BASIC stamp in car?

Archiver

hi! thanks for taking time to read this. I have a 1984 Pontiac Trans
Am
that I need to collect some data from. At the end of this post, I
include a list of what kind of information/sensors I need to
read.

I'd like to output the information in ASCII format to a serial port on a
laptop, sample taken every 1/2 a second (or better), and sent to
laptop.


What chips will I need, how much does it cost? I am a poor college
student,
so I need to know this [noparse]:([/noparse]
***********************

_Gas guage_ Is a simple voltage divider. A fixed resistor in series
with a
varistat. It's tied to the tank float. Voltage rises and falls with fuel
level.

_Speed sensor_ The '84 has a cable that comes up to the dash &
speedometer
cluster. Inside the speedometer is the VSS which converts to MPH for the
computer. This won't be easy to mock up. Since I am removing the dash &
spedometer, all I'll have is a mechanical, spinning cable.

_The "Idiot Lights"_ are digital bits. on or off

_Tachometer_ This is a pulse-per-second count. Count the pulses per
second,
multiply by sixty (seconds), then divide by two.(eight
cylinders / four cycles)

Your assistance is appreciated,
Matt