6 Spd Manual - Electronic Display of Current Gear on Dash?

I may be an a-hole but I would like something like this too. With bicycles there are several options. Old school is look at your rear cogs and see where the chain is. With cable shifting you can see with a red ball in a tube inline with the housing. Shimano built gear indicator into their computer and I loved it, used that exclusively because of it, using an electronic tap to each shifter. I believe the new electronic shifting di2 has a computer as well to display gear.

I understand not liking someone starting threads just to get post count up.

But I don't really get the animosity about not being a legit MT driver if you want something like this. That's not too far in my head from saying "just look over your shoulder" to anyone who likes their backup camera or cross traffic indicator.

I would love to see something like this offered via maestro and displayed on aftermarket head unit gauges. My pioneer has several such gauges you can configure on the virtual instrument cluster.

My Odyssey in "S" shifting mode (paddle shifter mode which still upshifts for you when needed) will display the gear number (though it's 9 vs 6). Ironically, for an auto, you don't have to care, shift when you want or don't and it does it for you.

It would be cool if we had open source access to our display software and could load new firmware via techstream.

 

I liked it when I had my WRX but I certainly didn't NEED it. FWIW, I put it in the tweeds before even making my 1st payment.



I was trying to see what gear I was in.

 

Even Ken Blocks Hoonicars with Motec engine mgmt have it. Pretty sure he knows how to drive. Although maybe that's for the folks watching the film.

 

Nah. Your post was written by those who need to stay away from a keyboard.

I’ve driven only manuals my entire life. A gear indicator is never necessary, but they are kinda cool. I like shift lights too, but definitely don’t need them either.

Although I have to admit I’ve shifted into 6th gear a few times when I was already there

 

OP, not meaning this as a slight, or as sarcasm, but I'm curious as why you want to know what gear you're in? My feeling is that like shift lights, this could actually be detrimental and you might start driving in a specific gear because you think that's the right gear, causing lugging, or over-revving. The only things of concern or interest should be your engine RPM and speed. You want to be in whichever gear is right at the time. I've driven standard transmissions for ~40 years, and, especially with more complex ones (10 spd and up) often (usually) couldn't have told you what gear I was in, but the engine told me if I needed to shift up, shift down, or maintain.

 

I'll give you mine.

1. Am I in R or 1st? Right now my backup camera tells me this, provided it is working and head unit not completely powered off (maybe backup interrupt even overrides source unit full off). But, since I have a germes, I need to look at the picture and decide if I'm looking forward or backward. In a parking lot it's not 100% obvious at a glance when under pressure (someone honking or tight spaces or whatever). A simple R vs 1 on the built in display would be nice visual confirmation that I'm where I want to be.

2. Am I in 4th or 6th. Sure, rpm's should tell you, but our 6th isn't that far from 4th. At 60 ish mph on a crowded and noisy freeway it may not be super obvious, especially if the pavement is rough. Above 2500 probably 4th, below 2500 probably 6th. But this is look at knob and do some evaluation and decide and maybe you get it wrong if you're distracted. I think I've shifted 4th to 4th like some have shifted 6th to 6th because of this confusion since I don't often get up to speed to bother using 6th. I tend to stick with just 5th as max gear because of this, I know I'm not in 6th b/c I never go to 6th.

3. Slowing to a stop at a light, am I 4th or 2nd? I have clutch in b/c I might hit the light and roll out in 2nd or I might go to neutral and let the clutch out and wait at the red. Did I already move to 2nd or have I not done that yet and I'm still in 4th from cruising?

Now, as I stated previously, I'm probably an a-hole and not really worthy of driving MT and none of these are major safety concerns or big deal issues. But a nice R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 indicator on the dash would be far more value to me than tire pressure, song choice, etc which I have easy access to. Not as valuable as my tach or any other gauge. But if it were visible I'd look for it.

 

You are in the gear you select. Simple as that.

 

It’s irrelevant what gear you are in. If there is no torque to accelerate, then you downshift. If the motor is screaming but you stopped going faster then upshift. If you stop, go back to first.

 

The first week that I had my truck I subconsciously thought I only had a 5 speed. I guess I was mentally used to my MC. Lol.

 

This is why everyone rolls their eyes at these manual threads. Always some jackass that needs to validate his existence by drawing comparisons to prove he notches gears better than the next.

It's just changing gears. Not much to posture about.

 

So, you're in the middle of a crowded intersection which got backed up due to traffic and an ambulance is coming, flashing lights and siren. The person behind you is honking. Vehicles are moving out of the way in haphazard directions to allow the ambulance to get through. You're either in 1st or R but somehow it's irrelevant? Add in some panic, a child crying or screaming for some reason...

A bit of an extreme example but this actually happened to me (kid wasn't crying that much but he was making noise) and I stalled it and felt like a total loser while the ambulance waited on me to sort it out. Still, that was better than smashing the car behind me who was honking and stressing me out or running into some other car in front of me.

I mean, I hate on autocorrect all the time but to argue it's useless or irrelevant is to swim upstream. Tech exists in part to address some common mistakes people make. If we didn't make mistakes we wouldn't care at all about seatbelts and airbags.

 

I can tell what gear I am in just by feel of the shifter. However I think an indicator such as in a rally car would be neat.

 

Ok.

Same. Speed and position of the shifter lets me know what gear I’m in.

 

OR.....you get old and forgetful, roll up to a light, and think to yourself: am I in 2nd or 4th?

A quick glance at the dash is quicker than double stroking the shifter to verify where you THOUGHT you were. And nobody can deny it; you KNOW what gear you’re in but you’re still gonna stroke the stick to be sure.

Ok, ok, that could just be ME. LOL

I guess I would have never thought of this if I didn’t have the feature on my Beemer. It’s actually kinda handy. And I’m the son if a truck driver so I started shifting stuff in the ‘60s.

Fun topic. LOL

 

....

 

TBH, with all the [relatively] pointless little "tech" features that our trucks have, I'm a little surprised that they don't have this already. That said, if you feel this is something that you need to rely on, I would respectfully suggest additional practice. Feeling that you need to look at an indicator on the dash is not going to be any safer than looking down at the shift lever, it still requires you to take your eyes off the road, something which you should not need to do to operate ANY control required while driving. I don't know how much time you have with an MT (and I'm not hacking on you irrespective of how much or little experience you have), but gear selection should be instinctive.

(Oh, and FYI, when you start or release the pedal, you're letting the clutch IN or engaging it)

 

Yeah a gear indicator light might be cool. I come from 4+5 speeds, always know where I’m at by feel. The new 6 speed has me double stroking once in awhile. Old muscle memory can tough to change, ie reverse.

 

<sigh>

Yes, this is not a needed / required / safety thing. It's purely a want, a nice-to-have.

Gear selection is instinctual for me. On the bicycle and the truck. Visual feedback from the stick position is not a definite answer to "R vs 1" or "2 vs 4" or "4 vs 6". With R in 6th position as on the vehicles I grew up with, the R vs 1 distinction is visually clear and 4 vs 6 confusion also goes away. I prefer R next to 1st but I find myself relying on the camera to know which one I hit since there's no push-down aspect to getting into R like on some vehicles.

I don't use 6th (as mentioned) but I am not here to tell everyone else they shouldn't want a 6th and if they have it they shouldn't rely on it.

The gear I've actually selected is what I would appreciate being displayed if it is not the same as the gear I intended to select or want to have selected in the future. The analogy with autocorrect is pretty good here, I meant to type "instinctual" but I missed a key because I'm a human and I make mistakes and wound up with instincual which is not what I intended. To see the red underline tells me to fix my mistake. Yes, I can visually see the typo if I re-read each word I wrote but without the red underline I'd be more likely to have made that mistake and not noticed and had to fix the mistake after I make it rather than as I'm making it.

I could be all high and mighty about how cyclists shouldn't rely on tech for cadence or power, runners should not rely on their HRM's and GPS', and MT owners shouldn't even have a tach because you can feel how fast the engine is and you should just know what gear to be in based on feel. But I don't think that tech is inherently bad, that it's some sort of crutch which produces helpless fools. I think tech is pretty neutral, it can enable good or bad behavior, and some tech is nice for some people. If some specific tech is not nice for some specific person, they can ignore it and often times it can be disabled.

Thanks for the correction on in/out of the clutch, I learned something there and I appreciate it.

 

This dash indicator discussion makes me think of when tachometers started become standard in vehicles. Using sounds and feeling to me is intuitive since the cars I learned to drive never had a way to watch RPM anyway. I'd love the option of replacing the space with useful gauges like a voltmeter and oil pressure.

 

I do this a lot.

Cruising in 6th, accelerate a bit, clutch in, shift up...... Back into 6th. Damnit bobby