I was looking at dual battery monitors and after not finding much looked further. Also finding out my Patrol hasn’t got real OBDII so are unable to use the cheap link programs went looking at building my own MFD (Multi-function display). I wanted to see some temps, dual battery volts and maybe the MAF output. I came across these Arduino Microprocessor’s and with some searching found other people had done something similar. Idea #1.....
So after a spending about $20 on eBay got a board and some temp sensors and LCD and started to write the code to run it. It’s not that hard it’s all open source and lots of info out there. Here is a basic start to single temp only.
Here are some pics of the installed unit. The controller sits in a small box 2” square x4’ long under the glove box area and has a 5v power supply in it and some relays to dim the screen LCD at night. It runs the screen on the steering wheel and is connected to the sensors. These figures are not accurate as still adjusting code to get the calibration right. Was correct for my computer 5volt output but in car is different.
The startup says ‘NISSAN’ for 5 sec then rolls thru each page ‘Batt volts’, ‘inside and intake temps’ ‘Tranny and engine temps’ then back to batt volts again with a 4 sec delay between screens.
I’ve already started on m second one as this board has limited inputs (6 analogue). I’ve got a new one coming with 16 as I want to display a bar graph type display or MAF output, Altitude and a DTE (distance to empty)setup using both fuel tank capacities. Will keep you updated with the setup when the new one goes in.
Paul
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