Arduino ...

[what2do]

I genuinely love it, mostly because it's 'pointless' which is something I favour. Pointless exercises often lead to great discoveries. Keep it up.

[BertieWells]

Thankyou!
Definitly more to come

[Hacksawbob]

With the lights I would have a range of brightness in each colour, I think you did this with the green. Defo needs to remember last settings to be useful. With the dimable rotary wheel, I'd have it as an infinite scrollable wheel selector that does what you are doing with the button.

[BertieWells]

The brightness is changeable and will remain at that brightness across all colours until you change it with a "short" button press.

I know on my van the rotary wheel has a fixed range. Is this different on yours?

Rob

[Hacksawbob]

Sorry I meant replacing it with an arduino compatible wheel.

[BertieWells]

Ok cool ill look into that. I should be able to "hack" into the resistor its self and use the original to work with the arduino. However due to how old it is i don't know how cross compatible it would be from install to install. Ie the resistance range on my van might be slightly different to yours. With the original wheel it would easily be possible to use it to change brightness but using it for other functions might be more difficult... will have to have a think

[Hacksawbob]

I could guarantee that the resistance will vary from van to van!

you might be able to reuse the original wheel to keep it looking stock but with something like this behind it.
http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/RotaryEncoders" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

some not only rotate but also double as a push button, so rotate for colour and push for brightness

[BertieWells]

I have been looking into rotory encoders. I have a few lying around but im yet to write any code for them. I havent got any that would fit in the tight space but i will look into it

[BertieWells]

The DashLed program can now "remember" you last settings (colour and brightness) before you turn off your lights. It will then load these settings up when you turn your lights on again.

Rob

[greasemonkey]

I've got a cheap Chinese version of an arduino off a mate to play with.

Would you mind sharing any code to get me started, not after your darkest secrets, just something to play with

[BertieWells]

Ill pm you (not to hide from anyone just so we can have a discussion)

If anyone wants any help, im by no means a great coder i consider my self very average but im happy to help in anyway i can

[greasemonkey]

Cheers, I'm not a coder really but played with BBC basic back in the day (showing my age - my trusty Acorn Electron), visual basic and nosed at some C stuff, so can usually play with other people's code to move forward with, but starting from scratch is hard work for me.

[what2do]

Stop 'messing' and get to work on a plug-in diagnostics apparatus that will remove any scatter gun approach to mending vans. How hard can it be...............

[BertieWells]

So basically what you want is a full diagnostics plug and play system. I bet i could even get it to tell you when your van needs a new coat of paint xD.
Im slowely working on gps speedometer with CJH (a bit of a gps guru ) With the gps working alot of other things can fall into place. Getting something that will plug into anything on the van already there is difficult (but not impossible) in my head at least i want to get a bit of a settings/menu system sorted and then other bits can easily be added as and when.
University takes up too much damn time im sorry!

[what2do]

Just thought I'd mention that there is a vid on youtube showing an arduino rev counter for a t25. Thought I'd let you know just in case you 'arduino' types communicate with another.