Sometimes you think a temp or pressure gauge is a good idea; we'll go with that, it can be often times. But once you get carried away you find yourself with 16 gauges on your dash and a fighter jet look. Defi and Autometer have come out with linking gauge systems that help with clutter, but digital displays are the next thing.

HKS has tried it before with their CAMP and new CAMP2 system, but the price and understanding/marketing of the system has been lacking.  The guys at Magden visited our office before with their rather interesting M1.b display. It uses your own in-car LCD screen capable head unit, such as a Pioneer or Eclipse unit and then allows you to pick whatever "gauges" you want. The main interface is through the OBD2 port but they also sell a variety of sensors that you can use to display info, and even promised us that they would be selling packages with linear potentiometers and pressure sensors, etc. Could be cool, especially with datalogging features.

Magden claims, "[you can] monitor functions such as air intake temperature, wide-band lambda, horsepower, torque, fuel mileage, ignition timing and more by simply changing what you want to see and how you want to see it. The M1.b offers the only automotive software that allows owners to monitor and data log any five functions at the same time, allowing you to test the effectiveness of your aftermarket perofrmance modifications. With downloadable software and updates comming soon to the Madgen website, your M1.b computer never becomes outdated, and additional software such as Navigation, MP3 audio, video, Bluetooth integration and GPS locator systems are all in the works for future upgrades." We're still interested in seeing how fast the sampling rate can be, the demo unit had some work to be done with our Project Evo 9 before it could read the data quickly enough from the OBD2 port.
 
The Magden M.1b retails under $650. Find more info HERE.