***CURRENTLY A WORK IN PROGRESS***
There are numerous products on the market that offer the ability to display the vehicle’s RPM via LEDs but most of these products utilize the OBD2 protocol. Although this works, there is additional delay, the occupation of the OBD2 port, and a constant power draw that continues even when the vehicle is locked. This power draw also can trigger the vehicle’s alarm to go off as a way to signal the owner that there is a power draw.
I decided to develop my own shiftlight setup by directly listening to the powertrain CANBUS and powering it via a switched source that turns off shortly after the vehicle locks. This would solve all the issues as well as provide a valuable learning experience that directly correlates with my career.
The shiftlight kit is comprised of the following
Controller box - an ESP32C3 paired with a CAN transceiver and a DCDC converter
Shiftlight enclosure - a stick of 8 “neopixel”-style LEDs with different backing plates to suite the user’s placement
Powertrain CANBUS Patch Harness - a patch harness created by a friend to non-destructively tap the vehicle’s PTCANBUS as well as 12v and GND
The code was developed based on open source libraries as well as information from other A90 Supra owners who mapped out the CAN IDs. Utilizing Claude AI, I was able to quickly iterate the codebase until a working prototype could be used. From this point I incorporated a Bluetooth GUI built using RemoteXY such that a user can change the shift point, the brightness, and various other settings for the shiftlights.
Currently, the project requires a bit of in-car testing and should be ready for permanent install within the coming months.
See on-track testing here:
https://youtu.be/yw9KzNKkK94?si=-ZLmwB1crm1J-W1u
***CURRENTLY A WORK IN PROGRESS***
There are numerous products on the market that offer the ability to display the vehicle’s RPM via LEDs but most of these products utilize the OBD2 protocol. Although this works, there is additional delay, the occupation of the OBD2 port, and a constant power draw that continues even when the vehicle is locked. This power draw also can trigger the vehicle’s alarm to go off as a way to signal the owner that there is a power draw.
I decided to develop my own shiftlight setup by directly listening to the powertrain CANBUS and powering it via a switched source that turns off shortly after the vehicle locks. This would solve all the issues as well as provide a valuable learning experience that directly correlates with my career.
The shiftlight kit is comprised of the following
Controller box - an ESP32C3 paired with a CAN transceiver and a DCDC converter
Shiftlight enclosure - a stick of 8 “neopixel”-style LEDs with different backing plates to suite the user’s placement
Powertrain CANBUS Patch Harness - a patch harness created by a friend to non-destructively tap the vehicle’s PTCANBUS as well as 12v and GND
The code was developed based on open source libraries as well as information from other A90 Supra owners who mapped out the CAN IDs. Utilizing Claude AI, I was able to quickly iterate the codebase until a working prototype could be used. From this point I incorporated a Bluetooth GUI built using RemoteXY such that a user can change the shift point, the brightness, and various other settings for the shiftlights.
Currently, the project requires a bit of in-car testing and should be ready for permanent install within the coming months.
See on-track testing here:
https://youtu.be/yw9KzNKkK94?si=-ZLmwB1crm1J-W1u
