An Enginerds life with a 2003 Aprilia Caponord Rally-Raid ETV1000 (2008 – 2024)
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!
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.
Hooking up the netbook to the ECU when datalogging has always been a pain. Seats off, fumble around for the Molex connector, run the cable under the seats, refit the seats …… and away we go. So when I saw a neat little MIL style connector that Andy has fitted to his Capo, I couldn’t help asking about it.
Turns out it’s made by Deutsch Autosport and they make a whole range of high quality connectors specifically for the motorsport industry. Here’s a link to the catalogue. Anyway, all-round nice guy that he is, Andy made me a chassis socket and plug assembly with 300mm of loom at each end. Not only that, he popped them in the post to Italy … and they arrived a couple of days ago. And I must say ….. WOW! ….. beautifully machined and fully waterproof with a nice machined cap to keep the greeblies out.
So now I’ve reworked my old TuneBoy cable and installed the connector on the dash. I’ve used shielded cable back to the original molex plug to reduce interference on the data lines and it all works fine.
So it only remains to say a big thank you to Andy for doing this for me. I owe you one! Now if you’re thinking of hot-footing it over to the AF1 forum to send Andy a PM – don’t. This was a one-off kindness and he won’t be making any more, so please don’t ask.
While over in the UK I popped over to Sahara Force India Formula 1 team at Silverstone to meet up with Andy (Beasthonda) from the AF1 forum. We’ve been exchanging emails on and off for months now and this was a great chance to put a face to the name.
I took along my netbook and OBD cable and remapped his Capo while Andy hooked a patch-box and oscilloscope into the instrument panel wiring loom so we could accurately measure a particular signal from the ECU. It was certainly a whirlwind exercise – all done with one eye on the storm clouds brewing overhead! Everything went smoothly and afterwards Andy gave me a guided tour of the team headquarters, it was fantastic. So I’d like to thank Andy once again for his kindness, hopefully we’ll meet again when I’m next over on the Capo. Cheers!
UPDATE: See the foot (bottom right) of the picture above? A fine example of a foot I think you’ll agree …. but it’s not mine and it’s not Andy’s. It belongs to Rob Ashworth who tried desperately to get out of the shot but didn’t quite make it. Rob in fact supplied the oscilloscope and twiddled the knobs in a flurry of practised professionalism. As they say, better late than never ……. Rob, thank you for your assistance and it was a pleasure chatting to you.
When I got back from the UK just after Christmas I set about installing the new Eclipse-8 battery monitor on the Capo. You may remember from a previous post that I fitted a 5mm LED battery monitor from Sparkbright a few month ago and loved it (previous post here). In December Andrew very kindly sent me an Eclipse-8 as a sample so I could evaluate it – thanks again Andrew!
What’s the difference between them? Well firstly, it’s only available as an 8mm or 10mm unit, no 5mm version as yet. Secondly – and this is the kicker – it’s also auto-dimming, changing it’s brightness depending on the prevailing light conditions, without using a separate photo-sensor to do it. Here’s a Sparkbright video of it in action.
So does it work? Short answer – yes, VERY well! I installed it in the same place I’d had the 5mm unit, just drilling the hole a little bigger to accommodate it. The Eclipse-8 has the circuit board attached directly to the LED, so only two wires and no circuit board in the loom to find a home for. The board is very compact and once the LED is inserted into the mounting clip, it is hardly visible. The length of wire supplied was ample to attach to the battery and earth points I chose in the bikes wiring.
The Caponord was bolted back together and fired up, the LED quickly changing from orange to green as the rec/reg did its thing and the voltage rose in the loom. In the strong daylight of the barn the LED glowed brightly, but put a hand over it and it very quickly dropped its output in response. All well and good, but would it be effective when put to use in the real world?
Well I’ve covered about 700 miles through January and early February in all weathers and lighting conditions and the Eclipse-8 has certainly lived up to my expectations. For example, here along the Adriatic, the A14 Autostrada weaves its way along the cost through numerous dimly lit tunnels. Jumping from bright sunlight to twilight and back gives the unit a good workout and each and every time it switches very rapidly – I’m guessing in a few milliseconds, but certainly fast. At night-time the unit operates primarily at it lowest output and is never distracting, sometimes increasing in brightness as I pass under a sequence of street lamps just to let me know it’s still doing its thing!
So are there any downsides? Yes, but not as a result of anything done by Sparkbright. 8mm LED clips it seems are only available in convex and not concave style. Great for increasing the angle of visibility ( not important from the saddle) but also increasing the susceptibility of the LED to being ‘washed-out’ by direct sunlight and becoming difficult to see. As it is, there is a simple partial fix. Drop the LED further down the clip and glue it in place. I dropped the LED so its top was flush with the clip – a couple of millimetres I guess and this has made a world of difference. Now only the most direct sunlight affects readability and I can live with that!
