DIY TouchShield Performance Power Gauges

A while back, Mike and Chris built a digital automotive dashboard called the LCDash, which was a DIY project in itself. It was the first real hacker project that helped them learn how to start hacking touchscreens…

So when I was going through my emails this morning, and I got a message from frankenhack about a project by sti_robot to make a set of performance power gauges for his car, I thought it was pretty neat to see the TouchShield Slide come full circle, and end up being a sweet looking, full color digital dashboard:"

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/gd-interior/149303-robotmeter-mkii-its-got-touchscreen-folks.html

I can't believe I didn't see this before... quite cool.

He started out with a bunch of mockups for what he wanted it to look like:Apparently there was some debate he had about whether he was going to use the Beagle Board or the TouchShield Slide. Funny!

Then, sti_robot made a few all-important inspirational mockups (which look quite "pro" imho):

Then, he wired everything into the dashboard:

And actually programmed the gauges in processing to run on the TouchShield:

Here are a couple of videos:

And then... sti_robot had a baby (he's a father now, and doesn't have time)... soooo.... Mr. sti_robot... if you ever see this blog, just email me at inthebitz at gmail. And if you want help, or if you want to send me your code, I'll be happy to help you out. I also noticed on the forum that you wrote about sensor integration. If you want some, you're welcome to whatever sensors you don't already have, just let me know (I bet you could probably make a couple kick ass extensions with a gyro meter to measure pitch / yaw around tight corners). Or maybe you could wire up your baby seat with an accelerometer and measure G-forces at various points on the baby seat, to make sure you're driving nicely :-)