Digital Dash on a /6?

I've got a 1975 R75/6 that has the typical busted speedometer / flaky idiot lights. Instead of fixing the mechanical speedometer and going in to the circuit board, I'd like to hook up a digital speedo/tach/odometer. I've found a few on the net that also include the idiot light equivalents.

My question is, has anyone here ever hooked one of these up to an airhead? From what I've seen, everything should hook up real easy except for possibly the speedometer. These digital dashes seem to be aimed for Harleys and take a 5/8" coarse thread cable for the speedo drive. Does anyone know if an electronic sensor can be mounted anywhere on the bike? (Front wheel? Transmission?)

Any ideas would be appreciated.

I made my own out of a bicycle speedometer and some leds (I used the proper size incandescent for the generator light since the resistance on that is important to the charging system on my 1974 airhead). It isn't pretty but I haven't had any problems with it. I can't recall the name of the bicycle speedo I used (maybe sigma?). If you are really interested I can try to find the information tonight and post again tomorrow.

Sorry I don't have any pictures.

j

i had a cycle computer on my '79 and i attached the magnet to the brake disc with safetywire and epoxy, ziptied the sensor to the fork, measured out the rotation of the wheel and it worked like a champ.

i have been thinking of doing something like this to the cafe bike to minimise the clutter over the headlamp.

can you provide some examples of this 'digital dash' you speak of?

too bad our bikes dont have OBD2 because the ScanGauge is really neato

ducatipaso said:

can you provide some examples of this 'digital dash' you speak of?

Click to expand...

Dakota Digital (www.dakotadigital.com) has several different models. They're very nice, but also very pricey.

eosnut said:

Dakota Digital (www.dakotadigital.com) has several different models. They're very nice, but also very pricey.

Click to expand...

oh my those are nice. that oval unit would be sweet mounted in the dogbone or to the tripletree with clipons.

I know a number of people running the Trail Tech device called a Vapor, they have a new model called the Vector. www.trailtech.net/vector.html
Although not BMW specific I will be fitting one to my R80G/S Dakar shortly.



Vector: 5th Generation Trail Tech Computer.
Top mechanical, electrical and software engineers craft Trail Tech products of quality and value. Trail Tech will continue to invent and create improved, quality products for the benefit of the off-road powersport community.


* Speedometer:
o Current Speed
o Average Speed
o Maximum Speed
o Selectable MPH/KPH

* Temperature:
o Ambient Temperature
o Engine Temperature
o Dual Programmable Temp Lights
o Exact Model Fit Temperature Sensors
o Selectable ??F/??C Display

* Distance:
o Adjustable Distance
o Permanent Odometer
o Selectable Mile/Kilometer Display

* Clock:
o Hour Meter
o Stop Watch
o Ride Time
o Accumulated Ride Time
o Selectable 12/24 Hour Display



* Power Input :
o Included Power Connection Fits All Machines
o Accepts Any Power Input - AC/DC
o Auto Switch to Internal Power if External is Removed
o Permanent Memory Guarantees Data is Never Lost

* Remote Control :
o Remote Control for On The Fly Distance Adjustment and Lap Timer

* Value Added :
o Custom Designed for Exact Model Fit
o All Parts Included to Complete Installation
o One Year Warranty
o Unlimited Free Trail Tech Phone and Email Support
o Waterproof Connections Included
o Bright White Backlit LCD Display
o Aluminum Accessory Dashboards for Most Applications (fits Vapor protectors and dashboards.)

If I remember right Signal Dynamics also makes one, I saw it last year at the dealer show.

Pezz_gs said:

I know a number of people running the Trail Tech device called a Vapor,

Click to expand...

Went down to the dealer today and ordered one of these. Not bad at $119 for all it does. I'll let everyone know how it works.

GPS Anyone???

GPS will do all speedo/odometer functions, too. Just no idiot lights, etc..I did a GPS on my R100/7, throwing the original equipment guages out, after many fixes on the old guages. Never go back, as the GPS has it all over most stock speedos for accuracy, plus all the other GPS stuff in one of these units. My Garmin 76CSX is pricey at near 500$, but many cheaper GPS units are out there to be had around 200$ + or - a few bucks....Randy13233

Pezz_gs said:

I know a number of people running the Trail Tech device called a Vapor, they have a new model called the Vector. www.trailtech.net/vector.html
Although not BMW specific I will be fitting one to my R80G/S Dakar shortly.

Vector: 5th Generation Trail Tech Computer.
Top mechanical, electrical and software engineers craft Trail Tech products of quality and value. Trail Tech will continue to invent and create improved, quality products for the benefit of the off-road powersport community.


