CANChecked: Digital 2 1/16 CAN + analog gauge

[Austin David]

@UglyFast saw my CANChecked gauge today, so I thought I'd share some details for him and anyone interested.

 

The gauge: https://www.canchecked.de/mfd15-gen2-52mm-can-bus-anzeige/ -- 52mm /  2 1/16" standard gauge, fits right in place of the analog coolant gauge.  It has a handful of analog sensor inputs plus a CAN input.  Configuration is all via onboard web server -- hold the buttons, connect to a hotspot with your phone or tuning laptop, and click around a simple web page to set up the views, sensors, etc.

 

I wired two analogs in to my external oil temp sensor, and the original inline water temp sensor.  I also wired it up to the CAN bus on my new ECU, but I know the MBE for the 360/420 Duratec cars also has CAN going out to the OBD2 port; I assume any of the reasonably modern cars would have similar.

 

The gauge itself is extremely configurable; there are about a dozen screens available, with two buttons to cycle forward/back.  Each screen can be one of like 8 types, including a traditional "analog" style, or up to 6 digital readouts, or a few different combinations. 

 

Many CAN signals or any of the analog inputs are available in any of the displays.  I'm tuning my ITBs, so my current favorite screen shows TPS, RPM, AFR, and the ECU trim.

 

It would be pretty straightforward to JUST use two analog inputs for the coolant and an oil temp sensor, and show them together.  Two more wires to get to the CAN bus and you should have access to a lot more signals from the ECU, including the internal coolant sensor and whatever else.

 

To do it again I'd have wired this thing up BEFORE ripping out the factory ECU, so I could get a sense of how it was tuned.  Also there's a way to customize the startup screen, so it shows Josh's "COVID edition" for a few seconds after I turn the key.

[fastg]

Very neat, does it have an alarm feature? Allow you to make the screen flash if water temp gets above a set temperature for example.

 

Graham

[Vovchandr]

4 minutes ago, fastg said:

does it have an alarm feature?

 

For some reason I instantly thought about the gauge having to wake you up after a snooze. 

 

 

Edited June 2 by Vovchandr

[Austin David]

13 minutes ago, fastg said:

Very neat, does it have an alarm feature? Allow you to make the screen flash if water temp gets above a set temperature for example.

 

Graham

 

it does!  It can flash the screen, or there is an RGB LED at the top (you can see a lil dot).  You can set up min/max warnings for each measurement: https://www.canchecked.de/wp-content/uploads/MFD15-Gen2-manual.pdf

 

It also has a shift light function, and if you hook up a speedo it can calculate the gear.

[Ferdl]

I have this gauge in my Birkin and it is really nice - except that you can hardly read it in daylight, not even with a gauge visor. 

[Austin David]

I just pushed my car out into the sun to check -- my gauge is definitely readable in daylight / direct sun, but it does live juuuust under the tonneau, which is how I drive 90% of the time.

 

If you or anyone need a 3d printed visor in black rubber, I could run some off LMK.  

[Ferdl]

Thanks for the offer, but I already tried this. To have it under the tonneau changes the situation completely. I guess the distance and viewing angle also has a great influence. Next step will be to  try different mounting positions.

[Slonie]

This thing sounds really cool! I wish I had known about it before buying a Stack water temp gauge (which I have been very happy with, mind you)

 

It's too bad OLEDs aren't suitable for this application (or so I've been told) as that would really fix the contrast and readability issues.

[Austin David]

I have a ~ 10-years-old OLED gauge in a different convertible, the AEM failsafe, and it definitely does the OLED things of burn-in and not great in direct sunlight.  I printed a hood for it, which helps.

 

This one does work a lot better in the sun.  TBH the only issues are that it has a refresh rate that lines up with my phone camera's shutter in sunlight so it's hard to take photos of the screen.  It's fine at night when the phone shutter is slower.