Selfmade Analog Cockpit

[sansnombre]

Again I say, outstanding work! This is freakin' lovely to look at - and if it comes with the other features you talked about, we get the best of yesteryear and current benefits as well. Want one . . .

 

Consider selling a "kit" so you don't have to do the soldering and what-not. I would ABSOLUTELY purchase one if it wasn't crazy expensive, and if a kit reduces the cost, even better.

 

Cheers

[sorkyah]

absolutely amazing work @stev74   I would love to have something different on my fz

and if a kit is an option down the road, i'd be second in line to grab this from ya....

damn you @sansnombre

 

ive always loved the look/feel of analog clusters

hell i'd even be willing to print/resin cast my own housing provided a model if that makes it easier on you. i do it for cosplay props/prosthesis applications as it is. 

 

just thinking aloud here, but is there much of a need for a FM tuner nowadays?  if you're running into interference with it, why not do away with it completely considering most places have broadband connection and most broadcasters also stream via their website and if blue-tooth is available then you can just pipe it in through your mobile

 

would also be nice to have a functional speedo...mine is off due to a gearing change and the speedo healer devices dont work for the fz... at least not the two ive tried.

 

 

[stev74]

thank you!!!
about the kit. Maybe you are a professional but soldering some of the SMD parts are not so easy. You need a microscope for that.
But in general not a bad idea with the kit. Maybe if I can't get it to a reasonable price I could go that road.

I really would like a FM Radio. Its so much easier than starting/stopping music from the smartphone or streaming. One time in the year I usually do a small tour somewhere in europe...nothing extreme but thats what I always would like to have. ..I want a FM Radio! I even added a bass boost circuit because in the helmet it sounds very "thin"

That with the speedo and different gearing....Good that you mention it. I will make it configurable. *writing a note on my todo list*



 

[faffi]

Norway do not have FM anymore, only DAB+ 😣

[sorkyah]

2 hours ago, stev74 said:

thank you!!!
about the kit. Maybe you are a professional but soldering some of the SMD parts are not so easy. You need a microscope for that.
But in general not a bad idea with the kit. Maybe if I can't get it to a reasonable price I could go that road.

I really would like a FM Radio. Its so much easier than starting/stopping music from the smartphone or streaming. One time in the year I usually do a small tour somewhere in europe...nothing extreme but thats what I always would like to have. ..I want a FM Radio! I even added a bass boost circuit because in the helmet it sounds very "thin"

That with the speedo and different gearing....Good that you mention it. I will make it configurable. *writing a note on my todo list*



 

not a professional by any means, but  more of a hobbyist such as yourself... though w/o the circuitry design ability

for the past month or so ive been soldering/de-soldering components from arduino/raspberry pi boards to integrate them with a wireless receiver relay board. 

I help another cosplayer design/build animatronic articulated wings with upwards of 16ft wingspans

[stev74]

11 hours ago, faffi said:

Norway do not have FM anymore, only DAB+ 😣

Will definitely look into radio receivers for the future who can do both (FM and DAB). At the moment unfortunately I don't have much knowledge about them.
I just read in the newspaper some days ago that Norway is the first country to turn off FM Radio. In my opinion thats insane. I'm sure there are millions of people/cars there who can't listen radio now.
 

9 hours ago, sorkyah said:

not a professional by any means, but  more of a hobbyist such as yourself... though w/o the circuitry design ability

for the past month or so ive been soldering/de-soldering components from arduino/raspberry pi boards to integrate them with a wireless receiver relay board. 

I help another cosplayer design/build animatronic articulated wings with upwards of 16ft wingspans

very cool! Always like to see people doing something.
Maybe you could really solder it. You would need a hotair soldering station, some solder paste, a microscope and most important...tweezers



 

[Mark jones]

Hi stev

motorgadget has some nice clocks to, would you be prepared to wire one up for me, so that it would be plug and play? I would buy it and send it to you, and pay your price naturally 

[gregjet]

Anti reflection lenses aren't really that necessary. If it worries you then matt clear vinyl works and replace as needed. Cheap and protects the original lenses.

 

Gee just what we need a newer radio protocol that is even worse reception and reach than FM. Used to be able to drive from Townsville to Brisbane (1400km) and change the radio station only a few times ( AM) . Now the reception lasts about 50km then nothing until you get near the next town. And I doesn't just fade, it starts get so scratchy you HAVE to turn it off.

 

No chance of acting as a designer only and getting the units produced? If you design to a cluster that can be used across a range of bikes, you widen your market. Most of the aftermarket digital dashboards are like that. That would reduce the cost substantially. Or even getting the boards wave soldered as a mass product?

Many people love analogue gauges and would love to change on LOTS of bikes, and your design is well conceived.