* Speedometer:
o Current Speed
o Average Speed
o Maximum Speed
o Selectable MPH/KPH

* Temperature:
o Ambient Temperature
o Engine Temperature
o Dual Programmable Temp Lights
o Exact Model Fit Temperature Sensors
o Selectable ??F/??C Display

* Distance:
o Adjustable Distance
o Permanent Odometer
o Selectable Mile/Kilometer Display

* Clock:
o Hour Meter
o Stop Watch
o Ride Time
o Accumulated Ride Time
o Selectable 12/24 Hour Display



* Power Input :
o Included Power Connection Fits All Machines
o Accepts Any Power Input - AC/DC
o Auto Switch to Internal Power if External is Removed
o Permanent Memory Guarantees Data is Never Lost

* Remote Control :
o Remote Control for On The Fly Distance Adjustment and Lap Timer

* Value Added :
o Custom Designed for Exact Model Fit
o All Parts Included to Complete Installation
o One Year Warranty
o Unlimited Free Trail Tech Phone and Email Support
o Waterproof Connections Included
o Bright White Backlit LCD Display
o Aluminum Accessory Dashboards for Most Applications (fits Vapor protectors and dashboards.)

Click to expand...

oh my goodness! all this for around $100? this is excellent!

edit: perused their site, dont see any specific BMW stuff, I'll be interested in how/if you get RPM and temp functions working. I really dig that product for the price!

Remember we want Installation pics

You can use the Tacho pick up wire on the models the had electronic Tacho's

Trailtech have a wire that wraps around the High Tension lead to pick up spark for the Tacho on KTM's.

I believe the temp gauge is more for Liquid cooled bikes but drop them an email.

Pezz

Installation

I've downloaded the installation manuals from trail tech's site. The tach can be direct connected to the coil or wrapped around a spark plug wire. As for temperature, they have a sensor available that the spark plug slips over, like an "O" around the threaded part of the plug. Then it reads the head temperature from there. I didn't order that though.

I will take pics and post when I'm done.

Rod

cant wait to see pix!
this is exactly what I've been looking for!

It's In!

I installed the Trail Tech Vapor today. It took about 3 hours. The hardest part was figuring out how and where to mount the speed sensor.

The tach is not reading correctly for some reason though. I decided to use the option of wiring it straight to the coil. There is also the option of wrapping the tach wire around a plug wire 5 times and have it pick up by inductance. I chose the direct connect so that I wouldn't have to mess with it when I change plug wires. If the mechanical tach on the bike is correct, and I think it's pretty close, then the Vapor is reading very erratic. It shows 0 to 180 or so at idle, where the bike's tach shows 1000. When the bike shows 2000 the vapor shows around 1500. I think that either the spade connector on the coil is loose and vibrating a little, or it's picking up some signals through inductance somewhere and confusing itself. Maybe the coils being in series are confusing it. Anyway, I was going to try wrapping it around a plug wire to see if it was more accurate, but after the test ride the engine was too warm to pull the tank and by the time it cooled off it was dark outside.

The good news though is that I now have a working speedometer! It seems to be pretty accurate, but I'll have to verify it with the wife in front of me in the car.

The speed sensor was difficult to mount because there was nowhere to screw it in to on the fork. The directions say you can also zip tie it, which is what I ended up doing. The problem was that the fork has the mount for the brake caliper cast into it right where the zip tie needs to be routed, so that makes it difficult. You can see how I finally had to do it in the pictures. The magnet for the sensor was easy to mount on the rotor with a small dab of JB Weld.

So here's the pictures. I'll let everyone know when I get the tach sorted out.

Rod

PS: It's not in the center of the handlebars because the mount it came with would not clear the handlebar clamps. It was too short. If I decide I like the unit I'll make a custom mount that will fit there.

Tach wiring routing in the headlight shell

Here's how I routed the tach wires in the headlight shell. I then followed the main harness along the frame to the coils.

Speed sensor mounting

Heres the routing for the speed sensor down the fork. The magnet that goes on the rotor can seen in the bottom left of the picture.

Another view of the sensor routing.

Here is a view showing how I had to route the zip tie to keep it from sliding up and off the casting for the caliper mount.

Power connections

You do not HAVE to run power to the Vapor. It will run off of it's own internal battery for a couple years according to the manual. But...the backlight is brighter and the shift indicators only work with external power. The only thing I didn't like about running it off the bike's power is that it doesn't shut down until there is no activity for 20 Minutes!. It shuts down after 3 minutes when it's using it's own battery. So I thought I'd wire it to switched power so that hopefully it would shut down 3 minutes after the bike shut off. I'm not afraid of it running the bike's battery down, but I just don't want it sitting there on, calling even more attention to itself, 20 minutes after I've parked the bike. So I plugged into the unused connector pointed at by the green arrow on the picture which goes to the lighting circuit and is switched. This seemed to confuse the unit though. After 3 minutes it would just reset itself and come back on. So I relented and plugged it into the connector that the yellow arrow is pointing to in the picture. This connection is not switched, but is fused by the 30 amp fuse. It does shut off 20 minutes after the bike is parked, so at least it solved the reset problem.

Tachometer update

This morning I pulled the tachometer wire off the coil and wrapped it around the left spark plug wire. Same erratic readings. Guess I'll have to take the unit back