EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

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Triangles
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EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby Triangles » Sun Jan 02, 2011 11:56 pm

I've mentioned this before but am finally getting around to posting about it. I got rid of the "pilot box" (the thingy with all the indicator lights) and put a nice inexpensive tach in it's place. I relocated the indicator lights using some LEDs and and LED holders from radioshack to the handle bar clamp. I had some light machining done by a friend after I screwed up trying to do it with a drill press. I took a bunch of pictures along the way so that I could post a how-to up here but I can't seem to find them. I'll update when I do. In the mean time feel free to fire away with questions.

With the key on showing the neutral indicator (green) and the oil/water indicators (red) The turn signal indicators are on each end and I made them yellow. I experimented with increasingly higher resistors to get the LEDs so that they were bright enuff to see in full sun yet no so bright at nite that they are annoying. As you can imagine I had the oil/water LEDs as bright as they would go since I would really want to notice these if they came on.
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everything off so you can see the LED holders better
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Had a friend throw this on a milling machine and had him carefully carve out a flat surface for the LED holder nuts to snug down too. I have a better picture from before it was all assembled somewhere. Will throw it up here when I find it. If I were doing it all over again I would I would have put the resistors in the headlight bucket near plug. There isn't exactly a lot of free space near the LEDs. BTW I bought a "spare" pilot box off fleabay so that I could go back if this whole experiment didn't work out.
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Also I probably would have extended the wires an inch or so. as is they barely reach. When I ride in a heavy downpour the rain causes some of the LEDs to illuminate dimly.

In this picture I was actually trying to show how the tach bolts in but, it also shows a close up of one of the LED holders. Note the machinist counter sunk the holes for the LED so they would sit in the same horizontal plane as the flat surface he machined on the back.
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If you attempt to do this pay attention to how the indicators are wired!!!!!!! IIRC half of the LED's always have 12v supplied and the ground wire is what is switched. The other half is the opposite, ground is always connected and the +12V is switched. This caused me some unnecessary solder work and rewiring as I didn't pay close enuff attention to the wiring diagrams.


01/04/11 edited for better pictures and more detail.
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burkbuilds
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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby burkbuilds » Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:33 am

That's cool and you did a great job, looks like a factory set up.

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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby Triangles » Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:49 pm

burkbuilds wrote:That's cool and you did a great job, looks like a factory set up.


Thanks but I gotta give credit to the machinist who bailed me out. I originally drilled the holes with a drill press. I then attempted to countersink the top side of the holes with the same drill press but since the top surface is on a curve/angle the drill bit would not work for this and kinda chewed up the first hole I tried. He cleaned up my screw-up so you can't even tell and did the back side which I probably would have tried to do with a dremel and really messed things up. I've been debating on coming up with a way to label the indicators that doesn't look ghetto and then clear coating the whole clamp.

I forgot to mention above that I used loctite on the LED holder threads. The LEDs themselves just press in with a piece of rubber.
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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby barfubare » Wed Jan 05, 2011 12:48 pm

Very nice.

I've got plans to do something similar at some point down the road. I purchased an extra clamp to work with in case I mangle it too bad. Do you mind sharing what LEDs & holders you went with. I've looked around a bit on line, but the one's I think might work I'm worried are going to be too long and not fit when I try to clamp the handlebars back down. The one's I think would work are also a bit on the pricy side, so I'm a little reluctant to shell out for them just to experiment with. I'm also a bit concerned about being able to seal it up so moisture doesn't get in.

Keep us posted on how they hold up over time.

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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby Triangles » Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:56 pm

I wouldn't worry about moisture. You'd probably have to embed everything in epoxy to keep out the moisture. I rode 2.5 hrs in the rain and the worse that happened is the leds that are constantly supplied with voltage lit dimly as the water provided a partial path to ground. I used 5mm "diffused" LEDs from superbrightleds.com and cheapo LED holders from rat shack. See links below. Each of the LEDs are 50 to 80 cents each so I bought a few xtra of each in case I killed one while soldering to the pins. Resistors are a buck per 5 pack at Radio Shack. The LED holders are $1.50 each so this project didn't break the bank.

List of all LED available from superbrightleds.com scroll about 1/2 way down.

Yellow LEDs Red LEDs Blue LEDs Green LEDs Radio Shack LED holder



As far as calculating the appropriate resistor values... WARNING ELECTRONICS REFRESHER AHEAD.... Volts = Current x Resistance (V=IR). LEDs require a certain amount of current. Voltage is somewhat irrelevant. We need to add resistors to limit the current. From the data sheets these are 20mA max LEDs so we need the current to be no more than 20mA which is 0.02A Rearranging our equation we have Resistance = Volts / Current (R=V/I) With the engine running the alternator puts out about 14V so to find our minimum resistance we have: 14V/0.02A=700 ohm. I used 680 ohm resistors as the minimum since this is closest standard resistor to 700 ohm. LEDs are tolerant of a little extra current that is why I chose 680 ohm instead of the next higher standard size. It does not matter if you use 1/8, 1/4 or 1/2 watt resistors. I used the 1/2 watt simply I figured the larger wires would hold up better.

