Vision Tracker

[per_w_aberg]

I've glansed at arduono. The possibilities seem endless. A led lightshow earring, cpu and batteries uncluded. My gosh. At adfruit.com the have got a accelerometer brake light projekt involving arduino and a accelerometer card. That's the one I have put on hold. Its comon to use acc-meters to messure acceleration, braking and g-force on cornering. That would give some logs to contemplate. What boot time is there om arduinos?

[The Prophet of Doom]

I'll write some comments on Arduinos in a separate thread so as not to threadjack this very interesting thread

[per_w_aberg]

That's thoughtful of you ROV and I salute you for it. I've been playing a bit of mad scientist myself on the rear light. I managed to get rid of the hot spots, that's the bright spots from the led itself shown on the opposite edge. I like an evenly lit edge. The design trend now is the opposite with led dots on every other vehicle. The edge lit acrylic sign scene though knows all about reducing hot spots and the do it by defusing by small holes through the acrylic or embedded particles. I opted for a couple of holes just in front of the leds to block/spread. Every hole and the whole surface save the edge is blocked with aluminium tape reflecting the last photon to the glass blasted edge. There are 4 wires for ground, break, rear and license plate. I use 2 leds for rear and 3 for brake. That don't seem much but my leds are "super bright" even @20mA and it hurts to look at even one of them. I put a ridiculous amount of work on this piece, I just had to get it out of my system and I'm pleased with the result, and wiser. How about vibration brake down and service you ask? Don't ask!

[The Prophet of Doom]

Wow, this is VERY cool.  Are you going to mount this dead flush with your new rear cowl?
I wanted to do something like this, but decided it was too hard.   I think a more detailed "how to" is in order.  How did you get the curve on the acrylic?  Have you thought of splitting it in two and integrating turn signals as well?

[per_w_aberg]

A combo with blinkers would be a hit but doesn't fit my config. Yeah it's going on flush and sticking out 2 mm with some water proof seal on top of it. It's not to hard making one. You heat the acrylic (aka plexi glass) in the kitchen oven at 140-170 degrees Celsius and give it 4 minutes per mm thickness. I used 160 C 39 minutes for my 10 mm and got it bendable with moderate force. You need a mold or the original part and clamp/weight it down till i cools down to ~60C. It's pretty alright to manhandle it hot without risking damaging it. The process can be repeated. Drill holes in one end for the leds that comes in 3 and 5 mm and glue them in. I used clear aquarium silicon thinking I could pull burned out leds and replace them but that seems not so doable now. I routed a recess in the edge to house the led pins and wire that I siliconed down. Every surface that's polished will reflect the light back in and you can "heat polish" edges that's been cut with a torch. A ruff edge will disperse the light and you can use sandpaper och blaster the opposite side from the leds. For better performance I covered all but the bright edge with alu tape and i guess i'll paint it. You could use white paint directly on the glass for the same reflecting purpose. I like en even red shine without hot spots, that's when you see red dots from the leds, apart from the car/mc industry with there cheap looking led stripes. On order to make that happen you need diffusion in the acrylic. There are acrylic with embedded particles but you can also go wild with a drill. I put 3 holes 4 mm in front of every led to disperse the light. You want to hide the led from being directly visible from the btight side. The light will bounce out at the ruff edge ok. Being anal I put alu tape in the hole to prevent light leakage.

You don't want to use a resistor as led protection, the voltage varies to much, 10-16V?  I used the proven LM317 (the smaller TO-92 package) as a constant current led driver with a 6-37 V input range. That's the way to go on low power applications like this. Heat is your enemy but by driving 2-4 leds @20mA per LM317 you don't have to be concerned with that and can put an LM317 and a 1/4 W resistor directly on the cable as shown. You want to drive as many leds in series as possible with the LM317 so that the leds "suck up" the voltage by dropping ~2V each but leaving at least 3V for the LM317 to work its magic, that's 4-5 leds. The less voltage left at the LM317 to sink the less heat. Mine hardly goes lukewarm. I use 1 LM317 each for rear/brake/#plate with 2/3/2 leds respectively. A single led will get a LM317 to hot without a heat sink. Google [led constant current lm317] for the circuit that requires one LM317 and a resistor. You need some hefty ultra power leds to keep it simple. I can't look even a single led in the eye that's how bright mine are. I enclose the data sheet.

The acrylic was 15$, the 7 leds 20$ and the electronics 2$.


You'll get a stealth look and using 3 mm acrylic could be rad. A thin sharp bright red line, whats not to like? 

There you have it. Any questions?

[fret not]

Per, you mentioned drilling some holes to control light dispersion, can you show a pic of that?

