Making the mechanical speedo electric

Ketchup pusher

Ketchup pusher

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Hallo there

I had this wonderful idea of converting the mechanical cable type to a digital electronic output, to work with any electrical cauge. :wtf:

So since i'm no genius with motherboards or whatever you need to make a conversion , i need your guys help. :shrug:

I have three ideas for this conversion:

-Either build a small box from scratch, where the cable goes in to and then outputs an electrical signal

-Do some weirdo stuff inside the hub, to make it in to an electrical output from the start

-Buy one of the electrical speedos, which is on the market. Take it apart and see if i can make an conversion box out of that (super expensive)

-Or an extra option is that someone else already made such thing and will tell me how :D


So please help me out here!
Anyone knowing of an already existing conversion thingy thing?

Ride safe, if not then don't get cought :bike:

Ps. doing this on my 1981 xs 400 special
 
Many electronic speedos come with a hall sensorband magnet you attach to the wheel. You can also attach it to the rear wheel or sprocket.
 
As rshutchinson has said, the majority of speedo's will come with the sensor. So you are looking too far into it, no need to build your own sensor. The only thing you have to do is rig up the stationary pickup mounting as well as fitting the magnet. Usually you can just drill a shallow pocket into a brake disc or hub and press/epoxy the magnet into it. It's not so bad if you are dead set on eliminating the mechanical speedo. I went the even easier route by going with a GPS speedo.

Keep in mind that you will lose the flasher auto cancel.
 
Hi, I have just purchased a mechanical to digital adapter from a company call Digital Speedos here in the UK. Mine is for the Koso gauge that I have just purchase but you might be able to convert it for yours. If you go to there web site and click on speed sensors and accessories then scroll down you will see them.
 
It might be tricky to match a diy device to the expected speedo ratio of the aftermarket electronic speedometer.
Likely wouldn't be compatible with the common type that rshutchinson referred to. They'd expect a much lower frequency of pulses than a device coupled to the stock speedo drive would provide.
You'd probably have to buy a model that's already designed to work with the type of adapter that Sharky mentioned, in which case you may be getting the adapter already or you'd be spending so much on the speedo that cheaping out on the adapter makes no sense.

It's definitely possible. If you want to do it for the sake of learning and having a cool electronics project, that's awesome. It's why I do most of my projects.
Making both the speed sensor and a microcontroller based speedometer with digital or graphic displays would be fun and even allow for precise calibration of speed for variations in tire size. A couple people here, including myself, have looked into integrating microcontrollers into our bikes for various reasons.

But it wouldn't be economical at all once you factor in the time required to design and make the thing.
 
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