S2KI Honda S2000 Forums - gaugeART CAN Gauge review

Last year at SEMA, a new gauge for the aftermarket and OEM ECU world emerged. The new gauge is a CAN bus gauge by gaugeART, which is closely related to Science of Speed specializing in live data displays. They have a plethora of fancy products to aid in viewing live engine parameters without a laptop. The CAN Gauge supports Hondata Kpro4, AEM Series 2 and Infinity, Haltech, and many other ECUs including a stock ECU via the OBD link. Check out gaugeART or SOS directly for full product support! See full details here! https://www.scienceofspeed.com/index...can-gauge.html

Chris Willson at Science of Speed contacted me to see if I would be interested in beta testing the gauge, to which I gratefully accepted. As anybody should know by now, anything Science of Speed does, is done well and this CAN Gauge is no exception! The CAN Gauge was specifically designed to accommodate the S2000 as it is simple and compact in design. Physically, the gauge features an OLED display with a programmable warning LED light and two buttons used for scrolling left or right. The scrolling buttons are stiff, which will be nice for track gloves or driving on a bumpy road. This will reduce the chances of scrolling past the screen you want to see, but even then you have a left and right button to scroll through pages. You can daisy chain multiple gauges together if you desire and it features a dimmer for night driving. The gauge itself is all that is needed to make it work, no additional control box is needed and the wire harness directly plugs into the gauge. Installation was very easy, the bracket that holds the gauge to a gauge pod is slim enough to allow you to actually use the nuts for tightening it into place (some gauges don't have clearance for the tight confines of a pillar mounted gauge pod). Overall, The sleek and simple design of the gauge is stunning.

Electronically, it is a very straight forward gauge to not only operate but also to program. In order to program it, you will need an Android powered device and you will need to download the gaugeART app from the Google Play store. You can program the gauge to display 1, 2, or 4 parameters on each page and you can have up to 10 pages to scroll through. You can save multiple different gauge layouts if desired. A warning can be programmed for almost all parameters, when you are outside of a low or high point, the warning LED will turn on and the display will turn white while displaying both the current and max value for the out of spec parameter.

I wanted to test the live stream of data, I have a PLX Gen4 4.9LSU wideband O2 installed on my car and I have compared the CAN Gauge to the PLX DM-6 as well as the analog and digital readouts on my laptop from K Manager, they all display nearly identical live values. I have a video showing this, but I do not have testing done during wide open throttle yet but I will update this thread when I do so. Theoretically they should read the same, but the DM-6 should be the absolute correct value at all times. It is important to note that the wideband values will be displayed on the Can Gauge whether you are running your car in open loop, or closed loop in either narrowband O2 and wideband O2 control for Kpro users.

UPDATE! Video of the gauge fully programmed with user defined parameters, check out the fluid temperature page!(5/16/17)

The only gripe I have is the gauge is hard to see in direct sunlight. I am talking a bright sunny day with the sun shining directly onto and into the display (The sun is quite low in Wisconsin during winter during my testing) I have accepted that this is a limitation of having a convertible. I have installed a hood for the gauge, in hopes of aiding visibility. I do have this mounted on the pillar with an SOS single gauge pillar pod which aims the gauge upwards. If you were to mount the gauge where the stereo controls are located, it would probably be much easier to view. Science of Speed just released a new gauge mounting location for the S2000, check it out here. https://www.scienceofspeed.com/index...0-2000-09.html

To sum up my opinion on this CAN Gauge, it is simply fantastic!!

I will be more specific to Hondata Kpro4 for the remainder of my review. This will be a guide on adding additional sensors to the Kpro and how to wire it.

I have had my S2000 for many years and I ran Hondata Kpro 2 for engine tuning. I always wanted to do one or two gauges that could view multiple parameters including the OBD ECU parameters but I couldn't justify the expense or effort required to make it happen. Recently my wideband setup failed and I knew it was time to upgrade. I have taken on the project of cleaning up and rewiring everything aftermarket on my S2000. In addition I decided to upgrade to Kpro4 so I have more options for acquiring data with the ECU. For years I was planning to use the PLX sensor modules, as the Kpro supported the iMFD serial data stream via digital input, but the sensor modules are too bulky to stuff them under the dash and the PLX products seem to be finicky from time to time. I also needed to retain my Hondata traction control control box and knob, as well as a data logging switch. So I had no room for all of these electronic devices to fit in the lower dash area.

By going this route I only need to wire additional fluid temp and pressure sensors directly to the analog inputs of the Kpro4, no control boxes to deal with or hide. As many know the S2000 is quite small and the ECU area is very tight even with just the factory wiring, so when you decide to add aftermarket sensors and parameter reading gauges it can get cramped/complicated quite easily. The goal is to utilize the compact feature of the gaugeART CAN Gauge and add a plethora of aftermarket data collecting sensors and wire them directly to the ECU, then run just one gauge that will display everything the ECU sees including the added aftermarket sensors. I want to make everything easy to remove and work on if something fails and I want to give each added sensor its own fused power wire, and be able to properly install the ecu kick panel cover to retain full use of the dead pedal, this is a street car after all.

