Dude that gauge came out so good, nice work!!

I personally like the clock, but this has me reconsidering that.. I’d very likely be a buyer if you made these.

When Well Enough Can't Be Left Alone; Backdate, EFI/ITB, AC, and more!
 

Megasquirt does have a CAN broadcast feature and there are a bunch of open source libraries for decoding the data stream into something usable. The hitch is that those are all for 2 or 4 line LCD text displays so they’ll need to be recoded for a gauge display: that’s not all that hard and is just a matter of time. The difficulty for me at least is getting the damn displays to work- the round display is some esoteric Chinese product that while cheap and of nice quality has no drivers, doesn’t play well with available libraries and has zero customer support.

I have some other displays on order to play with but not being able to get the one that fits perfectly is super frustrating, particularly when it’s jus beyond my coding capacity.

Also- if I were able to get it on an arduino, a digital clock face made to look like the analog would be the default display that was always on as it would draw about the same power as the analog clock.

Julian,

That gauge is awesome, great job! You are a man of many talents.

Sorry I can’t help with the programming- I barely got my shoes tied this morning!

Best,
Rutager

Very sick.

NGL, that gauge has come out even better than expected.
It's gotta be 100x easier to read than my BTI CAN gauge...and much more customizable.

Can you display multiple data streams simultaneously?

Yes, you can do anything that you can do on TunerStudio on TSDash- you can simply export your TunerStudio project and import it into TSDash and all of your gauges and dashes will be ready to go. I chose round “Porsche” gauge faces but you could have just readouts or multiple dials, etc.

On my AFR gauge I put a text readout of the target AFR at the bottom. And on the TPS gauge there’s an acceleration enrichment readout too.

Button installed and locked in. As I mentioned earlier, I relocated the intermittent wiper knob to the dash so I had this hole free.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3d5c5e8d3e.jpg

Make it with the default screen to look just like the analog clock and there would be no reason not to do it.

Damn man, that is a killer set-up, really diggin the functionality of that gauge.

Wow what a great thread. Jamie and I have been working together as I doing one of his kits on my 914-6. You are pretty close to me so hopefully I will get it running well and be able to meet up sometime

Excellent job on the gage. I actually did this with an Arduino and the AEM Infinity by using the canbus. Not only can I read the data through the arduino, but I can actually inject data into the canbus back to the Infinity.

I like your display. It looks better than mine because it is closer to the front. Mine is displaced further back because of the size of the screen. I used a Nextion touch screen which interfaces with the Arduino through a serial port. You may want to check it out. It even has a gage option but the gage needle is too thin and flickers. You can do multiple images and have the arduino change images thus "animating" the gage. However, I have way too many gages to use that method. I settled for displaying numbers with a bar graph meter.

Here is an example of someone (not me) using a nextion to animate a gage with multiple images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDn7LFyoEm8&ab_channel=InterlinkKnight

I used an encoder connected to the arduino to select different gages. Many possibilities. Have fun!

Dr J,

I have a nexiton and a DWin screen on order but they’re 4” square so the display would be pushed back a bit- not ideal but maybe workable. I would like to use the round display as it fits so well in the clock opening and is 480x480 so it’s high res and looks great.

The two things that I have to figure out is how to get the round display to work with the arduino and then how to take the can-bus data and make it usable with one of the can libraries.

I’d love to see how you put your system together- particularly how you took the van data and used it.

A few weeks ago I had a sudden realization: it hasn't snowed since before Christmas, the roads are dry and the temperatures have been relatively moderate.

I've been sneaking out of work a bit early here and there and capitalizing on having one day each weekend to myself to actually drive my car! Strange thought, I know! And guess what, Porsches drive fine in winter!

The only problem is that this has meant that I haven't started on any of the larger projects that I wanted to do this winter. But if holding off on those means more seat time, I'm ok with that. It'll snow eventually!

Today I tackled a few minor things before heading out on a several hour cruise.

I replaced my brass mesh engine grill with... a brass mesh engine grille. The difference this time is that I embossed the mesh to fit the opening and support bars- It looks really nice and is totally flush. I also had a support made by SendCutSend to hold the mesh in place as the previous solution was a bit rickety.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673825724.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673825724.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673825724.jpg

I also decided to paint the R-style tail light housings that I've had forever. I don't really like the tail lights I have now and am not sure I'll run the R-style lights or if I'll make something custom but I may as well try the R-style lights while I have them...

