GaugePod – Rev 2

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how to best redo my GaugePod program for my Carputer project.

Existing Problems (and potential solutions):

Program sometimes crashes on resume from hibernate.
Need to determine what causes this. This started when upgraded from Atom to I3 Motherboard/CPU. Perhaps Mobo not sending proper signal to Windows?

Current Arduino implementation isn’t very accurate.
This one is major. Had to fudge the voltage numbers to get semi-accurate reading. This needs a rewrite. Right now the Arduino box simply sends the raw value from the ADC (0 to 1023) as input into GaugePod. Perhaps a better solution would be to have the Arduino send the actual voltage. In fact, I could monitor the reference voltage to make sure it doesn’t drop below 5V. Arduino could detect any drop in reference voltage and adjust reading before sending to the Carputer. Could even add an LED to indicate a condition where reference voltage is not 5V, though it wouldn’t know if input voltage is >5V. Though that is highly unlikely as the reference voltage is coming from a 5V voltage regulator.

Change how GaugePod stores settings locally.
Right now the settings are stored in a DataSet that’s stored in the user profile. Can’t migrate settings or even hand edit. Need the ability to import/export settings. Switch to XML Format. Will have to write a custom library to deal with this. Won’t be difficult. Already did this kind of implementation in the UltraDMM project.

The Arduino box is too big and wiring too complex.
Need to simplify wiring, switch to Teensy for smaller footprint. Perhaps add chokes to eliminate electronics noise. Rev 2.0 of the Arduino box uses Molex connectors for the sensors.
Better to use barrel connectors. Need 3 Pins.
1 – 5V Input
2 – Ground
3 – Sensor Return
Something like this would work:

Additional advantage of using round connectors. Easy enough to drill holes for them rather then cut square holes for the Molex connectors. The enclosure would be nicer looking. The screw-in connectors would deal better with vibration in the car.

Program runs in foreground, blocks access to Centrifuse
Possible solution to implement as plugin for Centrifuse. Though it might be possible to simply run the program inside a Centrafuse window. I vaguely remember reading that this can be done. Drawback of this approach is reduced screen real-estate.

To Be Continued…..