Bottom line, the Eclipse-8 is a simple all-weather battery monitor for day/night use on a motorcycle – no more, no less. And it is doing the job perfectly.
Contact details E-mail: [email protected] or Tel: 0141 557 5277
Well here it is at last ….. the green LCD Caponord instrument panel. A hot brew and an early start on a cold wintery day, had the panel off the bike and in the warm workshop by 8am. While the soldering station warmed up, I separated the cases, eased the needles off and surprised myself that all this only took a couple of minutes – no hassle with the needles at all, which is unusual!
Next, the six diagnostic panel and two odometer blue LED’s were replaced with green versions, this isn’t difficult but you need to make sure they go on the right way round or they won’t work! The LED specification I used is:
3.2-3.8v 20ma 1000mcd green PLCC-2 SMD LED
Then I removed the old 24C02 chip and read off the data and saved it. I modified the file and wrote it to a new chip and soldered it in place. Back out in the cold I plugged the board into the bike and got ready to switch on. Would it, wouldn’t it ….. blingy lights or a puff of smoke? Hoorah – we have bling!!! The case was buttoned back together after giving the clear lens a clean and checking the rubber seal was OK. All in all, about an hours work, time for another brew then.
So is it just a bling-thing or is their anything worthwhile about changing the LED’s? Personally I prefer it in green, the contrast between digits and background is better making it easier to read the display on the move – sadly the photographs don’t reflect how good they really are. Also the green LED’s are brighter than the blue and that certainly helps. Keeping the blue LED’s behind the analogue gauges adds a nice touch, balancing out the green.
Yes I know, I keep fiddling with this damn board …… but my new green LED’s turned up today!
So in one went on the test board to see what it looks like. The pic doesn’t do it justice as the green is a little deeper and more vibrant. The idea is to replace the LED’s under the diagnostics panel (x6) and the odometer (x2) and keep the meter lighting in blue.
I quite like the look of it, so tomorrow the RR instrument panel comes out of the bike and all the work I have lined up for it begins … please don’t let me screw up!
And a Happy New Year to one and a
ll. Welcome to 2013 ….. and have I been a busy boy over the festive period.
The Caponord/Futura instrument panel simulator-rig thing is built and working, allowing all the functions to be tested and it will plug directly into my main loom/ECU simulator when I get round to finishing it. I also piggy-backed a neat socket for the 24c chip onto the programmer and so now I can test a board and reprogram it all in one location.
A nice new solder station (thanks Lucy!) with better heat control has made working on the boards a breeze and a ‘Chipquik’ SMD removal kit’ has made chip replacement so easy compared to a couple of weeks ago. Working on stuff this small is certainly challenging!
So what’s left to do with these boards? Nothing much, finish the circuit diagram and replace some of the back-light LED’s as an experiment and trial a built-in Sparkbright battery monitor. Stay tuned!
On a previous post I mentioned a visit by Mike081. During his stay I said that I’d like to get hold of another instrument panel at some point, so I could look into the circuit and programming in more detail. It just so happened Mike had a board lying around and he promised to sent it over. Well, true to his word, a Mk2 Caponord board was sat on the post-box when I got back home the other day. Cheers Mike!
First, I made a stand to support the little beauty while I prodded and poked around with
my trusty multimeter. The next job was to try and fix it! The board had a couple of problems, a high resistance track and faulty regulator but nothing too taxing. Next up, I photographed the front (high resolution pic here) and back, then imported them into AutoCAD and started the tedious task of unravelling the tracks and components (click on pic).
Next up, the EEPROM. The little memory chip that contains settings and data relevant to the running of the board and recording of mileage and trip.
Two AF1 forum members – Michele (MCR) and Andy (Beasthonda) have been forefront in unravelling the data on the chip and how it alters the way the board works. The bottom line is that instrument panels from both the Caponord and Futura can now be reprogrammed in various ways and used on either bike. This also means that the ability to safely recover boards that have reset to factory default is now possible.
I’d like to thank both Andy and Michele for including me in the email exchange and for sending data and documents so I can better understand the particular settings for each bike – Cheers gents, you’re the best!
So this week I’ve experimented with the alternative settings and sure enough my little board has changed from Caponord to Futura and back and dabbled in metric and imperial measurements and even been a hybrid – Caponord with Futura LCD display and Speedo/Tacho calibration.
