Installing an Acewell speedo/computer on an airhead --

[craydds]

Blane. East of Slowdessa? There is NOTHING east of Slowdessa. Ask me how I know this. Come up to Ruidoso sometime and let's RIDE.

[Blane]

Originally Posted by craydds

Blane. East of Slowdessa? There is NOTHING east of Slowdessa. Ask me how I know this. Come up to Ruidoso sometime and let's RIDE.

Except for Dallas. I grew up in Odessa, went to work in Houston after college and moved to Dallas about 7 years ago. Been through Ruidoso several times either skiing, which I don't do anymore (hate the cold and knees are too bad), or riding to a rally or whatever. I'll ping you next time I go through.

[Blane]

A little update on the Acewell. I contacted Acewell in the UK via email and got a response back from George Lee who forwarded the question to Diego Land at Baja Designs, the distributor for Acewell in the US asking him to contact me. In the mean time I contacted Dime City Cycles, told them I thought the Acewell was defective and asked if I could return it for an exchange. DCC told me that since I had the speedometer installed they couldn't exchange it for a like kind but that they would send it to Baja to change it out. Understandable because I couldn't include the wiring harness that was already attached to the bike. I didn't want to have to rip it out of the headlight bucket and reinvent the wheel putting it back on. Diego with Baja emailed me during this time and told me just to send it directly to him to save time going through a middle man and he would exchange it.

So far I've had great customer service from Acewell, Baja and DCC. The only downside to it is having to wait a week or so to finish this part of the project up.

[craydds]

Originally Posted by Blane

So far I've had great customer service from Acewell, Baja and DCC. The only downside to it is having to wait a week or so to finish this part of the project up.

Good luck, Blane. Hope all goes well. Keep us posted.

[bpeckm]

Originally Posted by craydds

Good luck, Blane. Hope all goes well. Keep us posted.

This gives me a little hope... I had an Acewell that just wouldn't work, but they wouldn't take it back as I had bought it quite some time before, just never got rountuit to install it. So they gave me a discount on the next one (from Dime City).... I will ask about sending back my unit to see if Acewell can scope it out!



PM sent to Blane.....

[jtatknox]

Originally Posted by Brun

For those pondering how to fit the speedo sender to a slash 6 I offer the following as a possibility -



It's just a piece of 1mm stainless folded using a vise, wood blocks and a hammer, and drilled to suit. I used the magnetic bolt that came with the Acewell kit to replace one of the bolts in the hub - it is the perfect size (the one at 12 o'clock in the photo). The nice thing is that the sender comes off with the axle nut and is therefore out of harm's way when fooling with the wheel.

Routing the cable is another matter. For the moment it is zip tied onto the fork leg with a loose section running behind the gaiter. Probably best to run it up the brake line. Or maybe it can go through the gaiter somehow. I'll ponder that.

My headlight and instruments were trashed in a nasty incident with a cow, so I was looking for alternatives. I bought a chinese copy of a russian copy of a /5 headlight on ebay. It has a hole of 85mm diameter, and the Acewell is somewhat smaller (67?). I lathed up a donut of 6mm polycarbonate (90mm OD) with a rebate around the lower outside edge to suit the hole. This got a squirt of rattlecan black and it kinda looks like it's always been there.



I used a 3W normal bulb for the alternator light. The hole for this was already in the bucket. I like the Acewell a lot. I calibrated it using a GPS taped to the handlebar, adjusting the numbers until I got it right. I have fun holding the speed at 109.9 while going past police radar traps on the freeway.

My only issue with the instrument is that the LEDs are nowhere near bright enough during the day. I'm planning to bypass them and fit an arc of idiot lights over the top of the unit. As you can see, I'm not fussed at all about keeping things stock on my R90 slash 5.9.

Gasp! Where can I get a knockoff headlight bucket like this?!

[Beemerboff]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12v-LED-Ba...d=449311414161

Just fitted one of these to my Funduro, was doesn't have any charge information as stock.

Seems an easy way round the charge light problems some folks were having.

