Arduino Dashboard Integrated Into A First-Generation Mazda Miata

The first-generation Mazda Miata, or MX-5 as it's known in some countries, went into production in 1989. The little cars were a modern interpretation of an old-school British roadster, and the first generation cars are known by enthusiasts as the NA series. NA Miatas are still very popular today for their handling and are frequently used on racetracks and autocross courses worldwide. Anyone who has driven one of these cars knows that it had a very simple manual dashboard layout with traditional gauges.

An NA Miata owner going by Jroobi wanted to give his car a dash upgrade and turned to Arduino to make a completely digital dash for the car. The owner used a pair of Arduino Dues to create a digital dashboard complete with a touchscreen that lives behind the steering wheel. Having owned and raced an NA Miata personally, reaching those touchscreens through the small steering wheel of the car may be a challenge when driving.

The pair of Arduino Dues control the touchscreen, which fill the two large gauges traditionally used for the tachometer and speedometer. The two smaller gauges for fuel level and oil temperature remain the original analog units. The large LCD gauges can display multiple types of information and can be customized.

The builder of this car uses the right gauge to show the tachometer and soft redline. However, the gauges are completely customizable and appear to be very easy to read. The user even integrated an odometer using non-volatile memory and dual trip meters.

The makeover is very cool and allows the owner to choose which gauges they want to see depending on what they're doing at the time. Having a gauge with a big and prominent RPM and the rev limiter is very handy driving on the racetrack. Check out the video above for all the details.