JamieDaugherty

Double wow, you are hand soldering these boards? You rock man. I've done quite a few mechanical layouts, keepout zones, etc during my career so I can respect what you are doing.

I've got mine built I just need to install it. One of the stumbling points for me is cutting the hole in the gauge face. How did you do that? I've been leery of trying anything because I want the edges to be straight and neat (I'm **** about stuff looking nice, like the factory did it). I've tought about putting the face plate in the mill but I'd have some trouble holding it well. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Acecool

I am interested, at a slightly lower cost. Do you have to teach it the gears EVERY time you start your bike, or only when the battery dies?

-Josh

Tweety

Yeah, these components are large enough for hand soldering... I could have made the board fit the rear of the display pretty snug, but then I'd need to have them fabbed, so cost would go up for that, and parts cost down... End result pretty much the same cost, but I'd be forced to take pre-orders only or have them "in stock" ie money invested sitting on a shelf... Not my idea of fun for a "home project"...

I used a dremel with a very fine cutting wheel first and then hand filed to a very snug fit... Takes lots of patience, but I doubt you'd be able to tell it wasn't a factory install if you didn't know it... I'm kind of **** in that way too...

Tweety

You only have to teach it once... It doesn't loose memory from being unplugged from the battery, but you can force it into learning mode to learn settings for another bike or if you got things wrong...

The cost is pretty much a function of how many components I order at the same time, so the more the merrier in that respect...

However basic cost + my time making them means that they will probably never be cheaper than somewhere around $75... My goal for now is to make them as cheap or cheaper than the available options, and actually make a miniscule profit... I do this for fun, not for profit, but if it ends up costing me money it's not funny anymore...

The only way to get them cheaper would be to have them fabbed (ie no work for me beyond the design) and to have that be even worth while, the quantity needs to be 200-300+... And I don't have the money to get that rolling...

If you want a really low cost option, Jamie posted a link on the first page to another similar project... That's a through hole design, so it's possible to solder with basic tools and some practice... You could probably build that for $15-$20 not counting the circuitboard, and I could make you one of those for less than $10 + shipping if you like... I could also easily program the MCU, so you won't need to buy the tools for that (those would otherwise cost more than my option)... You should end up below $30 for that on the bike... But that's truly DIY...

uchi

so i twist some wire to a resistor, throw some liquid metal on it and thats it? i can figure that out. when youre ready ill pick a color and level and brightness. perhaps something that can blind the guy beside me

customs wont have a say in it, ill put a picture of chuck norris on the label, theyll likely pay you to come pick it up

Tweety

I have been thinking... Now usually that have one of two very predictable results... One, I get a headache or get bored and give up... Two, I get stupid idea's that my brain then insists on me implementing in real life even though it takes work... And I dislike work... In fact I spend consideral amount of energy to avoid work... Sigh...

The bad idea stuck in my head this time is that I was playing around with a USB interface and a bootloader for the MCU used in the GPI... Basically that means I could hook it to a USB cable, and you could re-program it from any Windows PC without the crapload of $ hardware needed otherwise...

The positive is that I could send one of you a test version and then tweak the software, since around here I'd need ski's on my VTR to do the testing... The dificulty level at that point would be "Unplug from bike - Plug into USB - Run software - Go test"... Also, any updates to the software in the future is easy to program into your GPI...

The downside, it adds cost (~$4) and I'll have to re-do the PCB to include it... PITA, but oh well...

So, what do you guy's think? Please, help me decide... My evil brain won't let me drink my beer in peace...

BBB

Sounds like forward thinking, I'm in!

BBB

Tweety

Another side effect of me goin a thinking... I might have accidentially thought up a very low cost and basic speedo healer clone... Just a little side effect of me fiddling with the speedo signal...

Argh... I think I'm gonna go get drunk so my brain will shut up...

Stevebis1

Keep it coming! A speedo healer was on my list. If you can combine these then I'd rather send my $$ your way
Next shot is on me

Tweety

Hm... Combining them seems like a nice idea!

Gah... But then hardware switches for setting the correction factor just won't do... It takes much to much space... Argh... Need to go think some more... Need to do that in SW... And I dislike the idea of using two MCU's... Wonder if I have pins enough?

uchi

what if you take a speedohealer, open it up and copy it for cheaper and sell it to some of us on the board? ive already got one but wont be touching my bike unless the warm weather comes back, fat chance, and more likely until the new year so i could send mine down your way to play with. just dont break it with those swedish meatball fingers

Tweety

Well... Unfortunately to duplicate stuff you need to be able to read the software inside a MCU... That takes expensive equipment... So I write my own instead...

