Oil pressure and voltmeter gauge

Bmachine

Bmachine

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After many months (years?) of r&d, I finally realized that this mythical gauge idea, originally started by @paul cain had no cheap and easy way to get made. Paul had mentioned that he had his done at North Hollywood Speedo but the guy who had done it originally is MIA and they are not interested in pursuing it.
As mentioned elsewhere, I tried to adapt some Porsche gauges but it never looked or worked right. So I decided to go back to square 1 and build it right. It does start with a Tank and Coolant unit but even the housing has to be modified quite a bit to work properly. I had all of the guts replaced with brand new VDO coils, made a new face and had the marking designed with as close to the original style as possible. Then lighting was adapted to work with this new gauge setup.

This ended up being far more time consuming and far more expensive than I had imagined but I have to say I am pretty happy with the results.

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Bmachine said:
After many months (years?) of r&d, I finally realized that this mythical gauge idea, originally started by @paul cain had no cheap and easy way to get made. Paul had mentioned that he had his done at North Hollywood Speedo but the guy who had done it originally is MIA and they are not interested in pursuing it.
As mentioned elsewhere, I tried to adapt some Porsche gauges but it never looked or worked right. So I decided to go back to square 1 and build it right. It does start with a Tank and Coolant unit but even the housing has to be modified quite a bit to work properly. I had all of the guts replaced with brand new VDO coils, made a new face and had the marking designed with as close to the original style as possible. Then lighting was adapted to work with this new gauge setup.

This ended up being far more time consuming and far more expensive than I had imagined but I have to say I am pretty happy with the results.

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That is a tremendous and very detailed job

it looks really nice
 
Great work, looks really good.
I was planning on doing something similar, but never got round to it!
 
I'm interested!

So I take it you have it nailed down on how to do it and can do subsequent conversions a heck of a lot more quicker?

I have a spare gauge I can send you to hog out and convert.
 
kongsfam said:
Really nice
I'm interested
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I have not added all my cost to build one yet. But I do know that it is not cheap. Just the cost of having brand new VDO coils installed by a specialist inside those mini gauges and calibrating them is very significant. And there is quite a bit of labor involved after that.

I will let anyone who is interested know in a few days.

I will try to get at least one ready to bring with me at Legends
 
Seriously? Really Bo, how did you ever have the time to pursue this special assignment, while also plowing through all that you have been doing to complete your Coupe restoration? Amazing accomplishment. Looks really professional! ;) Mike
 
Ha ha, thanks Mike. Yes this had sort of become an obsession for me. Ever since I saw Paul Cain‘s one I tried to get one for my car. But repeated attempts to get either North Hollywood speedo or another specialist I knew to make one ended up nowhere.
So I decided I would do my own. I started about three years ago (I have another thread regarding that) but it was only after restarting it a few times and going seriously at it four or five months ago that I finally got something I was happy with .
 
I've seen Bo's car in person and his gauges are the cherry on top of the sprinkles in the frosting of an already delicious cake. Just wonderful.
 
Bmachine said:
I have not added all my cost to build one yet. But I do know that it is not cheap. Just the cost of having brand new VDO coils installed by a specialist inside those mini gauges and calibrating them is very significant. And there is quite a bit of labor involved after that.

I will let anyone who is interested know in a few days.

I will try to get at least one ready to bring with me at Legends
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Me three Bo. I don't even have my car yet (but hopefully closing in one) but already know I want this mod. Please put me down for sure.
 
Very cool @Bmachine . But how will you know what time it is? ;-)

Funny you should post this now. I just finished rewriting all the code for the analog CSE gauges. Not that it is relevant to anyone else, but they're fun to watch. Fuel gauge shows battery State of Charge, temp gauge shows "most relevant" temp (i.e. temp that is closest to its max -- could be inverter, stator, heatsink, PCB, one of the batteries, etc.) Details on what component is most relevant, as well as all temps, are available on a page of the digital display but the old gauge just shows if there's anything to be concerned about. I have the code in there for Low Tank "T" and red High Temp (was alternator/Lichtmaschine) "L" idiot lights to illuminate at defined thresholds but haven't wired up the opto-isolators for those yet. Data comes from the Tesla driver unit controller and Orion battery management system via CANBus.

 
jefflit said:
Very cool @Bmachine . But how will you know what time it is? ;-)

Funny you should post this now. I just finished rewriting all the code for the analog CSE gauges. Not that it is relevant to anyone else, but they're fun to watch. Fuel gauge shows battery State of Charge, temp gauge shows "most relevant" temp (i.e. temp that is closest to its max -- could be inverter, stator, heatsink, PCB, one of the batteries, etc.) Details on what component is most relevant, as well as all temps, are available on a page of the digital display but the old gauge just shows if there's anything to be concerned about. I have the code in there for Low Tank "T" and red High Temp (was alternator/Lichtmaschine) "L" idiot lights to illuminate at defined thresholds but haven't wired up the opto-isolators for those yet. Data comes from the Tesla driver unit controller and Orion battery management system via CANBus.
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That is impressive. The gauge looks like analog but the measurement it displays is digital I think...

There are many ways of telling the time without a clock, like the guy who kept a trumpet in his nightstand. To know the time at night he would play the trumpet, and a neighbor would invariably scream: "Who is the moron that plays the trumpet at 4am?"
 
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