Tachometer for touring

[DEcosse]

They do have all their installation guides on-line, so no scanner required

... white either inductive-wrap or POSITIVE terminal of coil.

The positive terminal is the one I was questioning, just because it's very unusual - most after-market tachs will look at the negative, because you're getting a 12V square wave signal signal there.
On the positive, there will be a very small voltage detected riding on the 12V; so they must be looking at that as similar to the induced voltage on the coil wrap with suitable input amplifier with noise rejection.
It's just unusual, atypical from most other after-market offerings to be detecting the voltage change on the positive, vs the negative.

 

[idk]

The Koso can't be too bad - they have them for the Royal Enfields.

http://www.nfieldgear.com/koso-tnt-digital-combination-speedometer-tachometer-for-bullets/

 

[Joesmoe]

I do find it odd on Amazon how many 1-star ratings for Koso "piece of junk" - "quit after 30 minutes" . . . what gives ?

 

[Ridefree]

I'm pretty sure I read on this forum about a fellow that had this guage installed by his dealer and loved it.as I recall the digital part of the guage was for water temp. The temp fitting simply went in line on the water hose going to the top of the radiator after the thermostat.I have been looking at this guage myself. Would be good to know how his tach trigger was hooked up.
Ridefree

 

[barbagris]

I do find it odd on Amazon how many 1-star ratings for Koso "piece of junk" - "quit after 30 minutes" . . . what gives ?

Well here's my opinion. One star (or less) fitter.

I've now bought (as have most of us at a guess) a whole range of after market gear - I bench test EVERYTHING before fitting. Nothing goes near being used/fitted until I understand how it works. Yes - I read manuals.

Every Thursday (near enough) I go a mates shop to help them out - especially debugging "F*CKED UP home wiring".
Later they do (or give me) stuff I can't do myself for nowt. Works for me.

Last year a Guy says - This gauge is ****e ( was a mega cheepo thing - Koso knock off - but....) - power supply is run from the Alternator (AC supply and unregulated)
My response was - Tell me who installed this so I can call and laugh at him for an hour or so.
After some red faces - Guy says - Oh I didn't know - My response is then you should not be doing it - should you? (I'm diplomatic you see )
My mate says - how long to fix? - I say a good 10 hours IF you have the parts. Guy has binned original clocks. Clever!
Final cost - I don't know as my mate said - sorry we are too busy right now. Actually I'm rather glad it was going to be a blighter of a job.

Another mate's now oldish MV Agusta has Koso gear ex factory. Not failed yet - and it was his track bike.

We saw a messed up Acewell gauge last week - so called Acewell in Germany.

Out of Box - Temp sensor led does not work - reply - yeah happens an a few
Rev counter inaccurate and very unstable. Oh yeh well it has to be attached to the coils - it says inductive but that never works well Coil pack has no terminals.
They'd sold it saying it would fit the bike - seems a little fact of the cluster also housing the Flasher relays and other things had slipped their mind.

I'll tell you what will ALMOST NEVER FAIL and will DO exactly what it says on the box - MOTOGADGET. No quibbles either. This is reflected in the price.

 

[cusso ken]

My two bobs worth , If it comes with a Tachometer then it needs one ,either to fulfill the sports image of cars and bikes, or in the case of heavy vehicles that must stay in the torque range to maintain power, I have had numerous bikes that have come stock with tachometers and have never ridden with one eye on them, rather by ear and feel of the bike , as the Rocket produces massive torque from idle and the 6 or 7 thousand rev limiter I don't see the need, it's not as if you could inadvertently rev the R3 to 13000 revs in the lower gears,

 

[Joesmoe]

I like your two bobs. Alas, I am a data bigot. I still use mercury thermometers with NTSC calibration. My clocks all synch to WWV. I like to make data-based decisions.

When you ride "by ear and feel of the bike", you too are making data-based decisions. I suspect in your case, the "sensor" is better than mine.

I suspect with those people who have tachs, and me once I get one, the ear and the feel of the bike are calibrated to an extent, and one pays less and less attention to the tach.

On a previous bike, one meter I eyed EVERY time I rode, was the ambient temperature.

Sigh.

Thank you.

 

[cusso ken]

I like your two bobs. Alas, I am a data bigot. I still use mercury thermometers with NTSC calibration. My clocks all synch to WWV. I like to make data-based decisions.

When you ride "by ear and feel of the bike", you too are making data-based decisions. I suspect in your case, the "sensor" is better than mine.

I suspect with those people who have tachs, and me once I get one, the ear and the feel of the bike are calibrated to an extent, and one pays less and less attention to the tach.

On a previous bike, one meter I eyed EVERY time I rode, was the ambient temperature.

Sigh.

Thank you.

I agree Joe apart from oil pressure on a machine the temperature is the one to keep one eye on, I am not a fan of the combination oil/temp light set up on the touring,what do you do if it comes on stop and see if its boiling or about to seize through lack of oil pressure as far as the Tacho in my case maybe its a case of tacho envy

 

[Joesmoe]

Yep, there's another gauge I might have to add - water temp and oil pressure.

 

[barbagris]

For ages - before all this modern electrickery - I always had the "Holy Trinity" fitted to cars and bikes - Oil Pressure, Oil Temp', Volts.
With water cooling I suppose you could worry about water temp. Cars generally have them. I set the fans to come on early - this does btw make a BIG difference to system voltage!.

Oil temp gauge - would be easy making up an oil tank filler plug with a sensor in. There are simple dipstick options out there too.

An option might then be then something like a SCANGAUGE - This will allow you the see stuff in the ECU - RPM, Volts, Coolant and a load more.
Also allows you to scan error codes - so you'd know if it was oil or temp. Though I'd suggest that if OIL goes temps will rise ruddy fast. STOP. Read codes.
Equally if the water temp alarm is going off - it's a LOT hotter inside the block and something nasty is probably imminent. STOP. Read codes.

That of of course you could do as IDK does and run with TORQUE displaying stuff from an OBD2 adapter - I only log data with TORQUE.
There are options for Apple users too.

Android users can then also use TuneECU on the fly.