Stand Alone digital instrument cluster suggestions

[greymarketassets]

Anyone running a "Stand Alone" digital cluster that won't break the bank? Tired of fooling with 90's technology.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

@Curious Hound is in the process of upgrading to one.

I share your sentiment but my dash is from the 80's and I feel has a lot of 70's tech in it, I am looking at upgrading to new aftermarket analog gauges at some point.

 

[Curious Hound]

That depends on your definition of "won't break the bank". I didn't shop around a whole lot. There are 2 schools of thought that I'm aware of.

1. Digital gauges that fit in the original gauge locations and look "stock but modernized". If I had a 1st or 2nd gen Ranger, I would have chosen this. It looks the best, in my opinion.

2. Digital touchscreen assembly, usually rectangular. With this, I am most familiar with Holleys 6.86" Pro stand-alone. It is very customizable in appearance and function.

Along with your choice of "cluster or gauge package", you may need or want matching sensors. I think I could have used most of the original sensors (coolant temp, IAT, oil pressure, etc.) with the Holley dash, but I wasn't sure when I ordered it. So I ordered their sensors to match the prepared wiring pigtails that came with the dash.

Holleys documentation is fairly thorough and they have an online support community that I haven't really used yet. However, they do assume you have a certain level of knowledge about electricity, wiring and circuit design. It is NOT a DIY instruction manual. If you have the EVTM for your truck and understand electricity and wiring, it's not a bad project. I would not recommend it for beginners. The product I chose includes support for CanBus communications with newer vehicles, though my project does not use that technology.

I need to do a tech article on this. I can do some experimentation before I finish the installation and include some more info.

This is what I chose.

Products like these are made to fit in older dashes and look stock.

I made a flat panel to hold the holley dash, OBDII port and usb ports connected to the Holley dash.

You can even add custom background images. I'm not going to use this one. The Holley dash comes with a bunch of background images or "skins" you can choose from. Even skins that look like famous sports car dashes.

 

[Curious Hound]

In addition to what I said above, with a new enough OBDII vehicle, it is possible to use a bluetooth or usb OBDII adaptor connected to a tablet like you do for diagnostics and just use the diagnostic software for real-time info.

I have a friend who did that with the LS swap in his Chevy squarebody, years ago. He bought a cheap tablet and moumted it in his dash. It worked. Some drawbacks were turning it on/off and bootup time. Also, you would still want or need separate led or light indicators for things like turn signals, high beams, cruise on/off, O/D Off, CEL, etc.

 

[greymarketassets]

Thank you Curious Hound. That is an excellent start.

Just for others who may follow along:
stand-alone
[ˈstandələʊn]
adjective
stand-alone (adjective)
standalone (adjective)

1. (of computer hardware or software) able to operate independently of other hardware or software:
   "a stand-alone application"
   "it can be used stand-alone or as part of the network"

 

[Curious Hound]

Thank you Curious Hound. That is an excellent start.

Just for others who may follow along:
stand-alone
[ˈstandələʊn]
adjective
stand-alone (adjective)
standalone (adjective)

1. (of computer hardware or software) able to operate independently of other hardware or software:
   "a stand-alone application"
   "it can be used stand-alone or as part of the network"

That is correct. When ordering these, there are 2 main choices.

1. Stand-alone, which works independently of a pcm.

2. Regular, which must be used in conjunction with that companys proprietary pcm.

So, i'm using the Holley stand-alone digital dash product to interface with sensors to give me a dash display and the OEM Ford pcm from my donor explorer to control the engine independently. This is a more expensive digital dash because it has its own computer built-in to process info. The "almost identical" digital dash is also sold in a less expensive version that relies on the Holley PCM to process data. That dash can not process sensor data on its own.

If I had ordered a package with tje Holley pcm and digital dash together, they would integrate seamlessly with each other and I would have to do my own tuning of the engine/pcm. In hindsight, that would have simplified the wiring in my engine swap project while giving me the flexibility to tune the engine more to my liking.