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Genius Creates Retro OBD2 Honda Dashboard Using a Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi is a fantastic piece of technology if you have the coding skills required to make little projects happen, and the one we have here is just the living proof in this regard.
Digital dashboard on 1997 Honda 1 photo
Photo: Paul Soclum on reddit
A developer called Paul Slocum has created a digital dashboard for his 1997 Honda using a Raspberry Pi that gets information from OBD2 and then displays it on a 3.5-inch Waveshare IPS GPIO screen.

Technically, what the Raspberry Pi-based system does is to connect to an OBD2 dongle using Bluetooth and collect certain information in real time, including data typically displayed on your main dashboard, such as the current speed. The dev says the data the device can read depends on each car model. On the 1997 Honda, information like manifold pressure and temperature, oxygen sensor voltages, and the throttle position can be retrieved.

However, the retro dashboard can also display music info, as it can read from a USB flash drive connected to the Raspberry Pi.

The audio system just plays audio files out of folders on a USB flash drive, but I'm using the word ‘Disc’ on the display instead of ‘Folder’ to keep it consistent with the era of my car. I'm currently using the Raspberry Pi analog audio output, but I'm going to later add Bluetooth audio support,” the developer explains in a post on reddit.

To make the whole thing possible, the developer has written his very own scripts, and the good news everything is open source and will be released shortly. In other words, if you have the necessary hardware, you’ll be able to create your own digital dashboard for your car.

The software needs a little more work, but I'm planning to release it as open source, and it will be customizable where you can change the layout, graphics, fonts, and OBD2 PIDs to make it match the look of whatever car you want,” he said.

It won’t take long until the project goes open source, and you can follow the progress on GitHub here.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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