Dashboard Software Finished (except for fiddling)

Like all home-project software, the dash/speedo will never be finished - but it now has everything I wanted it to have - and the displays are all glued in (silicone)!
Main display
- Instantaneous current
- Battery pack voltage
- Speed
- Estimated range remaining in 10 meters steps
Left 16x2 display
- State of Charge easy indication
- AH used (for more complicated evaluation of battery pack)
Right 16x2 display
- Trip meter in 10 meter steps
- Odometer in km (I might change this to 100 meter steps)

Even when I used the flash the 16x2 displays are quite readable.
I also added some special characters so the SOC indication could have 80 steps rather than only 16. It's resolution is now 200mA/.Hr or 0.2 AH. Note that the last bar is thinner because we have 14.6AH remaining.

All I have to do now is clean up the display wiring and mount the assembly into the speedo housing. The captive nuts are already installed and the holes have been drilled in the housing. I have to make a gasket for the front cowl (that holds the perspex front on) but that should be a small task.

Next week I'm off work for some real EV progress!

More Dashboard Software

This picture shows the battery bar indicator after I have used 14 Amp Hours from the pack.
The display on the left is the one in question. I'm still messing with the stuff on the main display - note it now says Amps and Volts.

Dashboard Software

We have been having our driveway replaced over the last two weeks and the guys stored some of their gear in the garage in front of the Vogue so it was difficult to get access. I took the opportunity to get some work done on the software for the Speedo cluster. After an embarrasingly long time I finally got the 16x2 white on blue display working (The SPI bus for the big display shares some of the 8 bit data lines to the 16x2 displays - I didn't realise for a long time that I had to suspend SPI when writing to the parallel port D on the PIC).

This picture is of the almost-first thing I displayed. (The display on the left is the new one.)

This is the most likely contender for the battery State Of Charge indication (display on left). The number increases as I use power from the pack and should not be able to go above 20.00 (since it's a 20AH pack). The bar graph shows one block for each AH remaining in the pack. It starts at 16 and when it is empty it means I have used 80% of the pack capacity (4 AH remaining). I may place a message on the display when the bar graph is at zero. Something like "   CHARGE NOW!  ".

I can now wire the other 16x2 display and mount them both then finish and seal the speedo housing. I can update the software later with a USB port (and USB to serial) on my laptop.