July 07, 2014

Adding an Arduino-controlled tachometer to a Ford Fiesta

In some markets Ford is including new ways of end users to receive real-time data feeds from the vehicle's data bus and use it for their own devices. One example of this is demonstrated by Pete Mills who harnesses the RPM data of his Ford Fiesta Ecoboost and built a visually-appealing tachometer that interfaces via Bluetooth.

Making your own display gives you options only limited by your imagination, and in this case Pete used a ring of RGB LEDs to display the current engine speed and also the previous history back a few moments with a decaying display of maximum RPM. This is demonstrated well in the following video:

Furthermore the use of a 3D-printed enclosure concludes what is a great project. Kudos to Ford for introducing the ability for the end user to work with the car's information without any "hacking", and to Pete for his interesting project. You can learn much more through his project website. And for more, we're on facebookGoogle+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.

Need a small Arduino-compatible for use with your own projects? Then check out out our LeoStick. It's the Arduino Leonardo-compatible board that's cheaper and smaller than the original:

 Apart from being one of the smallest Arduino-compatibles on the market with USB, it also has an onboard RGB LED and piezo which can be used a knock sensor and various tune and sound effects. Plus you can add extra circuitry with the matching protostick! For more information and to order, click here.

 

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