[bpeckm]

Originally Posted by Beemerboff

Seems an easy way round the charge light problems some folks were having.

It is a great idea and a great way to have some indication of charging performance.... I had an earlier version of this idea that had a black box and four colors (red orange green red), but unfortunately it didn't last long and iirc it was about $30 so I wasn't anxious to replace it....

BUT it would not solve the charge-light problems. The charge-light on the airheads has to have an "incandescent" (i.e. regular old fashioned) bulb because it is designed as part of the alternator excitation circuit.... the same thing CAN be done with a resistor. In function, the bulb "compares" voltage and lights up if voltage on one side (alternator/vr output) is lower than the other (battery voltage).

So yes, technically you could use an LED but only if you have that resistor that makes it part of the circuit....


Great little unit though, gonna have to find me-self one..... !!! Thanks for the heads up!

[craydds]

Originally Posted by bpeckm

The charge-light on the airheads has to have an "incandescent" (i.e. regular old fashioned) bulb because it is designed as part of the alternator excitation circuit.... the same thing CAN be done with a resistor.

So yes, technically you could use an LED but only if you have that resistor that makes it part of the circuit.

+ 1.

[tete]

my meter says spacing or SPC -0.5 is this correct? R90/6

thanks in advance,

[craydds]

Originally Posted by tete

my meter says spacing or SPC -0.5 is this correct?

Remind me - for what function is that setting?

[Prmurat]

I have the same charging light problem on my Laverda 750SF2 and Acewell. I've decided to hide the charging light incandescent 3W minimum by the Bosh reg and wire the Acewell LED in parallel and just to overkill put one of this multicolored LED voltmeter in the headlight...

[Blane]

Originally Posted by Blane

A little update on the Acewell. I contacted Acewell in the UK via email and got a response back from George Lee who forwarded the question to Diego Land at Baja Designs, the distributor for Acewell in the US asking him to contact me. In the mean time I contacted Dime City Cycles, told them I thought the Acewell was defective and asked if I could return it for an exchange. DCC told me that since I had the speedometer installed they couldn't exchange it for a like kind but that they would send it to Baja to change it out. Understandable because I couldn't include the wiring harness that was already attached to the bike. I didn't want to have to rip it out of the headlight bucket and reinvent the wheel putting it back on. Diego with Baja emailed me during this time and told me just to send it directly to him to save time going through a middle man and he would exchange it.

So far I've had great customer service from Acewell, Baja and DCC. The only downside to it is having to wait a week or so to finish this part of the project up.

I've been negligent about the progress of my Acewell. It took about a week and a half for Diego from Baja Designs to send me a new speedometer. Before I rerouted the wires I plugged the new speedo directly into the exposed plugs and cranked up the juice. YES. It works! My charging light, neutral light and oil light all came on. It turned out to be a defective unit after all.

[tete]

Originally Posted by craydds

Enter the settings for tire circumference and "signal" divider". For example, 1480 mm circumference, and the signal divider is "one" (P-001). Then double-check your wiring; from speed sensor RED connects to Ace GREEN, and speed sensor WHITE connects to... Ace BLUE on your Acewell? Try connecting speed sensor WHITE directly to GROUND.
On my bike I connected my speed sensor white directly to ground, entered the settings, and it all works!

Ok so I'm still having issues with the speedo showing speed. I grounded the white wire coming from the speed sensor do I ground the side going to the acewell as well? should both sides of the spliced wire be grounded ( meaning both the acewell side and the speed sensor side)?



Also When you say "signal divider" do you mean SPC-1.0 ? I have mine set to SPC-0.5

Bueller ? Bueller?

[craydds]

Originally Posted by tete

Ok so I'm still having issues with the speedo showing speed. I grounded the white wire coming from the speed sensor do I ground the side going to the acewell as well? should both sides of the spliced wire be grounded ( meaning both the acewell side and the speed sensor side)?
Also When you say "signal divider" do you mean SPC-1.0 ? I have mine set to SPC-0.5
Bueller ? Bueller?

I will try to get back with you this evening. I will take a look at my schematics and wiring on my bike to refresh my foggy brain.