Adding a little Raspberry Pi to my 82'Heritage Special.

And what happens when (not if) the phone crashes? No thanks. One of the charms of our bikes is their "old school simplicity". That may sound hypocritical as I have my iPhone mounted on my handle bars with a USB power plug and connected to my helmet via bluetooth. But, that is so I can earn my living while riding (GPS navigation, phone calls, etc). I have the option of not connecting my phone, when I just want to enjoy the ride. I have enough tech in my life already, I don't need to add to the complexity with further smart phone integration into my bike.

Please be sure to consider all the possible points of failure, and plan accordingly.

rugbywarrior89 said:

You know, I was just thinking that some much more knowledgeable person could probably come up with an app that connects via bluetooth and turns your phone screen into a remote control to control the relay board. You could then just buy a phone mount for your handlebars and skip the wiring to the handlebars completely. After a little searching, there are already some apps that do similar things but I'm not sure as to the effectiveness of this situation. It would also provide a good level of security since it couldn't be operated without the phone.

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This app might do it at a basic level: http://www.btinterface.com/

If the phone's dead will the bike run at all? Will the touchscreen work with gloves on?
I'll be sticking with manual controls myself.

I do like the switches you've chosen, and mounting them in the bars would be pretty slick.
Makes me wonder if it'd be possible to make the bar the switch. Something flush-mounted fully inside the bars with the same steel finish as the bars for almost invisible controls?

Disclaimer: I don't think I'm planning on using a phone to control things, it was just a thought someone else may be interested in. BUT there is a bypass switch in case the phone dies/fails. The bypass would provide power to the headlight/tail light and the ignition. You would lose horn and turn signal but it would still get you home in a pinch (see my wiring diagram).

Will the touchscreen work with gloves on?

Click to expand...

You would probably have to invest in touch screen gloves.

Something flush-mounted fully inside the bars with the same steel finish as the bars for almost invisible controls?

Click to expand...

Something like this would be best but I was hoping to replace the dash lights with the LED ring in the buttons themselves. I may end up with these though since new bars plus the transition risers plus controls and grips are going to add a lot of expense that I don't really have right now.

Well, my end of the project is coming to an end prematurely. Due to some unforeseen financial crisis and lack of time, I was forced to sell my motorcycle. I hope the new owner is able to fix her up more than I ever could. I'm not sure if I posted the tinyCAD file of the wiring diagram to the site so here it is again along with what little python script I wrote. I never tested the script so I'm sure there are issues. Lastly is "Yamaha" written in Japanese Characters. Thanks to all for your help in the last few years.
TinyCAD
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByxqE0biGFaBeXAwbzZRakpqZm8/view?usp=sharing
Python Code
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByxqE0biGFaBeXM1UnRVc1R4Njg/view?usp=sharing
Japanese "Yamaha"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByxqE0biGFaBalNRMkF5RU5qZ28/view?usp=sharing

Sorry to see you go.

That sucks to hear dude. Hope everything works out.

You had some pretty cool ideas for the bike. Going to test my unit on the bike in the next couple of weeks.

This project is now defunct but in case anyone else finds it and wants to continue the work, the new Raspberry Pi Zero just came out.

It is tiny compared to the previous models and probably has a similarly reduced power requirement.