Fitted volt meter on VTR (Pic's)

Post by **sirch345** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:19 pm

I thought I would fit a volt meter to my Firestorm, so I could keep an eye on the charging system, see below

Volt meter with ignition off

Volt meter with ignition on

Volt meter with engine running (showing its charging)

xxxrated · Post by **xxxrated** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:35 pm

that pretty cool i must say. make for a good early warning system on the rectifier front aswell. how much was it and where from??

Pete.L · Post by **Pete.L** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:11 pm

Cool

Looks really tidy Chris.
What's the little do-hicky with the blue and yellow bottons?

Pete.l

tony.wilde1 · Post by **tony.wilde1** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 8:50 pm

exscellent chris!!looks well cool!!

Post by **sirch345** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:39 pm

Cheers guys for your response, I'm pleased you like it

xxxrated wrote:that pretty cool i must say. make for a good early warning system on the rectifier front aswell. how much was it and where from??

That was the main reason I wanted one, I know replacing the rectifier with a R1 unit is probably the answer, (as in Beast's sticky) but I already had another spare Firestorm rectifier, purchased from ebay a while back and I haven't long replaced the battery, so although I can carry the spare one with me I still needed to know when the old one breaks down, before it fries my new battery, (as unfortunately in your case) so I thought fitting a volt meter would be a good idea. Plus the fact I do like gadgets.

The meter is actually a second hand item from a Audi or VW car which I got for just Â£6.20 the hardest part was working out where to mount it, and making the mounting bracket from scratch, I had been looking at the LED type but at nearly Â£30 was more than I wanted to pay and seeing as all the other dials (speedo, rev counter and temp meter) are not the LED type, I felt this was the way to go.

Pete.L wrote:What's the little do-hicky with the blue and yellow bottons?

Thats only a little bicycle computer (a cheaper version of the Sigma) it will record speeds and different things, but I have it purely for the time function only, well spotted Pete

Squiffythewombat · Post by **Squiffythewombat** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:24 pm

That looks coooooooooooooooooooooooooool dude! I want one!!!!

And its cheap which is even better! (provided i can do the electronics)!

Could you possibly detail how you fitted it if thats not too hard???

gcs · Post by **gcs** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:46 am

Squiffythewombat wrote:That looks coooooooooooooooooooooooooool dude! I want one!!!!

And its cheap which is even better! (provided i can do the electronics)!

Could you possibly detail how you fitted it if thats not too hard???

yes, details thanx. Nice job.

Post by **sirch345** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:17 am

Squiffythewombat wrote:That looks coooooooooooooooooooooooooool dude! I want one!!!!

And its cheap which is even better! (provided i can do the electronics)!

Could you possibly detail how you fitted it if thats not too hard???

Cheers Squiffy.

It's up to you where you fit it if you decide to fit one yourself, but after a lot of head scratching I decided it would fit the best where I have it. Note it doesn't fit flush (not enough room) with the other clocks, it sits just above them

but imo I think looks OK.
Once you have your volt meter the next thing I did (once decided on the mounting position) was to fabricate a mounting bracket, I cut it out of an old wall tie I had lying around, (approx size width 20mm X thickness 2mm) any mild steel would do, see pic:-

You should end up with a bracket which is more or less L shaped. Once I had the bracket as I needed it to be with the two holes drilled in it to suite the volt meter, I then fixed it to the sub-frame arm (which carries the fairing) with a hose clip, to do that you will need to remove the mirrors and screen. I took my power supply (+) from the front brake light switch (the terminal nearest the front of the bike which is only live when the ignition is on, so that's ideal) which allowed me to solder a wire onto the connector. I also fitted a 1amp in-line fuse just to be on the safe side. The earth (-) wire, again I used the steel sub-frame, I actually used one of the speedo consol mounting bolts after soldering a suitable size eyelet onto the end of the earth (-) wire.

If you wish to know anymore just ask

Squiffythewombat · Post by **Squiffythewombat** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:48 pm

NICE ONE!!!!

Thanks, that all looks pretty straight forward, the only part that would pose a problem is fabricating the new bracket but i think, like you say, finding an old wall bracket or something might work perfectly!...im going to check every local bootfair for a cool looking dial now!

Now all ive got to do is get the bike running, lol!

Toby

Beast · Post by **Beast** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:02 am

Well done Sirch, great mod and beat me too it. ;)

Post by **sirch345** » Thu May 04, 2006 11:14 am

Beast wrote:Well done Sirch, great mod and beat me too it. ;)

Cheers Beast, as I said before your R1 rectifier conversion is probably the better solution, but as I already had a spare rectifier which I now carry with me (on the bike that is) I thought the volt meter a good idea

Didn't you mention something about building a LED volt meter a while back

Beast · Post by **Beast** » Thu May 04, 2006 11:36 am

Yes, was thinking along those lines of a l.e.d meter.
Yours is just as good and does the job just dandy.

Post by **sirch345** » Thu May 04, 2006 6:29 pm

Beast wrote:Yes, was thinking along those lines of a l.e.d meter.
Yours is just as good and does the job just dandy.

Cheers mate

Squiffythewombat · Post by **Squiffythewombat** » Sun May 07, 2006 3:37 pm

LED sounds good, i could prolly knock up the PCB board diagram without too much hassles, and i could etch it if i can find my solution and tank!

....However working it all out....erm...pass!