7 pin lcd output help

chevy454

New member
lcd output help

I have an aftermarket performance tuner that displays engine vitals in real time on a small LCD screen...it has 4 buttons beside the screen, and the wire carrying the output from the controller to the lcd has a 7-pin output.

Any chance of determining what pins do what, or perhaps what *format* the output is in? I'd ultimately like to tap into the wire leading to the small lcd display and feed it to a larger display, be it an aftermarket head unit or whatever.

Any & all help is appreciated!
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chevy454

New member
Ok, looks like I was mistaken...while the plug for the monitor has 7 pins available, it looks like there's only actually *4* wires being used. Here are some photos of the unit, once it's opened up...
 

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chevy454

New member
4 wires? Looks to me like the display connects with 18 pins on the side, and 30 pins on the bottom edge.
LOL...guess we posted @ same time...I attached a picture of the wired connection. All I did was remove the outer plastic case, and snap a photo...but this is all new to me, so any help is appreciated!
 
Whats on the other end of that 4 wire bundle? For 4 wires, the possibilities are limited; I'm thinking maybe USB or some other kind of serial, and power plus ground. You'd have to hook up a scope to see what kind of signals are there.
 

chevy454

New member
Whats on the other end of that 4 wire bundle? For 4 wires, the possibilities are limited; I'm thinking maybe USB or some other kind of serial, and power plus ground. You'd have to hook up a scope to see what kind of signals are there.
Those 4 wires run into a 7 pin plug that plugs into a "controller" of some kind that plugs in between the 2 connectors in the main engine harness (OBDII perhaps?)...below is a picture of the display unit that I posted pictures of above.

Ideally, I'd like a simple harness to plug into the outgoing 7-pin plug and then plug it into my truck's indash tuner/screen...but, I thought the answer might lie in the lcd inputs itself, but it's a lot more complicated than I envisioned! LOL!!
 

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So, then it seems the ODBII decoder communicates with the pod via USB or async serial. The pod has a micro that reads the buttons, gets data from the diagnostic decoder, and formats the numbers to the graphic display.

I'd bet there's no way you can tap into that setup without being a hardware designer, programmer, and you have the comm protocol spec to work from.
 

chevy454

New member
Hmm...well, that figures...I suggested to the company, as have a few others, that if they could simply sell a box/cable to use the factory nav/tuner screen as the monitor, they'd make a mint...but the best they've done is release the device below:



It's a touch screen add on to the performance modules they already sell, and would replace the unit I posted above...it has an RCA *in* jack for a dvd or backup camera input, but afaik no *out* ports. It's made to mount on your dash or winshield, but due to it's size, and the fact most folks already have NAV units hanging up there, this is just something else to be in the way. Why oh why couldn't they just sell converter & cable for the factory NAV/tuner screen...:D
 
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