getting the Cholo ready for the road p.1

Still waiting for my batteries and Sevcon Size 6... so not much has changed regarding the power train of the vehicle. I have decided to spend time and money getting ready to get the bike road legal. I bought a bunch of stuff including: new brake pads, new rotors, new brake fluid, a new gauge cluster, rear view mirrors etc.

I am still looking for a ZX6E front fairing (can't find a decent one on ebay/the interwebs). I also made and added a spacer to the motorshaft and a shaft collar so now the sprocket is axially constrained on both sides and I dont have to depend on the set-screw/locktite for any constraint on the sprocket. I also got to use some sweeeeet new lathes (Proto trak) and after using them it will be extremely hard to go back to any other lathe.

brand new brake pads and brake fluid!

hacking into the tach

using a function generator to hack the tach into showing me current

the tach responds... now to hook it up to an arduino to show it in real time

The tach normally runs of the signal from one of the ignition coils, you can fake a coil signal by any periodic signal (sine, square) etc of around 5V-12V, i used a function generator and then an arduino. Turns out every 20Hz is aprox 1.2kRPM for this bike (it'll depend on how many cylinders your bike has, mine had 4). It turns out if you use 12V you get the full range of the tach. With help from my friend Jacob we hooked up a hall current sensor that Charles gave me to an arduino. The arduino brings in the voltage from the sensor and then sends a pulse of a frequency that corresponds to the current into the tach. I offset the 0 current position on the tach to be about of a third of the way into the tach so I could also show negative currents and thus show much current I'm regening. Next step is to print a new sticker for the tach that says "current" instead of RPM! I am also planning to hack into the fuel gauge to show battery charge or voltage and also hack into the temp gauge.



I decided it was time to get into 3d printing so i decided to start printing some lug covers for the high current terminals on the controller and motor. After a couple of iterations I got a pretty satisfactory lug cover.

v2 and 3 of the lug covers, more coming soon!

I also replaced the speedometer cable and tested the bike in the hallway, I got up to 20mph! I don't want to go any faster than that indoors! I am still waiting for the bracket to mount it to the frame as well as headlights and other parts.

Next steps is to start wiring all the brake lights and turn signals. I might add a 12V battery and DC/DC to the system so that I dont have so drain all the power for auxiliaries from the sevcon. I am also trying to use as much of the old harness as possible (junction box, switches, connectors).