YourITronics » car

Fuel consumption calculator

Laci — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:30:26 +0000

If you have an old car, and you want to measure the fuel consumption to adjust your driver technique then check out this device. It is build around one Arduino board, off course the project is open hardware like any other Arduino project, the LCD is a simple two row alphanumeric display, nothing fancy about it. To power up, just tap into the battery, connect it anywhere you can find +12V.

The device only works on cars with injector based fuel distribution, by counting the pulses and the time which the injector valves are open, and using a calibration table it computes the fuel burned by the engine, the device has also a menu to access some settings, you can even display the CPU usage in %.

With a little work you could also integrated it into the dashboard, probably won’t increase your old cars value, but it will look good and its a great DIY project.

Fuel consumption calculator: [Link]

Gas Guzzler Meter

Florin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:01:46 +0000

The Gas Guzzler Meter is an attempt at putting an immediate dollar value on your current driving techniques: a digital meter that displays exactly what you’re spending as you motor along. Stomp on the pedal and see the bucks zoom out your tailpipe faster than a NASCAR driver competing for the Nextel Cup. This device will help you impress your friends, drive responsibly, and keep those dollars in your pocket.

Gas Guzzler Meter: [Link]

JBL CS1204T Car Subwoofer review

Florin — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 22:48:26 +0000

Well why should i write a review on a JBL subwoofer ? Because i got one and it make’s me proud. I recently added this subwoofer combined with a Blaupunkt GTA 2 Special Mk II amp and 4 speakers ,2 for fron, and 2 for rear on my car. I will be reviewing the amp and the speakers in later posts. Lets start with the first impression on the JBL subwoofer IT’S BIG and the second impression IT’S LOUD. The dimensions are 660mm x 346mm so you will lose some space from the trunk of your car if you want this installed, but trust me if you like music like i do, you wont mind it.

About the “LOUD” part JBL is saying about this product on their website that it has “New 300mm CS Subwoofer Generation — This quality-built woofer offers double the power handing of the previous generation: Stunning 250/1000 W (RMS/peak)” I can only say, well done JBL it really is LOUD, imagine this waiting on the stop lights listening to your favorite tune so loud that the cars around you are listening to your music instead of theirs. I paid about 160 $ for the subwoofer and the installation kit and it fits quite nicely in my trunk with the big JBL logo printed on it. So far i had no problems , the sound is crystal clear, the bass its amazing, you can fell it trough the seats, trough the floor, its everywhere. I hope this is enough for those of you that were asking themselvs whether to buy this subwoofer or not. If not please post a question and i will be happy to answer it.

Here is the specifications on JBL CS1204T Car Subwoofer:

Type Bass-Reflex Subwoofer Tube
Power Handling, RMS 250W
Power Handling, Peak 1000W
Sensitivity (2.83V/1m) 90dB
Frequency Response 35Hz – 200Hz
Impedance 4 Ohms
Dimensions (Diam. XL) 660mm x 346mm

Changing the Ceiling 5w lamp from a car with 5 white LED’s

Florin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:30:36 +0000

I don’t really know if I need it to do this modification on my car… the 5w lamp was ok, but my 5 led circuit its more than ok, so don’t start this project unless you really need it or like it because your ceiling lamp is just fine as it is. Here is the schematic of the circuit, I’m not going to attach the board to because it’s a pretty simple circuit diagram so I didn’t design it with eagle; I did it by hand.

click on pic to enlarge

As you can see its composed of 5 white led’s, 5 resistor’s for current limiting a capacitor for a nice smooth turning off effect and a diode that doesn’t allow current to flow back to the car from the capacitor. The capacitor can be removed if you don’t like the smooth turning off effect or you can adjust its value to obtain the desired effect. I used 6900 uF and I have about 3 seconds of light after I switch off.

From the next picture you can see that I used 3 x 5mm LED’s and 2 x 10mm LED’s, that’s only because of what I had available.

click on pic to enlarge

You can use whatever dimension and color you like. From the picture you will also notice that I attached the capacitor with wires so that I can place it in a space behind the circuit (because the capacitor is large I don’t have room for it on the board). About the resistor’s I used they are 680 ohms and were calculated to fit my LED’s. It will probably work well for any LED I suggest not to use smaller then 680 ohms resistor, because you will burn your LED’s. If you would like to recalculate your resistor value based on your LED’s and voltage you can use this application http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz . You will have to take in consideration that your car’s voltage may vary from 12 v to 14,4 v so make sure you cover this variation.

On the next picture you can see the 5W lamp socket. I’m going to connect my circuit to the lamp’s socket connector. In my car you can see that the casing its all plastic so it wont be a problem of isolation. But if in your car you place the circuit near metal parts you have to make sure that none of the board is actually touching the metal.

After doing that you can place de cap back over the new circuit with LED’s and its ready to go.