car HUDs?

TurboTim07

Rear Admiral
when Striker was shopping for a car and talking about the Grand Prix having a HUD i went searching on the net and found out and quite a few cars now a days have HUDs built in that tell your speed, a compass, turn signals, and radio station. unfortunately, my car isn't one of them :( but, i do wish that there was a way in stall one into my car. does anyone have any ideas on how to do this or even know sites that have done this and would be able to help me? i've googled it and it came up with news reviews about cars having HUDs and people talking about it and there was even one site that had one but it only did speed. what im looking for is a way to make a HUD for my car that tells me my speed, whether im heading north, south, etc, my turn signals, and my radio station. so anyone have any clues? also sometimes directions might be car specific but maybe they could be modified to fit my car? i drive an '04 Dodge Neon. so if anyone could help me or give me links just tell me.
 
If Car Toys is still in business (the one near me closed), they may have something. Prepare to shell out some bucks. :eek:
 
i checked their website. it did have a lot of interesting things but nothing that i thought would've been helpful :(

i think if i could get digital tachometers, compasses, speedometers, and somehow get to the digital odometer already in my car and hook them up to various bright LED displays (i wanna make it a bright blue) and find out a way to make room behind the dashboard then that might be a good start

edit: i think and LED display(or LCD or something similar to a digital clock's display but bright and blue) is what i would need. but im not sure. i would need a screen that could show numbers and letters brightly and in blue. another problem is how to intergrate it into my car (positioning, how to get it to run off my car battery, how to get it to turn on when the car starts only, etc.)... :confused:
 
TurboTim07 said:
edit: i think and LED display(or LCD or something similar to a digital clock's display but bright and blue) is what i would need. but im not sure. i would need a screen that could show numbers and letters brightly and in blue.

Actual HUDs are going to have much more high grade projections than any LED/LCD that you're talking about here. Don't forget that they're going to project a mirror image on the windshield if you're thinking about using them to reflect off the glass. You'd need mirrors to bounce the light. That ends up sounding like a pretty junky way to do it. I really think you'd need a professional addon setup designed for such a thing, but that might not exist yet.
 
Like i said earlier. i have no clue how i would start about doing this that's why im asking for suggestions and advice. i figured already i'd need mirrors i just don't know what kind of displays i would need :( also, I might need a special sort of glass for the reflections so that the numbers and letters don't distort. maybe i should use lasers? (if such displays even exist)
 
Frankly, my advice would be to wait for someone to come up with an after-market unit (which doesn't, TTBOMK, exist at present). With what it'd cost in time and money to cobble up a home-brew HUD, you're well on the way to covering the down payment and at least first few payments on a car with a HUD display as a factory option.
 
Couple years ago, I saw a HUD on a prototype car. It was pretty nifty but projected directly onto the windshield. That makes so little sense to me - why would they do that in a day and age where we're trying to get cellphones banned while people are behind the wheel?

The car also featured a really neat nightvision gloss that was activated by lights under the edges of the hood
 
Actually, projecting it onto the windshield is kinda off, it uses the windshield as a mirror and focuses the image (I think) in the lower half of the driver's vision. That's the layman's view. You'd have to get someone that actually is involved firsthand to get a better definition.
 
their reasoning is since the important stuff (speed, rpms, and extra stuff like directional heading, odometer, turn signal, radio station) are all in front of the driver then that's less time the driver spends looking down to see what's on the dash, clock etc. and therefore more time with eyes on road and so their attention isn't as spread out and accidents are less likely to happen
 
Something you can do is get one of those pendulum-based clocks that create a "picture in the air" and hack it to display speed rather than time.... it gets VERY wobbly on turns and if you drive on a lot of bumps don't expect it to last long, though.


and yes i tried.
 
My Grand Prix has a HUD that is directly integrated into the dashboard. A couple of years back it malfunctioned and unfortunately it cost quite a bit of money to have it serviced.

I can't think of any car HUD that is avaliable off-the-shelf at this time.

One issue that is overlooked when thinking about car HUDs is the windshield. My Grand Prix needs a special type of windshield in order to work - I don't know any more that the fact that an "ordinary" windshield would render the HUD inoperative. I know this because earlier this spring a nice little rock made a mess of my windshield.

I'm sorry that I couldn't give you better news. :(
 
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