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[Muroman]

Hello, I've been thinking this long and wanted to ask if anyone has tried or done this.

Is it possible for get the information about which gear you have to the information screen (TID, MID...)
What about battery voltage?
OR do you need somekind of external unit showing the info?

And does anyone have like specific wiring diagrams from the ECU or could it be possible to get the infos from the OBD plug?

Any info would help

-Mika

[TheBoy]

No facility to get on MID.

Unfortunately on a 1999 car, the TCM, a GS8.20, uses a proprietary protocol, so not going to be easy to read out of the ECU. Probably easiest way is to monitor signals going into box itself, and use software to work out intended gear.

[Muroman]

No facility to get on MID.

Unfortunately on a 1999 car, the TCM, a GS8.20, uses a proprietary protocol, so not going to be easy to read out of the ECU. Probably easiest way is to monitor signals going into box itself, and use software to work out intended gear.

Does it change from pfl to fl to different? Or variates many times between models?

The OBD reader reads ECU, right?

So you mean by going into box that I need to read the data from the OBD?

[Diamond Black Geezer]

I've pondered this for a while and the only practical means of determining what gear you're in on a dash-mounted system I've come across is to mount LEDs, taking the wiring from the drive tunnel-mounted gear indicator panel and sticking a row of them in the dash binnacle, somewhere. Alternative idea I had a while back was to convert a Senny Digital dash (which has gear indicator lights, too) presumably you could fit the whole binnacle, or just take the gear lever indicator element from it.

[Muroman]

I've pondered this for a while and the only practical means of determining what gear you're in on a dash-mounted system I've come across is to mount LEDs, taking the wiring from the drive tunnel-mounted gear indicator panel and sticking a row of them in the dash binnacle, somewhere. Alternative idea I had a while back was to convert a Senny Digital dash (which has gear indicator lights, too) presumably you could fit the whole binnacle, or just take the gear lever indicator element from it.

Okay, I've done this Gear Indicator thing to my racing car which has motorcycle engine and gearbox. I just bought one segment led screen like this-->

And then just wired it up so I get which gear is on to the screen 1,N,2,3,4,5.... as an N I use -

So I could to this with wiring from gear indicator panel to get P,R,N,D,3,2,1....

But I want it to show the specific gear when on D and that information you can't get from the gear indicator panel, Right?

[Diamond Black Geezer]

See what you're saying, it'd just read 'D' all the time, good point. I think there are products on the market in the US, where of course every car is an auto.. Again, no idea if they just display PNDR, however...

[Entwood]

Not sure why you need this info ?? Your ears (engine note), and eyes (on the rpm gauge), combined with the speed you are travelling will always give enough information to "know" what gear you are in

If you need a "light" to tell you then you are not "driving" your car .. you are "aiming" it IMHO .. in which case the "knowledge" of which gear you are in is superfluous anyway.

 

[Muroman]

Not sure why you need this info ?? Your ears (engine note), and eyes (on the rpm gauge), combined with the speed you are travelling will always give enough information to "know" what gear you are in

If you need a "light" to tell you then you are not "driving" your car .. you are "aiming" it IMHO .. in which case the "knowledge" of which gear you are in is superfluous anyway.

 

Well yes thanks for taking that up
My dad wanted the indicator to my racing car because as he drives it he doesn't know which gear his into And so as we made the indicator to the racing car we thought why not to my dads' Vectra 2.6 just for fun
And we are both electricians so we always come up with crazy electric ideas
This is like a challenge for us and trying new things 

[Andy B]

Not sure why you need this info ?? Your ears (engine note), and eyes (on the rpm gauge), combined with the speed you are travelling will always give enough information to "know" what gear you are in

If you need a "light" to tell you then you are not "driving" your car .. you are "aiming" it IMHO .. in which case the "knowledge" of which gear you are in is superfluous anyway.