I tested the LEDs with various resistor values 680 ohm and higher until I found the correct resistor to use so that the leds weren't too bright after dark yet bright enuff to be seen in bright sun. The yellow (turn signal) LEDs were the dimmest so I just used 680 ohms here. I wanted the Red (oil/water warning) LEDs as bright as possible so it would more likely notice them should they come on. Again I used 680 ohm resistors. The blue (high beam) LED was annoyingly bright after dark which is when I would mostly be using it. I experimented and I used 4.7K ohm resistor to get the brightness right. The green (neutral) LED was also annoyingly bright so I used a 2.2K ohm resistor.

Learn from my mistake. don't try to put the resistors under the clamp. put them closer to the connector so they reside in the headlight bucket. My wires barely reach and I could have routed the wires a little more nicely had I given myself some slack.

Another thought. I had originally planned to machine up an indicator box and epoxy or bolt it to the handle bar clamp.
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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby AKrider » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:12 am

Triangles,

How much empty space is there in the back of the "pilot box"? I taped a cardboard cutout of it to my clamp to check for clearance from the tank and it looks good but it is too deep and would interfere with seeing the speedo and a new tach if I can't cut it's depth down by about half.

I'm thinking of fabbing a couple of brackets to mount it on two of the handlebar clamp bolts and then adding a new tach in it's place.

Also do you think the stock harness would reach the added distance? I'm doing a little spring maintenance to Rosebud and will investigate myself on my weekend but any input would be appreciated.

By the way I think Your led installation is elegant but I am lazy and if I can relocate the pilot box so my tach sits next to the speedo then thats the way I will go, othewise I will build an aluminum box and mount leds above my clamp.
We are what we repeatedly do, excellence is a habit.

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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby Triangles » Sun Apr 29, 2012 10:16 pm

It's been a while but from what I remember, I think you might be able to cut 1/4 or less of it's depth off. I'll take a look and get back to you.

You will need to extend the wire harness. I should have done it when I did the LEDs.

I think bolting an Al box to your clamp would look much better and not be that much harder to do. That was my original plan, Then I thought what the hell I'll see if I can squeeze them in the clamp.
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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby citadel vulcan » Mon May 05, 2014 1:59 am

I'm actually working right now to get my dynojet kit and pod filters dialed in now, as well as realizing most of my popping issues was the PAIR system malfunctioning. After I do the PAIR delete, I plan on trying this out on a second hand handlebar clamp. did you have to put in any resistors for the LEDs? also, where did you get the tach and is there anything funky in wiring it or is it like any car where you just wire it in to one of the coils?
'96 EN500A7 (Pod filters, Dynojet Stage 3 w/ 136 mains, Dyna Mufflers, Custom dented tank)
'00 Jeep XJ Cherokee 4.0L 4x4 (6" JY lift, Locked Front, 31" MTs, Cowl Snorkel, Cherry Bomb, Offroad bumpers, Superwinch 9500lb winch, LED Lights

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Re: EN500A "pilot box" replacement with a tachometer

Postby Triangles » Mon May 05, 2014 12:34 pm

See my post above "Wed Jan 05, 2011 10:56 pm" about the LEDS. Yep the tach. is simple. 3 wires, 12V, GND, and negative side of one coil. I can't remember where I got it but you should be able to find one for about $50. I though I had posted about it on here somewhere. I did post a "how to" years ago on the GZ250 forum with the same tach.

The dynojet kit that a PO installed on my '94 didn't work so great. I ended up buying a range of jets from jetsrus.com so I could get it dialed in properly. Just keep in mind that the Kehein jet numbers, Jetsrus numbers and dynojet number are not equal. I also had to fix the needles that came with the dynojet kit. They could float up and down about 1/16" before it would engage the spring. This made for some mighty unstable mid throttle. I found a nut in my jar o spare fasteners that just fit over the end of the needle so it would engage the plastic spring retainer above the needle better. I suppose you could accomplish the same by adding some epoxy to the spring retainer so that it maintains contact with the needle. IIRC mine originally had the 140 Dynojet jet. I was using the 148 Jetsrus jet (smaller than the Dynojet 140), but I had a flat spot mid throttle. I added a shim to the jet needle which eliminated the flat spot but I took about 5mpg hit in mileage. I then tried the 145 Jetsrus jet and the past couple tanks have been consistently 47-48mpg Which is pretty good since I was trying to get better mileage. I haven't had a chance to read the plugs to make sure I'm not going too lean. I've only hit 50mpg a couple times with my EN500A. I really should make time to read the spark plugs to make sure I'm not running too lean now. BTW #4 stainless steel washers from Lowes make perfect jet needle shims! I hope some of this carb info is useful. Maybe start a thread and keep us informed on how your carb tuning goes. I'm curious what sort of MPG's you end up getting.
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