I’d Give the Earth .... Digital and instruments.

[Darren Sharp]

Hi all , many of you will know of my trick dash board in Olaf . I have replaced the dashboard instruments with the Flight range of Digital instruments from Caerbont , they are a British company who own the rights to produce the Smiths range of instruments from our cars as well as various other Marques. The new gauges all come with their own wiring looms and are individually  wired to the sensors , distributor etc . This negates the need for the earth loom and the voltage regulator. I have discovered that this loom is back fed into the dash loom and provides earthing to the Hazard switch and warning light cluster. After a year of head scratching and removal of many (Many) parts I simply provided a new earth to have everything working perfectly again instead of random very dim warning lights and the flashing of the headlights when the Hazards were operating. The Pravda (Haynes) wiring diagram was wholly useless in sorting this out . I should also warn everyone that is considering replacing they’re original gauges for fancy Led backlit examples that the flight fuel gauge is useless in a 2000 as the sender unit does not work with it and Caerbont do not sell a side mounted fuel sensor to work with it .  

[Tim Bancroft]

Interesting reading, thanks, Darren

I fitted a Speedhut GPS speedo to my GT6 last year, a revelation as I now have an exact speedometer.....useful in these days of average speed 'Safe' (so called, but not) motorways.

[iani]

My car came with a Speedhut GPS speedo too, I decided to fit the matching rev counter, they don't look too bad at all.

[Ben Hutchings]

I had no idea classic looking GPS gauges were a thing?! Does it have a mechanical backup of some sort in case of no GPS? Or is that not an issue? 

[Howard]

I fitted a separate GPS speedo because they are great during the 10CR when you need speeds in Km/hr & not MPH. However they are no use in long tunnels so still have the original.

This is the unit and its fitted on top of my dash with a magnetic phone holder so it can be easily removed.

Howard

[iani]

17 hours ago, Hutch said:

I had no idea classic looking GPS gauges were a thing?! Does it have a mechanical backup of some sort in case of no GPS? Or is that not an issue? 

No mechanical backup, I have another GPS speedo via my phone however.

[Tim Bancroft]

My Speedhut unit has been 100% reliable. One does not fit a back up to a mechanical speedo, so no need for a back up to a GPS unit.

 

 

[Howard]

18 minutes ago, Tim Bancroft said:

My Speedhut unit has been 100% reliable. One does not fit a back up to a mechanical speedo, so no need for a back up to a GPS unit.

Tim

So has my GPS, but there are plenty of places where it doesn't work - eg Dartford Tunnel , not to mention the long tunnels on the 10CR with their speed limits and cameras - so its not suitable as the only speedometer in the TR.

H

[Tim Bancroft]

I just drive at the speed limit, therefore not a problem!

[Howard]

11 hours ago, Tim Bancroft said:

I just drive at the speed limit, therefore not a problem!

😇

[Ben Hutchings]

I guess GPS is pretty reliable these days, provided you're under clear skies.

My speedometer was/is so off when I drove regularly that I ended up learning the real speed at particular revs/gear.
When I get back to driving it more again, I think I'll be investing in some sort of permanent GPS-based speedo.

I quite like the idea if one that uses a little HP DL display so it's 'futuristic' in a 60/70s car 😁 - PROJECT! 

[iani]

I had my TR6 speedo converted to electronic operation, I replaced the angle drive with a transponder at the gearbox end and it all wires up. I calibrated it against a GPS speedo on my phone, only took 4 attempts and it's now bang on. 

[JohnD]

On 08/04/2021 at 11:11, Hutch said:

I guess GPS is pretty reliable these days, provided you're under clear skies.

My speedometer was/is so off when I drove regularly that I ended up learning the real speed at particular revs/gear.
When I get back to driving it more again, I think I'll be investing in some sort of permanent GPS-based speedo.

I quite like the idea if one that uses a little HP DL display so it's 'futuristic' in a 60/70s car 😁 - PROJECT! 

Where do you  mount the flux capacitor?

[Tim Hunt]

I am probably fortunate in that the 4A speedo, having been calibrated by Speedograph Richfield over 30 years ago, remains steady and spot on at all legal speeds, no need for electrickery! As for the 10CR I attach a label as below prominently between speedo and tacho. 

TimKph Mph.docx

[Ben Hutchings]

13 minutes ago, Tim Hunt said:

... for the 10CR I attach a label as below prominently between speedo and tacho ...

(For those without means to read a docx) 

Good idea Tim H.

For 10CR and various LMC trips I used to leave the GPS in 'metric' mode but always felt a bit of a cheat 😅 

 

[FloydP]

On the gt6 I use an old road pilot speed camera warning device whose database is about 15 years old but does have a nice gps Speedo, slots in between the Speedo and rev counter a treat. For the stag I have a heads up display mounted where the central speaker used to be and that does navigation as well as speed. Never would have bothered if it hadn’t of been for my addiction to the round Britain 😆

[DVD3500]

On 08/04/2021 at 16:07, iani said:

I had my TR6 speedo converted to electronic operation, I replaced the angle drive with a transponder at the gearbox end and it all wires up. I calibrated it against a GPS speedo on my phone, only took 4 attempts and it's now bang on. 

How/where did you have this done or how did you do it?

 

[iani]

12 minutes ago, DVD3500 said:

How/where did you have this done or how did you do it?

 

You send your speedo to "speedy cables" and then you wait....and you wait...eventually they will get round to doing the conversion and you pay. Revington sell the speedy conversion but you still have to wait as they don't keep them on the shelf. Revington also sell the sender unit, I bought one of those, easy enough job to remove the angle drive, fit the sender and wire it up. I'm very pleased with my speedo now, it's rock solid and once calibrated it matches the GPS speedo on my phone accurately.

[DVD3500]

Ok Thanks.

I may be be swapping diffs with a different ratio and I figure this is the safest option for knowing the speed.

We have 30 KPH zones nearly everywhere in my town and radar traps to boot... the standard Spitfire speedo bobbing between 20 and 30 does not instill confidence...

 

[iani]

10 minutes ago, DVD3500 said:

Ok Thanks.

I may be be swapping diffs with a different ratio and I figure this is the safest option for knowing the speed.

We have 30 KPH zones nearly everywhere in my town and radar traps to boot... the standard Spitfire speedo bobbing between 20 and 30 does not instill confidence...

 

Right, for a Spitfire I'd use a GPS speedometer, my GT6 has one from speedhut.com with a matching Tacho, they are 100mm so the correct size, that wasn't an option for the TR, hence having the original speedo converted. 

Edited April 21, 2021 by iani

[DVD3500]

We need a "Like" and "Thank you" button. 🙂

[Ben Hutchings]

5 minutes ago, DVD3500 said:

We need a "Like" and "Thank you" button. 🙂

Yes, thanks for the reminder. That functionality does exist, but has been giving some trouble. I'll ask the boss to take another look. 

[DVD3500]

Did  I just find it?!

[Darren Sharp]

I’ve had no issues with my Speedo but it does dip out in the M.25 tunnels for a few seconds . 

[twincamspit]

I've got speedhut gauges in my Spitty too, on a single piece dash.
Had the word 'GPS' deleted from the speedometer though, in case it gave the MoT man the jitters 😉
I'd post a photo but the only option seems to be 'Insert image from URL' which means I'd have to host the photo somewhere.

Does this work?

 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by twincamspit