You can power the board from a car USB 5v charger or a computer.Ĭase and Frame: I used a craft-cutter, cheap scrap-paper with some glue and paint to create the face of the gauge, then installed it into a scavenged housing. But the board appears to work with anything from a LiPo up to 6v. Power Source: I used a 3xAAA battery pack with switch. We only use the accelerometer and LEDs, but there's tons of great stuff on this inexpensive board. Hardware: Circuit Playground board from Adafruit: This board is a fantastic all-in-one Arduino compatible board that is loaded with sensors and outputs and costs a mere $20 USD. When they were all the same shape, or more subtly shaped, the dial appears (to me) to be just a mass of flashing lights. The visual shapes on the dial face are somewhat awkward, but they are distinct enough so that the lights’ functions are easy to discern. The case and face are easy to make and work well. The bouncing indicator works well to indicate general road-roughness, but I failed to create the ability to differentiate between up and down motions. Now, the acceleration does at least flicker green when the car is quickly accelerated hard from a standing start. So I added a conditional in the code that prevents acceleration being shown if the bouncing forces are also high. When the sensitivity is set to detect “sedan and mini-van” acceleration, every small road bump also triggers the light. The dial might work in a rail-dragster, but most people and cars simply don’t accelerate quickly enough to generate a strong force. But I can’t get the acceleration code to be sensitive enough for normal cars and drivers without also getting triggered by road vibrations. The braking code works well since these forces are strong, even at moderate braking. So as the car “settles into a curve” the indicator can return to the center position. The accelerometer senses the “change” of sideways acceleration better than a sustained sideways force. The “ turning” code works well on curvy roads, but highway curves don’t trigger it. And you will likely have to tune the parameters to match your car and driving style. It might be good for getting the kids and "car people" in your Maker Group interested in coding, but you will need multiple sensors to get really accurate readings. While this is a great introductory project that yields entertaining and usable results within 10 minutes, it is in no way a “professional level” G-force gauge. When the vertical acceleration exceeds a certain threshold, as when hitting a pothole, multiple LEDs flash purplish for a moment. When the care is accelerated, the lights turn green in the same sequence.īouncing – The center LED in the bottom arc indicates the general roughness of the road by changing from a steady green for a smooth road, to yellow, to orange and then to red on roughening roads. If the braking forces are stronger, two additional LEDs turn red. If the car is braked (decelerated) gently, the outermost two LEDs on either side of the bottom arc are lit in red. If the strength of the turning force increases enough, the LEDs begin to change from blue to red.Īcceleration and Braking – When the car is at rest, or moving steadily, the lights remain off. When the car is driven through a curve (turned), additional LEDs light up blue to indicate the direction and sharpness of the turn. When the car is being driven straight ahead, the center LED is lit in blue. Turning - The turning forces are displayed on the top arc of 5xLEDs. Each of these 10 LEDs can be individually lit in any color. They are arranged in two arcs of five, one arc at the top of the board and one arc at the bottom. Colorful LEDs (also built-in on the board) light up to give a visual display of those forces. This project uses the built-in accelerometer sensor on Adafruit’s “Circuit Playground” board to read the forces exerted as your vehicle moves through space. If you want to get fancy, you can create a face and case for the board, then install it in a standard sized housing available at any car-parts store. Educational and possibly even useful for analyzing driving styles. Great for family road trips or to make school bus trips more educational. ![]()
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