Shift Lights, Gear Position Indicator, and Digital Dashboard

A suite of driver aids and data readouts communicating over CAN-bus

Overview

Different instruments and their accompanying hardware, software, and physical mounting structures that I made over the years as part of systems integration for my undergraduate FSAE team.

Initial design with 7-segment gear position readout, LED-based shift lights, thumb shift buttons

Key Specifications

Electropneumatic shift system capable of <20 ms shift actuation
CAN-bus communication @ 500 kbps, integrated with ECU and data acquisition system
Initial design with discrete circuits and components, full touchscreen interface integrated over time

This system was designed to provide the driver of a race vehicle with key insights to vehicle performance, including RPM, current gear, and warning lights for oil pressure/coolant temperature. Although designed for an FSAE vehicle, the system accepts standard CAN bus protocol frames and is compatible with any modern ECU system with a CAN network.

The initial design consisted solely of the discrete components seen in the above image. Robust housings were designed and manufactured to mount them within the vehicle.

This system can be (somewhat) seen in action during our team's run in the 2021 FSAE Michigan competition (sound on!). Camera angle and lighting unfortunately obscures the gear position indicator.

Transition to fully-digital system

Eventually, I took an interest in embedded design, and while designing a data acquisition system for the same vehicle made a fully bespoke, touchscreen enabled dashboard which operated via CAN-bus. This eliminated wiring complexity and weight by centralizing all information at one location.

Dashboard layout and 3D render

The first test of the completed system:

Displayed data: RPM, coolant temp, gear, oil pressure, battery voltage. If any parameter is out of nominal bounds, the corresponding border will turn neon orange and begin flashing.