But the "problem" at the moment is that I'm out of pins on the MCU and the circuit is to big for my taste... Thinking...

BTW I have a Speedohealer V4 on my bike, so if I decide to open it up and play you are off the hook...

Stevebis1

Don't really need the gear indicator and the speedohealer to be combined, and I don't want to get you off track. I was just thinking if you were going to come up with a speedohealer I'd get that from you.
Either way, I appreciate your efforts

uchi

im happy with just a gear indicator and a shift light if its not too much trouble. and a hot blond, cant forget, ill pay shipping

Tweety

Well... I think the combining the two in one MCU isn't going to work the way I want it becuase then the MCU needs to handle two things at once in realtime and that means my programming skills isn't really enough.... So it will most likely be separate one's... But I'm thinking they could populate the same board... Cost increase for making the PCB a bit larger is negligable, and then I can use on USB port and one powersupply... That's handy...

Me, get off track? Never!

Now... Where was I?!

Tweety

I have a co-worker you can have for free, you pay shipping and I'll put her in a box... I'll even include earplugs for free, you'll need them...

JamieDaugherty

I say if it adds cost then no. This needs to be really cheap to be sucessful (IMHO). Folks can already get these on eBay for ~$100 but don't - that means the price point needs to be in the $70 range I think. It's simple supply and demand, and there is little demand at $100. I built mine for about $50.

uchi

here in canada we dont believe in ear plugs. we simply cut out their tongues and pass up on blow jobs because of it, lol.

Tweety

Agreed, low cost is essential... And combined with the added bulk I think I'll skip the USB option...

uchi

hey to save on shipping if some guys from southern ontario wanna get in on this we can have it all shipped to one address and then meet up one night for a beer

Tweety

Hmm... Jamie kicked my brain in high gear, and this morning I woke up with the answer... I'm a kind of eat my cookie and have it still, kind of guy... So I found a compromise...

To me while making the PCB and programming the MCU it doesn't matter much if it has a bootloader or not... So instead of a USB port, what if I put the TTL signals on a connector... Yeah, yeah... Geek-speak... But what it means is that while not adding any cost, anyone can buy a $20 USB-2-TTL cable and program it with the bootloader, instead of the expensive programmer I use the first time...

This way it can be easily upgraded, but you need to buy the hardware once you decide to do that... And it isn't sitting unused on all the cards taking up space and power...

Plus, I can easily add the same connector to the speedo-healer clone, and have the same function there...

And everything else you can think up, basically...

uchi

i must have missed the message earlier but whats the benefit of being able to hook up a laptop to this thing? what would we be changing? just the programming for the specific bike or like the shift light rpm or what? can we make it flash a smiley face when we land a high speed wheelie?

Tweety

The USB hookup is kind of used for what I say I like it to be used for... That's the beauty of programming...

It can change the complete programming of the GPI if I decide to update it and make the calculations better or something, or it can change the settings for the bike or it can change the settings for the shiftlight... Or all three, or just two... Any combination is possible... It's just up to me to write the Windows software...

Sorry, no smiley faces, the display looks like this, so you are stuck with numbers... But you could program it to give you a score 1-10 if you like... I'll leave that to you...

uchi

nice i like the score idea. maybe put a g meter on the bike and have it rate my corner g force for me, lol.

Tweety

By the time you are done adding functions you're gonna need a trailer to tow the thing on...

BBB

Still sounding good......especially about the co worker you can throw in...

Pictures?

Love your work, and I do understand that putting your mind to things does increase thirst, does for me as well...


BBB

skokievtr

USB sounds interesting. Do you know of a case the unit will readily fit in that can also easily be made waterproof and stick-on to the left side of the instrument cluster. Or at least the smallest dimensions it needs be and sources for such a case?

Tweety

Well... The USB idea is probably canceled... Or rather it's moved to an adapter cable, so that it's an optional accessory...

For the casing, nope, no idea... It's not that common for electronics casings to have a viewport, so no off the shelf case that I know of will work... But a case the right size, a piece of clear plastic a knife and some silicone would get you a case...

Tweety

Dunno how much anybody cares... But the SpeedoHealer Clone is now rendered, and also tested on a labcard, so in theory it should work...

It's about 1"x2" in size... I could probably have made it marginally smaller, but I opted for mechanical switches, set +/- 1-99% correction setup with a few twists of a small screwdriver... The jumperblock is for the type of speedosignal (0-5V,0-12V or wavesignal) and on the VTR I can just hardwire the correct type so that won't be there unless you want it...

The cost, as far as I can figure now... Around $60, or around $65 with a plug and play harness (all year VTR's, easy to make)...

Stevebis1

I care... Saving my $$$ to send your way. Let us know when you are ready to ship.