Kawasaki Versys Forum banner

Speed & Tacho signals

10K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  fasteddiecopeman 
#1 ·
I'm willing to build a DYI Gear Indicator...
For that I need to know the ratios between ECU pin 6 Speed Sensor signal and ECU pin 47 Tachometer signals. Those signals are also available at cluster pins 5 and 6...
I know that speed sensor output 4 pulses per sprocket rev., because the sensor senses a square nut concentric with sprocket.
I do not know the relationship between crankshaft (ECU pins 13, 30) and Tachometer signal, but I will use this last one. Timing rotor has 22 teeth, therefore Crankshaft Sensor signals might output 22 pulses by revolution, but this signal is differential and pulses do noy have all the same duration. For the Tacho signal, the service manual refers that 133Hz will display 4000 RPM. Well, 4000 RPM is 66.6Hz hence, this signal might be 2 pulses per revolution.
If anyone has already checked those signals, comments are welcome. Thanks. Jose.
 
#4 ·
Why not buy a cheap, magnet based, gear indicator?
 
#5 ·
There are advantages and inconvenients in both GI either based on lever position or speed/tacho ratio...

V gearbox is too stiff... not very precise... therefore I think the GI will count even when gear is not engaged...

For such system, I would prefer to use an internally installed optical fiber laser detector instead of magnetic hall effect ones.

Let's see...
 
#10 ·
This is an aktual Link:



Does anywone have timing and/or waveform of the rpm andspeed signal at the diagnostic connector?
I need it for an old bike without conector tobuild an arduino to make the Gear indicator running.

Ciao Eagle71
 
#13 ·
For the Tacho signal, the service manual refers that 133Hz will display 4000 RPM. Well, 4000 RPM is 66.6Hz hence, this signal might be 2 pulses per revolution.
If anyone has already checked those signals, comments are welcome. Thanks. Jose.
Hi, I did test those signals (tacho and speed) but in dashboard connector. Both are like is written in manual.
My manual refers:
For speedometer: Indicates approximately 60 km/h if the input frequency is approximately 102 Hz.
For tacho: Indicates approximately 6 000 rpm if the input frequency is approximately 200 Hz.

But when I did read speed and RPM from ECU, those data was little bit different from data calculated from pulse signals.
Diff in speed is approximately speedFromPulse=speedFromEcu*25/23;
And diff in RPM is approximately rpmFromPulse=1.07714*rpmFromEcu-82.9414;

This "diff calculations I did use in my project: Smartphone bluetooth dashboard for Kawasaki Versys 650..."

And my question is: Why you don't read data from ECU? By reading from ECU you can get gear, speed, rpm, and many more data. It is more simply, because connection to ECU are 3 wires - all in one connector.
 
#14 ·
Why? The only time it is relevant is when in either 6th or 1st gear and you want to one further but don't have it.

If you really care, just learn the ratio of rpm : speed.

For my 2015 in the USA, 4th is 1:1. 5000 rpm = 50 mph. For each gear there is a simple formula.

Otherwise just shift as necessary.
 
#15 ·
I just take the NUMBER of "500 rpm" units (at 5,000 there are TEN; at 4,500 NINE) and multiply by 7 to get the 6th gear speed, and at 9,600 there are 19.2. For ME - easy to do while I ride.

So - 5,000/500 x 7 = 70 mph. Thus 9,600 would be: 9,600/500 x 7 = (19.2 x 7) = 134.4 mph. [I ONLY mentally check to see IF I'm already in 6th gear.]
 
#16 ·
[I ONLY mentally check to see IF I'm already in 6th gear.]
That is mostly the only reason I need to do the math, to determine if I am in 6th or 5th gear. The rest of the gears is for gee-whiz, and for mental stimulation to check that I can still do basic math.

I used to do all kinds of math in the airplane. Things like leading turns onto a DME arc, or turning onto the final course of a VOR approach. Descent planning was another skill I was always trying to perfect, especially on the arrivals with windows (above one altitude, below another) at the fixes. But GPS and FMS displaced any need for mental math. Woe be to the pilots in the air when GPS gets turned off! Most of them don't understand ground based navigation any more. Heck, most of them have never used a manual whiz-wheel or electronic E6-B. I miss the days of NDB approaches. Time turn twist throttles tires talk.

What a dinosaur I've become!
 
#17 ·
As an "old-guy" I wonder about the pilots who are coming up thru the 'system', which taught us "old-guys" how to fly w/out all the "computor-tricks", so I wonder....

Remember the oriental crew who flew an Airbus 330 (or 340 - I forget which) into the brake-water at San Francisco, writing-off the aircraft and killing some passengers?

I learned to be able to "look out the window" and know w/in a couple of feet WHERE I should be, and "WHERE I AM".

BTW - I have THOUSANDS of hours flying Airbus airplanes (as well as Boeings, Douglas, Lockheeds, etc), and I NEVER had an emergency in 23,000 hours - altho' I WAS 'concerned' "once or twice"....
 
#18 ·
The new generation have never been down to needle-ball-airspeed. The computer is great, until it isn't. The Asiana crash in SFO is a perfect example of how reliance on tech can disconnect the pilot from what's happening. The 737 Max is another example, where the pilots were never trained early on to revert to basics (though we were given that scenario in the sim and it is quite a wild ride). Sometimes you just need to push that big red button on the yoke, put your other hand on the throttles, and hand-fly the thing.

They are now doing "upset recovery" training in the sim every year, which is a single procedure recovery from any unusual attitude. Kind of dumbed down, but a lot smarter than the old checkride experience of testing for minimal altitude loss in 3 different stalls. Lots more training emphasis these days rather than pass/fail checking.

But also complete reliance on the computer screen messages and the lawyered QRS procedures.

Obviously I am an out-of-date dinosaur. The younger generation truly is different than those of us who came up 30+ years ago.

In my 20k+ hours I have had a few emergencies, and glad to be here! The first was an engine failure in a T-41 (USAF version of the C172). First flight on a brand new engine. We did land on a runway, so all was good! In my freight days we lost a turbine blade in a Falcon 20 in the initial climb, winter IMC at max weight. I was just the lowly Flap Operator, and it was freight, so yeah no big deal, lol. The worst was an engine flameout at 300 ft on approach to a one-way mountain airport during a microburst windshear in a twin turboprop. Full flaps, the prop didn't feather. That one still gets my pulse up just thinking about it. The FDR was downloaded and the scenario programmed into the sim. I re-flew it in the sim a couple of weeks later. The only reason we survived it in real life was by doing what needed to be done, not flying the textbook procedure, which all the sim instructors did and got the "red screen of death". There was a prop overspeed in the turboprop. Loss of oil pressure to the hub, which then locked at high rpm, and the governor went all the way to fuel topping (shut off fuel to the engine). Both of those I credit my initial sim instructor for taking us off syllabus to show us extra stuff. They were considered statistically impossible scenarios and non-survivable, so were not part of the training syllabus until after we pioneered it in real life.

There were a few 'concerning' moments, like the time the electrical system glitched and went into emergency mode at weight-off-wheels into a low overcast. CATS TITS was the acronym for what we had left, basically Com 1, Attitude Indicator 1, Airspeed 1, ADF 1, Transponder 1. And logo lights on the tail, because that is super important somehow. Once we were upside down IMC in a rotor. Yes, an inverted ILS for a few seconds. Once there was a bomb threat, and another time a brawl in First Class.

I did manage to get "who?" from the chief when I retired, so the career ended successfully!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top