Ambitious Mod...Heads up Display gear Indicator

[stevesnj]

So this is my idea...need some ideas and anyone with any knowledge about this would be appreciated. This is just a fun mod and if it works it works...if not oh well.

I want to install a gear indicator i.e. Acumen type,

on my 07 FZ6 and I want it to display similar to a heads up display like in a car

so the gear im in will display on the Puig Light Smoke windscreen I am waiting for.

Quick PhotoShop of my idea

I think this is a cool mod and want any ideas from the smart folks here on the forums. tnks :rockon:

 

[cv_rider]

I sometimes lose track of what gear I'm in. Especially downshifting for a quickly approaching sharp turn, it would be handy to know that. How can you get access to a signal that tells you your gear? That's not displayed on the dash (on an 07), so I wouldn't even think there is a signal for it. That's a very cool mod idea.

 

[HavBlue]

While cages have the technology bikes are a long ways off. First, you need the room for the projector and then you will need to tap into the vehicle speed sensor harness so the data stream can be sent to the projector for display. During the day it may be a real pain to see. I would however love to have a plug in helmet with the information on the face shield.

 

[Cloned]

What about this?

SportVue MC2

 

[shaggystyle]

man, that is pretty ambitious.

I can think of two ways to do it.

Method #1 (the real HUD):

Get an LCD panel, something like this or you could just break open an old calulator/watch/timer/etc... If you go the calculator route, you'll need to strip the reflective coating off the back of the display so that it's transparent.

Get an acumen indicator, break it open and figure out the wiring to the 7-segment LED display inside.

Convert said 7-segment LED wiring to your LCD display.

Hook up a bright light behind the LED and mount them both underneath the windscreen on the front of the fairing. Then paint a small semi-reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen. When the light shines through the LCD it will cast the shadow of the currently displayed digit on the screen illuminating the patch of semi-reflective paint.



Method #2 (the ghettofabulous version):

Get an acumen indicator.

Paint a fully reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen, or just mount a small stick on mirror instead.

Wire up the acumen normally and mount it underneath the windscreen so that you can see it in the reflective patch/mirror.



If you decide to go through with it, document what you do. I'd be really interested to see it. Personally, I just use the rev-limiter as my gear indicator:ban:

........just kidding of course.

 

[HavBlue]

man, that is pretty ambitious.

I can think of two ways to do it.

Method #1 (the real HUD):

Get an LCD panel, something like this or you could just break open an old calulator/watch/timer/etc... If you go the calculator route, you'll need to strip the reflective coating off the back of the display so that it's transparent.

Get an acumen indicator, break it open and figure out the wiring to the 7-segment LED display inside.

Convert said 7-segment LED wiring to your LCD display.

Hook up a bright light behind the LED and mount them both underneath the windscreen on the front of the fairing. Then paint a small semi-reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen. When the light shines through the LCD it will cast the shadow of the currently displayed digit on the screen illuminating the patch of semi-reflective paint.



Method #2 (the ghettofabulous version):

Get an acumen indicator.

Paint a fully reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen, or just mount a small stick on mirror instead.

Wire up the acumen normally and mount it underneath the windscreen so that you can see it in the reflective patch/mirror.



If you decide to go through with it, document what you do. I'd be really interested to see it. Personally, I just use the rev-limiter as my gear indicator:ban:

........just kidding of course.

Dang, do you suppose they could figure out a way to ride it for me too??? he,he,he...

 

[abacall]

Good idea for a project.
The ghetto-fab way would probably not work. The slightest change in viewing angle would move the display out of sight.
Anyone know what kinds of cars came with HUD? You can try junkyards and see if there are any there to take apart.

 

[CMHrider]

Good idea for a project.
The ghetto-fab way would probably not work. The slightest change in viewing angle would move the display out of sight.
Anyone know what kinds of cars came with HUD? You can try junkyards and see if there are any there to take apart.

Buick has a few models with a HUD

 

[Scorphonic]

Would it not be easier to learn the gear your in by your speed and RPM value? I know my gears now by what speed i'm going and the RPM the bike is running at and have never felt the need to buy one, although I have considered buying one alright...i just felt it was a waste of good money that could go towards a more useful mod.

Thats my opinion on the matter.

 

[fz6nick]

I believe the new grand prix do.

Nick

 

[Avalon786]

Check this out. Has some pics in the item listing of people who mounted it on their FZ6's. I think this would help much! As i never know what gear im in ...lol
eBay Motors: GEAR INDICATOR Z750 Z1000 FZ1 YAMAHA FZ6 SUZUKI MONSTER (item 110262952443 end time Jun-27-08 08:07:36 PDT)

 

[Scott]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkVMhon8yMQ"]YouTube - Yamaha FZ6 Fazer S2 ABS 07[/ame]

Click through to see his response to some of the comments.

