Automotive Display System with Raspberry Pi

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I am working on building a custom automotive display system with Rasberry pi. It is a custom design and I wish to simulate the design for feasibility and looking for a simulation platform for Rasberry pi.

My project involves the following:

  1. Analog to digital converter to acquire automotive engine signals. Build an automotive digital display.
  2. Novel Gallium Nitride semiconductor RF transistor towards to step down analog inputs from 10-30V (tachometer) to 0.5V. Gallium Nitride transistor in theory offers ultra-low noise operation, hence towards low power signal processing. [Optional for now].
  3. Microprocessor-based Raspberry Pi for data acquisition, storage and processing.
  4. Windows OS with direct data acquisition in Excel. Microsoft Excel-based automotive display. Microsoft Excel for internal data analytics.
  5. I would like to develop the system software in "C -language ".
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Hey there @Ashay285995, welcome to the forums!

Cool project! I’ve seen many similar builds on the forums so you’ll likely have plenty of help here.

You mentioned that you wanted a “simulation platform” for Raspberry Pi, I’m not exactly sure what you mean by this and was hoping for some clarification. What kind of simulations did you want to perform?

The Microprocessor-based Pi should be fine, there are a variety of RP2040 and RP2350 boards available from our store, depending on your needs. These include the Pico 1 and 2, and wireless options if they’re necessary.

Regarding your 4th point. Windows is an interesting choice. For small, semi-embedded, systems like this, I would recommend a lighter weight operating system. If you’re using Raspberry Pi anyway, you can setup basically all of these functions in the one device using PiOS instead. LibreOffice is a free open-source analog for Microsoft Office (it is about equivalent to Office 2013 IIRC) that runs well on Raspberry Pi platforms. This is a much lighter-weright setup than using a Windows device.

Another alternative is setting up a standard Pi SBC with a screen for all your real-time info (there are a variety of PiOS/Linux distros that can be used here) and store all of the data in a simpler method (e.g. Writing the data to a JSON on an SD card) to be later imported into excel for analysis.

Let me know if either of these options sound feasible!

The last thing I wanted to touch on was the choice of C as your language. I think C will work really well in-general, particularly for the hardware interfacing side of things due to it’s faster speed over languages like Python. C is typically my language of choice!

The decision to use C with the Raspberry Pi ecosystem is interesting, however. The RP microcontroller chips are ARM-based (I believe Python is C-based as well), so it can be done, but it often isn’t. There are a variety of Microcontrollers designed to be programmed with C out of the box, happy to recommend some if you would like! Is there a specific reason you chose this method?

Looking forward to your response!

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Dear Zach,

Thank you for the valuable help. Please allow me to present the following:

  1. I am new to microprocessor based system design, hence seeking a simulation platform to simulate the rasberry pi based system. Upon validating the design, then order the hardware to build the system.
    For now, I am at using Gallium Nitride RF transistor for analog data sampling, ADC, Up/Down Counter for speed display. Present status. These I wish to simulate just as P-spice circuit simulator.
  2. I am interested in C-language as its faster.
  3. One of my thoughts is to directly import or acquire live data in microsoft excel through rasberry pi and project live analytics in excel. This I wish to build using C as programming language.

Please kindly advise.

Sincere Regards
Dr. Ashay Chitnis

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Hi Dr. Ashay Chitnis, Thanks for your response!

  1. Unfortunately microcontroller simulation is not as widely available as traditional electronics simulation, at least not as far as I’m aware. I know there are industry standard programs that combine microcontroller sim with traditional SPICE sim, such as Labcenter Proteus (which we sell here). Unfortunately, these programs are expensive. I am not aware of a free/open-source alternative (thinking LTSpice for SPICE Sim). I’m fairly sure Frtizing has some level of this in-built, but it isn’t very complex and likely would not be capable of simulating the system to the desired extent.

  2. The C language should work very well for this approach! I would recommend looking at the Teensy range or the ESP32 range of microcontroller board on our website. The Raspberry Pi boards are fantastic but can be limiting, particularly in analog environments. The analog Pins on the Pico are limited to 0-1V, which can be very restricting. This is fine if you decide to make your own ADC, but you may be able to save some time by spending slightly more on your development board.

  3. Are you able to provide clarification on the “live feed” aspect of the project? I have a few specific questions:
    – Is the Excel sheet obtaining the data for processing later?
    – Is the device with the Excel sheet also in the car with you?
    – Does the Excel sheet need to be connected to Microsoft Cloud or otherwise? If not, I’ll re-iterate that options such as LibreOffice Calc on the RPi will likely give far fewer headaches in the long run.

Perhaps a drawing or diagram could shed some light on your vision.

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Dear Zach,

  1. I am certainly interested in Proteus Labcenter for system level simulation. Mostly, I will purchase the same.
  2. I am interested in direct data acquisition in excel for data science and analytics - programming with C language.
  3. The device will be in the car with excel program to present live data in form of graphs - part of the dashborad. All processing by Excel. New type of dashboard - Informative. For example, presenting a bar graph of mileage of Trip -A, Trip-B, and current…
  4. My thought is Gallium Nitride RF HEMT to sample all analog signals within 500 MHz range (all sensors combined). Further, ultra-low noise capability of Gallium Nitride Transistor will help sample signals between 0-1 V. This is new and would require study. For now, interested in building an ADC module with GaN RF HEMT.

Thank you again

Sincere Regards
Dr. Ashay Suhas Chitnis

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Dear Zach,

When convenient, can you please share the brochure of " Labcenter Proteus".

Sincere Regards
Dr. Ashay Chitnis

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Hi Dr. Ashay Chitnis,

All of the documentation for the Proteus software can be found in the “Recommended Resources” section of the description on our website page, pictured below.

image
image386Ă—228 12.9 KB

The project overall sounds well-thought-out. I do encourage you to look at alternatives for Excel processing. There are many options for displaying JSON or CSV data graphically using C. I worry Excel will be too slow and/or utilize too many system resources to be viable in this scenario.

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Quick side note:
What ever controller you are looking at, make sure the ADC will work as you need (e.g. fast enough)

ESP32 built in ADC are not the best and are a little slow. But using an ESP32 with an external ADC might give the results needed.

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Dear Zach,

Thank you again.

Sincere Regards
Dr. Ashay Chitnis

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