TBM 4.x Underway, Stay Tuned For Lots More...

I have finally been able to carve out some serious time to go semi-pro with my EV efforts, focusing on the gauge work with a vision for an entire line of projects and potential products.

I'm back on the "analog kick" while I wait for the serial parts to test communication with the Alltrax. Below is my Arduino port of TBM driving an LCD panel as well as a servo-driven gauge. The 5g, $3.50 servo is amazing, I recall in my early RC days these things cost a ton and were pretty hefty.  I'm also looking for a very high contrast LCD panel, the blue above is transmissive - I need something transflective. The Arduino LCD library is pretty good, but the servos driving analog might be cheaper and more functional than character displays. Running both is possible too, use the LCD for ODO, etc.

Test mounting the servo-analog gauge is performed via foam-core and a hot glue gun. I am exploring gauge face generation tools and parts too. Do note the servos normal range is only 180 degrees, so I best keep Tronbikes speed under 130 if I want any accuracy at the current scale.

As far as Alltrax integration, I learned Arduino's speak "serial" ttl, not RS-232. I have the code ported into the "arduino-0018" IDE with no place to go :) I've ordered MAX232 ICs as well as complete TTL to RS-232 boards and I am stuck waiting for them. My electronics part hardware pipeline has been disturbingly slow, order early and often is my new motto.

I have successfully built a speedometer/odometer with the Arduino using bike computer pickups/magnets, so in my grand simplification, the GPS will be the first to go. Adding logging and WIFI/network might be next, but it drives up the cost quite a bit to my goal of <$100.