on your front gauge cluster, can you program it like a Wrangler? display your tire pressure, battery charge %, oil temp, etc? I would think the battery charge is critical given how much is electronic on pretty much all cars these days, and why the battery charge level is not down there with your fuel gauge, IDK... can it be?

 

On a tangent, I'm planning to install this gizmo as soon as the vehicle comes: https://newdefendermods.com/products...le-plate-mount (if you want the AMPS mount, consider getting it here: https://rammount.com/products/ram-b-347u)

I wouldn't want to depend on what I get from the car on the dashboard, too unreliable. However, OBDII exposes a lot of things that are not usually available to the dashboard, a lot of them vehicle specific. I had a mount similar to this (RAM X-Grip), OBDLink MX BT permanently in the OBD port (reminder, it has to have direct battery connection per specs), and Torque running on the phone, with all the telemetry logged - the size of data collected was negligible compared to phone free space.

 

The only thing you can check is the tire pressure. No oil temp, oil pressure, battery charge etc. This is something LR has neglected for as long as I can remember and it is something that should be included.

 

Since you seem to care most about battery charge. On any moderately healthy vehicle even a **** vehicle it will likely show it at a pointless range. For example, I had a Gen 5 Camaro SS which had AUX gauges and the battery level was the most pointless gauge. it never moved except on the start up

 

They are often rigged.

Since most drivers barely notice them except when they are seriously off kilter, gauges are often backed up by non-linear transformation circuits that will keep the needle centered as long as the actual value is within a range that is considered "normal", and then move the needle drastically off as soon as the value falls out of that range.

The only thing I would trust at a face value is a digital gauge (or a value log), but neither of them are user friendly.

 

When you say program, you mean like hack it? or use that they made?

 

The gauge cluster on the Defender is going fully customizable and digital, so could a software update at some point give drivers things like battery life and tire pressures? the electronic side of Defenders need a bit of attention: things like a dead battery while you park at a campsite should be fixable with an update that allows an owner to go to "camp mode" and the Pivi system won't start up every time a door is opened (which apparently was sapping the battery). The "camper switch" idea and need seems kinda similar to the functional benefit of "battery saver mode" to my iPhone. If my iPhone can do that, why not the Pivi system at some point? (I opened the door for a sweatshirt - I'm not driving off the campground. Save your energy Pivi!) Maybe unrealistically hopeful, but I don't see what would prevent some future software update from allowing me to have the battery charge on the dashboard, same as MPG on "Trip A" or anything else. If the gauge cluster is customizable, can't new software updates enhance what is available that later on?

 

Ah you mean like fake gauge?

 

Not fake, but dumbed down. Generally, two values: "Life is good" (needle in the center), and "Oh, crap"