Dashboard design

[glouwbug]

Hey fellas

Due to our limited resources, will a LINUX based dashboard be allowed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5i8F4BH424

A low power motherboard, DAQ, and 7" LCD will be used.

Thanks!

[MCoach]

Should be fine. There are no rules against it and it's great learning to build stuff from scratch like that rather than picking it up off the shelf.
I've seen some teams with full out screens, lights, dials, etc.
If it makes you faster...

We tend to go the minimalist approach and our dash looks like this:

http://volvospeed.com/~volvo/Pics/Mods/carbon_fiber_sheet1.jpg

Add a killswitch and you're there!

[glouwbug]

Great, thanks MCoach!

[Dunk Mckay]

Dash boards are only really useful for drivers if they want lots of information. Some drivers want it, some don't care. Generally speaking they should only really need one for driver training and testing, and even that is a push, they should be giving feedback and somebody else figuring out what is going on and telling them what to do. But in FSAE some of your best minds might be in the car, and it can be quicker for the drivers to play with their driving style as they go round and get direct feedback on a fancy dash.

You shoudl arrive at the events with your drivers all familiar with the car and all the improvements you can make thanks to a nice easy read out all made. If that's not the case having a dash isn't going to help you for the short amount of running at comp. If anything it will be a distraction to the drivers still unfamiliar with the car.

It's also more work to get it working, so you'd b est have plenty of man power and a dedicated person who isn't wasted when they could be doing something more useful to get the car running in time for lots of testing.

Our team last year got the uni to buy us a fancy dash that cost big bucks, I'm not sure why, LED's and a 7 segment had been fine in the past. They barely got it working, struggled to mount it properly. Now we're under a bit of pressure from the uni to use it, otherwise they'll feel like any big purchases we ask for (like new dampers because our old ones are beyond help) are a waste of money. Plus, it is shiny.

[MarkSchaumburg]

Originally posted by MCoach:

Add a killswitch and you're there!

Don't forget the starter button or the button to drop the banana peels.

[Bemo]

To get back to the original question, there isn't much in the rules about a dashboard. You need a killswitch and a startet. Everything else is up to you. In srutineering no one will care about any displays, lights, buttons etc. on the dashboard. The only thing the rules say is that all controls have to be within the cockpit.
Design event of course is another story. Don't think judges will be impressed just because you built in as much fancy stuff as could think of. You should be able to explain why you thought it would be useful to have it done exactly this way and not more/less/other stuff.

[Luniz]

Be aware though, that you have a LOT of electromagnetic noise and interference in the car, coming from the ignition coils. We ran into that problem in 2010, our dash was working brilliantly, as long as the engine was not running. Start the engine and all the controllers would just continuously restart themselves...

[jlangholzj]

Originally posted by Luniz:
Be aware though, that you have a LOT of electromagnetic noise and interference in the car, coming from the ignition coils. We ran into that problem in 2010, our dash was working brilliantly, as long as the engine was not running. Start the engine and all the controllers would just continuously restart themselves...

that should still be something controllable. IE you've got to add a ground and some shielding somewhere if its that bad. Yeah you'll run into emi from the coils....but if its that bad something else isn't good in the hood.

I'm a pretty minimalist when it comes to our dash, starter, fuel switch and three dummy lights. At the same time I'm kind of intrigued to see how one of these would turn out.

[AxelRipper]

Originally posted by Luniz:
Be aware though, that you have a LOT of electromagnetic noise and interference in the car, coming from the ignition coils. We ran into that problem in 2010, our dash was working brilliantly, as long as the engine was not running. Start the engine and all the controllers would just continuously restart themselves...

We attempted an LED tach a few years ago that wound up like this. Off the car it worked exactly as planned, but on the car it didn't work until you hit redline or the engine was running like crap, then it would just flash a bit.

I also agree with the minimalist dashboard. A starter button, kill switch, neutral light, fan switch and maybe one analog gauge are really all you need (and the neutral light, gauge, and fan are optional). IMO, especially in a car that doesn't run for more than 15 minutes at a time, you really don't need anything more than that. You should be looking where you're going, not at the dash. If you want to see what's going on in the car, get some sort of data recorder (or wireless telemetry) so you can look at it afterwards or your guys off the track can see what's going on and that way the driver's feel comes first, and you can see if the data backs that up.

But, of course, I've never driven a car with a fancy dash. Could it be better? Maybe, I don't know. But when I'm in the car I'm too focused on what I'm doing and the feel of the car to look at the dash most of the time.

[Luniz]

Originally posted by jlangholzj:
that should still be something controllable. IE you've got to add a ground and some shielding somewhere if its that bad. Yeah you'll run into emi from the coils....but if its that bad something else isn't good in the hood.

I'm a pretty minimalist when it comes to our dash, starter, fuel switch and three dummy lights. At the same time I'm kind of intrigued to see how one of these would turn out.

Well I didn't mean to say that it is impossible, I just wanted to give the advice that this is a thing worth considering beforehand ;-)

[BluSTi]

I'm a big believer in "simple is better," however, I think a nice little screen wouldn't be too hard to do, might even look nice.

I however, like a tach and a start button, and that's it. Everything else is added weight and complexity.

[Cardriverx]

As a driver and data aq. lead myself, I support simplicity. Especially on our cars.

Think about it, how long are you on a straight section with our cars? 3-4 seconds? Is that really enough time to look at a dash and read something? No, its not. If you are actually being a fast driver, there is no way you will have time to read any kind of display on these cars.

We are running a motec SDL3 this year. It has a full display but you can be sure it won't be mounted on the dash. Not only would the steering wheel be mostly in the way because of space, but I would never be able to read it while driving for the reason mentioned before.

During testing a fancy display could have some use, but it is just as easy to do runs and then analyze the data.

That being said you do need some lights for the driver, which is where a SLM comes into play for me, that's all we will have on the dash this year (with some switches). It is great because I can use logic with the SLM to make it a shift indicator, warning light, and even something advanced like display tire temp, lap faster/slower (great for driver training), etc. during testing. All in a package that weighs almost nothing.

Just my opinion http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[jlangholzj]

Originally posted by Cardriverx:
As a driver and data aq. lead myself, I support simplicity. Especially on our cars.

Think about it, how long are you on a straight section with our cars? 3-4 seconds? Is that really enough time to look at a dash and read something? No, its not. If you are actually being a fast driver, there is no way you will have time to read any kind of display on these cars.

We are running a motec SDL3 this year. It has a full display but you can be sure it won't be mounted on the dash. Not only would the steering wheel be mostly in the way because of space, but I would never be able to read it while driving for the reason mentioned before.

During testing a fancy display could have some use, but it is just as easy to do runs and then analyze the data.

That being said you do need some lights for the driver, which is where a SLM comes into play for me, that's all we will have on the dash this year (with some switches). It is great because I can use logic with the SLM to make it a shift indicator, warning light, and even something advanced like display tire temp, lap faster/slower (great for driver training), etc. during testing. All in a package that weighs almost nothing.

Just my opinion http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

We've got a neutral indicator, warning (temp, oil pres) and shift. They were also designed with some rather bright LED's....didn't want my divers to miss them http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif