http://www.dakotadigital.com/products.cfm?Category=93

Anyone with any knowledge or experience with these gauges or the company in general. I remebered them from back in my car audio days. I was originally set on buying Greddy gauges (vac/boost, egt), but through personal preference, I have found out I like digital gauges better. I'm a number person. It's easier for my brain and eyes to coordinate by seeing a value displayed instead of an analog pointer. Must be my ADD

 

bump?

 

they look to be of high quality, i think they would look nice a be different at the same time! you should do it!

Rob

 

Hehe, yeah, I'm probably going to. Like I said, I like numbers. I was just waiting to hear someone say "Dude those things are wack! Ma boy blew up his moped cause of too much NAAAWWWSSS and it's the gauges fault."

...or something along those lines

 

just wait a fe minutes im sure someone will chime in
theres allways one! really go for it and post pics! oh i allmost forgot! are they black when not being used?


ROB

 

I know the round gauges go black, but the rectangular ones didn't say.

 

thats sweet then they kinda be like the Defi units. would you go with the round ones or the rectangular ones? i would go round, unless you did somethign custom inside the arm rest or glove box with the rectangular ones.

Rob

 

Most likely the round ones. Here's a pic of my dash layout...



This is an older pic when I was still assembling everything. I don't have the VAFC in there anymore and the a/f gauge is going to become a paperweight. I'm contemplating even going as far as replacing my other Autometer gauges, just for unity. I'm not sure though, since I don't mind having my other gauges analog since I don't pay as close attention to them as I do boost and egt's.

 

Dakota Guages are of a high quality, I run them on my old school bronco and have run the im the past in the 911. However the inherint problem with digital guages are twofold. One being trivial, they tend to wash out in direct sunlight, not a large concern, the other is quite important, especially on turbo'd vehicles. Running digital gauges will NOT show you rates of change. This sounds trivial but when numbers start fluctuating your brain isnt going to automatically decipher the rates of change (all those years of calculus and i still dont think in derivitives). Anyhow, choose what 'looks cool' if you must. Looking cool isnt always the best route, unless your trying to pick up chicks. Then its a must , but when going fast choose function

If you just want to check voltage, fuel levels etc, then they are top notch, for boost, temp, oil pressure i suggest analog. Like i said I run them on the bronco (fit the factory odd shaped holes) and breifly on the 911 before the restoration/"weight reduction".

 

Yeah I know what you mean about rate of change. That's why people opt for full sweep gauges most of the time...more resolution (that and they are usually the more accurate ones). My interest isn't a cool/look factor though. I actually find it difficult to process the data coming from an analog gauge while driving and especially while racing (at the track). Like I said it might actually be related to my ADD. That's why I love my shift light. No thought involved...flash--->shift....flash-->shift. I also planned on setting up warning lights for overboost and high egt's since the gauges have that feature.

 

I was going to make my own bargraph LED displays for boost and egt, actually had all the parts, but I decided to get some autometer full-sweep gauges because I'll be able to see them in my peripheral vision much better than the LEDs. I made my A/F meter this way and it works very well (like a Cyberdyne or such), but it is a little hard without looking directly at it and it DOES wash out, too.

 

I dig the Dakota gauges.
I currently have GReddy oil and fuel pressue, at first I thought reading metic gauge would be hard which it isn't.
Now I am going turbo and will add more gauges and trying to monitor everything at one in metric can rack the brain.
I am gonna sell those two and looking omori (standard) gauges.

 

I was considering doing something like this, too. So that all the "optimal" or acceptable WOT values for boost, egt, whatever would all be at the same level. Too bad I'm too lazy to actually do it.

The other thing I'm considering is a HUD. But I have no clue how to do that Arg, I have too many gauges all scattered...boost, egt, oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, tach....I need 10 eyes