Here is the list of what I will be adding/upgrading on the car:

Hondata K-Pro4
Science of Speed analog/digital 10pin connector kit
Hondata K-Pro4 data logging switch (A26 PSP ECU Pin)
Hondata Traction control through (A30 ELD ECU Pin)
Hondata Traction control remote mounted control box
PLX Wideband Sensor Module (Analog 0 input, Digital input for iMFD, ground on digital input)
Science of Speed E85 Ethanol content sensor kit (ETH input)
AEM oil temperature sensor (Analog 1 input)
AEM transmission oil temperature sensor (Analog 2 input)
AEM Differential temperature sensor (Analog 3 input)
AEM fuel pressure sensor (Analog 5 input)
SOS Fuel pressure sensor install kit
AEM oil pressure sensor (Analog 4 input)
gaugeART Can Gauge (Can H and Can L input, Illumination spade on fuse box, 12v power via fuse tap on “Washer motor” fuse)
Individually fused power distribution block (5v and 12v)
Voltage regulator to power the 5v power distribution block
5v ECU ground will be either C7 or C18 per Hondata

Before and after of the SOS ECU connectors, these things make adding sensors so easy.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...2cced93fc7.jpg

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...b3473e4048.jpg

Here are a few pictures of my ECU area, showing how I spread out all of the things I have added and how I wired them. This is a work in progress and everything will be zip tied and labeled once everything is added.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...a7e9fae19c.jpg

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...ddee57a59d.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...b9edfbf59c.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...dcb4ee0ccb.jpg

I did have to add a 120 ohm resistor to the Kpro4 daughter board across the CAN H and CAN L pins, not a big deal.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...37db17c917.jpg

So I have been bragging about all of the parameters the gaugeART Can Gauge can display, lets go though the list (this is the list for Kpro4). You can also add ethanol content via the Digital pigtail on the Kpro4 daughter board.

Air/Fuel Ratio
Air Temp (ºF / ºC)
Battery Volts
Coolant Temp (ºF / ºC)
Ethanol Content (%) (Must use Ethanol content sensor add on via Kpro4)
Ethanol Temperature (ºF / ºC) (Must use Ethanol content sensor add on via Kpro4)
Gear
Ignition Timing (º)
Injector Timing (ms)
Knock Count
Lambda
Manifold Pressure (PSI/KPA)
RPM
Throttle Position
Vehicle Speed (MPH / KPH)

In addition to the above sensors, you can also display all 8 analog inputs (A0-A7) wired into the Kpro4. Due to limitations of the Kpro system (not the gaugeART gauge), you have to program the analog inputs with the corresponding sensors in order to view them on the gauge. Here is the list of accepted sensors and the input they must be wired to:

Analog 0: Wideband
Analog 1: Oil Temperature
Analog 2: Spare Temp 1
Analog 3: Spare Temp 2
Analog 4: Oil Pressure (0-100 PSI or 0-150 PSI sensor)
Analog 5: Fuel Pressure (0-100 PSI or 0-150 PSI sensor)
Analog 6: Spare Pressure 1 (0-100 PSI or 0-150 PSI sensor)
Analog 7: Spare Volts (will display 0-5 volts from any 0-5 volt sensor)

As you have probably noticed I have 12v and 5v power distribution blocks. The ethanol content, CAN Gauge, WBO2, and traction control run on 12v. The add ons for fluid temp and fluid pressure run on 5v per the Kpro help screen on the Hondata website. The Kpro help page is slightly disappointing, they do not have everything you need to know to wire in all of these sensors for an S2000. Look at the screens for analog and digital inputs for more information. https://www.hondata.com/help/kmanage...l?contents.htm

I have developed a full wire diagram to aid any other S2000 owner who wishes to go down this path. This is a tested and fully working diagram from my 2001 S2000.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...e319fc55e7.jpg

I did have a minor hiccup getting the gauge to work. When I turned the key to ACC, the gauge would fire up and display live parameters, but once I started the car the Can Gauge would reboot during starting and lose its connection with Kpro. Due to limitations of Kpro or the way the gauge and Kpro4 work together, I had to use a fuse tap on the fuse box for a 12 volt power source that does not lose power during cranking. In this case I used the 15a fuse for “Fuel Pump/SRS.” Now the Can Gauge has 12v power when the ignition is on, and remained powered during cranking and running.

Side note to the gauge, but I also added a high boost switch via the A10 input (turbocharged). A data logging switch on A32 (for recording all ecu parameters on the fly without a laptop), and the Hondata Traction control is wired into the A30 pin.

The end result
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...dc7a5bd9b9.jpg

Overall, I am very happy with the gauge. I look forward to adding ethanol content and all of the fluid pressure and fluid temperature sensors. Phew, that was a lot of writing, I hope you enjoyed my review. This time of year is the perfect time to be anal and take your time.

Dustin