I’ve finally gone the iPad route. It’s surprisingly handy during conference calls and it’s great for slipping into a motorcycle jacket. It’s not a laptop replacement, but it’s great for in between stuff. Major faults? No printing, no camera. I don’t care about video as much as document capture. I’d like to see it augment my iPhone better… Share the dang Internet connection and perform local file sync… Photos etc.
Here’s a really simple way to add a garage door opener to your motorcycle.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit limited. I don’t run around with my high beams on all the time. So we’ll use a microcontroller to watch the high/low beam switch. When it toggles a couple of times, the atmega in motokomp will activate the opener. I just ordered a new remote for it. When I pull the computer for the new mod, I’ll be releasing hardware specs, code, and work up a light weight version that doesn’t burn a full arduino for people who just want to get their speeds corrected.
I had some fitment issues and some loose screw issues with the old gauge mount, so built a new one. This one has three machine screws mounted through the rear case and a 6061 aluminum bracket that was hand bent and riveted by yours truly. While I was at it, I added a plastic mounting plate for the Arduino and added a mounting stem for the LCD display below the gauge cluster itself. I still need to add some waterproof casing, but now the usb port is easy to get at and the gauge cluster appears to be in the perfect position.
Note to self: loctite destroys ABS plastic. I’ll probably have to pick up another casing for the Gauges – but the upper was pretty crappy anyway. I may machine an entire new case for it this winter.
This is my latest hardware project: MotoComp. It’s based on some work by [Bill2009] but I’ve been extending and reworking the code quite a bit. I installed gauges from a 2004ish Honda CBR 600 on my 1993 CBR 600 F2. Typically, this conversion uses a $125 product called “Speedohealer” to adjust the output of a retro-fitted speed pickup to make the speed output accurate.
My goal is to replicate the functionality of a Speedohealer (which is a very mature product, and worth the price if you need it) and add some features while I’m at it.
I’m working on for my F2. As you can see, the display will show MPH, Voltage, Ambient air temp and the current gear. The hardware is an Arduino, protoshield, DS1820 temp sensor, a transistor to handle output to the speedometer, some voltage dividers and a cap or two for filtering signals.
Gear is calculated based on the ratio of the engine RPM to wheel RPM.
MPH is calculated based on tire diameter and wheel RPM.
Temp is measured using a one-wire temperature sensor. I added it because I had the hardware sitting around.
Voltage is directly measured on the bike. Given the history of R/R/Stator issues, I find having the voltage on a display to be really, really handy.
Right now I’ve got the system mostly working, I’m just working on dialing in the speed sensor/healer functions. The cost to build one like this is about $50 for prototype parts, I’ll likely reduce the cost one I have a production design worked up.
This bike looks like a fun project. I ended up passing my XS 850 on and replacing it with this 1993 CBR 600. The bike got some front end damage when the PO slid it into a curb. It’ll be getting the GSX-R front end I had slated to put on the XS. After the front end is swapped, it’ll just be a matter of replacing the gauges and then on to bodywork/cosmetics.
The bike sat for a year. The battery had 10v and old gas in it. I charged the battery and drained the tank, then I put in some fresh fuel and some sea foam. Once I adjusted the choke (broken lever) it started right up. I’ve put about an hour of runtime on the engine and it looks strong!
Yesterday I put the bike on a stand and pulled the front end. The upper bearing popped right out, the lower took quite a bit of work. After a day of hammering on the bearing with a punch, it finally came loose. Once the new bearings show up, I should have the new front end on in no time.
If you’re interested, here’s how to swap to a GSX-R front end:
Get the right front end. I’ve got a 2006 fork, wheel and yamaha R1 brakes to go with it.
Get the bearings, the CBR and GSX-R use the same lower bearing, but the upper is a custom oddity. NGK makes one but it’s impossible to find in North America. Zoran at twfracing turns down a 48mm tapered roller bearing to 47mm.
From there it’s just a matter of parts – 50mm clipons, etc. Finding the upper bearing is really the hard part.
Here’s a good Lesson of The Day: Clean your data off of your cell phones.
I picked up some used c168i cell phones off of ebay to do some integration projects. Hooking up the serial port is just a matter of connecting a 3/32″ audio connector up to a TTL USB serial cable. I was pretty amused by the two hundred SMS messages that were left inside the phones memory. I used a fake – phone number in these samples. Here’s an interesting bit: the phone actually had a pin on the messaging screen! Even without the pin I was able to pull the text messages off the phone. Judging from the content, I’m guessing that this was some kids phone.
+CMGL: 60,"STO SENT","15551111111",,,129,13
O i knew that
+CMGL: 61,"STO SENT","15551111111",,,129,19
Tell her i said hey
+CMGL: 62,"REC READ","15551111111",,"09/01/21,19:03:17-24",129,109
Lol. Im off the phone now. I just got out of the shower. I havent even had time to put my clothes on yet. Lol
Of course, I had to delete every single one with an individual AT+CMGD=62 style command. (62 is the message id).
For those interested in phones with serial ports, here’s how you can hook it up and play with it. The serial port on the c168i is actually a TTL level connection. Perfect for talking to a microcontroller. Soldering the connector is fairly painless, but you’ll want some alligator clip style helping hands and a find tip soldering iron.
Crush everything into the connector sleeve and close it up.
This is the end of a FTDI USB to serial TTL cable. It’s handy for talking to things like boarduinos, and avoids all those repetitive MAX232 circuits. You can get your own from Adafruit. Once I tested the connection, I soldered the wires onto some male header for portability.
The c168i that I bought was locked to AT&T. Since I’ve got some iPhones, I called them up and asked very nicely for the unlock code. They helpfully generated them! To actually use the code, you have to have another service providers sim card. I used T-Mobile because their pay as you go credit expires every three months vs. AT&T’s 30 days.
I made this last night and it came out fantastic. This time I used about 1.5lb of Cod, but whatever fish is optional.
That’s right, 10Gb – Ten Gigabit.
I need the ability to capture data from 10Gig links in my production network. Copper cards are actually pretty cheap, running a mere $600-800 USD.
My links are all fiber, and I like it that way. You’ll need a dual port card to use a fiber tap, but most of my hardware supports port mirroring – so I can get away with one.
For the money, Intel’s single port sfp+ card is a pretty good deal. It comes with a SR sfp+ module (sfp+ is the new high density 10Gb gbic-ish format) It’s hard to put 32 XFP modules in a single blade!
Anyhow, amazon has these
for about $1260.
Next up on my list – what kind of server will it take to grab data from a heavily utilized 10Gb data link.
if you download and run xbench on your macbook so you can speed up thawing out the plastic wrapped steak sitting between your macbook pro and a concrete countertop.
xbench: http://xbench.com/
Remember my RGB keypad project that I originally posted in Hack-A-Day? (part 1 and part 2) I finally got around to cleaning it up a bit and designed an Arduino Shield for it. This is the first prototype, and it looks pretty good.
I did a quick build of the shield, and after a function test, I’ll finalize the design. I’m thinking about adding an optional switch input: Sometimes we just need to be left alone – this input could be used to put the keypad in lockdown: glow full red and keep everyone out!
At minimum, I will be offering a kit that includes the shield, all the parts needed, a CNC cut button bezel + spacer.
If there’s enough interest, I can make a full kit that includes everything but the Arduino. Interested? Comment here and let me know. I will take pre-orders as soon as I’m satisfied with the prototype and figure out the total parts cost.
If you comment, I will send you an email when I’m ready to take pre-orders. Cost should be between $25 and $50 depending on how complete I make the kid.