Latest Farkle - Digital volt gauge CHEAP!

[tip]

wires

Everyone has mentioned replacing the existing gauges. Does anyone know if the base model RT is pre-wired to accept the gauges?

I had my dash out a few weeks ago and there is a connector behind each of the blank spaces for gauges.

 

[Cruzr Joe]

Just added this meter yesterday and it looks cool.


Cruzr joe

 

[machead]

Just added this meter yesterday and it looks cool.


Cruzr joe

Does the warning light stay on all the time on your gauge?

 

[Cruzr Joe]

Does the warning light stay on all the time on your gauge?

I have not taken it out for a ride yet so i don't know


Cruzr Joe

 

[M109Dreamer]

I was hoping you could set the warning light to a voltage yourself. I just bought one. I guess Ill find out when it gets there.

 

[machead]

I have not taken it out for a ride yet so i don't know


Cruzr Joe

Riding it shouldn't matter. If you have it installed and you turn on your bike, is the warning light on and does it stay on?

 

[Cruzr Joe]

Riding it shouldn't matter. If you have it installed and you turn on your bike, is the warning light on and does it stay on?

Turned the bike on and let it run for a minute ............................ Warning light stays red.

(Note: I do not have the third wire (yellow) connected)

Cruzr Joe

 

[M109Dreamer]

I tried reading on the wesite about the gauge but it doesnt give any info about the warning light and at what voltage it would come on. I would assume it would come on when it gets too low and also if it gets too high.

 

[Cruzr Joe]

I tried reading on the wesite about the gauge but it doesnt give any info about the warning light and at what voltage it would come on. I would assume it would come on when it gets too low and also if it gets too high.

Instructions say lower than 11V or Higher than 16V for 3 seconds or more and the warning light will come on, i am assuming that means if all three wires are connected.


Cruzr Joe

 

[M109Dreamer]

Instructions say lower than 11V or Higher than 16V for 3 seconds or more and the warning light will come on, i am assuming that means if all three wires are connected.


Cruzr Joe

I am wondering if it is staying on because the yellow wire is not ran back to the battery. I bet thats what that wire is suppose to do.

 

[zuni]

One the right side there are 4 wires that go to the stock gauge. 3 are in the triangular connector. One is a stab on connector. This stab on connector powers the light bulb in the stock gauge.

Of the 3 wires on the triangular connector the white one is the signal wire to the cluster. You do not hook that to anything or it may signal the cluster a gauge is hooked up. There is a black wire. This is ground and goes to the black wire on this voltage gauge. I used a posi-tap. The other wire (orange with a stripe) is 12V that powers the gauge. I would not use that even though you could. I tapped into the single stab on wire used to power the light in the stock gauge.

Bottom line the new voltage gauge has 3 wires (red, yellow, black):

Red = hook to 12V switched - Again I hooked this to the single stab on wire using a posi-tap.

Black = Hook to ground - Again I hooked this to the black wire on the triangular connector using a posti-tap.

Yellow = you are suppose to hook this to a always on 12V source. Unfortunately there is none at the stock gauge connector. You only hook this up if you want the power down animation. If you don't hook this up the gauge still works fine you just do not get the power down animation and only get the power up animation as my video shows. If you want the fancy power down animation then run this yellow wire to a always on 12V wire.

Personally about the yellow wire, I would not hook that up as it means the gauge can draw power when the key is switched off (that's how it does the power down animation). I think it might draw a little power over time off your battery which I prefer not to have when the spyder is parked for long periods. I could check this with an AMP meter to be sure but I didn't. I don't care if I have a power down animation so again I just did not hook this up.

Finally, no it wont mess with the cluster and cause your digital gauges to go away if you hook it up as I explained.

Hope that answers the question?


Bob

Bob,
Did you try tying the red and yellow together to see if it would turn off the warning light? This looks like a future project for me. Right now I have suspended farkling until the F3s is in the garage.

CJ JAX

 

[machead]

I tried reading on the wesite about the gauge but it doesnt give any info about the warning light and at what voltage it would come on. I would assume it would come on when it gets too low and also if it gets too high.

According to the 1 page doc that comes with the gauge, the warning light is supposed to only come on when the voltage drops below 11v or rises about 16v for more than 3 seconds. Other than that, I see nothing else about the light. No adjustment that I can see.

When I connect the gauge to my bench dc power supply, connection of the yellow wire (constant 12v positive) made no difference. Tried it with the yellow wire connected and not connected. The warning light stayed on all the time.

 

[machead]

Ok I may have solved the non-issue that I've started here. Looks like the warning light stays on all the time UNTIL the voltage drops below 11v (at least that is all I can test with my bench).

Here is what I have done.

Connected the gauge to my DC power (red to positive, black to negative and yellow to positive). I disconnect/connect the red wire to turn the gauge off and on.

My DC power outputs 13.9v and that is what is read on the gauge. Warning light stays on.

I put a 100ohm resistor inline with the red wire. This brought the voltage down to 12v as read by the gauge. Warning light stays on.

I put another 100ohm resistor inline with red wire (total of 200 ohms inline now) and that brought the voltage down to 10.7v. Since that is below the preset 11v low end, the digital number display flashes and the warning light flashes.

So it looks like when the voltage is within 11v to 16v the warning light is meant to stay on all the time.


I then did the tests again with the yellow wire disconnected. Got some same results and some interesting results.

