Am I onto something, or just retarded?

I was looking at the digital dashes that haltech and others make and they're all so fucking expensive, so I was thinking couldn't the same thing be done with something like a raspberry PI or something of the sort, a OBD2 to USB cable a custom LCD or LED panel and some software? I mean with some sensor's and the OBD2 software wouldn't it be possible to do the exact same thing for like $200 compared to $1000

Because you're paying for a quality product that you know works and comes rebuilt.

Pi's don't have enough compute power to effectively manage the amount of data that needs to be processed.

The reason Haltech and other makes are expensive, is because they use a very different computing system to what a traditional computer does. Essentially to put it in basic terms, you'd need a very powerful Pi for each campus component, they'd then need to to relay back to a central Pi to make the data presentable.

Other technologies effectively do this, but in a much more efficient way. using things like FPGA's and other similar techniques.

To add to that, high-level programming languages are no where near quick enough to be able to keep up with the processes involved, and so are most low-level languages.

So unless you're an electrical engineer, and know machine code, I'd imagine you'd be shit out of luck.

Not asking WHY they're expensive, I'm asking if its possible to DIY it for a lot less

You also probably think a $200 Mongoose functions just as fine as a $2000 Santa Cruz

Sure it just wont be streamlined and operate a little wonky

>I'm asking if its possible to DIY it for a lot less
If a lawyer notices you are using uncertified software and hardware in monitoring and controlling your vehicle, you might have problems in a court case. For my insurance company, 3rd party gear is also typically not covered by insurance unless it is specifically listed in a rider.

>$200 mongoose

What fucking pet store are you going to?

Nigga all he is doing is reading the odb2 bus he's not fucking with the ecu.

Op, I have a raspberri pi connected to my megasquirt running tunerstudio for my digi dash. Look up "pi dash". some kid on YouTube even got one connected to his oem consult plug on his s14

This nigger has no idea what he is talking about. A raspberry pi has magnatudes more than enough processing power to read odb info and display it to a a screen and it's perfectly fine to use python as the bus would be handled by the OS (assuming you are using Linux).

t. An EE who actually wrote an ecu for a jet engine using a pi and python for testing purposes.

This is probably the most bullshit post ever made

The ECU does the number crunching. All the pi needs to do is literally display numbers on a screen.

Even ECUs are a box of crackers that usually just amount to lookup tables.

The state of /g/ today

I am disappoint

>To add to that, high-level programming languages are no where near quick enough to be able to keep up with the processes involved
Shit, how did analog gauges ever work before computers??

You can do it and a raspberry pi has plenty of power, but you need to find a program that can interpret CAN signals and turn them into the signal that you need. OBD2 is universal for engine/restraints but manufacturers can do whatever they want for body controls, trans, etc. so it's not easy to decode the CAN signals if somebody hasn't already.

Who the fuck saw this and thought 'bicycle'?

An retard tier easy way to do it would be to get a chink Android tablet and an odb Bluetooth connector then just download one of the many odb reader apps.

This whole post

This post game me forrest whitaker eye

this post is retarded, having said that FPGAs make my dick solid

Is this a /g/ copypasta with edits to make it work for this thread?

That was very scientific, thanks user.

What do you drive and make

Do it with arduinos. Way easier since you're not booting an OS and all you need is digital/analog I/O

You're a retard. You can literally run an entire engine's fuel management system off of an Arduino. It is just a slight jump up to making it do ignition as well. An STM32 could do this shit.

What you're paying for in a modern Haltech ECU is validation and more fancy features.

OP, you can. You just need to be able to decode CAN and other signals. Make sure your application doesn't need to be real time, Raspberry Pis are not traditional MCUs so they aren't very good at meeting hard deadlines.

Arduinos are not nearly as nice to work with for non-real time applications.

Microcontrollers are good because they are easier to verify and you can make stronger timing guarantees for real time tasks. But if someone won't die or an engine won't explode because your interrupt was serviced 100 ms late, a full-on Linux system is great because you don't have to write a bunch of complicated shit to drive a display among many other things. Modern OSes are awesome for stuff that can afford to be rebooted every so often and/or crash once in a blue moon.

Modern OSes are very, very bad if you absolutely must ensure that something works. I would not have a rocket guidance computer running Linux or any modern desktop OS. I would not want my ECU running a desktop OS. I would not want my body control unit running a desktop OS.

In cases like that, the less code you write, the less code there is for bugs. Bugs that may only show up in a blue moon will kill you in these cases.

He's not asking about an ECU, he's asking about a digital dash.

And a raspi is basically an arduino stuck onto a tiny PC.

Are you retarded?
The ECU in my 92 Camaro functions at like 50mhz.
A Pi is 1.0ghz+

Why don't you use an old tablet or phone with the torque app and a obd-ii-plug? You can do it with a rpi, there are yourtube videos about it but it seems like unnecessary

The torque app doesn't refresh fast enough to use as a dash.
I know, because i tried.

>not fast enough
I didn't check for revs yet but speed is updating just as fast as the digital dash on my bike or the board computer on my car. iirc it's a 0.5s delay?

Back to /g/ gamer trash

you're a fucking retard if you can't distinguish actual CS/EEs in this thread vs some retard spouting off about shit he doesn't understand.