About This Project
I’m in the process of bringing a Sinclair C5 into the 21st century by replacing all the electrical system and electronics with modern technology. The intention is of making the C5 more functional and usable, by addressing some of the limitations of the 1985 motor controller and battery technology. In short, making the C5 into a C6 that goes very fast and has a much greater distance and rapid charge cycle and is packed with technology!
Since there is a generous amount of console area on the C5 I figured it would make a nice “dashboard” to replace the 1985 basic “LED POD” console. I had the idea of using a Raspberry PI with a 7" LCD (maybe touchscreen) to act as a “virtual dashboard” with interchangeable “dashboard themes” to provide speed, distance, battery power remaining etc.
Apart from nice gadget feature, the Raspberry PI itself would bring many much more practical features to the C5 including SatNav and other advanced features such as rear and front camera view/recording, and some important safety features such as proximity and motion sensors, light dependent resistor for lights, motor, battery and heat monitoring.
What’s Connected
If possible I’d like to interface the PI with the C5’s controller unit (which will be a new digital e-bike style replacement) to get information on speed, battery status, distance traveled, and allow some switching of settings in the controller itself. I have a gadget (Speedict) for this which sits between a controller unit and works by bluetooth or USB, so that will make interfacing to the controller unit much easier than attempting a wired interface.
In addition, the RaspberryPI will almost certainly be connected to Bluetooth (for GPS feed from a mobile phone) else directly to GPS transceiver for SatNav. There will also some sensors connected to the Raspberry PI mounted on the C5 itself (proximity, motion-alarm, light-resistor, and thermistor sensor).
Triggers & Alerts
Probably will use this feature.
Scheduling
Probably won’t use this feature.
Dashboard Screenshots
Still in pre-developing planning stage, no screenshots available.
Photos of the Project
No photos yet due to above.