New Dashboard

A Real Dashboard

Jane came with a fairly limited dashboard (instruments + storage + decorative features to hide in inner workings).  It has the 3-gauge binnacle with the speedometer (w/ fuel gauge), temp and oil pressure gauges.  Besides that, there were two shelves (Vinyl covered cardboard) on the left and right which had limited value except to gather junk.  The blue vinyl never fit that well.

This weekends project was to build a real dashboard and here is the current state.    You can see the Arduino display positioned where the driver can see it through the steering wheel.  This new wood panel will be covered in some durable material along with the top and bottom rails.  the panel mounted with two brackets which connect with wing-bolts to the supporting structure holding the lower rail.  The side vents are going to be capped and only the main blower will be available fresh air intake.

The plan is to have matching panels on each side and a nice wrap-around for the binnacle.   All matching and all wrapped.  The radio will be moved to the driver side just, to the left of the Arduino.  The passenger side is getting a small glove-box.  The final addition will be two 4" speakers for the stereo, probably close to where the vents were originally place.  This will improve the sound quality since Jane currently only has two speakers in the rear deck. Also, the USB for the stereo and the Arduino will be routed to the Glove Box for easy access

It only took a few minutes to add the bonnet hold-down latches.  Picked these up from 7ent.com : Bonnet Hook Kit.  They fit great and provide a very secure yet easy latching.  Much better than the quarter turn screws that were in the holes shown.  A little patch work and those holes will be gone.

While inside the dashboard, the battery monitoring Arduino is getting moved to the boot.  Two benefits - The current monitor AD8210 will be closer to the shunt (1 foot vs. about 7 feet of wire) and there will be no need to bring the battery voltage (84V) into the cabin for the adapter to power this Arduino.  This Arduino must be isolated from the main 12V supply which is why it is powered of the main battery pack, no the 12V accessory battery.    However moving this naturally threw off the calibration so that will be tomorrow's task.  Now only the battery alarm and fuel gauge signals are being routed through the cabin to the dash, a better and safer design.