[stev74]

On 11.10.2017 at 11:24 AM, Mark jones said:

Hi stev

motorgadget has some nice clocks to, would you be prepared to wire one up for me, so that it would be plug and play? I would buy it and send it to you, and pay your price naturally 

hmm are the motogadget meters also with CAN Bus ? I thought they need for example a speed sensor or a RPM impulse. 
Maybe you can show me the meter you are interested and I'll have a look into the manual.

 

[stev74]

On 11.10.2017 at 10:23 PM, gregjet said:

Anti reflection lenses aren't really that necessary. If it worries you then matt clear vinyl works and replace as needed. Cheap and protects the original lenses.

Sounds interesting. Do you have maybe a product link for me? What is this matt vinyl? Is it a paint or a film for sticking?

 

 

On 11.10.2017 at 10:23 PM, gregjet said:

No chance of acting as a designer only and getting the units produced? If you design to a cluster that can be used across a range of bikes, you widen your market. Most of the aftermarket digital dashboards are like that. That would reduce the cost substantially. Or even getting the boards wave soldered as a mass product?

Many people love analogue gauges and would love to change on LOTS of bikes, and your design is well conceived.

That would be cool too. I'm not really a professional in this so its really only a hobby at the moment. But I'll send some manufactures like Touratech or maybe even motorcycle firms like KTM for sure an email when its done. Maybe someone is interested in a cooperation.

The problem is that there is no standard. Every manufacturer has a different connector, pin-assignment etc. More and more data is coming throught the digital CAN-Bus and I don't think that they using the same Bytes for RPM and Speed, Water Temperature, Air Temperature and so on. This information comes on the FZ-07 through the digital CAN-Bus interface (2 wires).

I would say for modern bikes its nearly impossible. I don't think the aftermarket digital dashboards using the CAN-Bus. This is more oldschool where you need an external separate sensor for everything. My XTZ750 cockpit is without CAN Bus for example. 

 

[stev74]

Short update for the project.
New PCBs arrived (version 1.5)
I already soldered one of them and its looking good. It looks like the interference caused by the step down converter with the radio is gone.
Will test on the weekend everything.

One case is nearly ready. Only the holes for the leds I have to drill what can be a bit tricky.
New matt meter faces should arrive early next week.
Still a kind of a problem are the pointers. At the moment I'm using modified pointers from an AUDI cluster.
I tried to mold/cast some by myself but the problem the waterclear resin is not heat resistent enough.

If everything is working well (usually it never is ) the hardware is ready very soon.

[sansnombre]

I see a stack of PCBs. Hmmmm . . . . .

[gregjet]

How many actually use CAN bus though? I know BMW does . Part of the reasons I will never buy another.

Stereo manufacturers make adapter plugs. Usually signal wires ( non CANbus) pretty similar. I have added digital dashboards to a few bikes. Usually doable. True CAN should have consistent signal protocols ( I don't know but I thought that was the point). Certainly in Cars OBED stuff is all similar.

[stev74]

I think all new bikes using CAN bus now. (but maybe I'm wrong?).  Though really important stuff comes through a separate wire like the ABS warning-light on the FZ-07 cockpit for example.
Gregjet, you mean there are adapters out there what are converting CAN Bus information to oldschool signal-wires ? That would be cool.

I don't have a lot experience with CAN Bus. The FZ-07 was the first I "hacked" to see what Byte includes what information.
But I don't think there is a standard out there which message-ID in which Byte includes what information. Would be cool though.
It seems like the OBE standard is for cars only.

 

 

[gregjet]

Actually now that I think of it, even CAN must use custom message identifiers. My Husky TR650 and my F800R BMW ( both BMW's at time of manufacture) used some same and some different, so the reader/controller I bought for the 800 wouldn't talk properly to the Husky. The TR had a magnetti marelli and the 800 a bosch.

But if Yamaha uses a general CAN ( rather than a internal network in the head unit only) there would be all sorts of problems with changing , lights, blinkers, PCV's etc, that I don't seem to have?

[stev74]

To my knowledge....CAN is just the protocol. If you have a CAN-Reader/Sniffer about 50euros)...you can connect it to nearly all bikes and cars and read what is happening there.
What you not know is what data means what.

yes like you said...every message on the CAN-Bus has a message-ID.

It looks like this:
Message ID 23e, DLC 4: aa bb cc dd

That means message ID = 23e (or 574 in decimal)...DLC is the datalength of the message ID. In this case its 4.
So there are 4 Bytes with information. aa,bb,cc,dd
This is an example from the FZ-07. This message comes from the ECU. In aa stands the engine-temperature (water) and in bb stands the air-temperature.
But it not means that BMW or Honda is sending it the same. Maybe BMW is transmitting the engine temperature in the message ID=145 and Byte 7?
At the moment I only know it from the Yamaha FZ-07.

[sorkyah]

On 10/14/2017 at 2:30 AM, stev74 said:

Short update for the project.
New PCBs arrived (version 1.5)
I already soldered one of them and its looking good. It looks like the interference caused by the step down converter with the radio is gone.
Will test on the weekend everything.

