I'm just getting to the stage where the nights are too cold to be sat outside buggering about with the car, so I've decided to get the dash sorted out. I've already got a digital tacho from maplin, I've not tested it yet though, so I've no idea wether it works.

Anyhow, I looked around for some cheapo guages but speedo's (not for swimming) cost a fortune. I had a search through the forum and found loads of people recomending bicycle computers as speedos.

This Panoram caught my eye, as it's quite big and not stupidly expensive.

Anyone had any experience of this things? is it possible to run it off the cars power rather than the watch cell? Can I get the light to stay on? Will is keep Mr SVA smiling? Anything I should watch out for with it? I'm not adverse to hacking the thing to bits for a bit of mild reverse engineering...

Cheers

tr

As long as it is permanently illuminated at night I can't see it being a problem.

I played with one for it's maximum speed capabilities.

It came from Woolworths I believe. Cost 9-99 and had a cradle to plug in and out of. I put this on corner of dash.

Used a magnet glued to wheel and sensor clamped to cycle wing upright, worked fine BUT all of these things have a 1 second data update so it is odd to watch it.

I would imagine that now if you were near a speed camera it's vital to hold a steady speed to get an accurate reading.

Connecting the internal lighting depends on what has been used. If it's a small LED then it should be easy to isolate the track and feed from car supply via a small zener regulator. Something I never investigated.

Rob

Your best course would be to get the long wire one and run it from the front wheel. I helped on one where we used a £7 Sigma bike computer from Halfords which read up to 99mph. We araldited a fridge magnet to the inside of the rim and put the sensor on a bracket to the wing support. It was lit by a number plate light shining at it from on top of the steering column. It passed SVA at Derby 4 years ago. It read up to its maximum speed and then started again from 0 so it didn't just stop working, you still knew how fast you were going.

yours, Pete.

Maybe this is what you are looking for

speedo bike thingy mi bob

Or how about an electronic one from motorbike (see some going cheap on ebay from time to time), the rev counter would be useless but that could be hidden behind the dash.

Cool, sounds like it might be worth a try out. I think I should be able to sort out some sort of voltage regulator to run it off the car battery, and keep the light on permanently.

I was more worried that the SVA man wouldn't like a bike speedo being used, but I suppose if it meets all the regulations and is in calibration etc, he can't really complain, can he!

If it does only read upto 99mph, could I just say the maximum speed the car is designed for is 95mph, and it wont get tested any more?

Cheers

tr

Get the Sigma one from MPS (thefastone.co.uk) for £24.99, has trip distance, clock, odometer, trip time and reads up to 183mph. That should be high enough.

yours, Pete