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      10-16-2017, 09:47 AM   #1
MagnusT
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Huge gear indicator (and water temp) as simple app! Yaaay!

I drive a M2 -16 DCT. When on track I don't need a gear indicator. And I definitely don't need a gear indicator while accelerating. But on the road doing down shifts at semi lower rpms I sometimes get confused on how many gears I should go down if I want to get into the engines sweetspot right away.

That's when I'd like a BIG gear indicator that I can see in the corner of my eye, because when approaching a corner to push through I really don't want to take my eyes of the road.

So... there's hardware you can buy, a LED indicator hooked up to the OBD2 port, for decent money. But I found the perfect thing (for me!) A plugin to the Android Torque Pro app. It's called RacingMeter for Torque Pro. At a first glance it seems to be a fancy flashy Shift Light app. Which I have no need for whatsoever. But I bought it and fiddled with the settings and got exactly what I wanted!

It even shows the water temp.

(yeah, no oil temp yet, I've contacted the maker to see what he can do :-)

I've made a very clean interface for myself with a huge gear indicator that I can see in the corner of my eye. I also added speed and water temp but you can of course tweak it the way you want it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...meterfortorque

You can also have text on the screen showing that the upper right number is speed and the lower right is water temp but I wanted an uncluttered screen and hid that.

PS: I did a search and couldn't find that this app was posted already. If it is I appologize.
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Last edited by MagnusT; 10-16-2017 at 10:19 AM..
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      10-16-2017, 01:05 PM   #2
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So you just then mount your phone up high where you can see it?

Wanted this product to work but it doesn't show what gear you're in. At least not yet. https://gethudly.com/
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      10-17-2017, 07:37 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akkando View Post
So you just then mount your phone up high where you can see it?

Wanted this product to work but it doesn't show what gear you're in. At least not yet. https://gethudly.com/
Yep. Looks like this:
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      11-16-2019, 05:50 PM   #4
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Magnus

I

Can you please share how you set RacingMeter to give you only the information that you show.

I'd be hugely grateful!

EB
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      11-19-2019, 11:18 PM   #5
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Just out of curiosity, I wonder if it could work on a manual?
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      11-20-2019, 12:06 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AlpsRider View Post
Just out of curiosity, I wonder if it could work on a manual?
Yes it would. I was writing something like this at one stage, but being as I do this for a living It was distracting me from my work that makes me the money to buy shiny things.

It's simple maths. You know the revs, you know the speed, ergo, you know the gear.
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      11-20-2019, 12:15 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Davil View Post
Yes it would. I was writing something like this at one stage, but being as I do this for a living It was distracting me from my work that makes me the money to buy shiny things.

It's simple maths. You know the revs, you know the speed, ergo, you know the gear.
Whoops my bad, yeah if you create a formula like you said basing rpm and speed it can be done. But if you want to just setup torque pro to read gear position directly from the obd2 port it wont work right and likely will pick up the car's eco calculation of what gear you should be in.
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      11-20-2019, 11:08 AM   #8
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Is there a sensor that picks up the gear you're moving into for the rev-match?
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      11-20-2019, 02:38 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick2016M2 View Post
Is there a sensor that picks up the gear you're moving into for the rev-match?
You know I never considered that, but when I try to pick up gear position via obd2 it never works.
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      11-20-2019, 08:15 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by F87source View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick2016M2 View Post
Is there a sensor that picks up the gear you're moving into for the rev-match?
You know I never considered that, but when I try to pick up gear position via obd2 it never works.
Yes you can't get it via standard obd2 codes. There are some BMW specific ones. The revs and speed work well though so it's a good solution
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      11-24-2019, 04:15 AM   #11
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In the app you set the ratio between rpm and speed for each gear in your car. The app pics up rpm and speed from OBD2 via Torque, does the calculation and matches it with the ratios you've entered. So it works with manuals too. I've actually programmed my own kit with an Arduino and a small display so I don't need Torque and a phone.



Edit:
I've actually used a HUD display with my Arduino so that I get current gear, speed or temps up in a HUD on my window screen.

Last edited by MagnusT; 11-24-2019 at 04:21 AM..
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      11-24-2019, 04:17 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ebruder View Post
I

Can you please share how you set RacingMeter to give you only the information that you show.

I'd be hugely grateful!

EB
The Racingmeter display is editable, so it's just a matter of removing and adding what items you want on the display and then adjust color, size and positions.
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      11-25-2019, 08:50 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MagnusT View Post
But on the road doing down shifts at semi lower rpms I sometimes get confused on how many gears I should go down if I want to get into the engines sweetspot right away.
Sorry, but are you hard of hearing?
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      11-25-2019, 02:55 PM   #14
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Isn't it faster to just leave it in "D" at the track for automatic cars?
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      11-27-2019, 01:41 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by McPurrs View Post
Sorry, but are you hard of hearing?
So say I'm in fifth or sixth gear at I don't know, say 2000rpm. Should I very quickly in one succession tap two or three times? I don't shift one gear at a time, I shift all the way down to third in one go. I have no way of hearing if I'm in fifth or sixth gear.

And at lower rpms with ASD off the engine is very hard to hear.
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      11-27-2019, 01:51 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Luongo View Post
Isn't it faster to just leave it in "D" at the track for automatic cars?
Faster, no.

Each to their own but I always drive manually. On track and on the street. Great fun, always in 100% control. I actually shift gears more often in a DCT than in a manual on the street.

Last edited by MagnusT; 11-27-2019 at 03:06 AM..
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      11-27-2019, 04:20 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Luongo View Post
Isn't it faster to just leave it in "D" at the track for automatic cars?
They don't always get the down shifts right, sometimes they do it mid corner and if really messes up the chassis stability.

I drive a manual so I don't have to worry about all this automatic () nonsense, albeit it may be faster.
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      11-27-2019, 05:04 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Luongo View Post
Isn't it faster to just leave it in "D" at the track for automatic cars?
Not sure about automatics but DCT is much better when you shift manually.
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      11-27-2019, 08:30 AM   #19
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For me this is true:

DCT = a manual gearbox without clutch pedal.

That is also how I use it.
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      12-02-2019, 11:52 AM   #20
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I agree when on the track - the DCT gear indicator is way too small to be looking at doing 140 or 150 when braking for a corner to see how many down shifts are needed for the corner. If I get a good run onto the straight, I can get into sixth gear, but alot of the time only fifth, depending on traffic, etc., so if I could see what gear I'm in when braking, I could down shift the proper number of times to get third for the corner. Many times I have taken the corner one gear too high and have to down shift again in the middle of the turn.
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      12-02-2019, 01:06 PM   #21
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I really wish they would have enabled this on the dashboard screen, like in the M4. There's plenty of space.

This seems like a great solution though!
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