Did you consider any non-alphanumeric displays? Just wondering what all display options you found that could fit into that space. Also did you consider abandoning the factory buttons in favor of something else so that a larger display could be accommodated, say using an IR remote for input?
Did you consider any non-alphanumeric displays? Just wondering what all display options you found that could fit into that space. Also did you consider abandoning the factory buttons in favor of something else so that a larger display could be accommodated, say using an IR remote for input?
I looked around a bit for displays and considered several options, if you want to keep the buttons, there are very few options because the area where a display could go is so small. All of the dot matrix or 2 line dot matrix displays were too large or the wrong technology. If you get rid of the buttons, you get a bit more space, but you're really increasing the complexity. I wanted to re-use the 'case' for the module, because once you ditch that, it's now a mechanical engineering effort in addition to the electrical and software side.
And while a larger display could go there if you ditch the buttons, now you need a custom piece of plastic to go in front of the display and a new way to mount it and now that you have no buttons you need external buttons (like the radio up\down switch). It just gets complex, expensive and less plug and play.
It would have been fairly easy to get a larger display into the area where the cubby is, but most folks seemed to prefer clock location.
Im trying to stick with the KISS principle. This will be a pop-in \ pop-out affair for the most part and have a lot more utility than the factory unit, the display is going to be basic but I think it'll do what it needs to do.
I changed out the clock completely and ended up with this.
Clock and inside and outside temps, nothing special but does the job. Old pic as ashtray now has the CB in there, altimeter in the OEM ceiling unit, compass wold be good.
Always interested in doing something different, so subscribed.
