I have a late 80's VW and the gauge cluster has 5 dummy LED locations underneath the other warning lights. Well I was tired of the m not doing anything, so I decided to do something about it. I came up with the idea to put a lateral gravitational force mater (G Meter) in there place.
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Signing UpStep 1:
Gather up the needed supplies
If you wish to use your Arduino:
1- Arduino
5- RedGrenBlue LEDs (Mine are common anode)
1- Project box (if you don't want it in your dash)
1- 9v Battery
1- Accelerometer (I used ADXL 335 from adafruit) http://www.adafruit.com/products/163
1- piece of Perf board
5- Resistors 1K ohm
5- Resistors 500 ohm
And some small wires for jumpers.
All parts needed if you wish to make it standalone:
1 -Circuit Board
1- ATmega168/328
1- 28 Pin socket
5- RGB LEDs (Mine were common anode)
5-Resistors 1K ohm
5-Resistors 500 ohm
1- 16MHZ Resonator
1- 104 cap
1- 10uf cap
1- 3.3v rg. (LM1117T)
1- ribbon cable
1- header connectors
1- Acceleromoter
1- 9v Batt. Connector
Here is the picture of the wiring needed for a breadboard setup.
The orange wires hook to the 500 ohm resistors and then hook to the RED LED cathode.
The Green wires hook to 1kohm resistor the hook to the GREEN LED cathode.
The common anode is hooked to +3.3v
X axis output of ADXL335 goes to PIN 0 (Picture is slightly different)
+3.3v and Gnd are hooked to power and ground pins of ADXL335
The AREF pin on the Arduino is hooked to +3.3v
If you wish to use your Arduino:
1- Arduino
5- RedGrenBlue LEDs (Mine are common anode)
1- Project box (if you don't want it in your dash)
1- 9v Battery
1- Accelerometer (I used ADXL 335 from adafruit) http://www.adafruit.com/products/163
1- piece of Perf board
5- Resistors 1K ohm
5- Resistors 500 ohm
And some small wires for jumpers.
All parts needed if you wish to make it standalone:
1 -Circuit Board
1- ATmega168/328
1- 28 Pin socket
5- RGB LEDs (Mine were common anode)
5-Resistors 1K ohm
5-Resistors 500 ohm
1- 16MHZ Resonator
1- 104 cap
1- 10uf cap
1- 3.3v rg. (LM1117T)
1- ribbon cable
1- header connectors
1- Acceleromoter
1- 9v Batt. Connector
Here is the picture of the wiring needed for a breadboard setup.
The orange wires hook to the 500 ohm resistors and then hook to the RED LED cathode.
The Green wires hook to 1kohm resistor the hook to the GREEN LED cathode.
The common anode is hooked to +3.3v
X axis output of ADXL335 goes to PIN 0 (Picture is slightly different)
+3.3v and Gnd are hooked to power and ground pins of ADXL335
The AREF pin on the Arduino is hooked to +3.3v
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Could you adapt the project to work in 12V or 5V to get power from the car?
Good idea...hummm my car has "lazy spaces" too!!!
I'd like to use that same style of illustration for my Instructables (yet to do one).
http://fritzing.org/
(Of course, the better question is, "what use is a G-meter in a late 80's VW." :) )
Level 1 says "Pathetic, can't you do better?"
Level 2 says "Marvellous, now she's beginning to tip."
Level 3 says"Yippeeee, nearly on our side."
Level 4 says "Call an ambulance and a tow-truck."
I am actually building one myself with small Dot-Matrix display and ADXL345 sensor.
As for powering the unit, The boards specify 12V as their maximum supply voltage, and in the car the voltage can get slightly higher (13V is not uncommon), so I would refrain to directly power it from the 12V, but you could easily use a USB car charger to get 5V or put a 7805 regulator.
Maybe it should make sounds too, the higher the G the higher the pitch...
(Just bustin' on ya)
I had in the past one here in Brazil. It had this same panel, It was called VW Gol 1991.