SimDash v. 1.1 starts supporting electronic speedometers. Please check this page for more details.

This is a feature many of you have asked and we are happy to make it available. Unfortunately it is easy to find cheap rev counters for our simulator but electronic speedometers, for some reason, are quite expensive.

Officially the Rev Burner works with aftermarket electronic speedometers, but it also works with the dashboard from a car: one Rev Burner can be connected to the rev counter and another one to the speedometer.

Because where are thousands of different dashboards with different connections, officially we don’t support this configuration but will give some tips and show what we did with the gauge cluster of a Ford Mondeo.

The most popular  rev counters used with the Rev Burner are those branded TYPE-R, probably because they are very cheap and widely available.

So I got one from NCC Tuning and I chose the 125mm 11.000 RPM model. This is really huge and cheap so I wanted to test whether it was reliable too.

I connected the Rev Burner and started the calibration. When I set the Rev Burner to 8.800 RPM the unit displayed only 8.000 RPM. So it is around 10% less, not very good but the calibration process would take care of that.

Then I calibrated the higher regimes. I tried to push the rev counter to 11.000 RPM but I only got 10.600 RPM maximum. The Rev Burner was sending 29.450 pulse per minute, that correspond to 14.725 RPM (tachometer set to 4 cylinders), but I was getting only 10.600 (-28%!)

So the tachometer is not very accurate, in particular in the higher range, but after a good calibration it is perfectly usable, apart from not being able to push it above 10.600 RPM. But having spent only £28 I can’t complain too much.

If you are looking for an accurate instrument, get something from Autometer or similar, but be prepared to pay a price 5-10 times bigger. If you want something cheap, the TYPE-R rev counters are a valid choice but they need a good calibration. Also I never got 11.000 RPM but for me 10.600 RPM is high enough, considered the cars I drive.

This new release fixes some bugs and start supporting the following simulators:

• ACTC: Turismo Carretera
• Top Race Simulador 2009

Go to the software page to download.

It has been reported that SimDash sometimes fails to detect the firmware version on the Rev Burner and GI Max.

Version 1.0.5 should fix this problem.

SimDash v. 1.0.4 has been released.

The most important changes include:

• Support for 6 and 8 cylinders engine rev counters (up to 12.000 RPM and 8.000 RPM)
• New plug in for Colin McRae Dirt

This new version requires the firmware of the Rev Burner and GI Max boards to be upgraded to v. 2.

The Download page contains links to the new firmwares and instructions.

SimDash version 1.0.3 has been released.

• Some minor bugs have been fixed.
• Added support for some GTR2 mods.
• Added plugin for the GI Max Gear Indicator.

After the release of the GI Pro board some people asked for a display with the same functionalities but in a larger size. So we have designed the GI Max. The display is red, very big (33mm by 47mm) and very bright.