Give Your NA Miata Modern LCD Gauges
Instructables user morego815 designed replacement LCD gauges that fit the NA Miata and some other car models.
The NA (first-generation) Mazda Miata/MX-5 is a fantastic sports car. While it caught a lot of flack for years due to its small size and "cute" styling, it has become an iconic and very desirable car. Sure, it is lacking in horsepower. But the extremely low curb weight and balanced weight distribution give it top-notch handling, making it a perfect choice for autocross racing. Unfortunately, the NA Miata's final model year was 1998 and so its technology is very outdated. That's why Instructables user morego815 designed replacement LCD gauges that fit the NA Miata and some other car models.
These LCD gauges are meant to replace the standard analog fuel, oil pressure, and temperature gauges in the NA Miata gauge cluster. By default, the new LCD gauges just replicate the functionality of the original gauges. The benefit being that they're more readable, thanks to the full-color graphics and numerical readouts. But the cool thing is that users can change the information displayed, if they so choose. If the data is available through the OBD port, then you can show it on an LCD gauge. You might, for instance, not care about the temperature gauge and can show some other information instead.
The primary components for this project are three round 1.28" IPS LCD displays from Makerfabs and a Seeed Studio Seeeduino XIAO SAMD21 development board, which is compatible with the Arduino IDE. The XIAO communicates with the displays via SPI. You will also need a handful of other parts to mount the displays, provide power, and so on. Depending on your vehicle, you may need sensors and/or an OBD reader tool to gather the data to display on the gauges.
This Instructables tutorial provides a lot of information on how to modify the NA Miata's gauge cluster to fit the new LCD screens. That will require permanent trimming and adhesive, so be sure about your decision before you start this project. For other vehicles, you will have to figure out the gauge cluster modification on your own.
As you can see, the gauges look awesome. They are more usable than the originals, without looking out of place in the 30-year-old gauge cluster.