Motorcycle gear indicator

[Martee]

Hello, i want to add a gear indicator to my motorcycle. But unfortunately i downt know how to start. I want to look it like this gear indicator in this picture http://www.bluegauges.com/gpi_stuff/6.jpg

My motorcycle has 6 gears, (i dont need neutral), mayba someone has a circuit for six gears?

 

[SABorn]

Whats the bottom blue led for ? Reverse??

 

[crutschow]

Does your motorcycle have gear shift indicator switches built in to the cycle?

If not, then you will need some method to determine the gear you are in.

One method is to use a couple switches to sense when you move the shift lever up or down and use those pulses to increment/decrement a digital counter, which then drives the display. To synchronize the counter you could have it reset to 1 whenever you start the bike since you likely will have the bike in 1st gear (or neutral) when you start.
Edit: A way to detect the gear shift operation would be to glue a small magnet on the shift lever and detect the position with a hall effect device such as this.

Another method is to compare your electronic speedometer counts to the electronic tachometer counts and use this to calculate the gear you are in. This needs a programmable counter which is customized to your particular bike's gear ratios. This counter is typically done with a microprocessor. Such a device is available ready built, such as this.

 

[Joe G]

the only problem i can see w/ a switch on the shiftlever, is it would count twice ,once going up and then once again when the lever returns to its position,
you'd have to put the switch to count only the farthest most travel. (it,d be reversed for downshifts.

 

[crutschow]

the only problem i can see w/ a switch on the shiftlever, is it would count twice ,once going up and then once again when the lever returns to its position,
you'd have to put the switch to count only the farthest most travel. (it,d be reversed for downshifts.

The solution is to have two sensors, one at each extreme of the shift-lever position. That way you get either one up-pulse or one down-pulse for each shift.

Here's an example of such a configuration. But the author used a somewhat complicated microprocessor based circuit. It could be done more simply with just a CD40110 up/down counter/decoder clocked by the Hall-effect sensor pulses and directly driving a 7-segment LED display digit.

 

[Mikebits]

I ride a Honda CBR600 F4, and I never felt a need to know what gear I am in. I just shift up or down when I need to.

 

[canadaelk]

Mbits: You are right. Maybee Martee needs to read The Art of Motorcycley Maintainance. It's all in there (I think). E

 

[crutschow]

I ride a Honda CBR600 F4, and I never felt a need to know what gear I am in. I just shift up or down when I need to.

The problem with some bikes, such as mine, is that there's such a small difference between 5th and 6th gear I can't offhand tell which gear I'm in by listening to the engine, I have to look at the tach and speedometer and do a little math to determine the gear (I hate trying to upshift when there's no more gears to go). So a gear indicator would be handy for me (mental math hurts my brain).

 

[colin55]

Here's my Motorbike Gears indicator - sold a number of these:

<snip: spam link>

 

[Mikebits]

The problem with some bikes, such as mine, is that there's such a small difference between 5th and 6th gear I can't offhand tell which gear I'm in by listening to the engine, I have to look at the tach and speedometer and do a little math to determine the gear (I hate trying to upshift when there's no more gears to go). So a gear indicator would be handy for me (mental math hurts my brain).

If I am doing 170 MPH, then I know I am in 6th gear

 

[ninja bear]

Hi all
ive been shown this thread because im after a gear indicator too. My bike screams in every gear (not my riding style... honest) and its speedo is cable driven not electronic so indicators currently available on the market are no good.
'colin55' i just had a look at your link and the circuit with 4 LED's is what im after apart from i would like 6 LED's (6 gears) - You have said you've sold a number of them so would you kindly sell me one and if so how much and would a electronics dummy like me be able to fit/set it up?

Thanks for your time
Kev

 

[Boncuk]

Hi Martee,

you will need the neutral switch anyway. It's built into every motorbike and prevents the starter cranking the engine if a gear is shifted.

This circuit uses two TLE4905 Hall switches to determine the movement of the shifter.

Glue a small magnet to the shift lever with the South pole facing the switches. The numeric display changes count if the gear has definitely been shifted.

The software is set to five gears, but can be changed code for a total of six in the source.

The microcontroller used is an ATtiny25.

If you are interested building the circuit PM me your email address. I will then provide the Eagle files and the source code.

The design uses two different sizes of display, one 13.2mm and the other one 10mm high.

Boncuk