I got the POWER .... DIGITAL VOLT METER

[SLOVFR]

Well I bought a few different types of meters but ultimately bought the best one from Digital Meters -
http://www.digitalmeter.com/cgi-bin/...nd=link--order

I have the bike apart for the sand pile repair so I decided to upgrade the instruments.

before

Tear down

location

Because I had to place it close to the clock and its light I had to install an led in place of the stock bulb. I also had to cut down the circuit board and light reflector.


Testing clock led and size of hole I cut in panel. I only cut out enough to display the actual volt size of the gauge.

All done and tested out - on/off

[RVFR]

Nice Job.

[drewl]

that seems the perfect spot for it, good job

[Vlad Impaler]

Beautiful install and a great location.
Would look the same on mine..... Hmmmmmmm.....

[SLOVFR]

The inside is hacked away the best I could with a cheap dremel and some tin snips. I wanted to have a smaller window but got in a hurry and marked the back and started drilling. Oopps.... I thought... But in the end it came out ok. I still need to hook it to the wires running from the battery to my power outlet.

[VFRShorty]

Great install! It looks like it was supposed to be there in the first place!

[jasonsmith]

That looks super awesome, wish that could be done with the 6th gen.

[Tori]

HOLY CRAP ! That looks great. Nice work !

[SLOVFR]

Thanks everyone. I was a bit worried I would fub up the opening and not get it straight, but seems ok. Now if I can breathe life into that CBR muffler ;)

[Lgn001]

Nice work! The radius ("radii" for multiple?) on the cut-out corners are a nice touch.

And what is a "sand pile repair"?

[SLOVFR]

Sand Pile, Sand Box, Sand Lot, its where my bike ended up after a low slide at the VFR BBQ. I was going to try and bevel it in around the opening like the others but I left well enough alone. Thanks, guys! As a side note I emailed Digital Meter.com to thank them for a great product and sent them a link here. They may just put it on their install page ;) .

[derstuka]

Nice work Bri! I don't care what everybody else says about you....YOU ROCK!

[Vlad Impaler]

Looked at this some more and have a few questions.

Did you get a meter with 0.01 accuracy and cover a digit in the install? I think I see 4 digit places in the close-up unlit pictures.
Where did you splice to your power source?
How did you fix the meter? Epoxy? Friction fit?
Any adverse affects on clock lighting with the light guide and LED modifications?

Can you tell that I think this is the cat's ass and am likely to do a similar install?

[SLOVFR]

Originally Posted by Vlad Impaler

Looked at this some more and have a few questions.

Did you get a meter with 0.01 accuracy and cover a digit in the install? I think I see 4 digit places in the close-up unlit pictures.
Where did you splice to your power source?
How did you fix the meter? Epoxy? Friction fit?
Any adverse affects on clock lighting with the light guide and LED modifications?

Can you tell that I think this is the cat's ass and am likely to do a similar install?

Yes I got the 1/10th meter DMS-20PC-1-DCM Red Digit Meter . I fired it up to see just how much I needed to display as I didnt think I needed the whole meter to show. Its hard to see where the digits are placed unless it is lit but just displays the 12.3, 12.5 and so on. I have not started the bike up with it yet.
I was really tempted to just attach the wires to the back of the instrument panel as there are screws there with battery power, ignition and ground. It would be super easy but I figured less than accurate. I have fused/relay power wires from the battery to a 12v power supply on my upper triple, so I am going to tap in there.
To fit the meter in that place ,(wish they had a bit smaller meters), I had to notch the clock circuit board on the bottom right, flatten out part of the round upright of where the bottom right. I tried to leave as much as I could.



The gauge hit the stock bulb that lights up the clock via the clear plastic reflector, the reflector and the corner of the circuit board. I trimmed down just enough of the reflector and board to make room. I had some LED bulbs that I ordered to make my own Brake light on the Givi luggage, another thread. So I gave it some thought, not much, and decided I would hot glue the LED in place and this also gave me a place to run the gauge wires out of, (the missing clock light hole). I placed the LED where it would be as much under the reflector as I could make it and hot glued it in.I then just went ahead and soldiered The led wires to the rear circuit board where the old bulb was.

The gauge fits in its hole by friction as I only took out what I needed to get it in there. I did have the hot glue gun handy though ;). Also Plan B was to cut the hole larger on the outer panel and put the gauge thru that. The unit comes with a retainer ring and you can order and optional bezel. I however didn't want that big of a gauge showing for only a 3 digit read out. The tight fit with the clock circuit board helps keep it in place as well. After running the wires out the old bulb hole I used some clear silicone to try and keep debris out.

I would say that if I had to do it over I would find a better way to clear the plastic away, maybe heat it out with a soldiering gun or a real Dremel tookl? The ABS is so brittle that trying to cut it only cracks it where you may not want to. The small dremel knock off tool I had helped and maybe that is the best option if you have a good one with other attachments that will get into the tight corners. I almost went and bought one but without a job I made due.
The other area is the cutting of the hole for the cover. I had to dremel off some areas off the back of that because it would not sit flush. It just has some small uprisers that needed trimmed down. I used the small end of the gauge to mark the hole and knew I was going to make it narrower, but forgot about shorter too. I drilled about 5 smaller holes near my corner marks and then a razor blade. I followed up with several files and fine sand paper. To get the square, I used my digital Micrometer and eyes to make sure the opening was even. I generally used the clock opening to help determine the level line.

I just went and checked it in the dark of my garage and can say there is no problem with the clock lighting up, seems to be a bit bluer than before but lights up nice and not too bright. Hope this helps. Brian

[v4pwr]

good job, looks great. wish i was that ambicious, i just have a basic led style w/ dbl. stick tape.

[SLOVFR]

Well now you got the know how too :)

[ZonaMan]

That looks great right there. Too bad there isn't much room to work with on the 5ht gens. I am going to be ordering one of those pretty soon too. I just recently did some wire mods to the charging system because it never worked like it should. Now I am within specs on the readouts, but I would still like to always know what its runnin at.