update for those inquiring and patiently waiting, the time is getting nearer and im pretty much done with the majority of the coding just working out bugs and increasing efficiency (as time permits), I'm very happy with where shes at currently although shes not as complete as I would like, its complete enough I feel I can probably build a a new alpha for 2014
the old beta used 4x 16mhz ic's, since then i've done a significant amount of recoding to upgrade to 2x 84mhz ic's, in doing so i've lost many pins but i've also gained some back since now the DEC only supports 12 cylinder engines natively (down from 20 before), what i mean by natively is that 1 DEC can only support up 12 injectors and 12 ignition coils, now here comes the cool part, i've been working on the code to have two or more DEC's linked together and thus can support up to 24 injectors and ignition coils in sync for 24 cylinder engines or for 12 cylinder engines with dual injectors and/or coils!!!
so now the DEC has 5+ custom user programmable pins:
2+ analog inputs
3+ analog outputs and/or digital in/out
currently, the biggest issues i have and still need to resolve before im happy
> no lcd flat touchscreen - i still cannot find a vendor that can create the screens at a reasonable price with the dimensions I need
> i cant find any manufacturer specific coding info anywhere for the factory clusters and various modules on 1999+ networked vehicles, i suspect the only info i'll get will be from me snooping the can-bus and k-line to manually decipha what its communicating, which im not looking forward to doing anytime soon