CarCluster

Control car instrument clusters from your computer for gaming or other purposes using an ESP32.

Tell me more?

Ever wondered if you could use a car instrument cluster outside of your car? Well... the answer to that question is yes. The aim of this project is to give you the ability to run a real instrument cluster from a real car on your desk. The main purpose of this is gaming, but the possibilities are endless. You might want to use it as a clock. Or maybe you want to show the amount of unread emails - possibilities are endless.

Here are a few demo videos of various instrument clusters in action:

VW PQ	VW MQB	BMW F

What do I need?

The hardware for this is pretty straightforward. From active electronics you will need:

ESP32 board	CAN interface	12V PSU

Or in a bit more details:

• ESP32 board (I am using a generic Devkit V1 board - available from ebay for around 10€)
• MCP2515 CAN bus module (I am using a generic one from ebay - available for around 5€)
• 12V power supply (doesn't have to be too powerful. But 1A or more is probably what you want)
• Car instrument cluster supported by this project
• Some wires, pin headers and other stuff to wire everything together
• An X9C102 (or two) digital potentiometer plus two 1k ohm resistors (for fuel level simulation on some clusters - optional)

Supported instrument clusters

Currently fully tested and supported are the following instrument clusters:

VW Polo 5	VW Golf 7	Škoda Superb 2
PQ35	MQB	PQ46
Fully supported	Fully supported	Mostly works. Menus don't work, some indicators don't work (ABS, ESP)

VW T-Cross	BMW 5 Series (F10)	BMW 3 Series (F30) 6WA
MQB	BMW F	BMW F
Do not use! Cluster with Component protection!	Fully supported	Fully supported

Mini Cooper (third generation, F55/F56/F57)	BMW 5 Series (E60)
BMW F	BMW E
Fully supported	Mostly supported - WIP - no fuel sim, only some indicators

For people just starting I would recommend one of the BMW F series clusters or a VW MQB based cluster. If you want to try other clusters from same platform, they will probably work, but modifications might be needed based on the specific car model. If you are unsure if it will work, get the specific clusters mentioned here.

*Newer MQB platform clusters like the T-Cross should be avoided. After some (unknown) time they will enter into component protection mode which will flash the display and make most of the indicators useless. There is no known solution for this as of yet. I highly recommend you stick to older cars like Golf 7.

You can get these clusters from ebay, your local scrapyard, or if you are in EU: rrr.lt . No matter where you get them, they should cost you around 50€.

Supported games

If you want to use the instrument cluster for gaming then currently supported are the following games:

• Forza Horizon 4 (Horizon 5 should also work, as should Forza Motorsport 7)
• BeamNG.drive
• Simhub (not a game but a tool to interface with other games not on this list)

Set it up

Wiring the main ESP32 board and CAN interface

For wiring you have two options that you can choose. Click on the links below for details:

• Wiring using the dedicated CarCluster PCB
• Wiring by using jumper wires/breadboards

For easier wiring I have created a simple breakout PCB that you can use. Simply order the PCBs, solder on some headers and screw terminals, plug in your CAN interface and enjoy. See the link above for more details.

Wiring your cluster

• Wiring for VW PQ platform cluster
• Wiring for VW MQB platform cluster
• Wiring for BMW F series cluster
• Wiring for BMW E60 cluster

Install the arduino sketch to the ESP32

Download the project and open it using Arduino IDE (I am using version 2.3.3).

If you haven't yet installed ESP32 support for Arduino IDE then do so now. Go to Boards Manager and search for esp32 by Espressif Systems. I am using version 3.0.2.

There is no need to install any additional libraries. All needed libraries are bundled with this project when you download it.

Now open the Carcluster.ino file (arduino sketch) and look for the header BEGIN USER CONFIGURATION. At the minimum you need to select your instrument cluster (for example change #define CLUSTER 1 to #define CLUSTER 3 in order to use a Golf 7 cluster). Additionally you might want/need to configure some other parameters in this section, but that will depend on your specific cluster. All parameters should be well documented.

