Hercolor Digital Dashboard

[Roady]

As you know, the gas gauge on these things is for amusement purposes only.

[lcallison]

Actually, I've been very pleased with the gas gage on both my wings. My 76 goes into reserve on the empty mark and the 82 is very close. When it says I have a 1/4 tank, it takes 3 gallons to fill it up. It's not real important to me, just like things to work the way they should. Time will tell. Hopefully it'll start coming off the full mark pretty soon. The regular gage was about the half full mark at a 100 miles.

[ericheath]

Good work, Larry, and thanks for sharing it. It's pretty tough for most digital to show well in the sunlight. It probably needs a little sun shade/ visor piece of plastic to help see things. The price was right.

[lcallison]

Thanks Eric. I am liking the unit pretty well despite the minor problems with it. The gas gage is still on full at 130 miles. I'm thinking that since the fuel gage sender is designed for 7 volts, I will need to put some more resistance in the circuit to get it to read right. I'm going to find a variable resister and do some testing with it. I'm also looking at making some sort of hood for the unit like I have for my gps. I can read it most of the time with no problem. In fact, I'm going to try that hood on the speedo and see if it's close enough in size. If it is, I'll just order another one of those. There's no where around here to buy a small pot tomorrow, so the fuel gage testing will be on hold till Monday. Tomorrow, I'll do some work on my other vehicles, clean my shop some, and get some road time in. Monday, I'll find a pot to test the fuel gage sender with and work on my 76. It needs a little maintenance.

[Recycled Roadkill]

I'd definitely be looking at the sending unit. Zero resistance translates to an indicated full tank. Or, maybe you're getting really terrific gas mileage?

[lcallison]

It worked fine with the other unit. I will check that I am getting resistance before adding the pot, but they don't have a lot of resistance to begin with.

[Sidecar Bob]

I wish I had noticed this thread 3 weeks ago. I have been running a similar instrument panel on Eccles (CX650E based sidecar machine) since 2011 (my seller calls it an EP2). When I hooked it up I removed all of the wires from the plug and re-plugged them to match the Honda's plug. Eccles has 2 piston calipers (similar to '83 & later 'Wings) and I drilled a hole in the caliper carrier for the sensor. The the disc carriers have slots and the width is the same as the diameter of the hole for the magnet supplied would be so I mounted the magnet there. I needed somewhere to mount the new ignition keyswitch so I made a plastic panel that I put between the EP2 and the bracket. A green LED (neutral light) is to the left of the EP2 and the keyswitch to the right. (You can't see the neutral light when it is off but it makes a dime sized green spot when it is on.) I used the Park light for the oil pressure light.


My clock looses time and I can't be bothered re-setting it every week or so. The speedo seems pretty accurate and the odometer reads the same over 2 different routes to work as the odometers of every other machine have so it must be accurate enough. I agree about the turn signal indicators being dim - one of these days I will get around to adding ones that I can see when the sun is shining.

How to reset the trip meter: 1) Make sure it is in trip meter mode. 2) Press & hold the right button (2-3 seconds is enough).

How steady is your tach? Mine jumps around a lot. Actually, the first one I got read about double and the needle jumped so badly that it was not useable so the seller sent me a replacement. The second one jumps pretty badly but the lower reading is about right. Since I really only use a tach for backup speedometer in case the speedo cable breaks (occupational hazard for winter bikes & not likely with the electronic sensor) it is mostly just a bit annoying. I think it could be that the wire runs right next to the other coil and could be picking up something from it inductively. Maybe changing to shielded wire might help...

I have been thinking about getting one for the 'Wing too. I paid about $85 inc. shipping for the first one and it is good enough for the winter machine. I have seen them for as low as $55 with free shipping this year but the jumping needle is an issue for the good bike...

[lcallison]

The only time my tach jumps is at idle. Once in awhile it jumps up to about 2k rpm. Otherwise, it's doing fine. How does your gas gage work? I hadn't thought using the brake light for an oil pressure light. You have a nice setup there. I got mine for just under $62 (39.99 pounds). I kind of thought that's how you reset the trip meter. When I filled up with gas today, that's what I did to reset it. I've got a little over 200 miles on it now and like it pretty well. I made a shade for it today and that got rid of the hard to read problems. The next thing I'll do is get 2 amber leds and a green led and move the turn and neutral lights to those. I'll hook the park light up to the oil pressure sensor too. I like that idea.

Thanks,

[Sidecar Bob]

Mine will be over 15,000 Km by the time I get home from work tomorrow and has worked well (other than the tach jumping) except for the speedo going on strike for most of a day. One February morning last year the speedo & odo suddenly stopped working. I thought I had thrown the magnet so I stopped to look but it was still there. I continued to my destination and spent the day there. On the way home (maybe an 80-100 Km trip) it tried to work a few times but I'm pretty sure it was reading low. I stopped for dinner about 2/3 of the way home and it has worked perfectly ever since (well over 10,000 Km)

I think I will eventually mount a couple of LEDs in the fairing. There is already wiring in there for both signals and I am sure I can find a place that is relatively shaded.

