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Old 05-22-2020, 07:36 PM   #1
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BlueFire Implemented in Seneca

Today I finished implementing the BlueFire for Motorhomes in my 2014 FS. I decided to try BlueFire rather than Scan Gauge D in order to have more info visible full time. The system operates using Bluetooth and you are able to build your own dashboard showing anything that is reported by your Freightliner’s can-buss system. Building your dashboard from scratch is a bit of work, but you can also download dashboard designs that others have created, and then modify to your own preference. I used an Amazon 7” Fire Tablet and mounted it’s in the driver’s side cubbyhole near the sun visor using a RAM type mount from iBOLT from Amazon. I ran the power thru the back of the cubbyhole and down the A pillar. All in all the project was pretty straightforward. I look forward to getting it on the road next week to see how it does.
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Old 05-23-2020, 12:36 AM   #2
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Looks great! I’ll be ordering my Bluefire unit shortly and can’t wait to get it....thanks for sharing!
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Old 05-23-2020, 07:56 AM   #3
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Looks great! I’ll be ordering my Bluefire unit shortly and can’t wait to get it....thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I’ve taken a lot, so I am happy to give back a little. Next week we will finally hit the road for an extended trip. I’ll post an update regarding how BlueFire works in actual extended use. I’m hoping it fares well because I really like the look, the info displayed, and the ease of reading it without having to move my head from my normal driving position, or moving my eyes from the windshield direction.
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Old 05-23-2020, 10:32 PM   #4
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Your post sparked a bunch of interest... Stacy and I talked about this tonight too...

One thing we both agreed on... That display needs to be part of the co-pilot view and keep it the heck away from the driver (me).

I am interested in what you think about the telemetry on your Seneca and MOST importantly - how it logs. How much storage does it take to log all that data on your device. Their website has some tell-tale indicators that they are running up against the limitations of the reporting capabilities of the CAN-bus system and require the receiver to be in "High-Performance" mode (actually going into the system and disabling the power management of the device to insure it can keep up with the telemetry)

Bluetooth inherently has a low threshold of data thruput and that concerns me... We avoid Bluetooth connectivity in most of our Seneca connections - and have a 1gb-wired network with 10gb SFP ports in our Seneca to manage data from the DVR and cameras.

I look forward to seeing how this product performs... Keep us posted!!!
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Old 05-23-2020, 11:35 PM   #5
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James shared his dash with me which made it a lot easier to modify, and I have changed it to my tastes on an iPad mini with 16gb memory that has basically been cleaned of unwanted crap as I have been using to fly my drone. I will be ordering the BlueFire Next week when we get back from our trip and see how the iPad handles it as it’s an older unit. I plan on mounting it in the same place as James did as that is where I have my Scangauge now. My main gauges I monitor on the Scangauge I have made larger along the bottom. Can’t wait to try it out.
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Old 05-23-2020, 11:44 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by SloPoke View Post
Your post sparked a bunch of interest... Stacy and I talked about this tonight too...

One thing we both agreed on... That display needs to be part of the co-pilot view and keep it the heck away from the driver (me).

I am interested in what you think about the telemetry on your Seneca and MOST importantly - how it logs. How much storage does it take to log all that data on your device. Their website has some tell-tale indicators that they are running up against the limitations of the reporting capabilities of the CAN-bus system and require the receiver to be in "High-Performance" mode (actually going into the system and disabling the power management of the device to insure it can keep up with the telemetry)

Bluetooth inherently has a low threshold of data thruput and that concerns me... We avoid Bluetooth connectivity in most of our Seneca connections - and have a 1gb-wired network with 10gb SFP ports in our Seneca to manage data from the DVR and cameras.

