- When you modify a car, you eventually need to be able
to monitor a bunch of engine vitals.
Obviously you can just add some gauges, which we've done,
we've added a few gauges to the Miata already,
but when you wanna keep an eye
on a lot of stuff, what do you do?
You just add a bunch of gauges, maybe some on the A-pillar.
Yeah, I mean, I guess that works,
but in the case of the Miata space is already so tight
and my visibility is already pretty obstructed.
I don't wanna do that.
But I do wanna keep an eye on a lot of stuff.
So what do I do, well today I'm gonna be pulling out
the old analog gauge cluster
and replacing it with a digital dash
that should let us keep an eye on anything
that the Megasquirt can see.
So it should be really sweet,
as long as we can get it installed
without looking too junky, and I think we can do it.
I'm Zach, and this is Money Pit,
let's get digital.
(upbeat music)
- A big thanks to Lords Mobile
for sponsoring today's episode.
You know I'm always looking for ways to kill time
while Zach Jobe helps me out on my truck
while my shoulder heals.
Hey Jobe, how you doing buddy?
- [Jobe] Almost done here Jerry.
- Okay, thanks.
I'll keep helping out up here.
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- Jobe, what is taking so long?
(footsteps recede)
(rolling)
That explains a lot.
- [Eddie] You know what that looks like.
It looks like one of them, digital picture frames.
- Oh yeah, it kind of does look at Nolan.
So here's what we got.
This is a 12.3 inch wide screen digital dash from DD-EFI.
It is pretty sweet.
It's built to be plug and play with the Megasquirt,
so we'll be able to see anything on the Megasquirt.
This is almost just like a computer monitor.
I'll be able to tune from this screen too if I want to.
It's also got its own GPS for speedometer,
which is also quite nice.
Now, temporarily, I'm gonna lose the functionality
of my fuel level gauge and my oil pressure gauge,
which I'm not okay with long-term
but I can get that stuff plugged into the Megasquirt
and then I'll be able to see it on this dash,
that's just another project for another day.
But the real trick is gonna be getting this thing installed
in the area that the old gauges were.
This thing is A, really big and B, not meant to go there.
So it's gonna be a little bit tricky to get this installed
in a way that looks decent,
in a way that doesn't keep me up at night.
So that is gonna be the hard part
but I think we're going to be able to do it.
(upbeat music)
All we're gonna have to do is pull out the screws
that hold the gauge cluster in and disconnect it.
We're also gonna take off this little cover
off the steering column right here,
just another couple of screws.
Pretty much everything in the interior of the Miata
is held together by just a couple of screws.
Okay.
Oh yeah, gauge screw.
So you remember a long time ago
when we were at the racetrack,
all my gauges would shut off repeatedly.
Well, that's the thing with the Miata.
And even if everything's working correctly,
if you over rev it, sometimes the gauges will pop anyway
which has happened to me since.
Since we're gonna be installing this digital dash,
it's no longer gonna be on that circuit
and it's no longer gonna do that ever, so--
I caught a 13 incher baby, two and a half pounds.
All right.
So this thing is pretty big and it's even bigger
with this universal 3D printed bezel that it comes with.
I wanna be able to re-install this at the end.
Now this one specifically is super broken
in pretty much every way,
but I'm gonna use this one to test
for this and get everything done,
cause I know I'm gonna need to trim this.
So obviously it's not gonna work as is,
it's not gonna work with this big bezel.
And I think that we've got some depth issues too
with just how thick this is.
So I think we're gonna have to take matters
into our own hands.
Kind of take this thing apart and dismantle it a little bit
and put it back together in a way that fits hopefully.
- [Eddie] Hopefully.
- Hopefully.
(upbeat music)
All right.
So now we've got the screen itself removed from the guts,
let's go kind of lay this in the dash
and see if this thing itself will fit.
Looks like if I can mount that there,
the cover will go back on I think.
Now it's nice we've got all these little threaded standoffs,
so I should be able to use these
to mount it one way or another.
I think if I just make some tabs,
I'll be able to use the original mounting locations
for the original gauges.
Oh yeah.
I think that's gonna work just fine.
So now let's get the screen out of here
and start working on wiring.
Basically we're gonna need to find a source
of constant 12 volts, a source of ignition 12 volts
and a source of like door open 12 volts and then a ground.
Then we've just got to run a USB cable back
to the Megasquirt, pull out the old multi-meter
and figure out where to wire this thing in.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so I think we've got a plan.
I'm gonna use the old harness from the door buzzer
that I disconnected a while back.
So this has both ground and it has a switch 12 volt source,
so when I turn the key on 12 volts shows up right here
and I've got the ground that I can use, which is great.
Then I just need a constant source of 12 volts
which I'm gonna take from the dome light over there.
So now at this point, all I got to do is make a few jumper
wires to go from where I'm taking power
from to the dash.
I'm just kind of roughly estimating the length
that I need these to be, I'll chop them,
and then I'll turn them to be perfect once I get them in.
But this is the kind of thing I'm gonna start
a little bit long and then dial it in once I install it.
(upbeat music)
Plenty of that super good measuring.
Okay, now let's go get these put in the car
and then we're one whole step closer.
So plug our little jumpers right into this harness.
We should have ground, ground and 12 volts.
All right.
So we got 12 volts, the key on and we got ground
so now we just need to get that constant 12 volts
which we're gonna pull from over there.
We're almost there.
All right.
So we're fishing this power wire from the passenger side
to the driver's side, which can be a huge pain
if you don't have a piece of metal like this.
