Nightcruzer

These are the digital gauges from a company called 2001 Technologies Inc. The comapny is out of business and internet rumor has it that either Cyberdyne or Nordskog had bought them, but neither company responded to my inquiries for info. I bought these from a guy who had the surplus and was selling them on eBay. Based on my research IMO these are exactly the same as the Nordskogs. Same electric sending unit and everything.


Anyway they were a straight forward install except for the fact the instructions want you to sacrifice the check engine, seat belt, choke and brake lights which was unacceptable to me so I relocated them to the switch bezel.



Also I replaced the stock switches with some matching red LED momentary switches. Left switch is computer on, center switch is defogger, right switch is hatch release.


Since there isn't much documentation or pics on aftermarket digital installs I decided to make this thread as a reference source. Enjoy!
Oh and if you have questions on the computer or tire pressure monitor (green lcd) in the pics, that thread is here.

The gauges were calibrated using a resisitor substituiton box. Each gauge has a zero and gain adjustment **** on the circuit board. The purpose of using the box is to simulate the range of resistances for coolant gauge sensor (1365ohm @ 100F to 55 ohm @ 260F), oil pressure sensor (0-90ohm) and fuel level gauge (0-90ohm) while still on the bench so I wouldn't have to tear the thing apart after install if there were strange readings and knowing any subsequent problem would be from the sender not the gauges.

The actual gauge cluster housing stays in the car along with the printed gauge circuit film attached to the back. The only thing that comes out are the factory gauges and these replacement circuit boards have leads that plug right into where the individual stock gauges "plugged" into.

To relocate the "idiot" lights, I simply left the stock light sockets in the cluster housing and soldered extenion wires to the tangs of the light sockets along with another light locket where the actual light bulb now goes.
The following pics are just mocked up for a visual of what I'm talking about.



Finally the lights mount inside the trim piece. I made a mini "box" for each light bulb out of abs stock, "krazy glued" together (there is no better glue for abs than cyanoacrylate). I then cut out the front of the dash trim piece with a dremel to let the light shine through. I cut out the original "messages" from the gauges and glued them to the openings so the light would shine through the message and then covered the messages with a strip of smoke acrylic like the gauges so when the power is off you see nothing but black "glass".

I'll post more pics of the whole system during the day with the power off so you can see better whar I'm talking about.

Now Nordskog wants like upwards of $650 for a guage set like this. I scored it on eBay for 1/10 the price, but you could build it yourself. After teaching myself how these gauges work I found schematics for similar gauges that had the same part numbers as the 2001 boards and were put together the same exact way. You need soldering and basic electronic skill but it is totally doable. Here are the links to do it yourself. If you study them closely you'll see they are all basically the same, use the same components and put together the same way. The only aspect that changes is the input circuit. voltmeter & coolant temp, They are both based on these ICs. Oil pressure and fuel level were also the same, again just the inputs differed. It took me about two months to learn all this from scratch.

Whew! I'll try to answer any questions anyone may have and I'll post more pics.

Nightcruzer

Daytime pics



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Daytime pics





POWER OFF

HanzenRider

wow! im so in love with that. I currently have stock digital gauges but I wonder if i can still do something like this even though my gauges are not originally analog?

BEAUTIFUL CUSTOM WORK...

Nightcruzer

Thank You. If you already have digital gauges then I am not sure if you can use these. These use the stock circuit "board" mounted to to the back of the gauge cluster and plug in where the analog gauges has metal posts that plugged in to receive the various sender signals. Even though I have never seen the back of the stock digital cluster, the fact that it's digital would eliminate the physical analog posts that plug in. The senders would have circuits that just ran straight to the computer chips that translates the signal to a digital output.
If someone has a pic of the back of a digital cluster maybe we can take a better look

HanzenRider

Well, does this help?

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/interior/463858-reconditioning-digital-cluster.html

I much rather have how you have set up on yours. Dont get me wrong, I love my digital dash, but its getting old and its becoming much harder to find new parts for the OEM digital dash and people want good sum of money for it over ebay. I cant afford what it usually cost on ebay so im thinking, if im going to spend that much money, why not go with something new and probably last longer since most new digital gauges use leds nowdays. Sometimes i wish my GTA came with analog gauges. *GRUNTS*
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Oops, Link dont work, just copy and paste

Nightcruzer

WOW, that's exactly the type of pics I was looking for. Unfortunately, my gauges would definitely not be plug and play. You would have to get the schematic for your dash and then figure out how to splice your harness with my type gauges. It would have to be all custom wiring.
Since you already have digital gauges, I would not even consider this, but hey I've done other crazy things to my car.
If you really had to have new digital guages, and I were you, I'd consider selling your entire dash setup. There are lots of thirdgenners who would kill for your setup, then start with an analog dash AND wire harness and then "retrofit" aftermarket digital gauges. It is a lot work, but it would be an option for you.
Good luck

compuwiz1937

iTrader: (17)

That's pretty cool! What's the computer for? Navigation?

Where did you get the tire pressure monitor system from?