Where do you mount your driving electronics on an E/J ?

[luvrbus]

I talk to mine and it talks back, it is mounted on my right but I never look at I just follow directions,I kinda like the guy he listens better than the passenger   

[Van]

I talk to mine and it talks back, it is mounted on my right but I never look at I just follow directions,I kinda like the guy he listens better than the passenger

Right! We know where you get your directions from LOL!

[someguy]

Thanks for the ideas.

[chessie4905]

I also have the holder for my Samsung 10 tablet and x mounts for phones.

[luvrbus]

I also have the holder for my Samsung 10 tablet and x mounts for phones.

I don't have mounts for the phone I guess I should buy one,the phone is connected to the Pioneer through Bluetooth and sometimes I forget where I left the friggn phone 

[buswarrior]

I would be inclined to tear the top right off the dash in an E or J.

Way too tall, compared to the best of the older coaches. The driver doesn't see the ground nearly as close to the coach.

There's no way there was a driver or qualified road safety ergonomist involved in that driver station execution.

Side mirrors are way up there so far that another convex mirror has to be mounted to the bottom bolt of the fancy powered mirror head.

A small cross-over mirror was added to the curb side mirror arm by MCI to try and defend their liability for the poor sightline to the area in front of the bumper.

I mount a gps to the left of the driver, bottom of the fixed side glass, with the mirror arm being blocked behind it. A more discreet/subtle location for keeping the "business" out of the passenger's sight.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

[freds]

Wow this modernization topic is just starting to creep down into the bus space!!

In the aviation space, people who build home aircraft in their home garages; are talking about replacing $60,000.00 plus of panel electronics (they want the option of drilling their way through clouds and popping out at the other end safely) with some good sensors and a iPad; that they insert into the dash when needed, with maybe a total expenditure of $6,000.00. (Some of them are talking under $1,000.00 mark.)

I also have been following the channel "This old bus" and while he used recently used the label "Tesla" which hey I happened to own one each of (P85); that I brought for my sixty birthday (it's totally paid off now and will be the last new car that I will buy and hey 0-60 in four seconds, so I can let my inter demon out at anytime!!!).

In reference to Tesla; he was simply talking about an android audio entertainment system that could do a video movie besides acting as his smart dash.

Like we need to spend that much time and effort for the the in movement phase of travel; where we need to entertain the co-pilot or significant other.

Anyway things as simple as the telemetry that we need for our buses when they are in movement is going to be more and more a simple plug and play solution. Where on the average for each information element we need is going be less spending han we do while pounding down some nice booze in the process of socialize with long term friends.

However the total underlying thrust of his reason for starting the electronic display exercise on his YouTube channel; wasn't to have a gee-wise display; but was to have the aw-$#!% alerting display of trends that we expect to today as ordinary users of driving a vehicle; that would be prevention of major repair events and impacts on our wallet...

However, IMHO he is not their yet, it needs more software!!!

The key point about software is that not everyone can do a good job of it (it takes a slightly non-social myopic focused mindset, support your local nerd!!!).

However if that someone who can does share their efforts, it can be replicated numerous times and while not every implementation you find is a one to one match to what you need, it can be adapted or can spark ideas for a more comprehensive solution.
 
Anyway back to "This Old Bus" in his current implementation he just has the ability to switch from the old steam gauge presentation (aviation term) to an electronic visual display and can do a manually switched comparison between the two.

Truth to tell I am very much back seat quarter backing here, but hey maybe the steam gauges should have 90% of the display time with the electronic trend monitoring doing the other 10% off of the physical sensors.
 
I actually think there should be a thread where we visit semi-truck salvage yards for CAN based sensors that are at least ten years old to modernized our in movement driving experience!!!

CAN based messaging requires about four wires front to back for a message bus, to do everything that we need... So, hey Kenworth, Mack trucks or others, what fits best for what we need?

Anyway jumping off of the soap box, in my case I am still trying to figure out which additional wires (beyond the documented bus wiring backbone) go where in my 40 year old bus; so, that I can reuse them to get my desired functionality that I can live with for the next 15 years.

[someguy]

I too think that we should be hacking the CAN bus in these vehicles and reusing existing sensors.  I think the Vansco Multiplex system is an asset because it supports this kind of development.

The Multiplexed E/J buses have a lot of wire in them but it is remarkably simple for everything that it accomplishes.

On this same topic, it appears to me that someone has completely replaced the instruments in the dash of a 2002 102 in the picture below.

The great thing about CAN Bus and J1939 is that things just work if they recognize the messages on the bus.  And if they don't, it isn't too hard to build an Arduino to convert them from one message format to another if you know the message formats needed.

Theoretically the manufacturers should be using the same message formats for the common data on these vehicles.  I have no idea if they do or not, but a lot of things like ABS controllers, transmission controllers, shift levers and ECMs seem to be able to talk to each other seamlessly without having special versions of everything to work with each other.

[someguy]

oops... I guess that is a standard dash in a 102 EL3.

[freds]

oops... I guess that is a standard dash in a 102 EL3.

Well heck, maybe time for smart glasses with a heads up display for hidden rockets on the roof LOL!!!

[chessie4905]

Determining where the wires go is easy with a wire tracer. Harbor Freight sells one and it works quite well. Some time can be saved if it is used along with a wiring diagram