Next Project: GT-R MFD on 370 (oil temp/pressure, boost, etc...)
 

A while ago, I came across a video that shows a Murano with the GT-Rs MFD (multi-function display)... and that got me going down another rabbit hole :)

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1654540351

^^^ Notice the" ***"? That indicates a missing sensor/CAN bus data.

As it turns out, the 2010+ NAV units (aka AV control unit) runs the same software and are configured for Nissan vehicles (except GT-R), Infiniti vehicles or GT-R. (with GT-R logo start up screen)

AND there is an undocumented serial terminal (12v UART @ 9600) at the back of the AV unit that can be used to read/write the configuration.

I have purchased an AV unti from ebay and it should be here in a few weeks.

When it arrives:
•I will clone the NAV disk drive. Having a back up copy may be helpful if the NAV drives start to fail in the future and if I mess up, I can put it back to the original config.

• Connect to the serial terminal and see what is available and version number.
• Config it to display the MFD
• Send CAN bus data to the gauges and see if/how they respond

Now, the GT-R has sensors that the G37/370 doesn't (like engine oil pressure, trans oil temp, etc) BUT a "analog sensor to CAN bus module" should work to put the required data on the CAN bus.

Anyways, that's the project goals.

If you want to read more on this, here is the thread at myg37.com:
https://www.myg37.com/forums/audio-v...drive-mod.html

Whoa…..wowzzaaa

It looks like many 2010+ Nissan and infiniti vehicles that have NAV use the same "AV unit"

They have many different part numbers (25915-xxxxx), but the pinouts from the Clarion service manual show the 370, Murano, Maxima, G37 and GT-R to be the same. It also shows the Nav unit has an unused 5.1 audio output and an unused composite video in.

I can't wait for the AV unit to arrive and start to reverse engineer it!
Estimated delivery is 11 days away :(

July Update:
While trying to re-program the eBay AV unit, the app crashed and it looks to have bricked the AV unit.
When I start the car, I get the logo splash screen for a looooong time, then a very basic screen for HVAC controls. No radio, no volume, no nav :(

I now know the boot up is done in hardware and then goes to the hard drive to finish the boot up process.

I have ordered another AV unit and will try not to kill this one :)

August Update:
I haven't progressed very much, as my "Family & Friends" fleet maintenance has taken most of my free time. However, with most of the work done, I hope to have some progress in the next few weeks.

My $300 box of goodies:
http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1659793182

The upper AV unit is the "new" one from a 2013 G37X and the lower one is the bricked AV unit... which I hope to bring back :)

The LCD screen is the 2010+ (w/Nav) version that has the higher resolution (800 x 480) and uses gigibit video (GVIF) over 2 wires.

The AV modules have been disassembled/reassembled and now I only need to remove 6 screws to swap the 40GB hard drives. (full disassembly requires 50+ screws to be removed!!)

Next step:
Wire it up as a standalone system and try a few things to get the GT-R gauges to display. After that, I can feed the required CAN bus data to get the gauges to function.

Anyways, that's my plan! Wish me luck!

Sounds like the mini dash project has taken a back seat

Not at all...
Every time I drive my car, it is plugged in, running and being tested. Overall it is running well.

The next step is to design the final circuit board (now that the semi-conductor shortage is much better!), get the first batch made and offer some for some further testing.

Why so much testing??
I haven't done anything like this before, so I want to make sure it works properly and doesn't cause any vehicle issues.

Last week I picked up a 3D scanner to make it easier to make/print the enclosure.

Soooo, both are progressing as time permits :)

Glad to hear that. My Spa Technique dual gauge is acting funky so I either need to replace it with another gauge or wait for your mini dash. I'd rather wait for your mini dash so hopefully testing progresses faster ;). If you need a 370 to test on, I'm sure I could convince Seb to do the install. I'm primarily looking for fuel pressure, oil pressure, water temp, wideband, boost and I could always throw ethanol content in there and get rid of my Zeitronix gauge too

November Update:
As time permits, I am still working on trying to get the GTR gauges on the factory NAV screen.

There is a little known "Test Port" on the AV modules. This allows console/terminal/root access.
For this to work, there are a few different things the hardware must do.
To make it easy (almost plug and play) I have developed this:
http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1668964356

(The grainy pic is due to the low resolution 3D render, no need to spend extra on a high quality image!)

What does this board do?
• Adds pull up resistor to IT-PC
• Converts the PC-IT 3.3v logic level to 12+ and inverts the signal
• Allows any Mac/PC/Linux serial program (Putty, serial terminal, etc) to connect to the AV unit's serial console, and execute on board commands... and there are a lot of them!

