Type 1 Dash. APK Developments

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

After the Type 1M was put aside a couple months ago, development continued on what is now simply the Type 1 Dash. I am posting this message to get your feedback about the idea before I release information on our website.

The Type 1 Dash is a data display system that offers you the following parameters:
-Odometer
-Speedometer
-Oil pressure
-CHT
-EGT
-Coolant temp

RPM is displayed as a numerical value, and as a graphical band. When the system is turned on, an introduction screen is displayed for 5 seconds before initializing the dislay. The display is a touch screen. In the bottom of the introduction page, there is a setup button which, when pressed, takes you to the setup page. The setup page allows you to turn on/off the display of CHT, EGT, and Coolant temp. It also allows you to set the warning light points for each parameter. The tire circumference can also be set. After the settings are adjusted, clicking on "Done" will save the settings and initialize the display to these settings. Even with the battery removed, the Type 1 Dash will remember your settings. When the system is turned on and you don't need to adjust the settings, just wait 5 sec. and the system will initialize the display to the currently saved settings.

The display screen is 81mm x 62mm and mounted in a nicely styled enclosure that measures 5.5" wide x 4.0" high x 1.375" thick. It looks really good on a MOMO model 12/c which is a pretty small wheel.

The display unit has two buttons, one for clearing the recall memory, and another for displaying the max. memory of the parameters. There is a over-rev warning light at the upper right corner, and a warning light for all other parameter at the upper left corner.

The Type 1 Dash is a high quality system that offers features from gold plated connectors, to 12-bit data resolution. The estimate price of the Type 1 Dash is $650 complete.

What are your comments/suggestions/questions?
Thank you,
Alex Kalempa
APK Developments
www.apk-developments.com

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

After the Type 1M was put aside a couple months ago, development continued on what is now simply the Type 1 Dash. I am posting this message to get your feedback about the idea before I release information on our website.

The Type 1 Dash is a data display system that offers you the following parameters:
-Odometer
-Speedometer
-Oil pressure
-CHT
-EGT
-Coolant temp

RPM is displayed as a numerical value, and as a graphical band. When the system is turned on, an introduction screen is displayed for 5 seconds before initializing the dislay. The display is a touch screen. In the bottom of the introduction page, there is a setup button which, when pressed, takes you to the setup page. The setup page allows you to turn on/off the display of CHT, EGT, and Coolant temp. It also allows you to set the warning light points for each parameter. The tire circumference can also be set. After the settings are adjusted, clicking on "Done" will save the settings and initialize the display to these settings. Even with the battery removed, the Type 1 Dash will remember your settings. When the system is turned on and you don't need to adjust the settings, just wait 5 sec. and the system will initialize the display to the currently saved settings.

The display screen is 81mm x 62mm and mounted in a nicely styled enclosure that measures 5.5" wide x 4.0" high x 1.375" thick. It looks really good on a MOMO model 12/c which is a pretty small wheel.

The display unit has two buttons, one for clearing the recall memory, and another for displaying the max. memory of the parameters. There is a over-rev warning light at the upper right corner, and a warning light for all other parameter at the upper left corner.

The Type 1 Dash is a high quality system that offers features from gold plated connectors, to 12-bit data resolution. The estimate price of the Type 1 Dash is $650 complete.

What are your comments/suggestions/questions?
Thank you,
Alex Kalempa
APK Developments
www.apk-developments.com

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

I have updated the Type 1 dash info page at www.apk-developments.com/Type1.html with descriptions and a image of the display. The estimated price was lowered and more features have been added.

Check it out, let me know what you think.
Thank you,
Alex
APK Developments

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

With introduction of the Type 1 dash coming up in a few weeks, I have been wondering where the interest has disappeared to. During my earlier posts on this forum I had seen responses of great interest and excitement, which has diminished.

I am inquiring as what was done to loose interest in the Type 1 dash, it may be something I'm not seeing, or is something that was changed in the product.

Thank you,
Alex Kalempa

[Ryan Schoffer]

perhaps it is getting too close to competition for teams to design it into their car - it is definetly something i would be interested in for 2005, but the instrumentation for 2004 is already planned out

Vehicle electronics leader

www.ucalgary.ca/fsae

[Igor]

I think there isn't much interest because there is nothing yet to be interested in. The only thing your website shows is what the display will look like.
A display by itself is not a product yet. You will have to elaborate on the enclosure, IP rating, sensor interfaces, vibration resistance, impact proctection of the display, connector types etc. etc.

I'm not trying to dis you here, but you have to show us a little more before people start sending their money. We're all engineering students here so we can build similar displays ourselves.

I still think it's a good initiative, there are plenty of teams with no electrical engineers or more money than time. So if you show a completed product there will be interest.

Good luck,
Igor

[Axle_Greece]

Mmmm.. I think our whole dash panel will wind up costing about 100 dollars, including the time required to build and install it. I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever buy a panel that cost more than it cost me to build on my own. I've got a tach, gear indicator, and all the idiot lights I could possibly want, and space to mount the switches for my TCS. Unless your dash panel included a TCS module, instead of just space to drill a hole for a switch, there's no cost savings there. There are plans online all over the place for tachometers and digital readouts for gear selectors and temperatures and everything you can imagine. I think you've developed a product with virtually zero market. Unless you can drop the price by 50%, you've priced yourself into extinction. Our team could afford to spend 300 bucks instead of 100 and gladly pay the extra 200 so that we didn't have to build and test the circuits ourselves, but then again, we spent all the design time this year doing it, and we'll simply build an exact copy for next year. I don't know for sure that you can ever price it low enough to make it truly cost effective for any of the FSAE teams, but who knows?

Orion

"They say time is of the essence... give me some and maybe i'll get the essence!"

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

The cost of the system has risen above expectations. This is due to costly components, with the lcd representing a 1/3 of the systems cost.

An idea has been raised to offer the Type 1 system complete, minus the display unit. The display unit would be offered separately as a kit with or without the enclosure. This will allow you to mount the lcd in a custom setup of your design. The easiest of which is a cutout in your dash. What do you think about this? This way the cost would be reduced and your not only limited to the standard display unit enclosure.

A picture of the prototype display unit has been added to the Type 1 page.


Thank you,
Alex
APK Developments

[Alex Kalempa]

Hello,

As a notice, I have just updated the Type 1 info page with more details and a price table.

Thank you,
Alex
APK Developments