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BeagleBone Wideband

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:12 am
by TeckniX
This will be a very noobish kinda post, but trying to wrap my head around all of this.

While looking through possible updates to my current setup (zt-2 with Boost+AFR display) it dawned on me that there weren't that many controllers out there that did just that.
Take the 0-5V from a wideband and display it (using the usual AFX-style formula: Gasoline AFR = (VOUTx 1.4)+ 9 )
Take the 0-5V from a map sensor and display it (conversion tweaks per sensor used)

Then this project caught my attention: https://learn.adafruit.com/character-lc ... bone-black
It seems that the BeagleBone + LCD would run you about ~$65-75 depending on the LCD of choice.

The BeagleBone could process all of the inputs and show the data on the LCD screen.

Obviously a lot of R&D and software dev went into the SLC DIY2 product (which I'll probably buy) but the display is what's killing me. I enjoy seeing the boost+AFR+EGT values all in one screen.

Just wondering if this is something that could be considered to simply and speed up future wideband controller development.

Re: BeagleBone Wideband

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:34 pm
by malcom2073
Using a BBB just to display two voltages is hitting a fly with a cannonball. Not only that, but using a BBB to drive a character LCD is hitting a flea with a cannonball. You can do all that with a simple $10 arduino clone from ebay.

So you get a SLC wideban controller that outputs 0-5v, hook it the an arduino analog input, display the output on a character LCD.

Re: BeagleBone Wideband

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 4:12 pm
by TeckniX
Malcom,
Thanks for the info, I do agree that it is an overkill, I wasn't sure if the arduino clones would have enough inputs to support it and also if it required some low-level programming that i'm not familiar with.

I'll lookup some of these arduino clones to see if I can get my wideband controller to output some stuff again. (feel free to show me a DIY/how-to :D)

Re: BeagleBone Wideband

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:58 pm
by malcom2073
Sometimes knowing what to google for, is almost as important as knowing the answer to your question :)

Found this, which should be modifiable to do what you want: http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino ... t-display/ , run your 0-5v signal in, in place of the potentiometer output and you should be able to read it.

It does require some C programming on the arduino, but there are enough tutorials that if you can do python on a RPI/BBB, you can probably do arduino C on a microcontroller. If you have a BBB laying around doing nothing, and you already know how to read analog inputs, and output to a character LCD, then it may be quicker just to use the overkill option.... but if you have to learn how to do analog input on the BBB + learn the character LCD, then might as well learn that stuff on an arduino. (At least in my opinion)

Re: BeagleBone Wideband

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 11:20 pm
by TeckniX
malcom2073 wrote:Sometimes knowing what to google for, is almost as important as knowing the answer to your question :)

Found this, which should be modifiable to do what you want: http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino ... t-display/ , run your 0-5v signal in, in place of the potentiometer output and you should be able to read it.

It does require some C programming on the arduino, but there are enough tutorials that if you can do python on a RPI/BBB, you can probably do arduino C on a microcontroller. If you have a BBB laying around doing nothing, and you already know how to read analog inputs, and output to a character LCD, then it may be quicker just to use the overkill option.... but if you have to learn how to do analog input on the BBB + learn the character LCD, then might as well learn that stuff on an arduino. (At least in my opinion)

Fantastic, thank you for the help- Indeed, knowing what to Google for is key in getting proper results :D