The painting was a breeze and I am feeling super confident about my painting ability now. I've painted a bunch of stuff for work and with all that practice I kinda wish my car was ready for paint... oh well.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673825953.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673825953.jpg

I also replaced the gaskets and O-rings in the triangle of death, which with ITBs is more like a triangle of slight annoyance. The shop that initially worked on this engine used all generic parts... and charged me for Porsche parts. Grr. More on this later.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673826092.jpg

I also decided to see why my driver's side heat wasn't working. After getting under the car I found that the bowden cable wasn't connected to the flapper box anymore. So I pulled the box and tried to make the connection. Unfortunately, the hole in the flapper box for the bolt was too large and the bolt fell right through. The aforementioned shop that did this work used a bunch of washers that prevented the bolt from rotating and thus mangled the cable and eventually worked the bolt loose. More on this later.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673826331.jpg

So I drilled some holes into the flapper box that were sized appropriately (6mm) and reconnected the bolt and cable and voila; heat.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673826331.jpg

Finally, I did make it out for a lovely drive, saw a bunch of other classics on the roads and took a bit of 4-wheel prozac. It was nice to have the digital gauge as I was able to closely monitor all of the metrics I wanted/needed. It's cool to see your AFR but even cooler to see the target and that you're spot on!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1673826490.jpg


Now, onto the Airing of Grievances. I bought this car sight unseen with a comical PPI and zero records; a huge gamble. When I received the car I took it to a well known air cooled shop in the area to do a once over and address some issues. I didn't yet have the experience or confidence to tinker with the car so I figured let the pros do it; the car cost less than I had budgeted for so I had some money to pay for the work to be done right. I also had no idea that I'd do all of what I did to the car then. They did a lot of things that were good but as I work on the car more and more I keep finding corners that were cut, parts that should have been OEM but are not, and work that wasn't performed. I severed the relationship with the shop when they tried to charge me $1000 to "fix" my CIS but then admitted they didn't have a fuel pressure gauge and never tested the system and that bad experience is what forced me to roll up sleeves and learn how to fix my CIS which led me down this rabbit hole. So to a degree I owe them a thanks for being so crappy because had they been great, I probably would never have done what I did.

Anyhow, the weather next weekend looks glorious again so I'm plotting a drive, and maybe a few projects too!

yay! more driving. Exactly as intended.

I still love that gauge. I like much better than the one I have in my 72.

Yeah, after the local shop charged me $3,500 for a CDI box, coil and coil wire I nope'd right out of letting the "experts" work on my car. Turns out they're not that hard to work on.

The parallels between your build and mine continue. I spent yesterday screwing with the passenger side heat, between the flapper box and exchanger (the fabric tube was messed up, causing heat to escape and heat things I didn’t want heated, then I broke the cable on reassembly).

If only I had the weather you do- keep enjoying it!

Julian, I think we need more details on how you embossed the decklid mesh. Wood buck, cardboard, metal, by hand. What did you use?

I love the underside support structure. Super clean.

Forming the brass mesh wasn’t terribly difficult but it did take a few tries

Originally I thought that I could use my vacuum table to force the mesh around a buck made of 1/8” Masonite. The vacuum table exerts about 30hgIn but the mesh was a bit too stiff.

So I turned to hand forming with a piece of oak, hammer and the aforementioned buck. It took all of 20 mins- just about as long as setting up the vacuum table.

If I had a hydraulic press it might have been easier but I don’t have a press… yet.

The buck:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...05f0c8ebf1.jpg

The oak block and close-up. You can see the imprint of the mesh into the plywood.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f925d465cd.jpg

After forming it, I cut off the excess to make it fit the opening. It needed a bit of fine tuning but the mesh is pretty thin so no tools other than hands were needed.

Most excellent. That really came out great.

[mention]jpnovak [/mention] I can list everything I did for the gauge- parts, code, etc… it’s not all that hard and given that you know your way around electronics, it’ll be a breeze for you. Honestly, the most laborious part is configuring TSDash but I think I can export all the gauges thus making it super simple.

I mean, you’ve got the free time for another project, right [emoji1787]

Very nice results on the mesh. I'm interested in seeing more of your table saw/workbench/outfeed setup. Never thought of having my bench alongside the table saw like that. Any trouble getting it coplanar with the table saw top?

I have a sawstop professional table saw and built an out feed table out of melamine coated particle board. The harbor freight bench is the exact same height as the table saw and I bolted it to the cast iron table saw top as well as the outside table. The whole contraption is rock solid and totally flat, level and smooth; I can slide a piece of wood across and there are no lips to catch on.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...655fb28c84.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d837bef500.jpg

At first glance it appears there's room for a two post lift...http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...s/beerchug.gif

VERY nice thanks for the pics. Your shop is epic too btw...

I would be interested in getting this information as I would very much like to have a gauge like you made.

I'm working on getting something together that will be a much nicer and totally custom plug and play solution but the technical aspects of it are a bit beyond my pay grade so it may not come to fruition.

