Does anyone know if it is possible to set up an in car "HUD" where i could hook up a DVI or VGA input from my laptop to some sort of projector and have it displayed on the windshield? I have a 800W DC to AC inverter, so i have 120VAC power available. Thanks
I'm sure it's possible to have a hud if you can set your screen to a mirror image (or just use a mirror.) Bigger problems would be in finding a way to replicate your gauges on screen -- not to mention finding room for this on most dashboard tops.
You know i seen something like this on a car my friends dad had way back in the 90's lol dont know what it was tho. it was awesome.
I think there are a few car companies out there that use a HUD system. I think it works like the prototype firefighter HUD masks. It's more like mini screens attached to a location of the window. Cadillac here in the states was working on a night vision HUD for easy navigation at night. For what you want to do, I think you want what fighter planes use for targeting. Here is an F16 HUDhttp://www.matadoresairsoft.com/articulos/hurricane552_archivos/f-16_hud_020410_09.jpg Not sure if there is a cost effective HUD sys atm.
be hard ot make work with your windscreen as I think they use a verticle sheet of glaass as the screen, no idea how it works but if you make one, make us one love to have that in my clio
Alright man, here you go. I called some friends and here are companies that design vehicle HUDs. http://www.saflex.com/en/products/auto/HUD.aspx http://www.globaldensoproducts.com/be/hud/
Do a google search for 'carputer.' You're gonna want a 12v DC-DC power supply specifically made for cars, so you don't have to convert DC to AC and then back to DC. Also you can buy a usb scan tool that will give you digital readouts of all of your gauges and more.
You can, and ive seen it done on the gadget show here in the UK, if you get some reflective film and a small vga screen just mirror the image, mount on your dash at the correct angle, and it'll reflect off well enough to see slightly, add some film onto the window where the hud shines and it'll be perfect I've tempted to do it myself as i have a carputer sitting round doing not alot, but i dont have digital readouts from my engine, i dont have an ecu with handy information and i dont have digital clocks haha
The HUD system for the BMW's is a pretty expensive option because they replace the windshield with a specially coated windshield, don't know the details of it but it's some fancy-pants stuff.
If you just reflect it off the windscreen, the image will appear to be pretty close and you won't be able to see both it and traffic clearly at the same time. The trick is making the image appear out in front of you furhter so you can see it and traffic at the same time. I have no idea how this is done.
Hey hey people, It's been tried a lot at places like mp3car.com (I think that's the site). There seems to be two pretty difficult problems, which you may be able to sort out. The first problem is just using a standard windscreen, the light reflects from both the bottom and the top of the glass. The result of the is two images about 5mm out of sync. That's why BMW replace the windscreen with the fancy-pants stuff as Jasio said. Some people have been toying with sticking different things on the windscreen to get over that, with different results - but you need to have a search on those forums really. The second issue is finding something bright enough to show an image you can read. That's why most of the professionally fitted HUDs are very simple. VDF(?) screens seem to be the way to get over it, but no fancy graphics. But after alllll of that, every piece of glass is different, and I've seen photos of PDA's on dashboards that work ok at night. Let us know how it goes!
