I wanted to try something new – pull the data from car, and see what cool things can be done with it.

The design for this project was inspired by TV show Knight Rider, with more modes, reading data directly from the car (through OBD-II port). Built in multiple modes: pre-defined animations, animations dependent on the car state (gear change indicator, light strip changing color depending on revs).

Everything packaged in a plug&play box with no additional setup necessary.

To communicate with the car, I used OBD adapter for Arduino by Freematics:

First connection was stressful (wouldn’t want to break anything with my car… 🙂 ), but it ended up working well, and can make for some interesting effects. But I think we still need to wait for few more years before the car neons from ’90s are cool again 😉

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Video: