dashboard | Moto-Abruzzo

02/12/201303/02/2016

See ya later Indicator

While it rains, rains and rains some more, I’ve had time to complete the mods with respect to moving the warning/tell-tale lighting around on the dashboard. Now the Capo has a nice left AND right indicator repeater lights ….. and looks all the better for it. So to recap.

Unused ABS light is now the side-stand light
The side-stand light is now the low-fuel warning light
The low-fuel warning light has new green LED’s and is now a right-hand indicator repeater.

Here’s another piece of video with all the lights working. You’ll notice that the fuel is already on reserve, hence the old side-stand light (now low-fuel) is on throughout the video. Sorry about the quality, but a dismal dark day and a smartphone don’t work so well together ….. and my cold hands adding the shake didn’t help! I’ll add a new page to the site shortly with details of how the circuits were rearranged.

While I waited for Youtube to upload the video, I took a walk down the road to see what damage had been done by the 24hr+ of solid heavy rain …………

…………. let’s just say the Capo nor the Rangerover are going anywhere soon. We don’t appear to have a road left for about a 30m stretch. It appears to be languishing somewhere down in the valley by the looks of it! Pics tomorrow. 😥

23/11/201303/02/2016

Tacho/Voltmeter live on the Caponord

Phase 1 is over, Phase 2 begins …….. yes, the reworked dashboard with voltmeter/tacho and fade-in/fade-out auto-dimming backlighting is off the workbench and finally onto the Caponord. I know it doesn’t look too inspiring at the moment, but it is only a prototype unit for development. The white tacho face is simply a temporary inlay printed on a piece of A4, so it better not get wet!

Inside the box lives an Arduino Uno with a homemade interface board that switches and adjusts the signals to/from the dashboard as required. The single connector plugs into an additional fused loom that runs to the battery positive terminal. I’ve tried to build in safeguards against under/over voltage, battery disconnection and reconnection spikes and its own failure with regards to how the dashboard functions, hopefully most if not all eventualities have been covered …. fingers crossed!

I’ll run this setup for a while and try to iron out any other issues as they crop up, but what then? Well Phase 3 has already started in parallel with Phase 2! A new microcontroller board that uses the same chip, but with a footprint that is an astonishingly small 8% of the Uno has been ordered. Not only is it small, it also loses the peripheral bits and bobs that I don’t need – and that means much lower power consumption. I’m really hoping to get the whole thing inside the dashboard case if possible, but the worst case scenario will mean a small box fixed directly to the back of the dashboard – so no wiring loom or bulky connectors!

Where the ideas originated ..... the Kwak GT & GPZ's of the 1980/90 era As well as getting the inlay reprinted with the added voltmeter graphic, I’ve also decided on a little re-arrangement of the existing graphics and functions. For example, why oh why is a ‘side-stand’ light prime-center of the display when it already has a safety circuit to stop you riding away with the stand down? ….. Magneti Marelli over-egging the pudding I think.

So the side-stand is moving down to the (unused) ABS lamp spot, the low-fuel then moves up to the side-stand lamp and the low-fuel light then becomes the right-hand indicator – as it should have been all along. Yes, a turn repeater for both left AND right hand signals!!!

Left AND right turn repeater lamps!

With all this in the pipeline, I can now source a decent place to have the new inlay card made. I’ve spoken to a couple of companies in the UK already, but I’ll keep looking around for a little while longer …….. do you know anyone you can recommend? If so, I’d like to hear from you.

Last but not least, here’s another short piece of video with the panel working on the bike.

19/10/201303/02/2016

Dashboard upgrades

Evening folks, I thought I’d share this with you as the nights start to draw in and riding gives way to winter tinkering.

I mentioned over on the dashboard page about the upgrades hopefully working by spring next year. Well some of them have come along in leaps and bounds, so I took a snippet of video so you can see a dashboard work-in-progress strutting it’s stuff on the workbench. OK, I know that there’s no voltmeter markings on the inlay yet, just use your imagination for now! It’s actually showing 12.4v ……….

Now while I’m waiting for an oscilloscope to miraculously appear, I’ll leave the board bench testing for a while to see if the code or controller breaks, then fingers crossed, it’s on to the auto-dimming back lighting instead of the three fixed settings of useless, mostly useless and acceptable.

17/06/201326/05/2016

Get yer motor running ……..

No, not the mighty V990 Rotax, more the tidily-tiny stepper motor that runs the speedometer and tachometer. An unobtrusive little thing with a hefty replacement price tag of between £30-£50 each.

The B-0410-116-530 stepper motor is also used in a variety of cars from Audi, Fiat, Renault and Citroen. Anyway, I had a duff one on a board and decided to remove it and poke/prod/measure its internals for digital posterity. Here’s a couple of images of the little darling. I’ll be adding a Dashboard page shortly with lots more info on the motor and the circuit board along with plenty of ‘how to’ tips to hopefully save you a few bob on repairs by doing it yourself and avoiding the pitfalls that leave you with an expensive paper-weight!

15/06/2013

An extraordinary board meeting

Hot on the previous post and the delivery of the Futura dashboard from Arv, here’s a photo of the hybrid (Franken-Capo) dashboard in the Rally-Raid.

The calibration of the needles was compared to TuneECU (Tacho) and the trusty Garmin GPS (Speedo) and everything is absolutely fine. I’m pleased to say it’s been a complete success and something I can tick off the RR’s wish list. It’s not a very big list, just has some awkward or expensive items on it!

15/06/201315/06/2013

A Futura dashboard from over the pond

Last winter and again a few weeks ago, I put an advert on the AF1 ‘Aprilia Parts Wanted’ forum for an RST Futura dashboard or inlay and other than a very tedious (and obvious) spammer, it was deathly quiet. I kept scouring Ebay and numerous on-line for-sale sites but it seemed like the world’s supply of Futura dashboards had vanished into thin air ……… until Arv (Picky) sent me a PM through the Aprilia forum.

He had a Futura dashboard that didn’t work and had a broken lens but was fine in all other respects. This sounded just what I was looking for because in reality I ONLY need the inlay anyway. So we swapped emails and Arv sent photo’s and a video. Total cost …… p&p only, I could have the dashboard for free!! USPS said 6-10 working days …. it was on my doorstep in 5, now that IS service. Read it and weep DHL!!!!! 👿

And so I’d like to thank Arv, not only for his generosity and honesty, but for getting the thing packed and away in the mail before I’d even got the payment to him. Arv it turns out, hails from White Plains, New York and fills his days with computer wizardry and his spare time travelling on his beautifully sorted Futura with is wife.

Today I’ve fitted a small piece of his Futura into my hybrid dashboard and as I finished the job off, I felt it was also fitting that a part of his bike had found a new lease of life and returned home to Italy. Arv you are a credit to yourself, your family and the AF1 community and although we’ve never met, or spoken, one day on that round-the-world trip I’d like to buy you a cold beer and shake your hand.