Fitting Acumen shift light to R1100S - help with Tacho wire

[r550s]

yep, got it working okay finally, just couldn't face this thread anymore! For anyone who's still awake, the signal from the OE sender (on my 99 non-abs) is a measly 500mVac at full chat. This is pathetic for an inductive sensor (which could give at least 5Vac peak to peak if it tried), but it seems to drive the OE speedo okay. Whether or not other bikes are similar is anyone's guess, but it could be an old/dodgy sensor, poor manufacturing tolerances, or even good old crud. It could even be the way it was designed. Anyroadup, not to worry because the OE speedo conveniently has a nice amplified output, which is used by the 'smart' turn signal relay to calculate distance/speed etc. The acumen DGV loves this signal.
And... the OE tacho signal, which comes from the motronic & is also used to trigger the coils, is as mad as a mad thing - the spark timing is all over the place, really all over the place. This doesn't affect the OE tacho, which works on a charge-pump principle, but the pulse-by-pulse frequency (which is what the acumen reads) is anything from 30 to 120HZ....on tickover!
Anyroadup, not to worry (again) because the signal output from the crankshaft hall sensor is as steady as a steady thing - and the acumen DGV loves it too.
The final wiring is as follows:
-connected at the blue-colured 18-way connector for the OE instruments in the front RH relay box:
Acumen Orange (speedo): BMW pin 17 blue with green
Acumen Green (Neutral): BMW pin 7 brown with purple
Acumen Red (ign 12v): BMW pin 5 green with black
Acumen Purple (perm 12v): BMW pin 18 red with white
Acumen black (0v): BMW pin 15 brown

Acumen brown (tacho): BMW black wire traced from the crankshaft sensor to the motronic multipin - got to take the tank off, bugger.

Wired like this, the acumen took less than 2 minutes to learn all six on the paddock stand, but I still got done off my neighbour for making a noise late at night. Now I'm going to go and pull my eyeballs out and play conkers, where's me shoelaces?
[/i]

[r550s]

it's bling.

[Red Fokker]

... I quite like this kind of bling.

[masha]

Well done indeed - I bit the bullet and used Acumen's external sensor/sender on the rear wheel in the end, but next time I've got the fairing/tank and instruments off I will try your wiring advice - thanks for your input (and I know what you mean about the neigbours - mine was running in the shed at 80mph on the paddock stand while I set it up and much frustrating heat and noise while I experimented with the wiring, and finally gave up and used the external sender - still quite a near install though so happy for now).

regards, well done and ride-on

Matt

[Red Fokker]

You'll both be getting ASBO's next...!

[masha]

Mine's not that loud yet, it still has the catalyst fitted until the end of may when I hope to fit my decat. Y-Piece (so neighbours should think themselves lucky at the moment, although it rarely gets started up in the shed/garden).

[masha]

OKAY - sorry in advance but time to reopen pandora's box with this thread..... as I didn't get a reponse to another thread on the Hall Sensor wiring.... some time has passed and I have acquired a 2nd BoxerCup bike and am setting one up for touring and one urm, "standard + carbon" for cafe racing (probably the best way to describe it).

So I have an Acumen to fit - its all connected according to the above but I've got the following to complete the install, and looking for some pointers on the location of the Hall Sensor Output wire under the tank:

hallsensoroutput.jpg (81.77 KiB) Viewed 7277 times

[r550s]

There are two Hall sensors, mounted on a single backplate as one Hall sensor 'unit'. Each one feeds a signal to the Motronic, and either will do for the Acumen. The Hall sensor unit is located at the front of the engine (sorry if you know this) behind the black plastic cover. The cable from it runs up over the top of the engine to a 5 pin plug connector, which then continues in a cable which joins the big plug into the Motronic control unit.
The cable is actually 4-core, plus an earth screen. The 5 pin plug for the Hall sensor unit is as follows: Pin 1 - earth screen / Pin 2 black SIGNAL WIRE (goes to pin 30 on the big Motronic plug / Pin 3 - brown 0 volts / Pin 4 red 12 volt supply from Motronic to the Hall sensors / Pin 5 orange SIGNAL WIRE (goes to Pin 31 on the big Motronic plug).
You can tap into either of the two signal wires. I did it inside the big Motronic plug - just look for a black wire on pin 30, next to an orange wire on pin 31. The pin numbers are moulded into the plug. They are tiny, but they are there.