 

[AJ_rider]

Would it not be easier to learn the gear your in by your speed and RPM value? I know my gears now by what speed i'm going and the RPM the bike is running at and have never felt the need to buy one, although I have considered buying one alright...i just felt it was a waste of good money that could go towards a more useful mod.

Thats my opinion on the matter.

+1. When I first bought the Fizzer I was looking at doing a gear indicator mod, however, after more time in the saddle its started to become much easier to figure out the gearing by rpms, speed, and engine feel.

Although if you could manage to mod a true HUD that would be pretty cool. :thumbup:

 

[stevesnj]

Would it not be easier to learn the gear your in by your speed and RPM value? I know my gears now by what speed i'm going and the RPM the bike is running at and have never felt the need to buy one, although I have considered buying one alright...i just felt it was a waste of good money that could go towards a more useful mod.

Thats my opinion on the matter.

Thanks but I know what gear im in, this is a fun mod to just try and useful at the same time.

 

[stevesnj]

man, that is pretty ambitious.

I can think of two ways to do it.

Method #1 (the real HUD):

Get an LCD panel, something like this or you could just break open an old calulator/watch/timer/etc... If you go the calculator route, you'll need to strip the reflective coating off the back of the display so that it's transparent.

Get an acumen indicator, break it open and figure out the wiring to the 7-segment LED display inside.

Convert said 7-segment LED wiring to your LCD display.

Hook up a bright light behind the LED and mount them both underneath the windscreen on the front of the fairing. Then paint a small semi-reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen. When the light shines through the LCD it will cast the shadow of the currently displayed digit on the screen illuminating the patch of semi-reflective paint.



Method #2 (the ghettofabulous version):

Get an acumen indicator.

Paint a fully reflective patch on the inside of your windscreen, or just mount a small stick on mirror instead.

Wire up the acumen normally and mount it underneath the windscreen so that you can see it in the reflective patch/mirror.



If you decide to go through with it, document what you do. I'd be really interested to see it. Personally, I just use the rev-limiter as my gear indicator:ban:

........just kidding of course.

Yeh i want to just do a projected style HUD. I don't want any wires...a reflective film to see the indicator may be the way....hmmm good idea with the mirror...im sure some thin mirror type film would work.

 

[Fred]

The HUD is a neat idea, but as mentioned, complex.

I've been mulling over a way to have a LED that lights when I'm in 6th. That's all I really need to know, as I often find myself cruising on the highway in 5th, or attempting to shift to 7th because I think I'm in 5th. Vstrom 1000's have an overdrive light. I just need to find a simple way to rig something like this on the Fizzer.

 

[shaggystyle]

Yeh i want to just do a projected style HUD. I don't want any wires...a reflective film to see the indicator may be the way....hmmm good idea with the mirror...im sure some thin mirror type film would work.

BOOOOOOOOOO! What's so ambitious about that?:Flip: (kidding)
One of my favorite classes in undergrad was microcontrollers. I loved playing around with 7segs and lcd displays. I wrote Pong on a motorola 68HC11 with a 128 line LCD (think tiger handheld games). So I was kind of rooting for you picking the first opion. Oh well.

I was thinking the best option for reflective material might be to get some of that cheap roll-on reflective tint that all of the ricers put on their cavaliers and 94 civics. If you get a low enough tint it will still be translucent but should be reflective enough to bounce the light from the guage. Then you could just coat the whole inside of the screen and not have to worry about being at the right angle to see it. Just a suggestion.

 

[Botch]

Hey Shaggy, how hard would it be to, instead of wiring a numeric LCD, instead lighting from one to six separate LEDs? In other words, you'd have one lit for first gear, two for second, etc. I think visually that would be more useful and quicker to read than a single numeric character.
And if you could mount those six LEDs on the top of the windscreen...

 

[shaggystyle]

The hardest part of this whole mod is figuring out what gear you are in. Once you've done that it's a fairly simple matter to display the information just about any way you want. So unless you want to hack the wiring harness on the speedo/tach and build some fancy logic circuit to calculate the current gear from those values, the simplest option is to just buy a product that already does the math and then hook up your own display on top of that. LED's are stupid simple to wire up. You could pretty easily get one of the modules listed above and then just splice some LEDs and simple logic gates onto it so that each LED would light as the display changed. Most of those displays are off the shelf ICs and you can usually get the white sheets off the manufacturer's website once you have the part number. If not, a multimeter or trial and error would be able to decode it pretty quickly.


Here's a basic tutorial on 7-segment displays:
Interfacing to 7-Segment Displays

 

[afbeaner]

look into OLED they are the way of the future, what LCD did to t.v, oled will do to LCD....but at the moment technology is to expensive