In the interim... I'll try to put something together on how I did the gauge... but it involves soldering boards, writing C++ code and a lot of tinkering with the Raspberry Pi and it's OS... It's going to take me a while to come up with something coherent.

All this week I've been sneaking away 10 mins here, 10 mins there... ok, more like an hour here and and hour there from work to mess with the car and these darn tail lights.

I purchased them from the classifieds at least a year ago for a song and dance and kinda never thought I'd use them but after growing tired of the existing tail lights and just looking for a small project to scratch the itch I figured why not run them...

The first problem to tackle was somehow securing the light bodies to the glass housings. The previous owner had used some sort of silicone adhesive but that was gross. I decided to fiberglass the metal backings to the tail light housings. That was pretty simple.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675370857.jpg

After that it was lots of wiring and making harnesses... Not all that difficult but meditative nonetheless. I've found that I really enjoy wiring and body work... two things that I think most people just abhor...

Once I figured out the existing harness' grounds were compromised it was smooth sailing and getting the lights installed was a piece of cake thanks to McMaster Carr's same day delivery of M4 x 100mm screws. Yes, it cost me like $20 for 4 screws. PCar tax? Impatience tax? Doesn't want to drive to the store tax?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675371004.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675371004.jpg

The R-style lights have white reverse lights, orange turn signals, red running lights and a red brake light; 4 bulbs that make them totally legal... you know, to go along with my lack of license plates, yellow headlights and glass shattering exhaust... :p

When I deleted my clock and replaced it with the digital gauge, the gauge housing was much larger than the clock- it needed to be to get a big screen in there and that meant that my expensive Rennline phone mount wouldn't fit around the now 86mm gauge housing as the clock is 80mm. So, off to the cad software and 3D printing service... The Rennline modeled larger phone holder was a success and now I can have my phone partially blocking the digital gauge I spent months making... yippie!!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675371190.jpg

More to come but maybe not for a minute as I'm waiting on stuff to arrive before pushing through to the next phase of idle hands make bad Porsche company...

Realistically this isn’t something I’d get to anytime soon. So don’t put yourself out. I’m probably better off to wait for you to perfect your new and improved version and then bug you for the “recipe”.

When I deleted my clock, I had a clock sitting around. I like the clock and figured I could put it to good use.

So, back to the CAD software and 3D printing... And now I have a desktop clock.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675440006.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675440006.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675440059.jpg


Clearly I need something to do or for the roads to clear up...

Desk clock looks nicer than my clock chillin on a shelf in my basement.


What 'electronical' sorcery did you use to power that?
3-phase 240V stepped down through a transformer, controlled by a Raspberry Pi with arduino interface that's masked to look like Facebook? Knew it.

I bought some very suspect and questionable 120vAC to 12vDC converter on ChinAzon. It was all of $5 and I suspect that it's either listening to me talk or capturing biometric data and sending it to Beijing. Either way, I'm good- I have a clock! :)

Basically what I said.
You coming down with Gabe in a couple weeks to wet sand the LBDC?

Give me the date and if it's doable, I'm in.

Man your jabbing skills are awesome !!! Wish you were my neighbor.
By the way the house across the street from me is for sale if you ever want to move to sunny S Florida ;)http://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gifhttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/suppo...sun_smiley.gif

It was all of 2 degrees this morning here in Chicago. Don't tempt me.

I just spent the last 2 hours reading your thread. Congratulations on all of your phenomenal work. I have an 83SC 3.2ss with Weber carbs that runs pretty well. I bought an RHD ITB kit from a forum member that decided not to go through it over a year now and I have yet to get started as well. My Webers run well, but I like the pros of the efi/itb. I have to admit the tuning part of the efi/itb is a bit intimidating. It would be nice to have a good comprehensive installation manual on this forum that could get a diyer through this process quickly. I hate the idea of having the car down for such a long time. Thanks for sharing your project. It definitely gave me some ideas for my own car.

Your wish (and many others) has been met as Jamie started a tuning thread that is excellent. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/1134997-efi-tuning-how-process-description.html

Thank you Jamie and rwest.

Well it’s been a minute but rest assured dear readers, I’ve been busy. Life has been super bonkers during the past few months, really the better part of the last year and my time working on the Porsche has been severely curtailed. I’m really limited to the few hours I can squeeze out of the week at the end of each work day but such is life and we make what we have work!

One of the premises of this car was that I was going to make it as much of a 3.5 season car as possible and use it as much as I can before I go not so quietly into the night. To that end one of the weaknesses of a vintage coupe is cargo space, particularly if one has small passengers in the small passenger seats which I will.

The obvious solution to this conundrum is roof rack.

