I recently bought a 2011 500C lounge.

Is it possible to display the current speed on the dashboard digital display, as I find the analogue speed dial quite hard to read? I really like the car, but I already know what day it is. If it is possible to display speed, I can't find the setting. Maybe it's just a case of getting used to it!

snoozeboy said:

I recently bought a 2011 500C lounge.

Is it possible to display the current speed on the dashboard digital display, as I find the analogue speed dial quite hard to read? I really like the car, but I already know what day it is. If it is possible to display speed, I can't find the setting. Maybe it's just a case of getting used to it!

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You can't reprogram your display to show the speed digitally, but someone did magage to retrofit one of the newer digital displays from the latest 500, and it mostly worked.

Thanks for your help, again.

Seems easier to get used to it rather than fiddle around, thanks.

snoozeboy said:

Seems easier to get used to it rather than fiddle around, thanks.

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That would be my take also.

My own view is that the 500 analog display was designed for style over function. The Mk3 Panda has a more conventional pair of dials for speed & rpm and is much easier to read at a glance.

You could buy an OBD based HUD to display speed, the 500's speedo is completely useless IMO.

UFI said:

You could buy an OBD based HUD to display speed, the 500's speedo is completely useless IMO.

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Agreed! You can also fit a GPS HUD speed display and get a more accurate speed readout such as; http://mypolaris.com.au/HUD/page19/index.html

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Agreed! You can also fit a GPS HUD speed display and get a more accurate speed readout such as; http://mypolaris.com.au/HUD/page19/index.html

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This sort of kit shows just how far behind the technology some car manufacturers have got.

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Agreed! You can also fit a GPS HUD speed display and get a more accurate speed readout such as; http://mypolaris.com.au/HUD/page19/index.html

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Oddly enough, the OBD signal is within 1km/h of GPS, it's just the gauge itself that's useless. It's certainly retro, the guess work reminds me of my '49 Ford with it's MPH speedo. Possibly not that much of an issue if the 500 is your daily, but I find the speedo rather distracting, particularly as people don't need any excuses (ie if I'm a touch under the limit) to tailgate a 500.

GPS has it's own issues such as occasional loss of signal & latency when accelerating. I don't like relying on GPS for speed while accelerating, on the open road it's fine.

I had little use for my Ultra Guage:

http://ultra-gauge.com/ultragauge/ultragauge_wired.htm

So I mounted that to a 68R cradle giving accurate and instantaneous speed, as well as letting me monitor battery voltage, coolant temp and fuel level (as a percentage - again very accurate if read off the OBD data). Forget about MPG data though, none of these are accurate for a Twinair, probably fine on the throttled 4cyl's though.

UFI said:

Oddly enough, the OBD signal is within 1km/h of GPS, it's just the gauge itself that's useless. It's certainly retro, the guess work reminds me of my '49 Ford with it's MPH speedo. Possibly not that much of an issue if the 500 is your daily, but I find the speedo rather distracting, particularly as people don't need any excuses (ie if I'm a touch under the limit) to tailgate a 500.
GPS has it's own issues such as occasional loss of signal & latency when accelerating. I don't like relying on GPS for speed while accelerating, on the open road it's fine.

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I looked at various such devices as the Ultra Gauge but found the screens too cluttered. Ultimately I just wanted a nice, big, clear speed readout and the Polaris does that well and is right in the line of sight without being stuck on the windscreen. It dims at night too. Yes, there are occasional dropouts in the GPS, there is a half-second or so lag on acceleration and it can sometimes take half a minute or more to acquire a signal on start-up but these are minor issues for me. The advantage over looking down, peering at the speedo, trying to make out the needle (with your eyes off the road of course) far outweighs them.

I can appreciate the usefulness of the Ultra Gauge for monitoring various functions however and if I could mount it somewhere low down I'd definitely go for it. I'm happy with the TomTom in the cradle so that option's closed. How do you find it quality-wise; worth the money?

As well as being awkward to read at the best of times, in bright sunlight the reflection from my ivory steering-wheel cowling renders all the instruments in the binnacle absolutely invisible. I can judge the revs by ear of course but speed is anyone's guess. I got jumped on here once for daring to suggest this is a design flaw. From what I can see the newer TFT screen eliminates these problems.

UFI said:

GPS has it's own issues such as occasional loss of signal & latency when accelerating. I don't like relying on GPS for speed while accelerating, on the open road it's fine.

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Ideally the system would use both GPS and in-car telemetry, with a computer using the GPS signal to fine tune & recalibrate the input from the wheel sensors. That's what I was getting at when I said that car manufacturers are lagging behind the capabilitites of the technology.

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

I can appreciate the usefulness of the Ultra Gauge for monitoring various functions however and if I could mount it somewhere low down I'd definitely go for it. I'm happy with the TomTom in the cradle so that option's closed. How do you find it quality-wise; worth the money?

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The UG is my least favorite OBD gauge, Scangauge is still my preferred unit (at double the price). The UG is probably fine on US model cars, but it won't do diesels, and doesn't have a true hybrid mode so it's pretty weak for a dedicated hypermiler. The SG can have similar issues that I put down to differences between OBD2 and the EOBD protocols, even if they're broadly similar - same goes for some Toyotas where these gauges work fine on US delivered cars, but not our cars with the Japanese protocol.

These days, there must be about 100 different units on the market, some allow daisy chaining as well as adding standalone sensors, such as a wideband O2 sensor that would potentially have massive benefits on a TA.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PLX-DM-1...l-Boost-Speedometer-Temp-Gauges-/252553095542

On the TA most of what you get off OBD is junk, so the ability to wire in standalone sensors is a big advantage, though really you don't need OBD at all if you go that way...

There are quite a few OBD units that just display speed in big clear letters.

I tried with arduino
It works but didnt install display yet.