I look forward to seeing how this product performs... Keep us posted!!!
Our course the display could be mounted in the passenger’s side cubby or elsewhere. You would need to test the viability of the BT signal of any location you decide to ensure it is sufficiently strong enough to maintain connection reliably. After reading all I could find everywhere my conclusion is that most of the reported issues had to do with BT connection drop-outs. The data load I suspect is managed by the app so as to not exceed the connection bandwidth on even the most marginal of platforms. But to keep from hobbling the system based on the most marginal implementations the app developer provided a means of lightening the data load by turning off some reporting of OBD parameters that the user may not want/need. BlueFire’s green adapter uses BLE which is limited to 1Mbps, which is on the low side. BT Classic modes can be faster. I bought the green adapter. If I find BLE is too slow I plan on returning my green adapter and trying the black one. Since I do not plan on using GPS nor TPMS in my BlueFire implementation I’m thinking 1Mbps will be enough. I’ll find out next week when we finally start our summer trip. I want it to work because I don’t really like the limited display of the Scan Gauge. I’ll post an update after we hit the toad. 🤞🏻
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Old 05-23-2020, 11:54 PM   #7
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James shared his dash with me which made it a lot easier to modify, and I have changed it to my tastes on an iPad mini with 16gb memory that has basically been cleaned of unwanted crap as I have been using to fly my drone. I will be ordering the BlueFire Next week when we get back from our trip and see how the iPad handles it as it’s an older unit. I plan on mounting it in the same place as James did as that is where I have my Scangauge now. My main gauges I monitor on the Scangauge I have made larger along the bottom. Can’t wait to try it out.
I like your dash layout Brian, great job! Did you create different color schemes for Night Mode? I have not yet. I thought I’d try my red color scheme for day and night, and then decide if I need different color schemes for day and night modes.
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Old 05-24-2020, 12:19 AM   #8
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Thanks, I was up till 1am messing with it the first night. Tweaked it a little more today when I got the Seneca outside and sitting in it. The iPad mini fits real nice up by the cubby. I’ll probably continue to mess it hit try a day/night scheme. Takes a lot of time making a dash, lots of back and forth in the app getting things just right.
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Old 05-24-2020, 12:31 AM   #9
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Thanks, I was up till 1am messing with it the first night. Tweaked it a little more today when I got the Seneca outside and sitting in it. The iPad mini fits real nice up by the cubby. I’ll probably continue to mess it hit try a day/night scheme. Takes a lot of time making a dash, lots of back and forth in the app getting things just right.
Did you feel the cubby location would allow you to quickly read the dash without it being a distraction while driving? As I sat in mine today with my 7” tablet mounted I felt I could easily “read” it without being distracted. I think after learning the gauge locations, grabbing a quick reading won’t be any more distracting than reading the real oem dash, maybe even less distracting. I find the oem dash frequently is hard to read due to glare. Share what you come up with. I’ll do the same. Thanks!
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Old 05-24-2020, 12:50 AM   #10
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I already had my Scangauge there and never found it distracting as it’s just a quick glance to check. I have my Scangauge set on oil pressure, water temp, turns temp and average fuel so this is why I modified the dash to have those across the bottom and larger. I feel that it will be much easier and faster to check the iPad dash due to the graphic display of the gauges instead of the small numbers on the Scangauge. One of the tweaks today was making the font size on the 4 lower gauges larger making them much easier to see at a glance.
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Old 05-24-2020, 09:01 AM   #11
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I already had my Scangauge there and never found it distracting as it’s just a quick glance to check. I have my Scangauge set on oil pressure, water temp, turns temp and average fuel so this is why I modified the dash to have those across the bottom and larger. I feel that it will be much easier and faster to check the iPad dash due to the graphic display of the gauges instead of the small numbers on the Scangauge. One of the tweaks today was making the font size on the 4 lower gauges larger making them much easier to see at a glance.
Good strategy, design it to meet your own needs and habits. If the BT connection is reliable enough and fast enough, BlueFire should be a great addition to the cockpit.
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Old 05-24-2020, 10:10 AM   #12
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That BlueFire thingy is way more information than I would want or need, however I sometimes long for a trans temp. Does the scan gauge include that? If so, anyone want to peddle their used ScanGauge? PM me if you do.
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Old 05-24-2020, 10:48 AM   #13
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That BlueFire thingy is way more information than I would want or need, however I sometimes long for a trans temp. Does the scan gauge include that? If so, anyone want to peddle their used ScanGauge? PM me if you do.
All of these types of devices can only report what each rig provides on their Can-bus. It varies from engine to engine, and transmission to transmission. Older rigs reported less info, newer rigs tend to report more. Scan Gauge D I think would report transmission temperature on most rigs. There are several members on here that use Scan Gauge D. If you mention what rig you have someone on here will likely verify the availability of the trans temp parameter on the SC D for your rig.
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Old 05-24-2020, 11:16 AM   #14
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That BlueFire thingy is way more information than I would want or need, however I sometimes long for a trans temp. Does the scan gauge include that? If so, anyone want to peddle their used ScanGauge? PM me if you do.

