My HUD For the SV6 using an Echoman EM05

[VFSV6FORME]

VF SV6 HUD


After doing some digging around that the wiring harness was different from a MY15 SV6 Storm to a MY15 Redline and considering the cost of replacing the top trim plus the maid body of the dash plus buying the Heads up display projector plus a windscreen plus the head light Switch/hud unit plus the trim that holds the switch and other bits and pieces that were needed for a factory HUD install but after investigating and seeing the wiring harness had a missing plug for the HUD switch on the SV6 I decided to give this a miss.
Now after looking at all the aftermarket HUD I noticed that just about all of them if not all except for one the Echoman EM05 were bright enough and good enough (do a youtube on them) to be used during the day without to use of that ugly film that you use and stick it on your windscreen so you can clearly see the data on the windscreen during the day.
The Echoman EM05 has a sensor that detects a bright day and by this it brighten the LCD up as the day is brighter and dulls the LCD as the day goes into night.
Upon testing I noticed that this sensor was not working at 100% of its potential due to the positioning of the unit so what I did was dismantled the LCD and reversed positioned the sensor aiming high and out the windscreen.
Whilst the LCD was in pieces I studied how can I turn this unit off and on plus be able to control its menu by using the original Factory Holden HUD display control unit that I had to purchase. (I love my decade Box that I built at tech when I was 17 years old)
After about 3 days of testing and breaking tracks and resoldering connection on the LCD aftermarket HUD I was able once connected to the ODB2 port of the sv6 for testing purposes only to get everything to work YEAH!!!!!!!!!! So after the testing was finished Its install time and this is where the Nightmare Started. Arggghhhhhh F@#$%^&*(K, Sh@!#$%T. See the Factory HUD switch is long, I purchased the Redline trim so it could fit in it as it did, the 5 pins line up perfect on the sv6 dash panel but I FORGOT ABOUT THE STREERING LOCK BEING IN THE WAY and not allowing the redline trim with the switch to fit in.

Right I don’t give up as that not me so its back to the drawing board so I came up with the idea that if I can cut the last switch off that is used by the redlines for positioning the image on the screen where I used this for the menu up and down I might get away with it. So Off goes the switch on the left had side (cut it off) (It uses uses two mini chassis switches) and I used only the remaining rotary switch for all.

So here I go again ripping the Heads up Display switch apart again (interesting how the factory standard system works each switching position on that rotary switch has a bank of chassis resistors and each time you turn the knob clockwise it jumps to a resistor of higher value).

So the rotary switch now is my second attempt of attacking it for this project. If turned fully to the left on its final click the Echoman EM05 SWITCHES OFF. And turning it clockwise turns it back on then press the button in the middle activate the menu or I can use the radio freq supplied control unit up or down with OK in the middle (The unit is a bit bigger that your thumb) to activate and control the Echoman HUD unit.

The next job. The problem?
It seems that the Factory trim lower panel of the redline is a no go as hacking it to bits will end up being as mess so I decide to do the easy way out and that is Hack the original SV6 trim to accommodate the larger (but cut short) Redline switch and that was not the only problem as the Redline switch after I shortened it it was ok but had another problem as the switch was 3 mm wider at the middle point than what the SV6 switch was.

I.took my time (two days) and was able to do what I needed so after this it was testing time again plugging into the OBD2 port, measured with the steel ruler and all is ok and the best part about this is the only connection my after market HUD has with the SV6 is the OBD2 port and the modified Redline switch.

The Redline HOOD fitted on the SV6 perfect, The BEZEL after hacking anything below the top of the dash the original dash STAYS untouched so I can remove all if the Echoman failed and put the original HOOD back on and nobody would notice a thing as The Echman has only the data cable going to the OBD2 port and my added cable going straight to the Modified Factory shortened Redline switch with one less switch on the end of it.




The Echoman ripped apart for modifications.





Photo shows the standard SV6 switch and the redline full switch





The redline swtch about to be modified. Look at the cut redline fascia.





All modifications done and ready for re assembly.





Switch modified






My decade box can simulate resistances from 1 ohm to 20 million ohms and can be verified with a multi meter. Its reasonably accurate as If I select 8250 Ohms the multi meter will show 8245 or 8255 ohms or around that. (8.2K ohms)






The heads up sitting on its BEZEL and the tray inside it. It was important to glue the flat black tray to the bezel so the angles would be correct.. All is velpro'd. The HOOD is clicked into position by its factory pins. Notice the moved sensor looking out the screen to detect bright light (that little white thing looking forward)





Finished Job. Redline owners will pick the difference as one switch is missing. Pity you know it was better the way I had it before but tough titties as it would not fit in with that steering key lock in the way.




A closer look.




A closer look at the factory modified switch.