This is a piece of welding rod I brought from home,
but you can use a straightened out wire, coat hanger,
or you know, whatever, a stick that you found in the yard.
Anything that makes this easier is your friend.
(upbeat music)
Okay, so now we've got our jumper wires in the car.
So now I'm just fishing them up to where the dash
is gonna go, then I'll cut them to fit
and then I'll splice on the jumper
that actually goes into the dash.
And then all the real wiring is done.
All right.
So now we've got our jumper wires
strung up to where the dash is gonna go,
we've got our dash harness.
If that's what you wanna call it,
ready to connect to these,
so all I'm gonna do is connect them.
(upbeat music)
All right, so now that's placed
all we need to do is run our USB extension cable
and mount our little GPS thingy.
Okay, so that was real easy.
Now, what was the other thing?
Oh yeah, the USB thing.
I had to go to a mall yesterday, it was weird.
(cat meows)
Okay, so this is basically just gonna bridge
from the Megasquirt to the dash.
So I'm gonna pop out the center console real quick
because I'm gonna go up under and then up to the back
and I'm gonna have it hanging out back
between the seats somewhere.
So let's get the center console out.
You know, it's not a day of working on the Miata
if you don't have to at least take out the center console.
(upbeat music)
All right.
Now we've got to throw this back together.
Yeah, I mean, not too bad,
could have trimmed a little more of that wire off
but we'll just tuck it back there,
just like that and we'll never see it again.
(upbeat music)
All right.
Well, it's not that easy to put in with Allen key,
but it is in, and I think it's gonna work
and it actually looks pretty good and it is quite sturdy.
So let's see if we can get this thing working.
Okay, so it's the moment of truth.
I'm just gonna turn the key on and see what happens.
I'm kind of interested to see what this looks like,
I have no idea what, what to expect.
Hopefully it looks cool.
Hopefully it works.
Is the fan making any noise?
(laughs)
Flames bro.
Wow.
So it pretty much just kind of looks like windows.
So I'm gonna be able to configure these gauges
in any way you can configure gauges on Megasquirt.
Let's see if we can get this thing hooked up to our,
our keyboard.
Okay, after a little bit of fiddling around
and having to go find a USB drive, we got it working.
It's connected to the Megasquirt
and I think it's gonna be pretty sweet.
So right now we're just looking at kind of the traditional
Megasquirt screen, the standard gauges,
and you can see it's connected, it's actually working.
Hey, not bad.
And then obviously all this is configurable I'm sure.
Ooh.
The amber LED, dang!
This is nitride or this thing is sweet.
Man, okay, all right.
Well, I don't wanna get too sucked
into just playing with this right now because as easy
as it would be to do that, we're not done yet.
Still have to trim the old gauge cover up
to make it fit with the new gauge.
So I'm gonna use this old junky one,
get it trimmed up and get it flush with our new screen.
Should look good.
(upbeat music)
Yeah, that aught to do it.
That's should hold that in place for now.
It looks real nice too.
All right, before we go drive this thing
I wanna get this dash kind of set up
so that we're looking at all the vitals that we care about
or at least what we can access for now.
So I'm gonna customize our dash a little bit
and then we'll go drive it.
All right, so just from the factory,
this kind of comes with some random stuff up here.
So I've just gone ahead and put some things
that I care about on the screen.
Like we've got our vacuum and our boost up there now,
we've got throttle position, air fuel ratio,
intake air temp, our battery voltage, coolant temp
and obviously we've got miles per hour and RPM.
There are dozens and dozens if not hundreds of options
of things that I can look at, which is really nice.
You know, if I need to monitor anything
all I gotta do is go click on it and look at it
rather than install yet another gauge.
So this is really starting to seem
like it is pretty worth it.
So I think I'm gonna full screen this thing
and take it for a spin.
(engine revs)
You know, I can't lie, this makes me feel kind of cool.
Look at all my gauges, look at all my data.
Look at all the things that I know about my car.
That's how you know that I'm really a car guy,
because I can monitor all the things going on in my car.
Obviously that said, I can't yet monitor my fuel level
or my oil pressure,
but the nice thing is with this digital dash
is that now whenever I plug any of those
sort of engine vitals into the Megasquirt,
I can just easily look at them.
And that's a pretty streamlined process.
The Megasquirt is easy to plug things into,
and now that I have this digital dash
it's really easy to look at them.
So honestly, I was a little bit skeptical
about this one in terms of how it would look at the end,
and now granted with all this masking tape
it's a little hard to imagine, but if you can imagine
without the masking tape, I think it's gonna look sweet
and it certainly is functional.
It's really nice to have all these gauges
and I'm really excited to be able to do more
with the Megasquirt.
I think that this makes it easier for me
to spend some more time messing with the Megasquirt.
So in my opinion, this is worth it.
If you're modifying your car
to the point that you really started
to need to be able to keep an eye on things,
absolutely go with the digital dash.
I can't wait to get the new gauge cover in from Mazda,
and once I do, I'll trim it up, make it match,
you know this one and we'll be in business.
So thank you guys so much for watching
us install this digital dash
and bring the Miata into the 21st century.
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @zackjobe
and follow Donut @donutmedia.
I'll see you guys next Wednesday.
(car engine revs)
- Oh, oh-ho dark mode Jobe, what's going on man.
Long time no see.
- Ooh. (falls)
He looks so cool.
Hey, ooh, man he did look cool.
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There's also a hat, right?
- [Man] We don't have it yet.
- Okay, well apparently it's so dark you can't even see it.
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As for me, I'm gonna go hang out with JFK.
(upbeat music)