So, I took a survey of the available options:

Modern Thule/Yakima: Barf. While functional, they have no place on my car. They’re also quite costly.

Carbone: BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!! You want how much money for that!!! BWAHAHAHA!!! Also, while the curved rack looks good, it's less than functional as the point of a rack is a stable platform. The sides, front and back lips I suppose aide in things not moving around but it still seems like a stylistic choice over a functional one and that makes the rack an aesthetic not utilitarian addition to the car. While I'm all for aesthetics (uh, look at my car) a roof rack for style is stupid and is right up there with fake patina in my book.

Vintage rack: Questionable durability and they're also pricey. In addition, I'm not a fan of all the sliding hardware that's necessary to make them fit many different cars. Nuts and bolts can rattle loose and they break up the clean lines of the rack and car.

With said data collected and processed by the home office the natural conclusion was to fabricate one myself because out of the plethora of acceptable racks I have to make it more difficult...I just can't leave well enough alone (see what I did there...)

So, I did.

It started by designing some feet that will clamp to the drip rail. These are made in CAD and sent off to Send Cut Send to be laser cut and bent to spec. And yes, to the right of the feet/brackets is a cup holder I made in CAD too; it's modeled after the one that everyone sells for $50-$100. It took all of 10 minutes and cost something like $8. I'm sorry, but I'm just not paying $50+ for a piece of metal with holes in it.
Total cost $70


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364655.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364655.jpg


Next, we proceed with 1” & ¾” square steel tubing which gets measured, cut, filed and prepped for welding to the feet. These would be the main load bearing pieces. The ¾” was used as crossbars to add rigidity and make the rack one piece. I didn’t need 1” all around and the ¾” made the rack lighter visually and literally.
Total cost: $100

I decided to TIG weld these and practice so that I can get better in hopes of one day doing some more body work on another 911-something that I found I really like. The welding came out wonderfully which was no surprise as anything other than vintage sheet metal is pretty easy to TIG. Once welded I ground them down for prettiness, of course.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364739.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364739.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364739.jpg

After that it was time to see if everything still fit and the rack would mount to the car. Nervous moment of course as I was trying to be very careful during the fabrication measuring my angles and distances thrice.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365119.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365119.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365119.jpg

After that it was time for etching primer and then to drill lots of little holes in the top of the rack. No, these are not speed holes, but they will serve a purpose.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364836.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678364836.jpg

Continued below

Originally, I thought I’d power coat it satin black but then I considered how a massive black thing would look atop my car and decided to paint it instead. Perhaps it’s less durable but so be it (it’s the same single stage paint as in the car so it should be plenty durable). Painted the same color as the car, the hope is that it kind of just disappears or at least blends in with the car and doesn’t stand out; it’s an accessory, not a feature.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365260.jpg

After paint, we had a rivnut party. 33 of them to be precise. M5, yellow zinc.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

Now, you may be asking why I drilled holes and inserted rivnuts, 33 of them to be precise. The answer, of course is wood slats. I love the look of wood slats on racks; it harkens back to a day of chalets, apres ski hot tubs and multiple girlfriends. Maybe I’ve seen to many movies…

For this car and rack it had to be mahogany. Sapele to be precise. Mahogany is known for being durable, easy to work and weather resistant; a key point.

I went to the local lumber yard and bought a piece of wood, cut, ripped and milled it down to 11 identical pieces. Each one received chamfered edges on the top and countersunk holes in three places.
Total Cost: $70

A coating of Danish Oil will help keep it looking good and repel water better than nothing. I reject film forming finishes as they will all fail at some point and oil can be reapplied as needed.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

With the wood milled assembly could begin. I procured brass M5 countersunk hex head screws, 33 of them to be precise and got to work screwing the slats to the rack.

After all the screws were in place, yes, all 33 of them to be precise, it was time to mount the rack to the car.

On each foot and clamp I placed white rubber trim to pad the car and for better grip. I also used an M6 threaded knob for quick installation. I can switch to any M6 bolt if I like but this looks a bit nicer in my opinion. Some nylon washers to protect paint and we’re off to the races.
Total cost: $60


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

I tested the rack when it was on the ground and it easily held my weight- a colossal 142# which is just about the load limit for modern roof racks and plenty to hold a collapsed tent, cooler and whatnot for camping.

So, there it is, for about $300 and maybe 8 hours of work I have a custom roof rack that goes on in a matter of seconds, can hold plenty and doesn’t look too out of place on my car. The total platform is about 38" x 26" give or take... That's plenty wide for 2 bike trays, a Christmas tree, a tent, or a tire and jerry can if I want to look cool without actually being cool ;)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some campsites to reserve and some girlfriends to call.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678365397.jpg