I should better have waited with buying al the components.

The leds are too bright, its battery powered and the display is way too small.

After extensive usage, my batterypowered does around 4hours (a rechargeble 9v "square" battery), and I got mine configed like this:


Where R is a red LED - Y is a yellow one, and G a green one.
Red is my shift light, middle yellow is my "over the redline" light and the right yellow is 3% fuel light.
Green led is Traction Control


BUT after a long time using, I realized I only really used the shift light and the fuel light.

So Im thinking of making one with no 7-seg display. Just a lot of leds.
Problem is, with only 5 leds to use, Im running out of them quickly
I wanted a 6-led array for the rev/shift lights (Green Green Yellow YellowYellow RedShiftLight), and a 7th for the fuel light, and maybe a 8th for the engine-not-running light.

Now, the idea would be to use the main pins for this. I KNOW I can do it, via changing code/figuring out what binary number to send to LPT port to turn on one of the lights, one by one.
But... Im very busy (College, 2 kids, 2 cats, 1 dog, 1 wife...) so I'll be requesting some help

One bug I've had (no bug, actually) is that sometimes when using the rpm1 rpm2 rpm3.... the shift light lit up BEFORE all the rpm lights were on - specially in some cars.
This depends on the gearing on the setup - which makes the shift point being closer/farther away from the rev limiter.

So far, my solution is this:

G G Y Y R R R Y Y G G <-----LED array

Where the 2 Outside Green leds are all tied to the rpm5, the 2 outside Greens on rmp4, the 2 outside Yellows on rpm3, the 2 inside yellows on rpm2, and all the red lights on Shift Light.
(I wont use the rpm2 and rpm1 trigger cause sometimes shift light lights up before it). Superbrights on the red leds (so its the "Shift, goddamnit" kind of indicator), and one low power blue led somewhere for fuel.
If I make this thin enough, I can stick it on top of my g25, so I see it just behind the wheel.
But I only got 3 rpm levels - Id like 5 rpm levels, shift light, and fuel light. - This via making one of the triggers send a number to the main data pins that would light up one of the lights.

About gear indicators: sorry for sounding like an idiot, but what's the point?

1) It says on the screen which gear you're in
2) Why would you even need to see it written somewhere? Personally I always know what gear I'm in (I'm using manual transmission) If I should forget, all I need to do is place my hand on the gear knob.

Sure, it might look cool and all, but other than that, what advantage does it give?

Quote from Gnomie :

About gear indicators: sorry for sounding like an idiot, but what's the point?

1) It says on the screen which gear you're in
2) Why would you even need to see it written somewhere? Personally I always know what gear I'm in (I'm using manual transmission) If I should forget, all I need to do is place my hand on the gear knob.

Sure, it might look cool and all, but other than that, what advantage does it give?

Why is there real leather in your G25? And why is it mostly aluminium? Why are the pedals shiny and has details, as your feet are usually blocking the details?

Because, my little friend, they are there to simulate as realistic touch as possible. GI is to expand that simulation to next level (Working dashboard lights and such).

There is leather on my G25 because it provides better grip. My pedals are made of metal because that makes them more solid and durable. Which give an advantage when driving.

I can understand why people spend money on stuff like 3D goggles, TrackIR, a bigger wide screen monitor or a ButtKicker because it can be argued that they give you an edge in competition by providing information that is not available if you don't use them. That's just not the case with GIs the way I see it. Which makes me curious as to why people spend money on it.

No offence meant, I'm just curious, that's all.

Quote from Gnomie :

There is leather on my G25 because it provides better grip. My pedals are made of metal because that makes them more solid and durable. Which give an advantage when driving.

I can understand why people spend money on stuff like 3D goggles, TrackIR, a bigger wide screen monitor or a ButtKicker because it can be argued that they give you an edge in competition by providing information that is not available if you don't use them. That's just not the case with GIs the way I see it. Which makes me curious as to why people spend money on it.

No offence meant, I'm just curious, that's all.

Well, I truly enjoy (as) authentic (as possible) driving sensation.

- I didn't bought G25 because it makes me a better driver, I bought it because I wanted to have realistic shifter and clutch.
- Also, I have real leather bucket seat, not to give me optimal seat so I can play long perioid of time. I bought it because it is more authentic than an office chair.
- I have dashboard with buttons and signal lights (And gear-indicator and (currently not working) rev-meter), not because I could activate pit-limiter as fast as possible, but to give more authentic feel. Which is more realistic; To press that generic red button in G25 shifter or push black latch-button where reads "TC"?

This is only my opinion. I am a "roleplayer", not a "power player".

EDIT: Oh, forgot. It is much more easy to notice shift-light when there are dozen leds blinking, instead of couple of red pixels in lower left corner of your screen. Plus, I have put buzzer to shift-light, so it is even more noticable.

HALP ME!
Got vista63, cant get it to work.
First I had some resource issues (it said the resources werent available for lpt1). fixed that.
LPT1 is on 0xBC00 - and GI.exe is configured for that same port, but it doenst make my display work
Tried running it as admin, too...
Debug mode sucessfully shows that LFS IS sending the gear data to GI.exe - gi just cant send it to the gear indicator hardware.