The heads up running. Photo taken a little high. The trick with these Heads up displays is to hit the windscreen close to 90 degrees so where you sit you will see little double vision.




Showing volts.





Showing KM Traveled on a single ignition turned on.

 

[VFSV6FORME]

Yeah now I need the time on setting it up. This echoman even has an engine fault alarm that buzzers its head off and has a flashing RED Engine. You can reset the fault (if its resetable) by either pressing and holding my centre button on the switch or using the radio freq remote and holding the OK button in for 4 seconds.
There is plenty of settings to be set like size of engine "eg 3.6L" Set Temp of engine, and heaps of others. Also can set accuracy of KMPer hour speed setting + more.

I need a rest..

Then its back to my newly finished Atmos DTSX picture threatre. Myself and plenty of yanks in the US have minor calibration issues with their systems. Its has to be spot on or I don't sleep. Waiting for a SPL meter to arrive from Hong Kong.

 

[panhead]

Nice job and great determination to see it through.

Also you can’t possibly leave us with a teaser shot the green HQ Monaro without showing us a full photo.

 

[VFSV6FORME]

Nice job and great determination to see it through.

Also you can’t possibly leave us with a teaser shot the green HQ Monaro without showing us a full photo.

Slightly off topic but its for people motivation

Yes the monro.
I purchased that when I was 19 YO. Yep a 308 four speed manual. Within 4 weeks of having the new car I was ripping it to pieces as knowbody knew nothing about 308's back in 1971 so off I go. See back in the early 1970's 80's very few 308's were around because everybody had to have a CHEV engine Monaro, and the Fords had to have a 351 Cleveland engine and anything beside that was a Sh.it Box so after driving to few rev head hangout in Sydney everbody laughed at me having a Monaro with that crap aussie useless motor in it. Well 12 to 18 months of hard work I made them EAT their words as what effort I made for the HUD that took 2 weeks of my time that's NOTHING compared to the effort I put in to turn this 308 into a Chev Ford eater which the car became famous at. See I was a good friend of the Jones Family back in the early days at Parramatta before the workshop was sold and what I did to the 308 was unthinkable to get power out of it. the only thing I did not do was stroke it as it stayed a 308+30 thou due to the special short gudgeon height Venolia Pistons that gave me 11.25 comp where I used small journal longer length (gudgen hole drilled out for correct top dead piston height) super rods that changed the angle of the rods that game me heaps of extra torque for such a small motor.
Yes the Camshaft gallery was bored out to fit a proto-type blank Camshaft that was ground to Mr Jones's recommendation (larger diameter camshaft reduced load on the valve train which saves wasted horsepower) fitted with Crane roller lifters and rockers (had trouble finding shorter push rods) The Heads were done by my friend that had a back yard workshop where I gave him one spare 308 and 253 heads where we cut them with a power saw to see how far we could machine the heads out plus the largest valves were fitted with triple valve chev springs.
Yes I went to a lot of effort to rub the noses of those people that put shi.t on me and the 308 Monaro. I even took my venolia Piston and super rods to work where we had very accurate weight machines there that use to measure parts per million of sewerage in the creek on bits of paper so when we put the pistons in this glass sealed weight bridge all piston were out (nearly stuffed the machine as the weight of a piston was its upper limit of operation) Yes they were micro machined and all items left work with similar weight. So after modifying the belt Pully system (large pulley on Alternator, smaller pulley on the crank) The first ever of 308 Edelbrock Manifold that had the guts cut out of it, the first ever genie extractors,The water pump has 50% of its blades cut out and after this I roughly assembled the engine (old rings and bearings) to inspect the deck height of the block where that was needed to be decked correctly (odd compression per cylinder).

After this the Engine was assembled by me, whilst this was going on I purchased a 12 Bolt diff from the US with 3.55 gears (studied tractioncontrol. Remember no internet them days so this was hard) + a fine spline Muncie with liberty Synchronising Hubs with special Syncro's in it (first second had a pair and 3rf and forth had another different pair) for fast shifting with Hurst Shift. A heavy (forgot how heavy it was. Made out of Ian 26 Steel, flywheel machined at work for me a L34 duel rotor Dissy and when all of this was put together and tested and pulled apart and tried another cam and other I had one MOTHER of a monster Monaro where I re appeared down our local rev head hang out at Parramatta road where the same idiots with 327, 350 Monaro's and all those big thumping Phase 3 Fords all got there doors blown off.

