Shift light?

[Mr.E]

Not really considering ever doing this, but I thought it was interesting. Anyone ever do this or wanted to get it? Sorry for the por video quality. It was the only one I could find. When it starts look at the red one, it lets u know what gear ur in and when u need to shift. Pretty neat in all honestly. But thats just my opinion. (I couldnt watch the whole thing because it got too shaky and got me upset. But I like what I did see Lol.)

Link to original page on YouTube.

[sarapacman99]

i want this haha where can you get it?

[Mr.E]

I have no clue in all honesty. Im sure if you look on ebay you'll find something. I just stumbled upon it on youtube. I think the way it works is you set it to detect a certain RMP's and then the blue light flashes letting you know you need to shift gears. I've also seen one where the Speedometer itself actually changes colors, but I dont think it showed the gear ur in. I think it's called a Shift light. Thats what the video calls it.

[Ytse Frobozz]

I feel like a gear indicator is kinda cheating... but I still kinda want one. Can't put it there, though. That's where my GPS is!

[sarapacman99]

now im holding back on getting the light haha but it's a good future project

[ninja250]

They are easily made/bought for fuel injected bikes.
Not so much so for carburated bikes.
My shift gauge is complete and needs a housing before it can be marketed.
a simple shift light would be cakewalk to add in comparison to what I've been through in the design process already.

Hang in there, you'll know when it's out. It will retail less than you might imagine.

Should work on just about ANY carb'd bike out there.

Sneak preview

[ninja250]

PS.
I've figured out a way to make mine visible in full sunlight so it's useful.

[caps]

im in for more info

[HKr1]

Seemed a little whacky at the light?

[Green Streak]

Originally Posted by ninja250

They are easily made/bought for fuel injected bikes.
Not so much so for carburated bikes.
My shift gauge is complete and needs a housing before it can be marketed.
a simple shift light would be cakewalk to add in comparison to what I've been through in the design process already.

Hang in there, you'll know when it's out. It will retail less than you might imagine.

Should work on just about ANY carb'd bike out there.

Sneak preview

Interesting... Have you determined how you will be getting the speed on the carburetored bikes? Is it with the magnets on the wheels/other or does it use the stock speedo cable with some sort of adapter?

[slolane]

@KC... subscribed

[warlord]

Why would it be any harder for our bikes? We have ignition coils and a tach, two sources that can be tapped for the the shift light RPM signal (you only need one). A decent shift light will have settings you can adjust to set the pulses per revoultion and what RPMs the light will activate at.

[Green Streak]

Originally Posted by warlord

Why would it be any harder for our bikes? We have ignition coils and a tach, two sources that can be tapped for the the shift light RPM signal (you only need one). A decent shift light will have settings you can adjust to set the pulses per revoultion and what RPMs the light will activate at.

Our carbureted Ninjas have mechanical speedometers. The fuel injected bikes are already set up with an electronic speed sensor. You need RPMs and Speed to determine the gear you are in. Engine RPM can not do it alone.

[warlord]

Originally Posted by Green Streak

Our carbureted Ninjas have mechanical speedometers. The fuel injected bikes are already set up with an electronic speed sensor. You need RPMs and Speed to determine the gear you are in. Engine RPM can not do it alone.

I'm pretty sure I said shift light and not gear indicator.

[Green Streak]

Originally Posted by warlord

I'm pretty sure I said shift light and not gear indicator.

I see... When you said 'Why would it be harder for our bikes?', I assumed that meant you were talking about the gear indicator. Since that would be the harder part. He already indicated that shift light would be a cakewalk. I agree 100% a gear light would be brainlessly easy. But, I was talking about the harder part (for our bikes), which is the gear indicator light, which is more complicated and much more interesting than a simple shift light, IMO. Cheers!

[ninja250]

Originally Posted by Green Streak

Interesting... Have you determined how you will be getting the speed on the carburetored bikes? Is it with the magnets on the wheels/other or does it use the stock speedo cable with some sort of adapter?

Neither. It uses no speed sensors to indicate what gear you are in.
It uses switches and a neutral line sensor.
It is more failproof than the current gear indicators that you can purchase and add on to a bike. I hear bad ratings on those things all over and I have designed my gauge to eliminate the problems the reviewers have with the other gauges (ahem acro)

for a shift light addition all I need is the tach input.
I've already started compiling the programming for a shift light addition.
the unit has available I/O.
All I have to do is add an LED, a resistor and a tach input wire. The rest is programming.

