Tachometer

Has anyone seen an analog tach that will work on the R²? I'm not fond of digital tachs.

I haven't seen anything yet; the pickup is hard to get off the coil/plug cover. You have to either splice into the wire, or wrap a wire around the slug cap under the coil for anything to be picked up.

I have been working on developing a Formula One-style tach with sequential LEDs (not digits). It's still in breadboard form but If there's enough interest I could produce them in quantity...

Sounds awesome, Goggles! I'd be up for that.

Me too, I had though of putting this right above the top edge of the instrument cluster, maybe 1/4 wide and the length of the cluster...is that what you were thinking about as well? It is on my to do list as well, but you may have saved me some time and effort, very interested to see what you come up with!

I would be interested too

I'm guessing the sequential system would involve something like green, orange and red, giving certain numbers of LED's per sequence?

That was my thought as well...green to amber to red....

If it was made to install on top of the cluster, I would be all over that...so it looked OEM...

Interested here, too............

vwsandman wrote:

Me too, I had though of putting this right above the top edge of the instrument cluster, maybe 1/4 wide and the length of the cluster...is that what you were thinking about as well?

SheWolf wrote:

I'm guessing the sequential system would involve
something like green, orange and red, giving certain numbers of LED's
per sequence?

Yes and yes.

Since Radio Shack has become pretty much worthless for providing chips and Electronic Surplus moved way out of town I need to make a road trip to Mentor tomorrow to get the parts I need. Looking forward to the first 70°+ day of the year!

I'll keep you folks posted on my progress...

Good stuff, Goggles! Looking forward to the progress reports. There WILL be progress reports and pics, right?

Good idea. How many LED's are you planning on? Would you cover the whole rpm range or do something like cover between say 4 and 11 K rpm?

Looks like we're all hoping for pictures.

SheWolf wrote:

There WILL be progress reports and pics, right?

Update #1: I got the stuff...



...And couldn't resist exploring an abandoned railroad on the way home:



I am planning to have a working prototype sometime this weekend. I'm using a pair of LM3914 LED drivers so I can have up to 20 LEDs. I haven't decided exactly how many I'm going to use yet.

20? Cyborg R².

I'm definitely interested...keep us updated.

+1

At this point I am faced with a couple of design decisions...

The WR's rev limiter kicks in at 11,500 rpm. I really don't see a need to measure anything higher, so that will be the top of the scale - unless someone comes up with a reason to go higher.

I am considering using only 12 of the 20 LED outputs available. The scale would be from 500 to 11,500 in 1,000 rpm increments. Does this sound good to you folks, or should I use all 20 LEDs?

12 is more than enough, Three colors right? I would say six green, three amber, three red would work....although I think the F1 guys use different colors now that they all have the common Microsoft ECU...looks like blue, purple, red...or something like that....

Goggles Pisano wrote:

At this point I am faced with a couple of design decisions...

The WR's rev limiter kicks in at 11,500 rpm. I really don't see a need to measure anything higher, so that will be the top of the scale - unless someone comes up with a reason to go higher.

I am considering using only 12 of the 20 LED outputs available. The scale would be from 500 to 11,500 in 1,000 rpm increments. Does this sound good to you folks, or should I use all 20 LEDs?

12 LED's sounds great

I agree, 12 would suffice nicely. 20 might be a little much, and with the 12 it definitely will fit in the little hole up there. The green orange red would be a nice color combo, IMO.

consider me interested.

Since this is my fiance's bike and I just get to ride it, what she says is what goes. That said, she wants a tach on the bike pretty badly. In doing some simple research, I found this:

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=642008&highlight=tachometer+wiring

It is on a DRZ, and is designed primarily as a shift light, but the principles remain the same. I've not done a deep dive on the tech of the setup, but it sure does seem pretty cool and definitely doable for dirt cheap with some patience and reference documentation.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately...

I finished the layout of the circuit board - next step is to etch a couple of boards, mount the components and test. (photo is roughly 3x actual size)



The 12 pairs of pads at the top are where the LEDs will be connected.

I ordered a couple of different project boxes in various sizes. I have not decided which one to use, but the most promising one is a 100mm x 50mm x 21mm size (that's roughly 4 x 2 x 0.8 inches for the metrically-challenged).