Hi Guys, I have been helping a few people out with designing gauge layouts for the Evodroid 7 (from Evoscan)

The first two batches have been shipped (I think) and already there is a lot of information out there on how to set it up, how to add external sensors etc. but there is still confusion about building new gauges.

I have built a few and it is really straightforward once you know how but there's the problem - no instructions.

So over the next few days I will be (hopefully) posting some detailed instructions, some examples and pictures and hopefully this will give everyone, with an interest, the means to build and modify gauge layouts and for everyone else you will just be able to download them and use them.

The Evodroid (as shipped) comes with a 800x480 resolution but I am using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 which comes with 1024x600 resolution so I will post up both versions but I won't be able to test the 800x480 versions as I fried my original tablet :-)

 

Firstly...

The Evoscan gauge designer and the Evodroid Gauge designer are completely different technologies, so if anyone (like I did) has any notion of taking a lovely Evoscan gauge layout and porting it over to Evdroid then forget it (almost).

Where your Evoscan gauges will come in useful is as the background for the Evodroid gauges.

The Evodroid gauges use two files:

1. The background (an image file in PNG format)
2. The file that defines the dynamic elements (a CSV file with a TXT file extension)

Thankfully the PPC Gauge Designer is a user friendly way of building the TXT file.

It is simpler than it sounds (trust me)

 

Secondly...

You need to create a working directory structure to build the gauges.

If you use the standard Evodroid tablet then you can connect it as a USB mass strorage device to your PC and build them directly on the Evodroid. I wouldn't recommend it for the following reasons:

1. Not all Android devices operate as USB Mass storage OOTB
2. It is too easy to accidentally delete things on the Evodroid
3. It is slower

I recommend creating a directory called 'EvoDroid' in mydocuments.
Then create a sub directory call 'Gauge Templates' and then a sub directory within that called 'Gauge Parts'

I also recommend creating a sub directory within 'EvoDroid' called 'Backup' (just in case)

Next, download the attached 'BIN' file to the 'mydocuments/EvoDroid' directory and change the extension to EXE (I needed to do this to get around forum requirements on zip files, exe files etc.)

This is the gauge designer program.

More to follow...

 

Next...

Copy all of the files from the EvoDroid to your PC directory 'mydocuments\EvoDroid\Gauge Templates'

800x480_Carbon1.txt
480x800_Carbon1.txt
800x480_Carbon1.png
480x800_Carbon1.png

Also copy all of the files from the GaugeParts directory on the Evodroid to the same directory on the PC.

You should now be in a position to open up gauge designer by clicking on the EvoScanPPCGaugeDesigner.exe file.

 

...

 

The drop down box 'Gauge Properties' allows you to modify the properties of the gauge such as the Log Reference, position of the needle, the sweep radius, start position of the needle in degrees (relative to 12 o'clock) the angle of rotation, start value and end value, etc.

 

Anyway, the best way to explain is to build one.

First thing to do is to create a PNG file to serve as the background to the gauges.

You can create one using any image manipulation package although the Evoscan Gauge Wizard is probably the easiest place to start.

Let's work on a simple 3 gauge layout to show Speed, RPM, Boost (external Sensor)

Using the Evoscan Gauge Designer, create the gauges (without pointers) and take a screen print of it. Then crop it using 'Paint' and resize it to 800 pixels wide keeping aspect ratio the same. Now cut 'n' paste into a new drawing that is 800x480 in size. Save it as png format in your 'GaugeTemplates' directory. It should be called '800x480_xxx.png'

Now in the same directory, create a blank txt file with the same name (800x480_xxx.txt)

Now open up the PPC Gauge Designer, select your file from the pane on the left, click the button that says 'Change' and select your png image file.

You are now ready to add the pointers to the gauges.

 

To add gauge pointers, you need to right click on the image and add a circular gauge. This will appear as a square in the top left corner.

Click on this and using the arrow keys, move this to the approximate centre of the gauge. Next modify the radius in the gauge properties box to ensure that the pointer is the correct length.

Now modify the starting degrees, (measured from 12 O'Clock) for instance, -90 is 9 O'Clock, -180 is 6 O'Clock etc.

Set the rotation angle to match your gauge.

Set the value start and end to match your gauge. If using an external 0-5v sensor this requires a bit of maths (discussed later).

Select your gauge pointer cap image (I have created some that I will upload)

Ignore clip regions for the moment...

Change the pen colour (pointer colour), change the pen width.

Ignore anti-clockwise...

Here is the first gauge done...

 

To add gauge pointers, you need to right click on the image and add a circular gauge. This will appear as a square in the top left corner.

Click on this and using the arrow keys, move this to the approximate centre of the gauge. Next modify the radius in the gauge properties box to ensure that the pointer is the correct length.

Now modify the starting degrees, (measured from 12 O'Clock) for instance, -90 is 9 O'Clock, -180 is 6 O'Clock etc.

Set the rotation angle to match your gauge.

Set the value start and end to match your gauge. If using an external 0-5v sensor this requires a bit of maths (discussed later).

Select your gauge pointer cap image (I have created some that I will upload)

Ignore clip regions for the moment...

Change the pen colour (pointer colour), change the pen width.

Ignore anti-clockwise...

Here is the first gauge done...

 

Once you have one gauge, you can copy it (using button in bottom right corner) and then just alter the parameters.

Now we can add the buttons such as brightness up and down, exit as well as previous and next template (currently not working on the software)

To add buttons, right click and add and action button or template button.
It will appear in the top left corner as a square that you can move around the screen in the same way as a gauge.

Using the drop down list, select the 'action' such as close...
Then select the button image (again I will upload some buttons)
adjust the height and width for the button (to fit the image)

Once you have added all of the buttons then you're almost done

 

Here is the almost completed layout, not too flash but it didn't take too long...

Regarding external sensors...

The value logged will be in 0-5v with the actual value being linear.

So, in theory, a 3 bar MAP sensor will have.

0.0v = atmospheric pressure = 1bar = 14.5psi MAP = 0psi gauge
2.5v = 2bar = 29psi MAP = 14.5 gauge
5.0v = 3bar = 43.5psi MAP = 29 gauge

In reality that will not be the case and the GM 3bar sensor has:

0.619V = 0.40bar
4.818v = 3.04bar

So this should mean that for the -15psi to +30psi gauge that we have built that the start value should be -0.0719v and end value = 4.864v

 

So, once you have saved you gauge layout you will need to move it to the evodroid.

Copy both files, plus any gauge parts to the corresponding directory on the evodroid.

One issue at present is that without the ability to run multiple gauge layouts, you will need to rename the txt file to 800x480_Carbon1.txt and overwrite the original (at least until Hamish fixes the code)

You should then be able to run the gauges on your evodroid...

Simple

 

Attached are the files.

Rename the gauge parts to *.zip

 

So this should get you all started.

Any questions then let me know.

I am willing to build a couple of these things for people - they don't take long...

 

Here's the one I am currently using in my Airtrek, running on a Galaxy Tab 3