It's sometimes all too easy to take for granted this amazing technological age we live in. Not only do we carry around a tiny black, shiny, soap-shaped computer that gives us access to the collective knowledge of humanity at all times, but we can now buy relatively inexpensive desktop machines that can manufacture any kind of plastic part we design, and we have access to a multitude of tiny programmable computers, displays, and sensors that allow anyone with a little interest, time, and will to build all kinds of cool things that weren't possible just a few years ago. This is great. And, even better, it also gives us the opportunity to build highly advanced, cool-looking cars of questionable practicality, like this awesome manual shift knob gear indicator display!
This is a project run by a YouTuber. Upirsomeone who shares my love of display technology of all kinds, and also someone whose hands I've only ever seen. For all I know, Upir may just be a pair of disembodied hands. That's good enough for me, as the hands are skilled and the voice that speaks while the hands are in action and seems to control them seems very knowledgeable.
This project is simple in concept, but fairly complicated in execution. The end goal is to make a nice little display that fits inside the gear shift knob and shows which gear is selected. The challenges are numerous – detecting the selected gear independent of the car itself (there is no CANBUS connection, so this will work on older cars before computers), finding a display small enough to fit comfortably inside the shift knob, making plastic parts to house the components, and more.
Even if you're not looking to build a gear knob display that shows which gear you've selected, Upir breaks it down in a series of highly detailed and fascinating videos.
I'll embed the whole series here so you can see how this is done step by step.
As you can see, once he figures out how the Hall Effect sensors work to detect gear position, he tries out a number of different display types, which is pretty interesting – there's a low-res LED display, monochrome, color, a colorful hexagonal display, and finally he settles on an amazingly high-res, full-color circular display that actually fits inside the shift knob.
These are very detailed videos that show every aspect of the project, the electronics, programming the Arduino, designing the graphics for the displays, creating the 3D printed parts, assembly and more.
And, after all, it is important; Maybe if you can't tell what gear you're in you shouldn't drive a manual car after all. But it's definitely cool. And the time it takes to document and demonstrate the process is invaluable to those of us who are always trying to learn how to do things in practice.
There are lots of videos here, but if you're interested in what you can build for your car using Arduino and sensors and displays, this is a great place to start.
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