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PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

Digital speedo surgery

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

Front and back of the old display, which just got worse when touching it.

Back of the old display, with the connections visible on top. These have corresponding connections on the printed board.

The "new" and the old displays side by side. Here I see that the new is much darker, which explains why my speedo is no longer well visible in daylight. It was much brighter with the old display. The top of the display has a soft coating and I wanted to wipe it with some tissue, unfortunately leaving some traces. Better not touch it, just keep it away from any dust.

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

I installed the new(ish) panel, tested it on the bike to make sure it worked, tested again with the cover and had to slightly shorten the two white buttons which are pressed with the red and blue buttons. The top of the case is now closer to the bottom by about 1-2 millimeters, so the putting the top of the cover in place pressed down both buttons before shortening.

Once the tests were OK I used hot glue to close the case and make it waterproof. I don't believe that the glue alone sticks well to the plastic, so I added to cable ties to keep everything from vibrating apart. Not elegant, but functional. Now I have the speed, distance, trip 1 & 2, and a clock which I have not been able to adjust though. Pressing on the red button does not make the clock flash. At night the display is well visible, in daylight much less.

Testing the new display before closing. Here you also have the two white buttons that needed to be shortened.

Hot glue and cable ties to close the cover.

Bright enough in the dark, although I rarely ride after sunset.

PurpleWheels · Veteran Member

In conclusion, this was a partial success, but the best I could do with what I had. At least it is possible to do some repairs to these units even if it is difficult to close them again in a clean way.

This was a small project more out of curiosity than necessity. We don't have an MOT for motorcycles here and speed limits are "indicative" and not enforced, especially not for motorcycles. I mainly need the trip function to know when to fill up the tank again.

I have already purchased a small GPS speedo made for bicycles which gives me an accurate speed and distance, although the model I bought does reset the trip after every ride so not very useful for keeping track of distance between filling up the tank. GPS means no need for wires to the front wheel, and it just needs recharging every 25 hours of use. It does track every ride so I can transfer them to my computer and display the ride on a map.

I also have a plan to start using a smartphone to combine speedo, maps and other features using one of the apps created for this, and that could fit in the space of the current speedo.

-- Edited by PurpleWheels on Tuesday 26th of January 2021 05:42:34 PM

TTRfan · Super Guru

Excellent job!

Bearing in mind the ludicrous cost of a replacement digital speedo, an owner with a faulty one really hasn't got much to lose by attempting a repair.

Brian

mossproof · Super Guru

Good set of pictures and description. Thanks for taking the time to show what you did.
Partial success is better than total failure !!