I am currently building the prototype on a perfboard to test/scope voltage levels and waveforms.
If all goes well, I hope to have console access later today.

Cool and very interesting. Can’t wait to see final results.

Sub-ed for progression of this. This is unique and interesting indeed.

Good news... I spend the afternoon testing it and the USB to AV converter works!!

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1669000497


When the AV unit starts up, it displays "xanavi>" and then you can type a command.

Here are the "ver" (version) and "hdd 1 1" command results:

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1669000857


and a list of all the commands that can be used at the console:

btm bcsp xrbt xroem lpavm cwsh cws teld gpshist snr tms xrinit gid dsh hdlxmw hmixmw hvac pmgrdiagn pmgrcamera mgrvcan candiag mgrcan hdlmtr hdltmcair hdltmcsend hdltmc trfe trfs hif refdbg rdset rprt rdbg ipverr navistsreset navistsset ipvreset ipvset self hdlmfd mfd xrdnk aview hmi avm sdl xrcnf xmcu ir xgc1 verall imng wel sql mdc mal xrnt lang dat hdlm atv devs drvs fds oms ldset dor vm onmap trf map rcv vdb aps as asss se ss etcs camera switch rgdv rpf dspctl tol rif hwn rgd rgdc hdm dspset imtest usbrb tel mum vfi lvc hms menu mtrif mtrsd tcp tce tc clw sns xrpo tla hnw dsp obj svr usbmgr hdd ucm acl mgrweb mgrweb adpbtd adp gdicscpu pdicusart sys disc aux dvd audio mec bpss dusa dus ls rm xtp xgpsd xclw xgte xgts xcpl xste xsts xsrad xrsn xrf xfver xrde xrspn xrmfc xrd xrsfl xrmc xrpc cap mgl font xgl mgrbt pmgrestab echo dlp xplsd xgrad iodspi pldck lte lt bpb bps bpc bpa bpp bp pld wdd fcopy call swm mgrmcan acm iodpt iomsgio pmgrspd pmgrgps dspst dspsd pmgradc pdictmu pdicspd pdicscif pdichcan pdicadc i2c iomsgi mcan docan ioltimer ioltime iolring iollist iodev mqsa mqs cs exc exd ex ms d m spyStop spy dbgHelp tt e mRegs l ti so s cret c bdall bd b xcv sca sc prc pw ee es ver oss sas sd promd proms cf co osee oses tshow tr ts i

Next weekend I will add the LCD nav screen, nav buttons and radio/AC buttons to the setup to help with testing.

Oh, one last thing.
During the summer, I used an app to re-program a different AV unit, and it got bricked when the app crashed. *BUT* as it turns out, it isn't bricked, but has a bad configuration that turned off CAN bus communications.

I was able to use the console to send the "restore to factory defaults" and I suspect I can now reprogram it. For a while I thought I just wasted $100.

That's all for now!

End of November Update

They are AWAKE!

Next step:
Send required CAN bus data for the gauges to display.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1669519682

Good news! It is working again.

Unfortunately, I tried multiple things to bring it back and don't know which one did the trick... I'm just happy to have another working NAV unit :)

Small Update:
For those with navigation, AUX IN audio/video has been figured out!!

I've always wanted to have my phone's maps on the NAV screen as my maps are 10 years old.
The screen is a little blurry due to the low resolution of composite (CSBV) video.

I'll make a plug and play cable and then do some in car testing to determine how functional it is - or isn't.


http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1669845502

Well... this is nice.
http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1669868657

Curious about the dimensions on the MFD. wonder if it could fit in the cubby space for those of us with non-nav cars


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The factory Nav screen is only usable with the nav unit, as it uses a special 2 wire video interface called GVIF (gigibit video interface)

The visible screen is 7" (measured diagonal) with an outside dimensions of: 7" x 4.5"

At Gregory Brettin's request, I am looking into developing a stand alone 7" LCD screen for his custom "fibreglass cubby screen holder" (my words, not his!)

Driving a large 7" display with a microcontroller is a little challenging.
In order to get 30 frames per second for a smooth display, it requires a data rate of 5.76 million bytes per second (@ 4 bits/colour)

Yes, you could use a Raspberry Pi, but I *hate* the 20-30 second boot up EVERY TIME you start your car.

A microcontroller start up is less than 1 second when you have a 1 second splash screen. (Meaning it is almost an instant start up)

Development of the 7" gauge display will start in the new year.

Hey Frank, will the 7" LCD screen you're developing for Greg's cubby screen holder be the wireless set up you're testing that will have the the main controller in the engine compartment?