It's an old thread this. I sacked my Acumen (DGV digital gear/voltage indicator) after it turned out to be the culprit in destroying four batteries. Turns out the Acumen was badly designed and used way too much current to store its memory when the bike was switched off. A technical chap at Acumen admitted this to me - I was really pissed off about my long-running mystery battery problem - having to bump start the bike after being parked for a few days.

I ended up building a digital gear indicator using instructions from some genius who installed it in place of the neutral light - it works great.

[r550s]

...I think the Hall sensor connector is the rectangular one about four inches south of your thumb in the above photo - with two cable ties around it. I could be wrong, it's a while since I've been under there and I'm all confused with the K-bike I'm currently messing with.

Cheers
chris

[masha]

Wow! what can I say but a big thank you to you both and nice to see you still quick to respond to such and old and torturous thread all these years on. Summary: the Boxertrix community still rules, and you guys are legends, thanks v.much for your responses, I will get back onto it at the weekend.

I am having trouble with the injectors on one of my Boxers but that's another story (probably after picking up some contaminated fuel when touring in the past). Other than that I'm still going strong on my original BoxerCup bike - and still (from time to time chasing that illusive HP2Sport in motorsports colours - I've never managed to bag - I even had one sold from under me on the phone while I was test riding it at a BMW Motorrad dealership - they remain hard to get, so making do with my good old Cup bike/s for most riding in summer still)

M

[masha]

Also R550s - I love the sound of your gear indicator solution in the Neutral lamp holder - brilliant (if there is a thread on that please share I will install it to my other R1100s - the old Acumen DC8 I'm using is the one without voltage reader so hopefully, as it only has a switched +ve supply, it will only sap power when the bike is running. I did think of fitting it to my Caterham dash for fun, but didn't get around to it so its going back on the BoxerCup bike I'm setting up to for touring this year with luggage, satnav, audicator, acumen, extra power outlet. I've even replaced the carbon cylinder head covers and belly pan with plastic replacements - so I can leave these valuable and harder to replace parts at home.

[McBoxer]

...this thread'll still be going when we're all gliding around on dilithium-powered hoverbikes....

Not sure if it's dilithium powered, but otherwise your prediction (from almost 9 years ago) was pretty much cock on:



https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/18/army-flies-hoverbike-prototype/

[McBoxer]

Also R550s - I love the sound of your gear indicator solution in the Neutral lamp holder - brilliant (if there is a thread on that please share ).....

Have a read through this thread:

http://www.boxertrix.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14660

I know it's quite lengthy, but keep going and you will see the evolution of the design. There is also a similar thread on Pelican that might have more pictures. I know people have asked buzzi about making mode kits but nothing was forthcoming, and I sold the one I had last year, so you would probably have to make your own but the instructions are pretty comprehensive.

[McBoxer]

Also R550s - I love the sound of your gear indicator solution in the Neutral lamp holder - brilliant (if there is a thread on that please share ).....

Have a read through this thread:

http://www.boxertrix.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14660

I know it's quite lengthy, but keep going and you will see the evolution of the design. There is also a similar thread on Pelican that might have more pictures. I know people have asked buzzi about making mode kits but nothing was forthcoming, and I sold the one I had last year, so you would probably have to make your own but the instructions are pretty comprehensive.

Here's the Pelican thread. Unfortunately it seems most of the pictures have been taken down, but I haven't checked every page:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/bmw-r1100s-r1200s-tech-forum/665872-do-youself-gear-switch-indicator.html

[r550s]

The Pelican thread that you found is the one I used. I kept a link and I've just checked it - it seems to have all the pictures. I thought the guy who did it was an absolute star. I am a clumsy electrician and I had to buy a soldering iron small enough to do the job - my first attempt just obliterated the 7 segment display. The components are as cheap as chips and I was pleased enough with my second attempt. I am an electronic dimwit so the end result was really satisfying.
The only real cost is sourcing a gearbox sender unit - thirty odd quid on oohbay.

Made me laugh to read the first - almost immediate - response to his first friendly and generous post offering to do this for everyone: "What do you want one of those for?". Some people need to have their keyboards taken off them and shoved up their arses!

A worthwhile project.
cheers
chris