[Green Streak]

Originally Posted by ninja250

Neither. It uses no speed sensors to indicate what gear you are in.
It uses switches and a neutral line sensor.
It is more failproof than the current gear indicators that you can purchase and add on to a bike. I hear bad ratings on those things all over and I have designed my gauge to eliminate the problems the reviewers have with the other gauges (ahem acro)

for a shift light addition all I need is the tach input.
I've already started compiling the programming for a shift light addition.
the unit has available I/O.
All I have to do is add an LED, a resistor and a tach input wire. The rest is programming.

Interesting! Well, if you can get it to work reliably and the install is easier than the ones that use speed/RPM, you should be able to sell yours with little difficulty. There are definitely problems with the speed/RPM gear indicators. I look forward to seeing yours!

[ninja250]

Today I added a shift light with it's resistor to my gear display gauge.
I also added two more resistors and a potentiometer to adjust at which RPM the shift light will trigger.
There is a wire sticking up in the middle. That's the attachment point for the RPM/tach wire.

All I have to do now is add the shift light portion of the program to the gear display program. It's kinda tricky to merge as you have to re set up the chip and actually write the new portion of the program.

here's a pic.
Should be able to test the additions pretty soon..

[jmgrande]

Sweet! interested and subscribing

[WOTurtle]

Sweeeeet

[ninja250]

OK guys I'm sorry I'm taking forever.

Here is a shot of the shift gauge in neutral. Also shows the shift light illuminated. Just got to the programming now. I've had a very busy schedule.

All I really have to do is program the potentiometer to adjust at which RPM the shift light "fires". Then we are good to go.
It will work on any bike, at any RPM. WIth any amount of gears.

the shift gauge gear display part is already complete and works flawlessly on the bike. Just adding the shift light program.

again sorry taking so long. Life calls. Can't help it..

Haha this thing is turning out to be sick though. I'm actually pretty excited.
Wait till you guys see it on the bike. Looks great.
This is actually coming along and will happen one day, unless somebody undercuts me hard. lol


Copy it all you want, it's my program you're gonna need!
video very soon!

[Mizono]

Hmm id be interested in one. I like knowing what gear im in

[Kevin2109]

tagged

[Bo0stZomb13]

A tint'd screen over the figure 8 led may help to see in day light. That way its reflecting.

[ninja250]

I have the bike in my room in pieces wired up to my computer and the gear/shift gauge.

This is a heck of a debugging feat, that's for sure. also have to keep taking breaks because the exhaust is killing me.

I'm giving it my best though. Gonna pull an all nighter on the programming and the input to the unit frmo the tach until I get the best configuration.

I still haven't exactly figured out what tach wire I need to read. It's either the brown one or the black one. The red/black pair are power/ground and the black/yellow is some sort of ground too. Has to be the brown or the black wire. Trying to configure the resistors properly now and get a reading with the MCU. I really should go take a look at the bike schematic really quick. that would solve which wire and leave me to the rest.

An enclosure will definitely help visibility.

At least the shifting gauge display part is done already.
Just need to tamper with those resistors, the line in and the program a bit.
this engineering crap takes some serious dedication.

[ninja250]

I think the tach should output a variable voltage signal linearly proportionate to the RPM. If so, a simple voltage divider to the ADC will do the trick to read the RPM into the chip. I'm trying to figure out if I can do it that way. If so, it should speed things up. If not, I have a bit more R&D to do.

[Kevin2109]

KC your amazing!






*(KC are my initials lol)

[ninja250]

I don't think the CDI outputs a simple variable voltage to the tach.

It looks like the CDI is sending pulses to the tach.
Makes perfect sense.

The black wire I chose from just looking on the bike was correct. The schematic shows the black wire is the one coming from the CDI into the tach. That's the wire I need to figure out how to read.

I'll have to work around this. So much for finishing tonight!
Will need to do a bit more research on how to program the MCU to convert the pulses to RPM.. so we can use the RPM to fire the shift light.

It's all good, I need to learn pwm input anyways.
Back to the books.

[ninja250]

So I had to break down, swallow my pride and ask for some help.

I found a guy who has read RPM on his snow blower using AVR's (same chips I'm using) off the plug wire. He has provided some very helpful insight. you don't even have to splice the plug wire, just wrap the antenna around it.

I will need to build a small additional circuit to filter the pulses from the plug antenna to be read by the AVR.
the pulses off the plug are "noisy" and the programming has to account for such.

Progress is slow as usual bu still being made behind the scenes, believe me.

Here's his rig reading RPM from a snowblower. LOL. I'll be adopting a few of his tricks to mine to gain RPM sensory.



Sheesh and I thought the gear display was tough.
This shift light will test my skills.

[headshrink]

When you get the bugs worked out, & if you are going to sell them, I would love to buy one.

[ninja250]

When they are done and working 100%,
I will build and sell them at COST. Not a moment sooner and not for profit.
This thing needs to work flawless before I will put them on your bikes. When you start selling your hobbies for profit, they lose their fun also. So I will sell them at cost, when they are bombproof.
That will be CHEAP.

