Harry,

I have actually been thinking about doing this on normal Vanagons
(non-obdII waterboxers).  You would just have to come up with the
software that would recognize the inputs and an adapter cable for the
instrument cluster plug to the tablet.  Speedo and cables would not be
needed since you can get your speed from the gps unit inside the android
device.  It would be awesome to have a Vanagon instrument cluster that
was not only readily available but also cutting edge.  You could bring
up your gps, google search, mp3, and even videos on your instrument
cluster.  Then just pop your android pad off of the mount and take it
along with you if you need to use it while you are out shopping, etc.
To me this would solve all of the issues car manufacturers have with
their in car tech getting dated.  Instead of investing tons of money
into "rolling their own" tech into the dash only to have it look and be
dated when the car finally comes to production several years later, if
they could just have a universal standard for the size and shape of dash
mounted vehicle tablets, it would make things a lot simpler.  You could
upgrade and customize your interface with your car whenever you wanted!
This would truly bring the in car tech up to speed and very inexpensively.

Anyone interested in this project?

--
Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: 856-327-4936
Fax: 856-327-2242

On 5/21/2012 9:09 AM, Harry Hoffman wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> So, after my "upgrade" to the bostig conversion I've been toying around
> with replacing all of the analog gauges with a digital counterpart.
>
> I'm wondering if anyone has gone this route? I'm going to leave all of
> the analog gauges as I can't find a screen to fit nicely in that part of
> the dash.
>
> My plan goes loosely like this:
>
> Get a ODBII bluetooth device reader to gather stats from the engines CPU.
>
> Have a android tablet (or phone) that has bluetooth, and GPS and install
> the Android App Torque to read and display the various gauges that I
> want to recreate.
>
> Right now I can display (in dial format) RPMs, Speed, Coolant Temp.
>
> Also, in needle graph I can display O2 info, and Fuel rail stats.
>
> Any of the wiser list members have thoughts about this? Too taxing for
> the engine? Obviously I will have a fallback of all of the original
> gauges should the tablet/phone/bluetooth connector fail.
>
> Cheers,
> Harry
>