# Tablet instead of gauge cluster



## miscrms (Sep 25, 2013)

I think this is a good way to go, but you will likely need some sort of custom controller. As I understand Torque has built in support to talk to an Arduino board, and there are some interesting examples out there on the interwebs of people using this to connect non-OBD2 cars to Torque. If some of your components talk CAN, I believe you can also get an arduino with a CAN interface to combine analog and CAN info together in a format Torque can deal with.

Rob


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## Caps18 (Jun 8, 2008)

Once I get my truck running, and everything is working the way it should outside of the gauges, I will be getting one of these:

http://ai-displays.com/product/evic-cluster/

I will be using GPS speed, and I have the right controller (1238) that is able to wire in the CANBUS connection into it.


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## Arlo (Dec 27, 2009)

Caps18 said:


> Once I get my truck running, and everything is working the way it should outside of the gauges, I will be getting one of these:
> 
> http://ai-displays.com/product/evic-cluster/
> 
> I will be using GPS speed, and I have the right controller (1238) that is able to wire in the CANBUS connection into it.


 
How much are they? I need something like that.


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## Matej (Dec 4, 2015)

Arlo said:


> How much are they? I need something like that.


600-700$.

The EVIC is really cool and I am considering it as well. How is their support though and do they provide updates?

Honestly, I wish Andromeda would also make and sell an Android version of their software, with a connector adapter for the tablet's USB port or something.


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## Evmetro1 (Jun 17, 2016)

I find that using a tablet makes a lot of sense, since you can take it with you, and you can replace it with more up to date models










When using the Torque app, it is also easy to change out gauges and backgrounds from time to time. You may only use two or three gauges at a time, but you can also add a gauge as needed. Maybe you have a certain battery that you want to keep your eyes on, so you can add that one battery to your display for awhile.










It is also nice to have a separate screen for charging mode, in case I want to watch how each cell is charging, or just to see charger gauges.










.


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## Evmetro1 (Jun 17, 2016)

The other reason why using a tablet instead of a factory cluster, is that you can do more things with it. GPS navigation is far safer when the tablet is right where you eyes can easily shift from the road to the tablet the way you do when you look at the speedometer. You can also flip over to your local tv station to check out traffic or weather conditions if you get stuck in traffic. Tablets are just more versatile.

This was an earlier conversion that I did, and I am stuck in traffic.










.


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## Matej (Dec 4, 2015)

Evmetro1, it seems that your setup has been posted on here a few times before and it is the one I have used for reference.
May I ask how all the parameters are fed into the Torque Pro application, or into the tablet?
For example, how do you get the motor rpm or temperature sensors to interface with it?
Thank you for any input.


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## Evmetro1 (Jun 17, 2016)

Matej said:


> Evmetro1, it seems that your setup has been posted on here a few times before and it is the one I have used for reference.
> May I ask how all the parameters are fed into the Torque Pro application, or into the tablet?
> For example, how do you get the motor rpm or temperature sensors to interface with it?
> Thank you for any input.


I have an Orion BMS that is connected to everything that I have a gauge for. The Orion is linked with my controller via canbus, so the Orion can display the motor and controller data along with all the battery data. The data is just there in the Orion in a consumer friendly format like it is when you plug a tv into a DVD player. The Orion has all the data available on canbus, and I have an adapter that converts canbus data to OBD2 data and then sends it via Bluetooth to my tablet. The stuff is all really simple, since the controller and Orion communicate when you wire them together, and the OBD2 adapter is just a simple goody that you can buy off ebay and plug into the Orion. The Torque app on the tablet is a $5 download, and you just have to load up some data onto it to make the EV gauges.


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