HUD

[Brett Proctor]

Can't take credit for finding this but I got the okey dokey to post it from the person that did.

https://www.navdy.com/#video

Emails have been sent to the manufacturer I'm told to see if it will work for our cars.
I don't see why it wouldn't. It looks like it has its own screen to display the image on, so it doesn't matter what the angle of the windshield is.

 

[letterman7]

Since it's Bluetooth, the basics - speed and nav - are already there. Critical functions like oil temp and pressure (for aircooleds) would require the OBDII setup... much harder to integrate. But still, it's a cool little device, and not that expensive. Bed it into the dashboard to make it look like part of the car, and all the better!

 

[Brett Proctor]

I'll wait till the emails come back before I pass judgement

 

[letterman7]

I'm sure one of our tech savvy members here could figure out a program to mimic OBDII information, right Yaughn? *laugh*

 

[ydeardorff]

Boy, what a call out...*hi-ya*

I am surprised though, after some digging (avoiding homework) I cannot find anything on making an older vehicle bluetooth enabled. Im not sure why at this point.
Im looking*thumbs up*
This might be a rasberry pi, or arduino situation. But I do not know the coding for such devices.
The over-all concept of making a non-OBD car, into something similar to OBD-1 or 2 really doesnt sound to awefully difficult.

The Navdy HUD, is designed for non OBD and OBD compliant vehicles. So you would have many functions available via the power of the ever impressive smart phone technology, but you would not have engine diagnostics, and monitoring. But for every day driving, the Navdy would be a very nice tech add on for our cars.
But if its using SIRI, or IRIS then I can see it now,...

https://youtu.be/oPzT1rqVtL0


Ill let you know if I find anything out...

 

[ydeardorff]

In the interim,
I have purchased a HUD for my daily driver.
you can see it here:
https://youtu.be/cfUmRj976qE
If you skip to the end you can see how it looks in the day or night.

Something like this is ok, but specifically requires an OBD2 car. For the Navdy, it only seems to require a smartphone which is more useful to those of us not running OBD2 electronics in our Sterlings.

In a plug for HUD's though, I will say they are a very nice tech add on, that also adds an additional layer of safety to every day driving. So its cool, and useful! +1 for me on that google+ post*thumbs up*

 

[RangerBEH]

Cool something to watch. Would be better if the camera for the jesters could be remote run and the unit could be put into a shallow indent in the dash.

 

[ydeardorff]

Thats kind of what I was thinking. Aside from the guesture camera.
So long as it can clearly see you, it should work I would think.
I would just modify the top center of the gauge pod for it to sit in it (like it was designed to fit there)

For people with smart phones, you can also try this:
AR Weekly Digest #55 - Augmented Pixels - leading developer of Augmented Reality solutions for real estate, retail, marketing and media!Augmented Pixels – leading developer of Augmented Reality solutions for real estate, retail, marketing and m

I have no idea on how well it works. But it might give you an idea of what the Navdy or other HUDS would look like.

ON a P.S. note:

I just installed the outer cover that you normally discard from a screen protector (ipad) onto my windscreen, and used the App hudway. You cannot see it in the daytime, but I tossed a jacket over my windshield and the image was pretty good. So as a heads up the app based hud will work at night, but be useless in the day time.

 

[Peter]

Seems to be lots of HUD stuff out there but I think from my own experience that a separate screen like this one with the focus as well is the way to go. *oh my*

OBD2 is no good for our cars without it and i wouldn't bother even trying to make an interface as I can get a simple OBD2 reader which give 'live' readings.

The Garmin one is OK and has the small screen but is very basic compared to the NAVDY. As far as having engine monitoring i think that would be too much info in front of you, on a decent speedo you have most of what you need or at least it can be added in the way gauges to glance at rather than 'in ya face'.

In my GM Astra digi-dash I have RPM, temperature (oil on air cooled), volts, fuel and oil pressure, what more could I want?.

Problem, I can't find a NAVDY seller over here just Garmin (from about $80) or those import ons that lack the focal length.

Just had a thought *idea didn't work*
I did think about one of the cheaper HUD units but make a small perspex screen to take the HUD film and place that in front of the unit, in my case I could have it built in as I don't have instruments in front of the steering wheel.*hmmm* maybe *nothing to see* problem is, nearly all are OBD2 and the GPS ones are very basic, unless spending $$$$ p.s. HUD screen film is only $3.99 on Ebay.

 

[ydeardorff]

Seems to be lots of HUD stuff out there but I think from my own experience that a separate screen like this one with the focus as well is the way to go. *oh my*

In my GM Astra digi-dash I have RPM, temperature (oil on air cooled), volts, fuel and oil pressure, what more could I want?.

