Make your own Electronic Speedo for cheap

First task is to go to the local wrecking yard and find an electronic Speedo from a donor vehicle.<o></o>
Mine says Nissan on it but I have no idea what vehicle it came from because I found it all ready pulled on the seat of a VW and I was too lazy to take anything apart.

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Next purchase the “Super Speedo Corrector kit” from Siliconchip magazine out of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1>Australia</st1></st1:country-region><o></o>​

Article :- http://siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_108157/article.html​

Purchase:-http://shop.voltelectronics.com.au/speedo-corrector-mkii-kit.html​

Features & Specifications<o></o>
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Main Features<o></o>
Allows alteration of Speedo reading so it reads faster or slower. <o></o>
Automatic or manual set-up of input signal detection. <o></o>
Three output signal types catered for. <o></o>
LED indication of valid speed sensor signal being received. <o></o>
LED indication of output operation. <o></o>​

Specifications<o></o>
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Output Rate: adjustable in 1% steps from 0 to 99%. <o></o>
Output: either faster or slower than the input rate. <o></o>
Input and output types: Pull up or pull down resistance or AC. <o></o>
Output swing: 0 to 8.2V or 0 to 5V or 8.2V peak-peak AC or 5V peak-peak AC. <o></o>
Minimum operating frequency: Adjustable from 1-16Hz. <o></o>
Maximum input frequency to maintain 1% change resolution: 1.2kHz.<o></o>>
Maximum input voltage: 50V RMS. <o></o>
Minimum input sensitivity: 0.7V peak (on high sensitivity setting). <o></o>
Minimum input sensitivity: 2.5V peak (on low sensitivity setting). <o></o>​

Power 9-15V at 25mA.

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This is an electronic kit and needs soldering but don’t be intimidated it’s really quite basic and if you have soldered before it’s very easy to build. <o></o>>​

If you don’t fancy yourself as an electronic builder I believe you can purchase ready made devises from the big truck people who use them when they put bigger wheels on there big trucks.

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Next design a retro Speedo face in Photoshop making sure the MPH fall in the same place as the original Speedo.



I was lucky enough to have my file screen printed with epoxy ink onto white coated aluminum stock.


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<o></o><o></o>
<o> </o>​

 

We have a winner!!!

JH

 

Awsome. Love the look of custom gage faces.

 

If anyone wants to search the junkyard and find the same speedometer.
Here is a PDF of the art file

 

Very nice, get's my vote

 

That is very cool.

 

Great job! gets my vote

 

How much did the Australian converter box cost by the time you had it shipped?

 

I'm excited!!!
Thanks for taking the time to post this tutorial.

 

wow.

 

I think I missed something - what did you use for a sender? Great looking speedo and Thanx for posting

 

I put a T5 behind my Flatty and it had an electronic sender. i did use a mechanical sender > electronic pulse adapter to check it on the bench. You can see it in the top left of this picture.

The kit was 50 bucks too my door
5 dollars for the case
and 7 dollars for the speedometer
62 bucks complete for a custom electronic speedometer!

 

Very cool!

 

great post ,thanks for sharing

 

I read "electronic" and I figured something along the lines of the nasty Dolphin gauges but this is very cool.

Great post.

 

Dumb question #1: If using a GM T5 with an electronic sender, couldn't you use a GM speedo and VSS buffer (easily altered inside to correct for gear ratio, tire size) to make it work?

Dumb question #2: Any reason you can't swap the electronic guts to a vintage speedometer as long as they both run the same way (IE both round for example)?

 

1: Maybe but I wanted to be able to adjust for different tire sizes and gear ratios on the fly.
I have an app on my iphone that does GPS speedometer readings and i can use that to calibrate

2: The key to this working is designing the new dial with the speedometer numbers in the same place.
You would have to have a old speedometer with numbers in the same place as the junk yard speedometer!

 

Very good grasshopper! That's how we got started, taking a bunch of gauges apart and putting the guts from this one into that one, reface and the rest is history...
Very niceley done!
Mark

 

I will keep this one for future use.

 

Well... that pretty much just kicks ass! Nice job! I love it!

 

Wow, that is some nice work.

 

thats freakin cool

 

If the speedo signal corrector unit is adjustable as you say, then why does the number spacing on your new-drawn dial or the old speedo face you want to use have to match the spacing on the junkyard electronic speedometer? Wouldn't adjusting for number spacing work the same way as adjusting for gearing? You should be able to just stick the needle on the post so it points at your "new zero", and then adjust the corrector unit until it's calibrated to the number spacing on your new dial face, correct?

-James

 

That is actually pretty cool. I'm not sure when I'll will actually need the info written here, but it's neat to know that that converter exists.

Who did the silk screening on aluminum, and how much was that?

 

Very cool.

I *think* your donor bezel is '46-48 Ford.

 

sure is amazing what long cold winters inspire, great tech!

 

What a great techinical article got me thinking for sure

Donn

 

Incorrect
The corrector gizmo only speeds up or slows down pulses from the sender so that you can calibrate. You can not calibrate each speed increase on the dial.

 

Maybe I need to re-phrase my question.

Does the corrector gizmo care why you need to calibrate? Putting either larger tires on the car, OR replacing the speedo face with one that has different number spacing (assuming the spacing is equal-distant between each 10-20-30-etc interval), has the same effect: the speedo needle sweep is out of proportion to the speedometer face. If you can recalibrate for one, then why can't you recalibrate for the other?

 

Nice! Is the artwork an exact duplicate of the original?