Custom vehicle display

The Lightning Bug features a custom vehicle display.  This display provides the driver with the current being pulled out of the pack, state of charge, button for lightning mode button, speaker button, and temperature and humidity readings.

The current, which is similar to the power of your car, is sort of like how much of the accelerator you are applying, and how much power you are pulling out of the battery pack. This is really important because when cruising down the road, you will want to occasionally keep an eye on that so you can be as efficient as possible. This is measured via a 1000 amp hall effect current sensor. This is a sensor that goes over one of the high voltage cables, and then transforms the 0-1000 amps (A) to a scale of 0-5 volts (V). This info can then be read by the controller module of the display which processes this info on the 0-5V scale, and transforms it to 0-1000A on the screen, and also a visual representation on the gauge.

The battery management system, or BMS, monitors all of the cells in the vehicle and performs many calculations. One of the calculations it makes is the battery state of charge, or SOC. The BMS calculates the SOC and then outputs it on a scale of 0-5V so that the controller modules of the display can interpret this into a percentage, and create a visual battery "fuel" gauge.

The controller module of the display is outfitted with a high precision temperature and humidity sensor. This sensor is mounted outside the vehicle so that it can report the outdoor temperature and humidity for this display to inform the driver on startup and on one other menu screen.

The display is also outfitted with two buttons on the second menu screen. These two buttons are "Lightning Mode" and "Speakers". The "Speakers" button turns on the in-car bluetooth amplifier and allows the driver to connect to the car's speakers and start streaming music from their mobile phone. The next button, "Lightning Mode", when toggled on, will actually double the horsepower in the car! This is a very cool feature that allows you to turn your car into a super fast high performance mode.