Now that you have done that you can compile and install the sketch to your ESP32. Upon starting the ESP will create a wifi network access point called CarCluster. Connect to it using your phone/laptop using the password carcluster. After you have done that you can open a web browser (if a popup one doesn't open automatically upon connection) and navigate to 192.168.4.1. This will bring up WifiManager where you can see the networks around you and connect to the one you want. After you do that your ESP will automatically connect to the network you select unless an error occurs in which case the access point will be created again. If you do not configure the wifi network in 3 minutes the ESP will boot in serial only mode that you can use with Simhub.

Note that you might have some trouble uploading the code to the ESP32 while the CAN interface is connected. If you do, disconnect the CAN interface and try uploading again.

You can also watch a simple step by step video:

Use the web interface to test the basic functionality

This project contains a small web server that you can use to control some basic functionality of the dashboard. You can set the RPM, speed and some of the other parameters using it. Simply open http://<ip-of-your-ESP32>/ in your web browser and you should be able to see the above interface. Move the sliders and click the buttons to control the dashboard display.

Use telemetry data from your game

For forza Horizon 4/5:

1. Launch the game and proceed through the menus until you can drive your car
2. Pause the game and navigate to the Settings menu
3. Navigate to HUD and Gameplay
4. Set Data Out to ON
5. Set Data Out IP Address to ip-of-your-ESP32
6. Set Data Out IP Port to 1101 (or other if you changed the IP in the code)

For BeamNG.drive:

1. Navigate to options
2. Select Others
3. Scroll down until you find OutGauge support and enable it
4. Set IP address to ip-of-your-ESP32
5. Set port to 1102 (or other if you changed the IP in the code)

Whenever you now run the game you should see the instrument cluster showing the data from the game.

Use with Simhub

Simhub support is also included. Simhub can be used in cases where your favourite game isn't supported by this project directly. Simhub support is for now only available through USB connection and not through wifi.

In order to set this up you will first need to enable custom serial devices plugin in simhub. After you have done that navigate to the "Custom serial devices" tab on the left and add a new device. Configure it as follows:

In the Update messages enter the following code:

 '{"action":10' +
 ', "spe":' + truncate(format([SpeedKmh], 0)) + 
 ', "gea":"' + isnull([Gear], 'P') + '"' +
 ', "rpm":' + truncate(isnull([Rpms], 0)) +
 ', "mrp":' + truncate(isnull([MaxRpm], 8000)) +
 ', "lft":' + isnull([TurnIndicatorLeft], 0) +
 ', "rit":' + isnull([TurnIndicatorRight], 0) +
 ', "oit":' + truncate(isnull([OilTemperature], 0)) + 
 ', "pau":' + isnull([DataCorePlugin.GamePaused], 0) +
 ', "run":' + isnull([DataCorePlugin.GameRunning], 0) +
 ', "fue":' + truncate(isnull([DataCorePlugin.Computed.Fuel_Percent], 0)) +
 ', "hnb":' + isnull([Handbrake], 0) +
 ', "abs":' + isnull([ABSActive], 0) +
 ', "tra":' + isnull([TCActive], 0) +
 '}\n'

You can now enjoy CarCluster with any game that is supported by Simhub.

Help and support

If you need help with anything contact me through github (open an issue here). You can also check my website for other contact information: http://www.r00li.com .

If you want me to add support for a game or a specific instrument cluster you can also donate to this project using Paypal. This will not guarantee that I will add support, but it will certainly give me more incentive to do so.

Acknowledgements

This project would not be possible without various people sharing their knowledge and results of their experiments. In particular I would like to thank the following individuals:

• Leon Bataille for posting his initial Polo cluster work on Hackaday. The Polo instrument cluster sketch for this project is based on his work
• Ronaldo Cordeiro for providing information (including sample code) for MQB cluster integration
• Ross-tech forum user jyoung8607 for providing CAN scans of various cars used in this project
• Marcin Jakubowski for his work on BMW E90 cluster that was useful when implementng the BMW E series sketch

License

This work is licensed under GNU GPL version 3. See LICENSE file for more details