Background:
87 944 turbo, mostly clubrace

Have traqmate classic and a PLX AFR gauge.

I dont seem to look at my gauges too often. I would like some idiot lights, maybe in conjunction with gauges.

The Traqdash would be a solution supposedly. PLX is also selling sensors via traqmate, which is interesting.

for anyone doing 'warning lights' other than a shift light, what sensors for what metrics?

whats the display ?( points for anything other than AIM or Traqdash).

If i had more time&brain:
a raspberry pi would be an option, that seems to be alot easier with OBD2 cars, but there seems to be bits on how to string together analog inputs.

Thanks in advance for any constructive responses

 

Agreed on the raspberry Pi for CAN signals.

I do like the TraqDash, although mixed results using it as a instrument replacement.

Lights typically are led by LOW OIL PRESSURE (under 20 psi), then HIGH WATER TEMP (above 200 deg F) and HIGH OIL TEMP (above 245-250 deg F). IF you have an alternator, low voltage is good (or the field wire from the alternator to a light that shows "no charge," this can indicate drive belt failure.

 

If you'd like a combo gauge/idiot light, check out the Autometer Elite gauges.

http://www.autometer.com/gauges/elite.html

They're not cheap, but they are quite nice. The backlight can be programmed to change colors for over/under range, and flash for extreme over. For example, for a water temp gauge, you can have the gauge be green or blue under 160 degF, white from 160 to 210, red at 210 and flashing red at 220.

The flashing red saved me once when I lost the alternator/water pump drive belt. It caught my eye right away.

The gauges also have a datalogger 0-5V output (so you can log what the gauge sees).

I've got them for water temp, oil temp and oil pressure and really like them.

 

Here's the setup in my car:




and the one in my wife's car:

 

OOH! Whizzy!

Nice install.

 

MXL2 Dash courtesy of ProCoach :-)

 

Jeff was on the "bleeding edge," with this! Looks great!

 

I counsel people to ditch all the gauges and use a dash replacement. When you properly set up the warning lights, it allows you to move some of your focus from monitoring the engine, transmission, and other items back to driving. Plus, having the oil pressure, temps, etc. logged, allows you to go back and review the info after your session (or after the event). It makes a big difference in finding problems, when they started to occur, and finding out what is really happening.

The new programming abilities in the AiM MXL2, MXS, and MXG allow you do to a lot of really neat warning lights. You can put in cold temp warnings, high temp warnings (on the same warning light), low or high pressures (on the same light), and make them all RPM dependent. I set dashes up with things like the low oil pressure warning for something like less than 20 psi under 3000 RPM, and then less than 35 psi when over 3500 rpm. Then there are lots of other little tricks that you can do to make the dash way more functional than a gauge.

 

What I like is that if you have a powerful dash replacement like an AIM or MoTeC is that you can do "driver alarms," throttle above 85%, brake pressure above a particular threshold.

The sky is the limit, but there are inexpensive ways to get your attention, as well.

 

I agree. One that Jerry gave us was speed below a certain mph.

 

Pretty cool!

 

For those looking for the cheaper alternative... on my P2 car I don't have much room, nor time to look at gauges I can't fit. Plus I went with a smaller, cheaper, lighter dash than those pictured.

So I added my own warning lights and triggers.

For lights, I use LEDs from superbrightleds.com (same place that in fact sells LED replacements for our dash bulbs):
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...ight-black/25/

That's a 6-LED light bar slightly longer than a quarter... definitely bright enough to see in raw daylight, open cockpit. And $5.

To trigger, independent of the data system, I use switches from Longacre:
http://www.longacreracing.com/produc...enders+%26+Acc

Hard to tell, but those are abbreviated kits (complete with light and wire) or just bare senders for oil pressure (OP), water temp (WT), oil temp (OT), fuel pressure (FT), and water pressure (WP).

I run the oil and water pressure warnings on my car.

Final product... red lights are oil, yellow is water pressure, the "E" is actually the gear indicator...

 

Just a side note question: Is it worth the upgrade from the MXL2 to MXG if you have the room? This is for another race car- its $300 to upgrade to MXS, $680 for MXG (It comes with MXL2)

 

The guts are the same, so it comes.down to which display you like better. The MXG also has 2 more alarms (for 8 total) if you feel you need them. I personally like the MXL2 the best, but I've sold a bunch of MXG.

 

Since functionality is the same, it boils down to how important color is to you.

The MoTeC dash editor allows changes in colors/fonts/locations for a mere $600 unlock. The AiM MXG and MXS are not configurable in that way, but the layout is more "readable."

Most (older) folks get the biggest dash they can so the character size is more clearly visible.

I would recommend the MXL2 unless you want the color.

I sell 10 MXL2's for every 4 MXG's and every 3 MXS's.