Race-Technology Dash2 installation to BMW M3 E30
01/25/2009: 1000 miles on display and no issues. I was able to locate a E30 dash and Dash2 is now inside the cluster. It is better hidden now and doesn't attract thiefs so easily. Since coolant temperature is now measured by Dash2, water temp gauge was replaced by the PLX AFR meter. RPM works now correctly and was related to number of pulses/rev coming from Autronic.
I built also a mechanical system to change the angle of the display and is located now in place of the trip meter reset knob. Dash has now a knock indicator and Check Engine light.
One resistor was needed between +12V and speed sensor so that Dash2 can measure the speed. This was needed because the OEM speedometer was removed.
Dash2 is now programmed with warning limits, one of them is for example Traction control. If Traction control is now engaged and is above the limit, warning light is shown and value is displayed.
12/02/2008: 400 miles on display and no issues.
11/18/2008: Everything works great and I'm very happy with the display. Display is clear to read and It works perfect with Autronic ECU without any issues. It is a great tuning tool to see the values on the screen while driving without having to look the PC display. It is very clever from Autronic to leave the last 4 channels to be user configurable compared to fixed values. Now I can easily choose which value I want to see. More comments to come later, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, go and read about the Autronic SM4 installation ...or continue reading about Dash2
11/17/2008: Installation is now complete and here are details how installation went and preliminary comments on the device.
Parts of the system are:
Race-Technology Dash2 display to display following information:
- RPM
- Shift light, 6 lights
- Speed
- Information from Autronic SM4 ECU: Water temp, Intake Air temp, Charge temp, ignition advance, injection length, Knock status, AFR, Oil temp and pressure, Battery voltage, Throttle, MAP and 4 user selectable channels
- Information from DL1: Heading, speed, Lat/Long/Total acceleration, LAP Times, 4 speed signals and 8 analog channels.
- More information on Dash2 here
Autronic SM4 ECU:
- Engine management
Race-Technology DL1:
- Data logging. More information on DL1 here
Race-Technology ECU interface:
- Interface DL1, Dash2 and ECU together. Modifies ECU RS-232 protocol to Race-Technology format. More information on ECU Interface here
ABS Sensor interface:
- Use OEM ABS speed signals and modify those to Autronic ECU. Used for Traction control and Launch control.
Serial Switcher
- Since I want to be able to log and tune the engine without changing cables, this box switches between ECU interface and PC.
Display control switch: BMW M3 OEM Cruise control switch used for controlling the Dash2 displays, functions and menu
Launch Control, Traction control switches
Speed sensor: BMW M3 E30 OEM speed sensor in differential
One thing caught my eye that why the cables are so short? Only about 20cm long and I’m sure I would have to extend the cables. I wouldn’t think it would be expensive to lengthen the cables with an other 30cm.
Since I wasn’t able to find a used instrument cluster, I will leave the original cluster and install the Dash2 in parallel for now. If I will find one later, I would install it inside it.
Next surprise was that mounting screws were not included. Instructions say that max lenght the screws can extend inside Dash2 must be less than 5mm. Assuming users would use 1mm plate to install, why not to include 5-6mm screws with the device? Now there is a chance that users won’t notice this and use longer ones. Screws are also M4 size and it might be difficult to locate those in US.
Always before I start installations, I always check the cables with multimeter. It is almost normal to find problems with colors. Cabling is ok, only grief is that the connector picture in manual is from wiring side. Picture should be from the pin side, especially since there is no access to wiring side…
Other grief about the connectors is that the connectors are angled to the side. You will see this later from the pictures why this is an issue. I was able to fix this by opening the strain relief screw and turning the connector. Now connectors are angled to the middle and not visible to the side. Also, why the connectors are so huge? I’m sure smaller connectors are available.
Next surprise was the ECU cable. Since my DL1 is installed into glove compartment next to ECU, ECU cable is too short and won’t reach it from Dash2. Again, why cables are so short? I fixed the problem by removing the connector to ECU and extending the cable.
Since I want to be able to tune the engine without changing the ECU connectors all the time, I made a switch to switch the RS-232 signals from ECU to Dash2 or to PC for tuning purposes.
Configuration is easy with PC. Just define the gears, screens and input scaling and you are good to go. It took about 10 mins to configure the display. If you are using DL1, you need to make sure sw rev. Is atleast v9. Also, if you plan to log the analog Dash2 channels, you need to enable Decode serial data with DL1 configuration sw.
Configuration can be loaded into the device by PC using serial port or from the memory card inserted into DL1. I used the memory card method and worked without issues.
Here’s one improvement idea for Race-Technology: It would be great to be able to load multiple configuration files into memory card and load the one you want from the Dash2 menu. Configuration is loaded after DL1 is ready to start logging. When loading the configuration from the memory card, my recommendation is to delete the file after it is loaded. This way Dash2 will use configuration from it’s memory and will start up faster.
Since I don’t have cruise control, I decided to use it to control the display. One additional switch was added to activate the menu. Now I can activate logging and change screens from it.
After everything was double and triple checked, it was time to power the thing up. Everything worked ok, except displayed speed was way off and RPM didn’t work.
My first configuration was for Dash2 to read the RPM from Dash2 input, from Autronic Tach output. Then I changed the RPM input to RS-232 and now RPM was too high. For some reason the default number for Pulses per rev in Dash2 RPM configuration screen is 0.1. Changed this to 1 and now RPM works. I will have to get RPM from Autronic to work as well since now I don’t have RPM readings while serial is routed to Autronic tuning sw.
Next problem was that the speed was way off. This was because the number of pulses/mile wasn’t set correctly. I’m taking the speed input from the same sensor which is used by OEM speedometer.
Number of pulses/mile for BMW E30 M3 are as follows:
Mph: K=7740
Kmh: K=4838
This is with stock M3 transmission, 4.10 differential and 15” tires.
For some reason this number can’t be configured with configuration sw, but has to be entered via the Dash2 menu.
To verify the speed, I made one screen with GPS speed from DL1. With settings above displayed speed is within 1mph compared to speed from GPS.
11/08/2008: Basic design complete. Main components are ECU Interface cable, DL1 data logger and Autronic SM4. Trying to locate a used instrument panel and put the Dash2 inside but so far haven't been able to locate one. If I can't find one, Dash2 will be installed in front of the OEM instrument cluster. Instrument cluster will be left operative and Dash2 wired in parallel. Since my car doesn't have cruise control anymore, cruise control switch will be used as the control switch to change displays etc...
12/04/2008: Dash2 and ECU interface arrived
11/04/2008: Dash2 ordered