Test 1: 13.9v read, warning light on steady
Test 2: 100Ohms inline = The digital numbers flashed between 11.0v and 10.3v. Back and forth between the two numbers. The warning light also flashing.
Test 3: 200Ohms inline = The digital numbers flashed between 9.4v and 8.3v. Again back and forth between the two numbers and the warning light also flashing.

To me it looks like the yellow wire needs to be connected to get an accurate reading. That is my .10939 cents worth (adjusted for the economy of course)

 

[M109Dreamer]

Ok I may have solved the non-issue that I've started here. Looks like the warning light stays on all the time UNTIL the voltage drops below 11v (at least that is all I can test with my bench).

Here is what I have done.

Connected the gauge to my DC power (red to positive, black to negative and yellow to positive). I disconnect/connect the red wire to turn the gauge off and on.

My DC power outputs 13.9v and that is what is read on the gauge. Warning light stays on.

I put a 100ohm resistor inline with the red wire. This brought the voltage down to 12v as read by the gauge. Warning light stays on.

I put another 100ohm resistor inline with red wire (total of 200 ohms inline now) and that brought the voltage down to 10.7v. Since that is below the preset 11v low end, the digital number display flashes and the warning light flashes.

So it looks like when the voltage is within 11v to 16v the warning light is meant to stay on all the time.

Thanks for figuring it out. Kinda makes since. I guess you really wouldnt need the little light to come on when the voltage drops if the digital indication is blinking as well?

 

[finless]

The instructions suck. That is not really a warning light.

What actually happens is this and YES you need the yellow wire connected to always on power if you want this to work.
Remember what I said, if the yellow wire is not connected then you wont get the fancy power down animation.
You also will not get the low voltage warning when the key is off (red wire has no power).
But that yellow wire is what powers the gauge when the key is off (red wire has no power).

Anyway what actually happens is if the voltage drops below the threshold, the gauge will remain ON and flash at you EVEN if the red wire is off (key is off so no 12V to it). That is the actual warning! The red LED is always on. If you do not have the yellow wire hooked to always on 12V then it has no way to stay on and warn you if the key is off!

Make sense now?

I did not hook the yellow wire up as
1) I did not like this idea. It means the gauge is probably drawing a little power when the key is off. If you store the bike a long long time it "may" drain the battery!
2) I don't care about the power down animation
3) I don't need a gauge to power up drawing power to warn me, especially if the battery is already low! It will just drain it lower if I am not there to see it warn me!
That is my thinking anyway.

So yes if you want this low voltage warning you need to hook the yellow wire to always on power! If you hook the yellow to the red and it's goes off with the key, then you wont get the warning feature!


Hope that all makes sense? And also yes I had to do the same tests as I did not understand the red LED and the instructions. I have a variable volt power supply so that is how I tested.

Bob

 

[M109Dreamer]

The instructions suck. That is not really a warning light.

What actually happens is this and YES you need the yellow wire connected to always on power if you want this to work.
Remember what I said, if the yellow wire is not connected then you wont get the fancy power down animation.
You also will not get the low voltage warning when the key is off (red wire has no power).
But that yellow wire is what powers the gauge when the key is off (red wire has no power).

Anyway what actually happens is if the voltage drops below the threshold, the gauge will remain ON and flash at you EVEN if the red wire is off (key is off so no 12V to it). That is the actual warning! The red LED is always on. If you do not have the yellow wire hooked to always on 12V then it has no way to stay on and warn you if the key is off!

Make sense now?

I did not hook the yellow wire up as
1) I did not like this idea. It means the gauge is probably drawing a little power when the key is off. If you store the bike a long long time it "may" drain the battery!
2) I don't care about the power down animation
3) I don't need a gauge to power up drawing power to warn me, especially if the battery is already low! It will just drain it lower if I am not there to see it warn me!
That is my thinking anyway.

So yes if you want this low voltage warning you need to hook the yellow wire to always on power! If you hook the yellow to the red and it's goes off with the key, then you wont get the warning feature!


Hope that all makes sense? And also yes I had to do the same tests as I did not understand the red LED and the instructions. I have a variable volt power supply so that is how I tested.

Bob

I got it now, thanks. I agree with you on not running the yellow wire. Dont need a draw on the battery. And if I want to know what the current reading is I'll just turn the key on and read it.

Have you noticed, when you crank the spyder if the gauge reads quick enough to show on the digital reading the amount of load/draw on the battery when your cranking it?

Was thinking if you were able to read it while cranking it, to see how low it goes before it rises back up. All of my previous batteries, I could tell before they were really going bad by watching how low they would drop while cranking the bike.

 

[Cruzr Joe]

yes the volt meter drops when you are cranking.


Cruzr Joe

 

[M109Dreamer]

yes the volt meter drops when you are cranking.


Cruzr Joe

Good deal. Thanks.

 

[ahh-cool]

So, are you guys saying that you have a red idiot light on when it's working normal?

Bob, If I bought a 60mm gauge would I be able to enlarge the hole?
I found some combo gauges that I like but they are 60mm.
Stefan

 

[Cruzr Joe]

So, are you guys saying that you have a red idiot light on when it's working normal?

Bob, If I bought a 60mm gauge would I be able to enlarge the hole?
I found some combo gauges that I like but they are 60mm.
Stefan

you could probably enlarge the front hole but the new gauge may not fit into the recess in the dash.


Cruzr Joe