Even though the CX650E did originally have a fuel gauge, I am running a GL500 tank that doesn't have a sender so I haven't tried the fuel gauge. If I get all of the other jobs done early enough I would like to build a bigger tank for it that will have a sender, but I will probably still go by the trip meter and leave the gauge set to temp most of the time.

How did you connect the ignition signal? Does your wire run anywhere near the coils? If it reads steady for you maybe I should order one for my 'Wing. It would be nice to keep both cockpits as similar as possible...

[lcallison]

On the ignition I just attached to the yellow wire going to the coils. It's attached probably 3 inches or so from the coils. I like the idea of mounting the turn signal indicator lights on the fairing. I'll think about that. I don't usually have a problem with leaving the turn signal on, but did for several miles yesterday. One thing I haven't seen yet is where the temp indicates when the fan turns on. I want to play with that for a bit to get to know what the readings are. So far, just running down the road, it shows about 4 or 5 bars. When running 70 with the wind, it was 5 bars, when running 70 into the wind, it was 4 bars.

[Sidecar Bob]

My 650 is the winter machine. The sidecar's aerodynamics causes a strong wind between the bike & sidecar and a gentle breeze moves across the front of the engine. In the past, when it was cold out the wind froze my right leg and the breeze picked up the rad's heat and my left leg was comfortable but when it was warm out my right leg was comfortable and my left leg roasted. Last year I moved the rad a foot or so to the right so that the wind is mostly blocked and the remainder is warmed. It has been a success comfort wise but the strong wind cools the rad too well. During the winter I added a plastic panel with a dozen or so 1" holes to block the wind through the rad a bit and later added a solid panel that blocks all but 5 of the holes and can be removed without tools. Today it was 14c/57f and the temp gauge only showed 3 bars at 90 Km/h(56 MPH) with the air only flowing through the rad where those 5 holes are. I need to either find a smaller rad or figure out a better way to block the one I have.

IIRC, the readings were just a bit lower than yours when the rad was in front of the engine.

To mount the LEDs in the fairing all you need to do is drill a hole that fits the LED snugly in a shaded location and push the LED into the hole from the inside. I like 5mm flat top LEDs for that sort of application (I buy theme in lots of 20 or more on eBay).

Here is the circuit I use. I had a few LEDs die within a year before I learned about using a "clamping diode" to protect the LED from reverse voltage spikes that can occur when it is switched on or off. The resistor value will vary depending on the LED and how bright you need it to be (too bright and it will dazzle you at night, too dim and you won't see it in the daytime). I usually try 1Kohm first.

[lcallison]

Thanks Bob for the led info. I'll be using that soon.

[Sidecar Bob]

Glad to help. There's not much worse than adding a bit of modern tech to an older machine only to have it fail prematurely. I mess around with LEDs a lot, not only on the bikes, but on model trains too so I like to have a good selection on hand. I buy them in bulk on eBay and the LEDs are usually 25 cents or less including resistors (I ask for different resistor values so that I can mix & match) in lots of 20 or more. 1N4001 diodes cost less than 10 cents each in lots of 20 or more.

I have been looking on eBay and I found one that comes with a sunshade but the seller says it is only for 2 strokes with drum brakes. Bummer. But 2 strokes fire on every revolution and so do wasted spark ignitions so maybe that would work. I will have to ask about that...

Is yours triggered from the coil or from a wire wrapped around a spark plug lead? The instructions that came with mine show a wire wrapped around one of the spark plug leads to trigger the tach but when the needle jumped all over the seller told me to connect it to the coil instead and it made the needle a lot steadier (although not nearly as steady as a mechanical tach).

[lcallison]

It's just connected to the yellow lead to the coil. The only time it jumps is at idle. It will occasionally jump to 2k and drop right back to idle. When I go back in there I'll experiment with attaching it in other places. I'm going to do a little work on my 76 then get back to the 82. I plan to do the turn signals, neutral light, and oil pressure light then. While I'm working on it, I'll be installing the Rostra cruise contol also. I want it working before I ride to S Dakota in June.

[Sidecar Bob]

That's pretty much equivalent to where I connected mine. Good to know.

I am negotiating with the seller who has the one with the sunshade. I looked at his message again and realized I had read it wrong. He says it is only for drum brake. I asked him what the speedometer sensor for drum brake is like. I might be able to use it after all. If I can't I think I will buy one without the shade anyway.

BTW: This is what these are knock offs of http://shop.canada.kosonorthamerica.com ... black-face (note the price)