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Welkman

Member Since: 02 Nov 2014
Location: Essex colchester
Posts: 332

Arduino/microcontroller based display question.

I have been toying with building a display for extra information that the OBD 2 port shows the CPU is measuring. I would like to be able to display:

Oil temp/pressure
Transfer box oil temp
Air temp (external)
Air temp (internal)

This would be a start, then I might add some other bits like a coolant level sensor (I did this in my old TD5).

Has anyone tried this? Is it possible? I know that apps can achieve the same thing with a OBD2 scanner plugged in, but I hate relying on a phone/tablet. I know I can build my own sensors, but it seems silly to duplicate functions that are already monitored.

I loved the MADMAN I had on the TD5, but they have got up to stupid money now. I think I paid £400 8 years ago for a full TD5 kit and now they are closer to £800 if you can find them in stock.

8th Jan 2025 11:39pm

kyvlle

Member Since: 22 Jul 2016
Location: Essex
Posts: 66

2004 Defender 110 Td5 XS CSW Epsom Green

I assume you talking about the Td5 engine ECU?

There are projects out there that have already accomplished this:
https://github.com/BennehBoy/LRDuinoTD5
https://github.com/k0sci3j/BinOwl_Td5Gauge

However, don't think the Td5 ECU has sensors for the those parameters you are looking for. No oil temps, but there's a engine air intake temperature.

If you look at BennehBoy's project above, he added the appropriate sensors and read those with his microcontroller.

I'm actually in the process of making one myself, though just relying on the sensors that the ECU has, and report on -- RPM, turbo pressure, etc.

8th Jan 2025 11:55pm

Welkman

Member Since: 02 Nov 2014
Location: Essex colchester
Posts: 332

Hi - no I am talking about the 2.2 puma ECU. Thanks for the links though.

I normally work on vintage valve radios and amps, alongside older HiFi stuff and some t.v. so programming has been a learning curve, but I love it.

9th Jan 2025 7:02pm

jonny

Member Since: 10 Mar 2013
Location: North Wilts
Posts: 167

Re: Arduino/microcontroller based display question.

Welkman wrote:
I have been toying with building a display for extra information that the OBD 2 port shows the CPU is measuring. I would like to be able to display:

Have a look at the https://www.canchecked.de/ devices if you want something off the shelf - they can read data from the OBD port and display it. As the puma uses 'standard' OBD not like the TD5 they should talk to each other.

If you would like a Madman style setup, I have a couple of 'equivalent' gauges without sensors somewhere. From what I understand, Madman is a rebadge of monitoring systems used in light aircraft, other variations of the same gauges are available. You should be able to add standard sensors and get it working...

9th Jan 2025 8:27pm

pistonfields

Member Since: 29 Mar 2022
Location: Zurich
Posts: 76

I wanted to do the same thing for a while now but haven't found the time, sadly. I think it would be pretty neat to have an open source solution, not only limited to Defenders. There are several projects involving Arduino and OBD2 protocol but I haven't checked for a while if there's a nice one-fits-all-solution.
Reading and displaying values is pretty straight forward, but the moment you want to make it pretty (e.g. use a round display in place of the original clock, with two buttons, nice gauges and so on) it becomes tedious work.

21st Jan 2025 1:04pm

MadTom

Member Since: 10 Sep 2013
Location: Olomouc
Posts: 636

Having lot of numbers and/or indicators is nice, but for real use some sort of settable alarms is important. Just to warn the driver inmediatelly, that something wrong happened. Not waiting for driver to look on the particular value. Settable to be able to customize it easily. "Drobek" = The Small One - Discovery 2, "Blufínek" = The Blue Thing - Defender 130, and for me at least Ford Mondeo

23rd Jan 2025 11:22am

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