One of the things I missed most about my '82 SC was the great big, super-easy to read VDO tach... And you could index redline at twelve o-clock!



Maybe it is better with white or silver faced gauges, but I don't find the tach on my 996 particularly easy to read at a glance or out of my peripheral vision, so I decided to add an LED tach/shift light. I had read some good things about the Ecliptech Shift-i progressive shift indicator, so I decided to give one a try. $183 shipped...

Got some time to install it today, so far very happy! I decided to mount it on the stationary part of the steering console.


It comes in two versions, flat base or curved base. I ordered the curved base. As it turns out, the flat base might have been a bit easier to install in the spot I finally selected... No worries, I cut a small piece of Kydex and got out the heat gun to make a bracket for my curved shift light. I also used some friction tape to bundle the Shift-i wires into a harness. Closest stuff I've found to what Porsche uses for their harnesses.





Wiring is pretty easy. The Shift-i has three wires it needs connected. Switched power (red), ground (black), and a tach signal (blue). I had seen a couple of other installation notes describing taking apart the instrument panel and/or the center console to get power and ground and route the wires... All completely unnecessary.

Porsche's manufacturer-specific additions to the OBDii connector wiring have everything you need. The pins we will use are not required or used by OBDii, but manufacturer specific, so don't expect them to be on all other OBDii connectors. Fortunately Porsche has exactly the right wiring on their OBD connector. You can get easier access to the connector by removing the torx screws holding it in place.

• Pin 1(black/red) is switched power. Don't confuse it with Pin 16 (red/black) which is battery, always hot. The power rating on pin 1 is 5A. Shift-i doesn't rate the power consumption of their device, but a few LED's and a very small logic board, probably 500mA max. Connect this to the red Shift-i wire.
• Pin 4 (brown) is chassis ground. Don't confuse it with Pin 5 which is signal ground for OBDii! Connect this to the black Shift-i wire.
• Pin 9 (violet/green) is tach output. Fortunately Porsche provides this for us in such a convenient place! Connect this to the blue Shift-i wire.

To route the wires, others had described taking apart the instrument panel and removing some of the ventilation ducting... I opted for a slightly easier approach. Took a heavy-duty 36" zip tie and fed it up from the bottom. It was pretty easy to manipulate it out the steering column opening, then I just taped the Shift-i wires to it and used it as a wire pull.



The Shift-i is highly configurable and has many different modes... The way I currently have it set, each LED = 1,000 RPMS. My first four LED's are green (1K-4K RPM), five and six are yellow (which comes on at 5K and 6K RPM, and at 7K RPM, just below actual redline, the red LED comes on and the yellow/red flash quickly as a shift indicator. Again, you can set this up many different ways, but in this config, it really operates as a full range tach as well as a shift light. I think perfect for my needs...






Sorry, no pictures of the shift indicator... Will try and get a video of it in operation with 7K shifts.

 

Can you turn the brightness of the LED's down? They seem very bright/distracting.

 

nice job pfbz!!


during the day they are probably fine but imagine at night!!! It would be neat if the dim can be adjusted.

 

Just looked at all of the features. This thing is very nice. Auto dims, many different display options, you can set the RPM that it turns on at, so set it to come on at 5K, this way its not bugging you during normal driving, only when your foot it in it!

I like it, thanks for posting this. Rep points 4 u!

 

The Shift-i is both auto dimming and each brightness level can be adjusted and remembered... So you can have it, for example, extra-extra-dim when dark, normal brightness variation in the mid range, and extra-extra-bright in the brightest conditions.

Also, it has a 'cruise dim' feature (also programmable). After a certain number of seconds at a stable RPM, the lights dim further until it sees a larger RPM change. So if your cruising on the highway at 75, the LED's (optionally) dim down.

You can use it more as a shift light, with even the first LED's not coming on till 5K or even 6K, or use it as a digital tach as I am right now.

It's really got quite a bit of clever engineering in it. You'll need the manual to program some of the options, but the typical stuff like changing modes, changing brightness level settings, or even blanking the entire display are easy to do.

It also shows battery voltage at startup, can be programmed as a stall indicator, and can automatically pay for your Starbucks coffee at drive-through (kidding about the last one...)

 

That's so cool I want to do it to my tip...
Like you said it looks like the straight one might have fit better. Any reason you chose that color over blue/red?

 

Had one on my 07 Subaru Forester XT, it worked a treat, definitely worth it in my opinion.

 

cool

 

bump for some questions that were asked about the mod...

 

nice

 

Wow I was thinking of this while driving the other day. I think I am going to follow your footsteps, thanks!!!

 

They are back ordered for a couple of months last I checked.

 

Why did you rotate the rest of your dash in the '82 SC...