Prototyping my Alipna style gauge setup - what should I monitor?

[TurboJake]

monitor the four things that are most important to not blowing up the engine. #1 oil pressure #2 oil temperature # 3 boost level #4 a/f ratio. Maybe a toss up between boost and egt.

This is limiting your market.

Pick stuff that applies to ALL E30's to get the best sales, and then do the customization from there. It's easier to get the exposure, more sales, and make future expansion with a product that hits the largest portion of the market first.


I would do:
Oil pressure
Oil temp (There's a reason why the S14 had it)
Water temp
Volts

Once those bring in more funds. work the rest. 700 dollars isn't going to hit that large of a market though.
$200 I can understand. $700 is more than enough to pick up a Zeitronix ZT-2 with a LCD display or DashDaq. Which can monitor a whole lot more, And provide datalogging.

But that's me.

[ZM Blue Devil]

This is limiting your market.

Pick stuff that applies to ALL E30's to get the best sales, and then do the customization from there. It's easier to get the exposure, more sales, and make future expansion with a product that hits the largest portion of the market first.


I would do:
Oil pressure
Oil temp (There's a reason why the S14 had it)
Water temp
Volts

Once those bring in more funds. work the rest. 700 dollars isn't going to hit that large of a market though.
$200 I can understand. $700 more than enough to pick up a Zeitronix ZT-2 with a LCD display. Which can monitor a whole lot more, And provide datalogging.

But that's me.

Here is the list of data which will be available. We think this will cover pretty much everyone in the market. And yes price point will limit some people.


oil pressure (100psi), 1/8" NPT
oil temperature, 1/8" NPT
water temperature, 1/8" NPT
coolant temperature, 1/8" NPT
air intake temperature, 3/8" NPT
valentive 1 remote display [only 2 more display options can be chosen if this is selected, Valentine 1 radar required]
air fuel ratio [customer supplies wideband sender/controller]
boost pressure (reads up to 70psi)
exhaust gas temperature
fuel pressure (100psi), 1/4" NPT
oil pressure (250psi), 1/4" NPT
nitrous pressure (2500psi), 1/4" NPT
air fuel ratio with Innovate LC-1 controller

[fporro]

Great work guys, just amazing.

Hey MC :)

I just received my alpina ones, it almost seems as if they cut and plastic welded oem vent.

[MC Hammered]

Thanks for the picture and if you could take one with the vent plate removed it would give me a better idea of how they mounted their display module inside the housing.

From that angle my guess is they glued or welded it in place using the sides.

I developed my solution to be removable so you can change/upgrade the display modules to different ones whenever you wanted.

[e30rapidic]

Will all the connections work on an S50?

I have something similar in my F150 and love it!!! Runs off the OBD-II port and is able to display every single parameter that the ECU monitors. I used oil temp, oil pressure, water temp and trans temp for the longest time. Running RPM's, instant MPG, average MPG and speed at present due to running 33 inch tires.



With that said, I have a 3 gauge bezel CNC'ed for 3 2-1/4"inch gauges to go in place of the front e30 ashtray. But seriously considering this instead now!!!!

Need to put a call into Santa Claus....

[MC Hammered]

This gauge setup will work in any e30 with ANY engine setup not matter how stock or built it may be.

Since the sensors are independent of the gauge you can monitor just about anything.

[fporro]

here's the money shot, sorry for huge pics ...

[Holland]

I'm totally up for one of these in the near future, it would compliment the S14 swap well.

[MC Hammered]

here's the money shot, sorry for huge pics ...

Thanks for that picture. Alpina made an injection mold for that vent gauge, backloaded the electronics into it and sealed it up.

My original pod design has some similar design details, but the production piece is much more refined. Alpina also chose to mold a partitions between the displays, I did not which allows for a larger display element to be used.

[Boosted E30]

How long untill the customs choices will be avaiable? I would want boost, Egt, oil psi, oil temp.

[ZM Blue Devil]

After the 1st of the year.

[James Crivellone]

Any word on shipment?

[MC Hammered]

Your gauge is being coded and tested today.

[M3 Ryan]

We received our unit for my S54 M3 a few days back. When I get my car out of the Auto museum I will install this and give more feedback. It looks great though, I can't wait to install it.
Thanks Levent!

[sharky]

Recieved mine, I have a genuine Alpina unit in another car and honestly the PVG unit is much better made. Installation is very easy once you map it out, display is very nice and easy to read. Lovely product and will post pics of some side by side Alpina pics and install photos. This IS the gauge unit to get!!!