Technical Details
Enthusiast Desmontei modified his old Audi A4 (B5) 2001 gear shift by integrating TicWatch Pro 3 smartwatch. To do this, he had to create a custom gear shift using 3D printing. The original watch case was disassembled to extract the OLED screen and motherboard. The gear shift body was initially printed from PLA plastic with minimal tolerances for reliable display fixation.
Context and Background
The system is powered directly from the car's 12-volt onboard power supply. Enthusiast Desmontei developed a special application for the WearOS operating system. The current gear is determined based on the data from the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, which read the angle of the lever. To eliminate errors that occur when the car is moving uphill or downhill, dynamic calibration was introduced into the algorithm.
Industry Impact
The device also functions as a media controller, allowing you to switch and pause tracks in the Spotify app by swiping on the gear shift screen. In the second stage of modernization, the enthusiast plans to use more durable materials (ABS or PETG) for printing the body and install a second gyroscope sensor in the car body to obtain reference data. Additionally, it is planned to set up integration with the OBD2 diagnostic scanner through the Tasker application to display telemetry (engine revolutions, temperature) on the screen.