I cant say for sure but I would think it would read the Trans temp on the Allison 2500. It does for my 2018.5 with the Allison 3000, it was one of the main reasons to get the Scangauge in the first place as I tow a big trailer. I will probably be selling my Scangauge D after I get set up with the Bluefire and try it out on a couple trips so I dont know when it would be.
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Old 05-24-2020, 12:20 PM   #15
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I cant say for sure but I would think it would read the Trans temp on the Allison 2500. It does for my 2018.5 with the Allison 3000, it was one of the main reasons to get the Scangauge in the first place as I tow a big trailer. I will probably be selling my Scangauge D after I get set up with the Bluefire and try it out on a couple trips so I dont know when it would be.
I can confirm that in my 2014 FS the ECU from my Allison 2500 RV transmission does report transmission temperature onto the can-bus. You can see it in this pic which was taken with the Blue Fire app connected to my green BF adapter.
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Old 05-25-2020, 02:42 PM   #16
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All of these types of devices can only report what each rig provides on their Can-bus. It varies from engine to engine, and transmission to transmission. Older rigs reported less info, newer rigs tend to report more. Scan Gauge D I think would report transmission temperature on most rigs. There are several members on here that use Scan Gauge D. If you mention what rig you have someone on here will likely verify the availability of the trans temp parameter on the SC D for your rig.
2014 Freightliner M2 chassis.
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Old 05-25-2020, 03:23 PM   #17
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2014 Freightliner M2 chassis.
You have the same year that I do, so the answer is YES, transmission temperature is reported on the can-bus and therefore would be reported on most OBD reading devices. BlueFire does, and from what others here have said the Scan gauge D does as well.
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Old 06-01-2020, 09:36 PM   #18
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Your post sparked a bunch of interest... Stacy and I talked about this tonight too...

One thing we both agreed on... That display needs to be part of the co-pilot view and keep it the heck away from the driver (me).

I am interested in what you think about the telemetry on your Seneca and MOST importantly - how it logs. How much storage does it take to log all that data on your device. Their website has some tell-tale indicators that they are running up against the limitations of the reporting capabilities of the CAN-bus system and require the receiver to be in "High-Performance" mode (actually going into the system and disabling the power management of the device to insure it can keep up with the telemetry)

Bluetooth inherently has a low threshold of data thruput and that concerns me... We avoid Bluetooth connectivity in most of our Seneca connections - and have a 1gb-wired network with 10gb SFP ports in our Seneca to manage data from the DVR and cameras.

I look forward to seeing how this product performs... Keep us posted!!!
Today we broke free and took the family and our rig and left for the summer. It was our first trip since implementing the BlueFire system in our rig. We drove all day and the BlueFire worked flawlessly, no BT disconnects, no mis-reported parameters, no lagging, all worked well I am happy to report. I was especially pleased with having an accurate, reliable fuel gauge!
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Old 06-03-2020, 03:30 PM   #19
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Got my Bluefire system up and running using an old ipad mini. I used a RAM roller mount attached to the cubby compartment with an aluminum bracket. I already had added several USB ports and just ran a cord down the A-pillar, under the dash to the port on the center console. Fits great next to the TPMS and easy to glance up to check just that same as I had been doing with the Scangauge and TPMS monitor.
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Old 06-04-2020, 06:49 AM   #20
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I'm curious why no one has viewable the EGT temps.

If towing, that is one parameter I would want.

Is it on the can-bus?
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