Maybe a hardware problem then. Have you tested your hardware using XP? Anyone else tried GI with Vista?

Quote from Nick A :

Maybe a hardware problem then. Have you tested your hardware using XP? Anyone else tried GI with Vista?

My new pc have vista32, and it is working normally.

was working perfectly with XP 30secs before I installed vista, on same pc...
What seems to be the problem is the GI cant send data to the lpt port. Tried running it in admin mode, nothin.
Vista says lpt1 has a resource range of 0xB00-0B08 and 0xBC0 - 0xBC8. Next try will be to configure it to 0XB00, 0xB01, 0xB02... and so forth to see if it works with any of them combos.

Hi, I just updated the info about Vista on the GI page. Sorry for the late update, I've been notified about it several times.

big thanxs, but your download really isnt helping - using vista 64, and the "x64" dir doesnt have an install for the driver.

Replace "inpout32.dll" from the GI's directory (folder) by inpoutx64.dll from the x64 directory. I.e. remove inpout32.dll, copy inpoutx64.dll to GI's dir, rename to inpout32.dll. I can't test it, though.

big thanxs kada - but still no go. Error message no the renamed file:
"This application failed to start because inpout32.dll was not found. ...."


I've tried all permutations -> copying the inputx64.dll to the win32 dir then renaming, copying the installdriver.exe file to the x64 dir, doing this last one then renaming, the works.

HOWEVER, i can install the
win32 driver with no problems (and doenst work, either)

Thx, Kada

My first GI inside a glasses case.

take a look eufizemcasa .

Cheers!

Looks really smart! Much tidier inside than mine too, using a board with rails looks like a good idea.

Gah - STILL cant get it to work.
It used to work on WinXP - with no probs.

Now... no go.
Here's what I did so far:

LPT port is 0xBC00
debug mode correctly lists the gear input from LFS.
My 7seg has only the lower-left light on, all other leds are constant on.

I got the latest version from Kada's site.
I also tried the "new" version of inpout lib from kada's site.
Now - when I change the \GI\inpout32.dll for the new version's inpoutx64.dll (with a file rename, of course), GI gives the the
"ERROR: LoadLibrary Failed.
ERROR: Can't Access LPT port."

If I put the "new" version's inpout32.dll from the 32bit directory, GI starts up, but display doesnt change.

Your LPT port is weird, do you use an external card for the port? On standard PC, it should be:

yeah - its an PCI external card to give me lpt1.
Actually, device manager reads as follows:

I/O Range BC00-BC07
I/O Range B880-B887
IRQ 0x00000016 (22)

AND
theres a "multifuncion adapaters -> MosChip PCI Multi-IO controller"
that reads
I/O Range BC00-BC07
I/O Range B880-B887
I/O Range B800-B807
I/O Range B480-B487
I/O Range B080-B08F
IRQ 0x00000016 (22)

Maybe therein lies the problem?

Someone has kindly pointed out a mistake in the circuit diagram in my PDF. corrected. Pin 10 should be connected to +9V (it was previously shown as being left unconnected.) Sorry about that, I have updated the PDF now, which can be downloaded in post 30:
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=437243#post437243

Hello

I have made a GI rev Meter according to Nick's schematic, it works fine for all cars.
I have tested it on LFS patch Z (10), no problem : 4 leds for RPM and 1 led as shift - Light.

Two pictures front side and Back side.

I use an AC/DC 12 Volts Adaptor and 510 Ohms Resistors

Looks good Latanturle! Much tidier than mine inside!

Today i got mine working too, but there's one weird thing:
I have set the thing up so that the five LEDs are actually four LEDs on the board, and the one dot on the 7-segment display.
If ANY of those five lights turn on, any of the seven segments currently on will turn very VERY dim, you can barely even see that it's on anymore..

Why is this? i've already checked ALL the connections, they're not shorted anywhere on the board.

I can turn on all of those five extra lights on together, no problem at all, the same with turning on only all 7 segments, that works fine too!

Other than that this is a great thing

Quote from Latanturle :

Hello

I have made a GI rev Meter according to Nick's schematic, it works fine for all cars.
I have tested it on LFS patch Z (10), no problem : 4 leds for RPM and 1 led as shift - Light.

Two pictures front side and Back side.

I use an AC/DC 12 Volts Adaptor and 510 Ohms Resistors

Loving those epic solder traces

Quote from NL_RevZ :

Today i got mine working too, but there's one weird thing:
I have set the thing up so that the five LEDs are actually four LEDs on the board, and the one dot on the 7-segment display.
If ANY of those five lights turn on, any of the seven segments currently on will turn very VERY dim, you can barely even see that it's on anymore..

Why is this? i've already checked ALL the connections, they're not shorted anywhere on the board.

I can turn on all of those five extra lights on together, no problem at all, the same with turning on only all 7 segments, that works fine too!

Other than that this is a great thing

Strange one. Have you checked you used teh right resitors? Not sure what else it could be...