Small voltage gauge

[FlaXB9R]

They are on amazon for $3.99 plus $4 something for shipping.... search hossen mini led .36" digital voltage meter

[confused]

No match

Don't get me wrong I did find a few state side but not exactly what I was looking for.
I wanted -
a. mini b. red c. 2 wire
Everyone I found besides China only filled two of my request. Plus China was cheaper which is a plus and it all comes from there anyways so...

 

[oh9bolt]

Here you go Fla.

 

[greasyxb9s]

Yep that's the one bolt

 

[rchuff]

What power source did you tap into ?

 

[neilrl79]

I bought one of the Chinese gauges off eBay I think for $3 shipped. That was about a month ago, but to be fair they emailed me right away to say that it was some kind of holiday and that they wouldn't be working for a week or so... To be honest I forgot about it till I received a small envelope from China. When I opened it up I found that those silly Chinese people sent me 2 voltage gauges! Both of them have a red display.

I had every intention of taking pics while doing the install but I never remember. I actually tapped one of the gauge cluster back lights LEDs for power and ground.

 

[oh9bolt]

Nice Job Neil! [up]

 

[iman501]

that looks awesome neil!!!!

 

[neilrl79]

Thanks guys, this only took about 20mins to do and i only used a Dremel, a pair of dikes and an Exacto knife to make the required adjustments to the gauge cluster. I'm really surprised it turned out so well considering I had consumed quite a few Capt. Morgan Private Stock and Diet Cokes before hand.

 

[d_adams]

Wish I would have read this prior to doing mine. I did it a bit differently, looks like mine was a bit more difficult than it needed to be.

This one is a fair bit larger.

Ever wanted to know what it looks like under there?

I figured this one will never make it to anywhere near 160 mph.

At least it works.. now I know what the battery voltage is anyway.

 

[snrusnak]

Well, not to be mean, but it looks a lot better the other way. As long as your happy though.

 

[d_adams]

Yeah, I agree. Space was at a premium though, there wasn't enough room to put it over on the right side with this display unit, way too big to fit.

 

[snrusnak]

I think it would look good there if it wasn't so cluttered. Since it cuts into the oem lettering it doesn't fit in.

 

[chief_of_smoke]

just put mine in. looks just like neil's. i ended up powering it up of the hid lights. seemed to work fine. put hid light and the volt meter in at the same time.

d_adams i think it looks good.

 

[FlaXB9R]

Installed mine today.

I'm going to test ride tomorrow to compare the two gauges before I uninstall the old one. As you can see in pic they're not reading the same. I personally don't care if the reading is perfect as long as it's a reading so I can tell whether or not it's charging.

 

[vtech007]

Here's a thread I originated a few months ago on a voltmeter mod - full DIY instructional with plenty of photos:

http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-Forum/Do-It-Yourself-Buell-Mods/Low-cost-digital-voltmeter-mod-dash

 

[Mesozoic]

Nice work here guys, the voltage readout inside the dash looks great.

However, I was thinking of modifying the dashboard microprocessor's firmware to add a few modes in addition to the stock stuff (time, trip 1, trip 2, etc.). The ECM's CAN bus can easily be enabled on the XB and the ECM already has the battery voltage ADC taken care of, so really it's just a matter of figuring out what microprocessor is running the dash, interfacing with its JTAG interface, and doing a little detective work on what GPIO is being used for the pushbuttons and the display. Any thoughts?

 

[DualSportDad]

I like the idea of having it as a separate display. I would have a much better chance of seeing low voltage while riding as I usually leave my dash display on the clock setting. I rarely ever flip through that display, I don't even have a clue how many miles are on my bike right now.

 

[Mesozoic]

I like keeping things looking factory. I did find another guy (French dude?) that used a 4D OLED display and integrated it into his dash. Would be more useful than a basic LCD display because you could program the microprocessor to potentially display ANY of the data and even graph it in realtime.

I was thinking of getting one of the 0.96" units and playing with it, but I don't want to hog up the serial port on the ECM in order to drive it. I'd much rather grab the data over CAN bus, but that requires some additional circuitry and I haven't been able to find the comm spec for the Buell CAN either.

 

[vtech007]

Looking forward to your DIY post on what you end up doing, so the rest of us who want to can do the same....thanks

 

[MustangGuy]

There's some nice ideas here. I went the easy route and mounted a small LED gauge above the instrument cluster using automotive trim adhesive (tape):

The wire runs externally along side the instrument cluster, but I don't think it looks bad - peace of mind and easy add-on.