I like your project!

[per_w_aberg]

In principal like the pic. I'm not sure its the best way and only gave it one shot. You should probably do some testing. The holes should be polished inside or applied with some reflective surface to prevent light leakage. I think the pros are using many more much smaller holes in acrylic signs. You should maybe look into diffusing material to start with. Its a big thing in surface lit signs but that's a bit different in that they want the light emitted from the surface instead of the edge. Never quite relieved if you could trick it with a reflective surface steering the light evenly to the edge. Some of these materials are not suitable for heat forming it seems.

One of many:
http://www.tech-p.com/en/application/led.html

[per_w_aberg]

I've been staring at my two sets of carbs asking which one of them to rebuild and all they do is steer back. They are not the same, one of them has an extra adjusting screw and think it's superior. Any thoughts on this (from a technical stand) would be greatly appreciated.

[Rikugun]

I believe that is a set screw to hold the (primary?) venturi in place, not an adjustment screw. Both carbs should have two set screws each, one for the primary and one for the secondary venturi.

I've seen at least 2 different '82 carb sets - and there may be a third - with slight differences between them. For instance, very early sets had only one interconnecting brace. A later version has a casting that is threaded (blank on the previous version) to accommodate an additional brace. For whatever reason, the later set has the 2 screws positioned one over the other. The earlier set has the 2 screws located offset to each other. Unless my memory is wrong (which it often is) in which case disregard this post...   :)

[per_w_aberg]

You're right Rikugun, the screw was for the venturi ring. Couldn't get it loose though. Man, this hobby is really a lot about cleaning parts. I spent some time trying out detergents for carb cleaning. I ended up using non acid wheel cleaner an a ultrasonic cleaner after soaking and scrubbing in kerosene. The carb rebuild kit was questionable and had parts that measured different from the original parts so I ended up reusing some original parts. The frame is back from another round at my welder so now its game on.

[per_w_aberg]

Starting to put the pieces together and suffering from bad memory. Does anyone know what the tube with a washer is? I'm test fitting the electrical system. Hm, needs work. Planing for a smaller cooling fan to save space under the tank for maybe a li-io battery. A surprise was the lack of space for the cooling hose due to the moved shock mount. Tried routing the hose out the other side but no go. Now the upper shock mount will be extended 22mm by welding in a tube. That's crude but pays homage to café make-it-work construction I guess. Chassis geometry is not the main concern. This is a good watch on the real deal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmyR9_VeKQE

[Rikugun]

What are the dimensions on that piece? It looks like a spacer that fits inside a wheel hub between the bearings.

Similar to 92027 in this diagram:
http://www.partzilla.com/parts/search/Kawasaki/Motorcycle/1982/KZ550-H1+GPz/FRONT+WHEEL-HUB/parts.html

[per_w_aberg]

Yes you are right, thanks!

[Rikugun]

no problem  :)

[per_w_aberg]

Adding 22mm to the stock shock will clear the cooling house alright and raised the rear end about 30mm. That might be just what was needed to get it to sit right.

[fret not]

Shaping up nicely!  What color are you going to paint the wheels?

[per_w_aberg]

My other set of wheels are partly striped of paint an the look pretty damn good with the raw cast finish with the smootheed rim and spoke edges. considering the amount of work stripping the paint I need a really good reason to repaint them. If so it will be some bright color same as the seat/tank. I'm actually considering Big Bad Orange, the color POD tried on the valve covers. Photoshop will reveal some clues.

[per_w_aberg]

It would be something like this.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Orange is my favourite colour.
I think KTM orange is one of the nicest. Try RAL2009 Traffic Orange (CMYK 5 70 100 0)
I couldn't get powder for this here except by indent, but should be easier in Europe

[per_w_aberg]

Hi.

KTM and I go back a while so ktm-orange is  entirely possible, and then there's that bright neon Kawasaki green thats keep popping up every time I think in color.

I've postponed the exhaust build out of fear and lack of a welder.  Now I will brute force it and use the stock headers. I had rings made to fit 1 1/8" tubes but backed of. The fan is of some Ducati and saves 1/3 on both weight and power. We get around 25°C in the summer so theres also a plan to skip the fan and expansion bottle altogether and go with air in the radiator enduro style. I've seen enough boiling enduro bikes, the don't just blow up but put out steam in the escape pipe as a warning. I also fitted a rear tire @110/80 up front that should work an get me closer to fame. Light is no small matter and I'm fitting a cheap bates light as a starter. Had to lose the steering lock for a slim fit. Now I will practice some banjo before  heading out to the shed.

When will the fun ever stop?