Virtual dashboards through OBDII

[marcocale]

Hi all,

as already explained in the presentation dedicated topic, I'm trying to build a virtual dashboard through the new (for me) OBDII feature. I have already done some experiments with the old Dashboard gauges feature, but now I want to try this new interesting possibilty given us from the software.
I'm actually doing experiments with Dashcommand with a photorealistic STACK skin made by me.
As far as I understand at the moment only four parameters are supported: RPM, Coolant T, Speed and Gear.
I found a way to correctly display in Dashcommand the first 3:

RPM => SAE.RPM
Coolant T => SAE.ECT
Speed => SAE.VSS

but i was not able to display Current gear (probably because, if I understood correctly, in real car this isn't a value passed trough the OBDII, but calculated inside the OBDII software).

So I'm asking if someone could help me to display this value in Dashcommand, Torque or any other similar OBDII dashboard software.

Please note that I already found something in another thread (GEAR in X-SIM should have to do with OBD protocol Mode 01, PID OE) but I'm quite noob in using OBD softwares so that I'm really lost in understanding how to use this information. Please don't blame me!


And just to know if my effort is worth, I ask to developers if OBDII feature will be developed in the future, improving it and adding support for other parameters already available trough the Extractor, not only the "functional" one but also that parameters that usually are not available in real car OBDII communication, but very useful in simulators (I'm thinking for example best lap time, last lap time, position, laps and so on....). This could make possible to build very complete dashboard for our rigs.

Thank You very much in advance!

Marco

[sirnoname]

Gear is hidden in reserved OBD2 commands. Yes the plan is to export much more details but only for programmers, existing OBD2 does not support things like gear. Is this topic up to date or too late?
Do Dashcommand support unknown OBD2 commands as plugin?

[marcocale]

Sorry for the late answer.
Unfortunately my knoweledge in Dashcommand is only as user able (more or less) to create virtual dashboard (you can see below a quick and dirty example I made only for test):



As far as I understand unfortunately Dashcommand doesn't support plugin. I see it support scripts, but not custom plugins.
But I was thinking in a different way, but since I'm totally noob in how the OBD interface works, I'm not sure I'm saying nonsense.
The parameters we need in a simulation are different from the ones we have in a real car. For example we need the lap time, for sure something not passed trough OBD II in a street car used by a family
So I was wondering if it is possible to send the data needed trough another virtual "sensor" channel, even if not the exact correpsonding one, I don't care of it as long as I know the correspndence to show the right parameter in my OBD II software. I'll try to explane better with the lap time example: I don't care if the lap time is passed trough the OBD II parameter "Time since engine start". I only need to know that if I want to see the laptime on my dashboard I have to call that parmeter and display it like Lap Time and not with the real meaning tha it have on a real car. Don't know if I wrote nonsense or if it's not clear.
By the way I saw a big limitation in OBD II thinking to use in a sim. The OBD II speed parameter has a range from 0 to Max 255. Enough for many (not all) commercial cars, but surely not for our sim. For example I used the X-Sim OBD II interface with rFactor F1 1977 Mod, but when you reach 255 Kmh the speedometer stops.
So also for the speed should be passed trough another parameter that allow us to have speed over 255 Kmh. If my feeling is not wrong, also gears (a parameter not passed trough OBD, only calculated in teh software based on teh car characteristics), could be passed trough another OBD integer parameter not used for the sim. I repeat, I hope not to have written nonsense, I'm only trying to understand if this idea is feasible or not, because I really like the idea to be able to do such complex virtual dashboard.


Coming back to Dashcommand
Here you can find the download page where you can find also the SDK and plugin examples: http://www.palmerperformance.com/downloads.php As told, I'm not sure that Dashcommand supports it.
In the Palmerperformance forum I read that everyone is interested in developing plugins for their software can contact them at support@palmerperformance.com and ask fo the plugin API.

Please forget me if I wrote nonsense, and thank for your attention!

Marco