Arduino or RPi?

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BARBS
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Arduino or RPi?

Post by BARBS »

Hi all,

I am thinking about trying to set up a touch screen display in my Torana to monitor and control a few things but I am unsure what hardware is easiest to use and best suited between the Arduino and the Raspberry Pi. the main reason to do this is so I can have it all on the one monitor instead of several switches and gauges etc.

A quick outline of what I would like to achieve is as follows:

Up to 6 x displays (if possible) showing:
0-100% ethanol content from an ethanol sensor producing 50-150Hz signal.
0-30PSI boost from a 1-5V signal
0-100PSI fuel pressure from a 1-5V signal
0-150 deg coolant temp from a 1-5V signal
0-250PSI trans pressure from a 1-5V signal
Wideband signal from my LC2 innovate controller.

If I am limited to inputs I already have gauges for Wideband, boost, coolant so I could remove these from the display.

Id also like to have digital outputs with push buttons on the LCD as follows:
Manual fan control to turn fans on.
Enable/Disable nitrous
Nitrous purge (momentary switch)
An adjustable nitrous delay. (when an input to the Arduino comes on an output will come on after the set time delay. This delay is to be adjustable on the LCD)

If limited to outputs I can remove the fan control, Nitrous purge and Nitrous enable switch

I have no idea of the capabilities of the arduino and Pi.

Is this even possible to do?

Thanks.

Barbs
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Tazzi
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by Tazzi »

Arduino Mega has alot of GPIO and analog pins to utilize.. so could be a starting point.

For a screen, I recommend something that is not directly driven by the arduino, this just allows the arduino to spend more time with sensors/timers/ect and less having to worry about directly driving the screen. Most modern LCDs are driven by a processor conencted directly to it, which ten accepts a variety of commands for drawing/displaying information.

All of the above is possible, just a matter of giving it a whirl and learning through trial and error.
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BARBS
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by BARBS »

Thanks Tazzi.

I was thinking i could start with an Arduino like this:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Professiona ... SwAuNW6YbD

Get a display like this one you think?
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-7-Nexti ... SwcLxYLbLo

Then a 4ch solid state relay like this and see if i can get it all to work:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/380V-8A-Sol ... 0507.m3226


Do you think this would be a good starting point?
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antus
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by antus »

Personally I'd go the Pi, and then write the code in a high level language like python. Arduino will be possible, but harder. Especially with the amount of screens and buttons you want to implement. Which ever you choose, designing your app to be reasonably modular will make getting the results easier when you get to the business end of the development. Cut n pasted bits of code thrown together early will burn you later as that'll cause difficulty to exponentially increase as you progress.

Using python will keep the lines of code you need to write down significantly, and in general the program complexity. But using a pi will cause it to take longer to boot up when you power on the car. The Arduino will be up and running instantly, the Pi might take a minute. The Pi will also mean you need to learn a bit about the Linux operating system before you start cutting code.
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Jayme
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by Jayme »

I like the idea of the Nextion screen... same as holden202 is using for his scales project. you design the screen layout in the nextion app, and simply send your guage values from the arduino to the nextion screen on a serial port, and it will display the values where you tell the nextion to put them. way easier than designing the screen code etc on a directly driven screen.

all the arduino would be doing is doing the analog > digital interface + mapping values to the correct calibrated numbers for each sensor.
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by antus »

Cool, I didnt know they worked like that.
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by BARBS »

Jayme that is awesome. There is hope that a complete NOOB like me can work through it maybe.
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by Holden202T »

yeah the nextion is a good idea, and a 7 inch screen is around the $100 mark so pretty good....

like jayme said, your only sending to it the numbers you want it to display, so realistically if you have a hand full of gauges its only going to be sending a hand full of numbers, i guess its a matter of how quickly you want it to refresh, and that will depend on what your displaying, ie. tacho you'd want response, but not so much for coolant temp.

i would personally prefer the arduino over the pi mostly for price of the two, and it would be more than capable for your needs.

im keen to see what you come up with :)
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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by immortality »

This is a really good idea, one screen to display multiple data sources would be a bit more discreet than multiple gauges placed all around the dash.


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Re: Arduino or RPi?

Post by Holden202T »

if nothing else it will be cool :)
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