One case is nearly ready. Only the holes for the leds I have to drill what can be a bit tricky.
New matt meter faces should arrive early next week.
Still a kind of a problem are the pointers. At the moment I'm using modified pointers from an AUDI cluster.
I tried to mold/cast some by myself but the problem the waterclear resin is not heat resistent enough.

If everything is working well (usually it never is ) the hardware is ready very soon.

Are you using a polyester resin for casting? 

 

Try some of this 

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/crystal-clear-221/

[msPJFZ1]

@stev74 MotoGadget has their m.unit blue that uses lin bus. 

     I have one on my BMW cafe project and I'm very interested to see how this project comes together. I like that it is similar to an older BMW gauge set but more modern, compact and clean.

Good luck!

[stev74]

9 hours ago, sorkyah said:

Are you using a polyester resin for casting? 

 

Try some of this 

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/crystal-clear-221/

Thank you for the tip! I tryied "Crystal Clear 201" and its unfortunately too soft for thin parts. Polyester is very difficult to cast in my experience. I tried to cast a water-clear polyester from another manufacturer and it was not going well. There was everywhere big bubbles. I think it was from moisture in the air.....and it smells so extreme that I try to avoid it. Do you used Crystal Clear 221?
 

 

9 hours ago, msPJFZ1 said:

@stev74 MotoGadget has their m.unit blue that uses lin bus. 

     I have one on my BMW cafe project and I'm very interested to see how this project comes together. I like that it is similar to an older BMW gauge set but more modern, compact and clean.

Good luck!

Thank you!
The m.unit must be a cool device. I even thought about buying one of those for my old XTZ750.
I just looked what this LIN protocol is about. Its a more simple version of the CAN Bus and much slower.
So I think you can't transfer RPM and SPEED data over LIN because its too slow. But for turning on and off switches thats perfect.

 

[sorkyah]

On 10/17/2017 at 12:26 AM, stev74 said:

Thank you for the tip! I tryied "Crystal Clear 201" and its unfortunately too soft for thin parts. Polyester is very difficult to cast in my experience. I tried to cast a water-clear polyester from another manufacturer and it was not going well. There was everywhere big bubbles. I think it was from moisture in the air.....and it smells so extreme that I try to avoid it. Do you used Crystal Clear 221?
 

I have used 201 208 and 221 all are good but 221 is very hard when properly cured (requires an oven)

 

If you want to use an epoxy based resin (almost no smell) 

https://www.smooth-on.com/products/epoxacast-690/ is a clear epoxy

[stev74]

thanks a lot sorkah for that tip. Maybe I will try it one more time with the epoxacast 690.
The problem with the pointers are that it is so thin that it is bending when its more warm. In room temperature it was good.

I tried a bunch of them an all had the same problem. I tried also an epoxy resin but from another manufacturer....and it was the same.
Yes maybe an oven would help a lot. Never tried it with an oven. The problem is, even if its working...its getting too complicated for a simple pointer what costs normally 3$.
...and I would need so much time for just 2 small pointers.

Unfortunately I couldn't find a ponter for 3$ what fits perfect. But till now the best soltion is, buying a 3$ pointer and modify it till it fits.

This project is really much more complicated than expected. So many small problems.
 

[stev74]

Short update:
- new tacho faces in matt arrived. Looking good
- the new PCBs seem to work fine. All mistakes are fixed from the previous boards. The interference with the fm radio is gone. No problems till now. GPS is working well.
- on friday I will lasercut acryl glass and on weekend maybe I can finish building a new prototype. That could be in the end my cockpit what I will use on my bike. *fingers crossed*

- the cable antenna for the FM Radio is still a "problem". at home its working awesome but on the bike its not great. So I need to improve that.
Yesterday I did a testdrive but couldn't find a final solution. Optimal cable length is 75cm or 1,5m. Will try to find a way to hide it on the bike.
At home I adjusted the bass-boost circuit a bit and changed some resistors. Its sounding good now.
Was soldering with the helmet on...who else can say that?
This is really a lot better than without an equalizer. I'm a sound engineer so I can't live with a bad sound

 

[Beemer]

Would it (FM cable antennae) work if routed inside the handlebars or would the metal block the signal too much? Would a small hole drilled in the handlebars (big enough to put the wire into) compromise the integral strength of the bars? Could the bars become part of the antennae if the cable were attached to them? Can you boost signal, pick-up strength?

[stev74]

Good idea., thx Beemer! The handlebar could be the antenna. I will try that because the length (or width) from the handlebar is nearly perfect.
If you put a antenna inside the handlebar this would block the signal completely. Its like a shielded cable...but the handlebar itself could be the antenna. *excited*
Will let you know how it works.

[pegasus46]

Who in there right mind takes the time to take your eyes of the road to check the tach anyway? It is so low it takes 2 seconds to look at it and a LOT can happen in 2 seconds at speed.