 

SWMBO's torque converter auto Citroen C3 shows what gear you're in 
Well yes thanks for taking that up
My dad wanted the indicator to my racing car because as he drives it he doesn't know which gear his into And so as we made the indicator to the racing car we thought why not to my dads' Vectra 2.6 just for fun
And we are both electricians so we always come up with crazy electric ideas
This is like a challenge for us and trying new things 

[Nick W]

Not sure why you need this info ?? Your ears (engine note), and eyes (on the rpm gauge), combined with the speed you are travelling will always give enough information to "know" what gear you are in

If you need a "light" to tell you then you are not "driving" your car .. you are "aiming" it IMHO .. in which case the "knowledge" of which gear you are in is superfluous anyway.

I upgraded some of my older cars to the higher spec 6 dial instrument sets, because you had to know how many amps you were using. But recently, I realised that most of the information is superfluous: ammeters are useless, and the low-charge warning light is perfectly adequate compared to a voltmeter; oil pressure gauges(especially electronic ones) are inaccurate and only make you paranoid; and I can't remember the last time I looked at the rev-counter whilst driving a manual, let alone an automatic.


I have seen far too many heat-seized engines due to a lack of temperature gauge to do without.


Which leaves the speedo and fuel gauge as essential.


Now that decent displays are common it would be useful to have a proper warning message, rather than just a warning light. This would enable you to make a reasoned decision to keep driving the car, or to stop immediately rather than just guess - even if you have to ask someone competent.

[Ratboy]

If you google for car HUD you should find something usable. I have a system installed that projects all ODB data i have set on my windshield. You even have systems that also project the gps details (if factory installed navsystem)

[Muroman]

Not sure why you need this info ?? Your ears (engine note), and eyes (on the rpm gauge), combined with the speed you are travelling will always give enough information to "know" what gear you are in

If you need a "light" to tell you then you are not "driving" your car .. you are "aiming" it IMHO .. in which case the "knowledge" of which gear you are in is superfluous anyway.

I upgraded some of my older cars to the higher spec 6 dial instrument sets, because you had to know how many amps you were using. But recently, I realised that most of the information is superfluous: ammeters are useless, and the low-charge warning light is perfectly adequate compared to a voltmeter; oil pressure gauges(especially electronic ones) are inaccurate and only make you paranoid; and I can't remember the last time I looked at the rev-counter whilst driving a manual, let alone an automatic.


I have seen far too many heat-seized engines due to a lack of temperature gauge to do without.


Which leaves the speedo and fuel gauge as essential.


Now that decent displays are common it would be useful to have a proper warning message, rather than just a warning light. This would enable you to make a reasoned decision to keep driving the car, or to stop immediately rather than just guess - even if you have to ask someone competent.

Ye ye I know you don't need much info for driving I'm a race driver All I need in my race car is Analog oil pressure cauge, and low oil light.

But the thing is that when you just driving around it's just cool to see all the information and if it's easy to get its fun, even these more challenging things are nice

If you google for car HUD you should find something usable. I have a system installed that projects all ODB data i have set on my windshield. You even have systems that also project the gps details (if factory installed navsystem)

Thanks for this.
Didn't solve gear indicator thing yet but now I know I could probably find the voltage somewhere

-Mika

[Kevin Wood]

The only indication of what gear an automatic gearbox is in will be the signals to the shift solenoids. They will give you a 2 bit grey code telling you which gear out of 1-4 the ECU is commanding. Then you have things like the torque converter lockup clutch, which feels like another gearchange under heavyish load.

[TheBoy]

No facility to get on MID.

Unfortunately on a 1999 car, the TCM, a GS8.20, uses a proprietary protocol, so not going to be easy to read out of the ECU. Probably easiest way is to monitor signals going into box itself, and use software to work out intended gear.

Does it change from pfl to fl to different? Or variates many times between models?

The OBD reader reads ECU, right?

So you mean by going into box that I need to read the data from the OBD?

EOBD/OBDII came in with the drive-by-wire engines in 2001, so its not a PFL/FL thing, its an engine thing. And, no, you will struggle with pre OBDII due to its proprietary nature.

You would need to monitor drive signals from ECU into the hydromechanical gearbox, and use software to produce a result.

[TheBoy]

The only indication of what gear an automatic gearbox is in will be the signals to the shift solenoids. They will give you a 2 bit grey code telling you which gear out of 1-4 the ECU is commanding. Then you have things like the torque converter lockup clutch, which feels like another gearchange under heavyish load.

^^^^^^^

just like he says