Sigh, yeah i should have known. Accutechs are going to have to be a winter project, just had a custom bezel cut for 3x 52mm gauges. DERP. Guess i'll just throw in some cheap crap that kicked off this thread for now.

 

Ryan/ThePass or anyone else who happens to have a set of these AccuTech SMi gauges in hand...

Can someone PLEASE measure a set of these with a caliper? Basic exterior dimensions would be a blessing because I can't find a drawing anywhere online. I'm trying to figure out where/how to mount a set of these things.

Thanks!

 

 

Sweet jesus, thank you very much! that is EXACTLY what I was looking for! I'd go though your post history and randomly prop you until I got bored, but instead this will have to suffice:

 

Wouldn't call SPA gauges or its sensors great quality items at all. The AEM gauge is light years ahead of it.

 

it's so frustrating when you buy something that should work and it doesn't and then you get waste time and money trying to figure it out the problem. I have a Omari water temp gauge that came with the car. many times I start the car and the gauge will not read anything for about 5 minutes, then it snaps to attention. I checked connections at one point but did not find anything.

I use VDO gauges because they are inexpensive and reliable when installed properly with the right parts. I really wish they came with a oem style plug not the silly spade connectors or screw terminals but with high quality terminals and a little dialectic grease they do just fine. I've had a few problems with connections but once sorted they are very solid. The senders cost $10 to $30 bucks and the gauges cost under $50 as I recall. they don't do fancy start up gymnastics or use back lit programmable LEDs but they are accurate.

these days some gauge systems need a brain control unit where all the senders and gauges feed to a central control box. perhaps useful for some but for me I can spend a few hundred on vdo stuff or perhaps $1000 or more for the newer stuff. I can see the benefit for logging if you can integrate all the data for track work but beyond that it seems like a waste. I'm interested to see what Stack is doing these days because they were the go in some circles to for many years.

 

Still a big fan of the SMI gauges. With the new engine I want to monitor a few new things (diff temp, trans temp, etc.) plus all the normal stuff. Bought a few more SMI gauges to do that but realized I was headed towards a big mess of gauges, with a total of 5 plus a tach and still not having a fuel gauge sorted. Logical solution was to move up to a dash so after a bunch of looking around at the options I'm going with the Racepak IQ3S.

I think this is the next big step forward when you need to move beyond adding one or two extra gauges, gives you a huge range of flexibility, and you don't sacrifice any of the street functions of a standard dash. The S (Street dash) can pull all the standard stuff right through the OBDII port with a $75 cable, has odometer, fuel level, turn signal indicators, etc. and is almost infinitely expandable via Racepak's Vnet to do just about anything you can dream up with regard to sensors to suit your needs.

Preliminary plan is the following:

IQ3S with OBDII cable can pull the following: speed, rpm, water temp, IAT, Air/Fuel, volts (more I can't think of but these are the highlights I need)
It can't pull oil pressure through the OBDII, but it comes with two temp sensors and a pressure sensor to mount and run wires to pins in the dash harness, so will get OP that way. The included temp sensors are cheaper single-wire units that take a spade connector so will probably not use those.
Fuel level is programmable, just run a wire from the tank to the pin on the dash harness and configure it in the software.
+ Add one USM (universal sensor module) which accepts up to four external sensors and plugs into the dash via a single Vnet cable. USM is $199, sensors from Racepak are $50 for good two-wire sealed type 0-300°. (So cost of USM and 4 sensors is same as 4 SMI gauges, but this way they are integrated with the dash) Will get oil, transmission, differential and power steering temperatures through that.
Set the main page on the dash to show speed, RPM, gear indicator, water T and that's it. Set everything else to a secondary page with warnings if they hit values we don't want.

 

^I run an IQ3s and could not be more happy. Price was a little steep, but only because of the next solution. Since I'm using Megasquirt, many people have started using tablets at less that $100. However, those have boot times, need to be charged, and aren't very easy to see in sunlight. For those reasons, I think the Racepak is worth it. It's dead reliable and easy to read. Luckily with feeding Megasquirt CAN data I can send all my spare sensors either through the MS3pro or the JBPerf CAN-EGT.

 

I am running AEM Uego for my wideband and slowly I will be phasing out these gauges in favor of canbus gauges such as these:
BT Innovations LLC - BTI Gauges

Megasquirt support is underway and should be done by the end of the year. Hopefully much sooner.

 

I have a CAN gauge similar to the BTI gauge above working on my Miata running MS3. The hardware is prototype hardware for a new product my company is releasing Q4 this year. It's planned to by an OBD2 CAN universal gauge. I modified the firmware to read the MegaSquirt PIDS as a special build. I'm trying to get my company to release a special build into the standalone ECU market but it's not a market we typically operate in and I don't know what the volume might be. It's been hard to get management to buy into it.

The gauge is superior in hardware and to the BTI. 1.8" color display, 4 buttons for better navigation, micro SD card for logging and firmware updates. I'll try to get permission to share a video and generate some interest in selling it. Planned price point is more competitive than the BTI too. I'm really pushing to get this done. I'll post back here if there are any updates.

 

Looking forward to hearing about it.

 

Awesome, can't wait. A full dash is definitely a jump up in price from a couple gauges, but the IQ3S looks like a bargain compared to all the other options. I've seen the DIY tablet stuff people have been doing, that's a recipe for a nightmare in my mind. Give me something that I plug in, configure, and then is dead-on reliable without any fiddling from then on. Got an entire car with things to monitor, tune, etc. already. Last thing I need is to be troubleshooting a finicky display track-side.

 

I am seriously considering a IQ3S now. After adding in a ton of sensors to my MS I just want it to display all my data.

 

I was unaware of this product, and I'm interested.



MX-5 NB Custom IQ3 Cluster ? Custom Cluster Development

Now I'm REALLY interested. Even a ham fisted moron like me could probably DIY that. I bet you could fit a pair of SMI gauges in there no problem.

 

Your link does not work for me. I was looking at THIS dash that DIY sells.

 

I had a Race Technology Dash2 in my NA and liked it a lot, but I'm getting ready to try a Nexus tablet in the new NB. I'm definitely worried about reliability compared to a motorsports-grade dash, but the super low cost, near-limitless configurability, and super nice screen quality pulled me in. With the Reverant MS3 and CAN/OBD2 module, there are multiple wired/wireless options that will only require a single cable running to the tablet. I'm only using the tablet as a gauge display. Keeping my Aim Solo for lap times.

 

For whatever reason MT auto butchered the link. This should work:

http://customclusterdevelopment.com/...m-iq3-cluster/

It just linked back to where I found that image that's in my post, as an idea of how the IQ3S can fit.

Edit: lol, did you just fix my link?

 

No I did not fix your link, but I did find the link you posted. I wonder how far off that NB cluster would be from an NA.

 

Looks like the IQ3S has built-in VR signal conditioning, so running a wire from a retrofitted NB speed sensor in the trans would work.

I was tempted by the Dash2 Pro with the weak GBP/USD rate, but the upgrades add up quick on it. The free CAN MS3 PID integration on the IQ3S is nice.

 

I was more meaning the cluster that EO2K found that you could use to put the IQ3S in the stock place and have it look clean. I am pretty sure you can wire the NB speed sensor straight to the MS and have speed read correctly that way.