One thing is, it's gonna be a kit. You're going to have to do some wire taping and switch mounting.
I will provide exact directions.

The gear display gauge is finished completely and works 100%.
I'm taking a video of that part tonight for sure.

Just a bit more R&D to get the shift light working on it too.
Then we in business.

If I know when to shift and I know what gear I am in and what RPM I am in, I can add a solenoid if I wanted to and make the ninja a complete automatic! haha. Amongst other things..

[headshrink]

Sounds good. I know what you mean about the hobby/job thing. A little markup for your troubles wouldn't hurt my feelings, but whatever keeps the love flowin' for you. I enjoy doing a basic DIY for the board occasionally myself. Speaking of DIY, if it is packaged as a kit, an illustrated DIY install thread could be enough to give members an idea if they want to tackle the install, or if it is within their skill-set to begin with.

[ninja250]

That settles it.
You and Momaru will be the product testers.
A couple of pretty competent guys to give my gauge the run down and a DIY thread. I like it.
Thank you.

The guys on the MCU forums are being very helpful as well.
We're going to make this happen.

[Kevin2109]

If you need another tester, Im down

[headshrink]

Originally Posted by ninja250

That settles it.
You and Momaru will be the product testers.
A couple of pretty competent guys to give my gauge the run down and a DIY thread. I like it.
Thank you.

The guys on the MCU forums are being very helpful as well.
We're going to make this happen.

I would be flattered... let me know when the time comes.

[ninja250]

Here is some videos and photos for the faithful.

This pic shows how if you place the gauge where you want you can reflect it off the window like a HUD.


For now, I programmed the shift light to fire when a shift is detected. It's almost like cheating lol. A false shift light trigger, if you will.
We'll get the RPM part dialed in here very soon and get it lighting up at whatever RPM the user desires. The shift LED also lights up when you are in neutral so you know right away if the bike false neutral before you let the clutch out. It even lets you know if you turned the bike on in any gear besides neutral by blinking rapidly.

Of course, some proof of concept videos. I even went out of my way to narrate them for yous guys. I sound funny on camera.
Do I make you horny baby, do I?

video 1
http://youtu.be/7RYxhOxiFAY

video 2
http://youtu.be/YEPnuXgm1JE

The bike is in the house cause I have the carpet out and remodeling. Perfect timing.
Had all kinds of parts off and wires everywhere running from the bike to the computer.

[headshrink]

Very impressive. Have you worked out a case/housing yet?

[ninja250]

Yes, I have.
I'm going to make a 1" cubed box mold.
Inside the 1" cubed box I will spray mold release.
Inside I will put the gauge.
Then I will fill with "potting epoxy resin".
Let harden.
Slide epoxy encased perfectly cubed gauge out of mold.
Mount with double sided tape or velcro to motorcycle.


Here is a pic of Version 1 I made a while back, and the updated V2.5
How small with V3 be?

[Green Streak]

It looks like it is coming along great!

[ninja250]

Originally Posted by Kevin2109

If you need another tester, Im down

I have another LED Gear Gauge I would like to program and test.
It is akin to a Light Tree at a drag race.
It tells you what gear you are in by the amount of LED's lit up.

I have one problem. I need more Processors. They cost me $5 on ebay.
these are the chips that run my programs on these boards. I need to buy more to populate the different boards I have but I'm low on budget, you could say, while remodeling the house. If you want to buy one of these $5 processors, I have the rest of the parts to populate the board besides the switches we need to mount to your bike to sense the gear and neutral.

I think you can get away with an LED tree style gear indicator for about $10-$15 donation (for a processor and depending on what the switches cost me) and a small programming and assembly wait. This is seriously all parts cost. Once these things are proven later down the road I may start to ask for more. I'm sure by then they will also be improved.
I already asked Paul to give one a shot in return for a favor he did me, and Bob seems to have spoken for my last processor without intending to last night.

Here is the unpopulated board I offer to you now to purchase parts for me to finish. Send me a PM if you'd like to give it a shot. I can work with you on the shift lights later when I know 100% how to make them work.
Not a bad investment for the parts to make your bike blink what gear you're in. I'll also make the blink rate adjustable or no blinking at all and throw in a neutral light. This helps me R&D my different boards and get different feedback at the same time.

I was thinking these would be cool, to mount under a panel on the bike, if you drilled the holes for the LED's and poked them through from underneath so you don't see the circuit board.
All I ask is time to put it together for you. It's not a fast process at this point. But at least this one is a sure fire functioning unit for you to play with.

Heck if you want to wait for the full thing no worries either.
Just an offer and I want to see my other designs work too!