Gen to PM me for a discounted unit while a prototype is made if I deem it possible. The same stands for any vehicle that you think this would look cool in.

Ideally, I'd love to offer this for any vehicle that someone wants the kit in, however, that does require having the gauges in hand to ensure proper fitment... But that's neither here nor there. The only kit I want to think about right now is for the Tacoma family.

Please feel free to leave your comments, critiques, criticism, whatever, below and vote on the poll included (any one on this site is eligible to vote and I encourage you to do so!).

Thanks for reading!

-Jarrod

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TL;DR on the color spectrum used in this dash

The mechanics of the microprocessor and LEDs entail using a 1 byte per led color scheme (gobbledygook for a value between 0 and 255).

In other words, take the below picture and divide it into 256 equal segments. A single led can display one of those segments.



That means that there is some resolution loss from what the LEDs are capable of but realistically, the difference to the human eye is negligible.

The gradient fill function allows you to take 2 independent choices on the wheel, and travel about the outside of the wheel between the points.

For example, I could choose solid blue (0,0,255) and solid green (0,255,0). I would then choose between taking the shortest direction (blue->aqua->green) OR the longest direction, (blue-> pink -> red -> orange -> yellow -> green).

The nature of programming this particular sequence to be changeable by the end user makes it somewhat finicky; it had a tendency to jump around as you go between changing start/end points however, after a little bit of figuring, it's fairly simple. The direction of rotation of the encoder dictates whether you're moving forward or backward (shortest direction vs longest direction).

 

I love TW

 

Thats so cool, reminds me of:



I cant say i would want this in my truck, but a sports coupe, that would cool. I wonder if you could tie this into the tachometer? If its a potentiometer type signal, you could have the increase in voltage cause a change in color going from blue to red as RPM increases. In any case my hat is off to you for putting this together.

 

Realistically, even if the Tachometer/speedometer are logic driven (which they are) making the dash react to various input/changes in the vehicle is marginally easy, same with reacting to full level, temperature, and battery charge (albeit, those are indeed analog signals, which are again, marginally easy to use). I toyed with putting it in the prototype but I got too excited when I saw it light up. Caveat, price would go up as the "brain" for the project would have to be upgraded to process the additional information as well as the LEDs that I'm using (in technical terms) require a very strict timing protocol to display the colors would need to be changed out as well.

All in all, very doable, and I may incorporate reactive aspects to the prototype to see if it could be done for a reasonable price.

Thanks for your input

 

This is crazy cool! What are you running to control the lights, something like an arduino?

 

A teensy 3.1 for the form factor and the EEPROM space (essentially an Arduino on crack).

72mhz clock speed as compared to a 16mhz. Makes a considerably difference when keeping track of 3 different interrupt driven events and manipulating a rather fun/complex library for the leds.

I'll likely be able to optimize some stuff to use a standard atmega328 (Arduino) IC on the manufactured PCB rather than the more expensive Teensy but that will come with playing around with some stuff to see what I can realistically pull out of an Arduino.