Your Instrument Panel In Your Vehicle

By Zach Jacobs

There are a lot of measuring gadgets if you take a look at your car's dashboard. This whole panel with all the measuring device on it is called the instrument panel. The main function of the instrument panel is to make sure that the drivers will see the light indicators that are indicatory of car problems. The light indicators may blink or may not light at all and the arrows will move to indicate if your car's oil pressure and fuel are still okay or not so you can have it checked.

The instrument panel is capable of doing this with the help of the engine computer that works hand in hand with the instrument cluster. This engine computer is the one that acquires the needed information from the car and presents them on display for the driver to see via the instrument cluster.

There are several engine computer parts that serve as sources of this information and all of them have different tasks to be done. For example, the ECU is gathering information for the coolant's temperature while the transmission controller will be focused on getting data on speed.

It will eventually transmit data to the communication bus. This data has two major parts. The first part is the header which is a number value that determines the data type sent. Whether it is sending data about speed or temperature, the communication bus is set to recognize it.

The data on the other hand is the exact numeric value of the data to be sent. Take 200 degrees Fahrenheit temperature as an example. The computer reads the measurement of the temperature to be 200 degrees, it will then relay the 200 numerical value to the communications bus.

This information will then be distributed to the proper gauges of the instrument panel straight from the communications bus. Henceforth, this is the information you will see when you are driving.

Since the instrument panel plays a crucial role for your car, you should make sure that your instrument cluster is performing well. Make time to have it regularly checked, maintained and calibrated for you to be able to get the precise value for you to always stay safe on the road.

This is the whole process on how information are being relayed from the engine computers to the instrument panel to give the reading. With this, you can see that every part of the car is working together to let you know if something is wrong with your car. - 21396

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The instrument panel of each car can vary in shape and the gauges that are part of it. The instrument cluster is an important part of your car and should be looked over by the driver while driving down the street.