Now I wont say more but of course this happened at Castelreagh drags and within months at the drags the car was well known where if filled the newspapers with stories (look a photo of my VF Commordore HUD where it aims inside the garage. Look at the large long picture frame, Stories galore about the Car). Yes I drove to Calder Park where at the drags there was John Harvey in the Holden A9X running 13.2 in the quarter mile and the next run it was my turn and I ran 12.8 seconds in the quarter mile with street tyres and an open exhaust with Collector (some back pressure needed)

Back In Castelreagh Drags day I tried not to break the national record because what happened is I was in B street, Monaro's with 327 or 350 or Ford 351's yes they were in A street yet they because we all had the same weight but I had the smaller engine the system had to give me a head start yet I was faster in the quarter mile than what they were.
Anyhow I stopped drag racing after I was branded a Cheat as scrutineers spent hours looking for the hidden nitrious Oxide bottle as they said it was impossible for a 308 to run in the 12'ves.

The moral of this is if any person puts there mind to anything and you are persistent and you don't go away you will achieve your goals. I have been like this all my life even with electronics's a lot more complicated than a VF commodore

 

[426Cuda]

That's an awesome story and an awesome car. Inspirational stuff! 308's are great. Love em. Better donk than 327, 350 and both Windsor and Clevo's IMHO. All good, but the Aussie donk was better I reckon. Compact, lightweight and tuff. A great platform as you proved@. Later injected ones were a real gem.
I do have a huge softspot for 340 & 360 Mopars. But I won't spoil your story by telling you how quick my NA 360cube 4 speed VJ charger was.

Great job on the HUD too mate. Expert skill.

 

[VFSV6FORME]

That's an awesome story and an awesome car. Inspirational stuff! 308's are great. Love em. Better donk than 327, 350 and both Windsor and Clevo's IMHO. All good, but the Aussie donk was better I reckon. Compact, lightweight and tuff. A great platform as you proved@. Later injected ones were a real gem.
I do have a huge softspot for 340 & 360 Mopars. But I won't spoil your story by telling you how quick my NA 360cube 4 speed VJ charger was.

Great job on the HUD too mate. Expert skill.

Yes the only trouble I'm having with the HUD at the moment is I'm trying to change whilst the car is in motion or whilst the car is in the garage with the engine running the setting on the HUD that changes K'm's traveled from the minute you move the car to your final destination Example you traveled 38Km's from point A to point B to the setting that actually shows the speed you are actually doing so you don't have to look at the speedometer on the Vf Commodore all the time (so you don't get booked). I have contacted Both sellers of these Echoman Em05 as I have purchased 2 of them (one for testing) and one seller has not bothered to contact me at all and the other seller has spoken to me via ebay messages but I think he is having trouble in what I'm trying to say. Its simple all I want is info on how to Change Km to Km/hour
. Others on the internet have had the same issue but nobody so far has posted a fix for this.

Please note my second Echoman EM05 is being tested on a VE Commodore and that has the same issue as the VF that has been hard wired and that one is untouched my me. just plug it in and let the lead hang all over the dash but it doesn't matter what I do I won't show Km/Hour. It only shows Km traveled from ignition ON to you turn the engine Off. There must be a trick to this or the units are faulty but I don't think this is the case YET as it might just be something that has been left out in the manual.

 

[VFSV6FORME]

Nice job and great determination to see it through.

Also you can’t possibly leave us with a teaser shot the green HQ Monaro without showing us a full photo.

Next week I will show a little more of the old girl. Been Very Busy catching up on other work around the house.

 

[arronm]

For me isn't kph the most important reading

 

[VFSV6FORME]

For me isn't kph the most important reading

YES Very much YES,
I have seen You Tube video with them working but at the same time I have read insulting comments as to how do you change this from Km to Km/H. or a guy that took yonks of time to work it out but never added anything on how to do it. What a mistake by the manufacture. We all know Chinese manuals can be questionable on anything you buy but this manual for the Echoman is fairly written well with only a few sentences that have you scratching your head but this important setting change no doubt has been left out.
Tomorrow or later I will set the System time for the first time to see what happens but if i'm correct the system time for the HUD comes from the car itself. Anyhow will have another go at it in the next few days as now I'm busy moving speaker cables around my TV room due to incorrect speaker placement What a nightmare it was, had to lift 10 roof tiles to get under the valley to get to the cavity to pass the fat cable through.

 

[VFSV6FORME]

Next week I will show a little more of the old girl. Been Very Busy catching up on other work around the house.

Added two pics today in the Miscellaneous forum and waiting for approval. All i hope is that these photo's will not end up like the last time I put photo's of our cars on a forum when I ended up in court watching every day a loser about to be tossed into jail. See the cops and the courts really don't care that much about cars thieves today but when a thief broke into our house and assaulted my 6 year old Son that caught him Well They had to put him in a Special Jail were the others could not get to him where all the dirty old men are..
Just think If I'm good enough for some good electronic Projects like the HUD for the VF and many others just imagine what I could have waiting for another fool that think he can take something this is ours.