The only item under the hood will be the Bluetooth Sensor server. It will send the oil pressure (with support for 7 additional sensors) to the module/display inside the car.

As much as possible, the same hardware and code will be used to drive the 7" display. Since the display has its own "GPU", the load on the main microcontroller will be reduced, but the graphics will need to be recreated from scratch.

Perfect, I'll need support for 6 sensors. I'm getting one of Greg Brettin's first cubby display holders

For planning purposes, what are the 6 sensors?

Water temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, wideband, boost, ethanol content. Fuel pressure is the only one I'm not monitoring currently. All others have aftermarket sensors

I've made a note.

I have also found a really nice hi-res (1024 x 600 vs stock screen of 800 x 480) 7" touch screen and it is made in North America! (Calgary, Canada)
I've got some more research to do, but I think this is the best option so far.

Great news Frank. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with

For those that have the stock Nav system, here is a nice little update on the GTR gauges.
https://youtu.be/wFDc3bvv3X0

(Mods: Could you please move this thread over to "Audio/Video"... I don't know why I posted it here!)

January Update:
Today was the first "in car" test of the reconfigured navigation unit and it worked as expected!
This means that 5 out of ~28 gauges worked as is.
With the CAN bus module (under development) an additional ~22 gauges will display live data.

Also, since this works on the G37, it will also work on the 370, as long as you have the factory navigation.
On my test bench I have reconfigured the same AV/Nav unit to be from a Murano, 370, G37 and GTR without any issues and the GTR gauges work.

Anyways, that's all for now.
I hope to have another update in a few weeks the most of the gauges working :)

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1673043245

Small GTR Gauge update:
The GTR has a gauge labelled "Transmission Oil Pres", which isn't that useful on the 370.
BUT, wouldn't it be nice to have something else in its place? Maybe something like fuel pressure, ethanol content, or differential oil temp?

Well....thanks to Gareth for the checksum calculation, any gauge text can now be changed.

In the example below, the TRANS OIL PRES has been changed to DIFF OIL TEMP.
This gauge will be fed from our Bluetooth sensor server, which will send the diff oil temp to the AV unit/MFD for live data display.

The only down side is that the gauge doesn't have and numerical values, BUT the gauge is divided into 10 sections, which works.
For example the top middle of the gauge (50% area) could be used to indicate 80C/176F and every section (10%) could indicate 10C / 20F.

I'm still working on the development the CAN bus converter so these gauges can show live G37/370z data and hope to have an update in a few weeks.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1674156629

Noice.

Update:
I can now take "screen shots" of anything that is on the nav display and saves it on a USB device.
So... here are a few screen shots of some new menu items:
http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1674652411

YES, the tire pressure screen can be easily turned on!!
It is kind how odd that the wheel positions are not labeled.
BUT through testing it looks to be (from top to bottom) front left, front right, rear right and rear left.
Just think about getting out of the car, and checking your tires in a clockwise direction.

Also, there is a "Trip Computer"... not really all that interesting, but some may like it. (I do!)

That's all for now!

Excellent work!
Very interested in the development of this. :tiphat:

Keeps getting better!

It took a while, but i finally was able to bring up the nice (GTR) TPMS display and send data to it:

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1674774957

At this point, I have all the screens I wanted (GTR gauges, TPMS and trip computer) and now will start to work on the CAN bus module to send the 370 data to the GTR gauges.

I hope to have an update on this in a few weeks.

Well done!

Good stuff bro!

February Update:
The first prototype "GTR MFD Converter" board is assembled, wired and programmed!
The first program simply provides the required CAN bus data to make the gauges count from 70 to 120, and then repeat over and over.
This is to verify that the reverse engineering of the gauges is correct... and I'm happy to report it is!!

Note:
Look at the coolant temp (top left), once the temp reached 110C (230F), the entire gauge arc/line turned red... Kind of neat!

Next Steps:
Program the device to read the G37/370 CAN bus data stream, converter the data and send it to the GTR gauges.
I hope to have this done in the next week or so... I just hope it works like I think it should!

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1677500405

Very cool. Always wished Nissan had done this, at least for the 2015 update.

Do any of these have Android auto? I thought about trying to Frankenstein an Altima or Maxima that had them, I believe...

I've had the same thought, but it looks like the newer units with CP/AA won't fit in the dash of the 370.

Your screen mirroring functionality to the aux port probably solves most of the major appeal anyway at least for the simple navigation function.

Here is a short video showing the gauges in operation on the test bench:




Direct YT link incase the above video doesn't show up:
https://youtu.be/pd4v5N5p_Jw