Surprisingly, I tried the Hudway app last night on a drive with the wife HUDWAY - Augment reality in the car, road projection on the windshield HUD Head-Up Display. If its sunny, forget it. But if its anythihng else, it works quite nicely. Like you mentioned you dont need all that crap in your face. Hudway provides you with an artificial roadway, speed, distance to your next turn, color coded turns, white= lazy, yellow = slow down, red = OMG, and finally total distance to destination.

The audio is stolen from your navigation system such as google maps, and sounds like the normal female speak and spell. But its exactly what you need in front of you. It is also surprisingly accurate too.

The only catch, is it requires a GPS enabled smart phone. Its free, but for the "pro" version its $2.99.

In the end, I would go for the Navdy, but until then, the hudway is very nicely put together.

I did think about one of the cheaper HUD units but make a small perspex screen to take the HUD film and place that in front of the unit, in my case I could have it built in as I don't have instruments in front of the steering wheel.*hmmm*

And yes, you can install a curved piece of plastic to reflect the screen image back at you. The curved plexi-glass can be had from a number of off the shelf items, and it will increase the image size significantly. Some polarized film should do the trick for you.

 

[ydeardorff]

In regard to the previously mentioned HUD I purchased off of Ebay, here is a run down, and a few pictures of it in use.

First of all, its about the size, of an average smart phone.
All the initial settings are in Celsuis, Liters, and KM/h. Some quick referencing of the manual and things get set to US standards. The other gauges can be dialed in by adjusting values to match your car. Most of the things I set in less than 5 minutes.
The traction pad that comes with it is VERY sticky, and works great on hard cornering, and braking. Not so much a a wiggle.
Getting the semi reflective windscreen film in the right place took some doing. I used water, though windex or glass cleaner is recommended so the film will slide around a bit.
I also noticed that I needed to place the film vertically(longwise) not horizontally like I expected to.
The HUD was clearly visible in even direct sunlight (heading into the sunset). The display also automatically dims across several shades as it gets darker and darker.

shot below my chin

about face high





up close
Though some have mentioned this type of unit isnt good due to the depth of view issue, I found it to be a significant improvement over taking my eyes off the road completely to look at my gauges. The display does have a small amount of depth to it, and when your looking at the cars around you, you can still see the very large speedo display number. I would easily consider this for use in a sterling that was OBD2 coimpliant.
And for about 50 bucks its not a bad device.

 

[letterman7]

Inneresting.....

Looks like either the readout or your speedometer (probably) are off my about 4mph..

 

[ydeardorff]

All the initial settings are in Celsuis, Liters, and KM/h. Some quick referencing of the manual and things get set to US standards. The other gauges can be dialed in by adjusting values to match your car. Most of the things I set in less than 5 minutes.

Like I said, things need to get dialed in. I had done the flip to US measures, and adjusted the RPM counter. I never got to the adjustment for the speedo. I will .

This may be hard to see. But the location of the reflective film is determined by the location on the dashboard, the angle of the windshield, and the height of the driver.




In the case of the sterling, the angle is so extreme that the hud unit would have to be placed further back (away from the windshields base) to make this work. For those of us with standard dashboards, you have many more options for placement. For people with modified dashboards that are closer to the windshield, the choice become more limited.
The POF or point of focus is determined by the distance from the hud to the reflective film. Using collimating lenses and mirrors can increase this focal depth.

If you want to do an easy and cheap determination of where you would be able to place a hud heres a method.

With the canopy down, use a laser pointer (held at the height of your eyes) to point a dot just below where the back bumper of a car would be while sitting at a stop light.
The laser will reflect down onto the dash board showing you potential locations for your HUD. Where the laser hit the windshield is where your film would go, and the dot on the dash is where you hud should go.

HUD film: HUD film is a polarized semi reflective mirror, not the film that goes on you Ipad or smart phone. Yes, i tried that too. Though it will work, it doesnt work as well as actual HUD film.

On the first test drive I noticed immediately people would see the screen on the dash, or the gauges in the window, and would really look hard at it. Other drivers really like seeing it.
But like Rick mentioned about the speedo being off, I have to adjust the speedo's setting down some to get it to match my cars speedo. Im sure it reading 57 in a 50mph zone, when Im actually doing 52, might end up a tattle tail to a cop.

The poisiton my HUD is in my hyundai is determined mostly by the shape of the dash. So it ended up there due to the cars design leaving me little in the way of places to put it where I could see it.