Keyvan's NinjaPC Worklog

[Mr. Saturn]

Keep riding safe! Seems like you really have some dedication to this project. What do you do for a living, if i may ask? You better be involved with electronics, because it seems you have a real talent for it!

PS; You'd better be going to college right now!!! Don't waste yer brain!

I work at this electronics refurbishment place where we evaluate and fix surplus electronics and sell them on ebay. I wouldn't call it stimulating though, at all. But it pays decently for my needs.
Yeah I'm going to college, but I might (probably will) take this coming semester off to work on this. EDIT: I changed my major from bio to engineering. I'm taking some relevant courses right now. And one of my classes is a 4 unit work experience thing where I basically work on my own shit and don't actually have a class to go to, just a professor to check in with on my project status. I'll just give him the link to this thread

[Skiee]

Wow, that's some crazy stuff there, Keyvan! I feel like Brick Tamland from Anchorman when you were talking about the NinjaPC...a bit over my head!
"I love lamp..."
S67

[deadhand]

This is freakin rad.  You're like "Q" building a secret agent bike.  When will you install the lazer guided missiles? 

[Mr. Saturn]

Got the interrupter working. I need someone who's good at logic, digital logic, or better yet is a programmer, to help me figure out how to make a counter... Once I get that I have a working odometer as well as speed once I make the count a function of time. If not, I should have it figured out soon.

EDIT: lol i got it to count. Once. EDIT 2: I'm programming a microcontroller for the speedometer stuff---converting the rotation of the speedo cable into a voltage using pulse-width modulation on my microcontroller. I'm using an AVR ATTiny2313v. Voltage will go to Fusion brain, with no more processing/logic necessary.

Pics are of fusion brain with attached photointerrupter (that will be in a little box that screws into the end of my mechanical speedo cable-digitize that shit! I can make and sell these units for you guys if you'd like--anything I do here I can do for you as well.) I'll make two, cause I've got 2 sets of photointerrupters (I broke one trying to desolder it from the board it came from ), my bike completely stripped naked (i can still ride it during the day, but i'm always either asleep or at work during the day lol), and a pic of the back of my gauges since i couldnt find this anywhere on the net. well here you go, community. the multimeter leads (the red connectors) are connected to a green wire and a black wire on the back of the gauge cluster. green wire is my analog variable voltage from the fuel sender, black = gnd. I am still not 100% on the green wire's identity--I need a gas can to drain my gas into while I watch the multimeter OR i need to affix the multimeter to my bike while on a long ride and check it at half, 1/4th, empty, etc.

onwards!

ps. anyone know of a temperature sensor wire anywhere? resistive or voltage, whatever.? on the thermostat? I found something I thought was it, but I don't think I was right. I couldn't leave the engine running too long though cause it's late. I'll try again tomorrow.

I'll post a picture of my "virtual gauges" soon. Anyone got any ideas for me there? It can look like ANYTHING so let your imagination run wild. If you have any cool ways of representing some data like rpm, speed, fuel, engine temp, etc, let me know, I give credit where it's due. 

[Mr. Saturn]

Updates (For records, as this is the primary thread/forum for my project)
Remember, every input needs to be 0v-5v. Get any sensor/input to that range and you can display it onscreen.

NINJAPC (10% Complete)

FUEL GAUGE (100% Complete)
Voltage Wire. No Voltage Divider Necessary (w00t)

I put 0.5 gallons in at a time and measured voltages with engine off and on. Gas station attendant seemed pissed cause I kept asking for $1.03 fillups XD! And my bank just called me asking me wtf I was doing lol

0 gal (Empty)
Engine Off: 4.26v
Engine On: 4.99v

0.5 gal
Off: 3.88v
On: 4.53v

1.0 gal
Off: 3.50v
On: 4.06v

1.5 gal
Off: 2.95v
On: 3.43v

2.0 gal
Off: 2.68v
On: 3.12v

2.5 gal
Off: 2.44v
On: 2.95v

3.0 gal
Off: 2.05v
On: 2.40v

3.8 gal
Off: 1.24v
On: 1.67v

Note: On the Ninja250, fuel voltage is INVERSELY related to the amount of fuel in the tank. Full -- low voltage. Empty -- high voltage.

SPEEDOMETER/ODOMETER (90% Complete)
Cable-driven. Rotating shaft.

Currently working on an AVR ATTiny2313v microcontroller to function as a counter for my photointerrupter.
I think I've found a MUCH simpler and MUCH more elegant solution. Will keep you posted I'm VERY excited about this solution.
Okay, that solution I mentioned above works So I've cranked speedo completion to 90%. The last 10% is just figuring out what RPM equates to what voltage output. Basically I just took a small electric motor, spun it with a dremel tool, and found that it produces a voltage So I'll hook the motor up to the end of the speedo cable and convert my speed directly into a voltage. Any ideas on how to calibrate/determine RPM vs voltage??

TACHOMETER (0%)
I know nothing except that there are 3 wires behind the tach. 12v, 12v, GND.
:/
Need to explore once I finish Fuel & Speedo.

LIGHTS (10%)
Off- 0v, On- 12v.

Branch a wire from the positive connection of each light, use voltage dividers (calculate necessary resistance) to scale voltage below 5v and input into Fusion Brain.

SENSORS (10%)
Engine Temperature (Where do I put this? I need something that can handle the high temps of a motorbike engine. How high does it get?)
Tire Pressure (Dakota Digital wireless pressure sensors)
Tri-Axis Accelerometer (Lean/Tilt, G-force in every direction) (I'm hyped on this)
Gearshift Indicator (This will be using values from my tach and my speedo to determine which gear I'm in... shouldn't be too hard)
Coolant temp
Tire temp? Can I use one of those reflective IR temperature sensors for this? Is it a useful thing to know? Ive heard people talk about tire temps before.
Miles per gallon meter w/ live and average and graphs

I could sit here forever so I'm gonna go be productive, but can you guys think of anything cool/useful/interesting/practical/impractical I can add to this list? Almost anything that can be quantified can be sensed and displayed by the computer and a sensor is likely out there already that would make it a snap.

COMPUTER (10%)

VIA PicoITX Motherboard (see first post for picture & dimensions) running RoadRunner & Fusion Brain & iGuidance
Will think of this once I have more cash and I've completed everything else. Easy/fun shit.

SCREEN (100%)

7" LCD Touchscreen
I have a non-transflective screen I plan to use, but it's gonna suck. Raise money for a transflective screen (These things are great, they turn direct and indirect sunlight into a backlight, whereas a normal screen starts to glare and glaze over making it unreadable... Tinting my visor will only do so much to prevent this.)

CASE (0%)

I need to make a custom molded case that will fit all the components in my trunk, or behind the headlight/gauges. Haven't decided, but leaning more with trunk because it's more weatherproof.
The case will likely be made from flexible copper/sheetmetal, then painted or something maybe.





I'm sure there are more categories I haven't come across yet as of this moment, but I will add them as they creep up.

If you're following my project, thanks, and anyone is always more than welcome to come over to the garage and check out my progress. Bring some beer

[Spartan]

Man gotta love your energy.  Your like the energizer bunny or like Jim Carey on Yes Man after he had all those red bulls!   

Sounds like you have your hands full with this one, but once completed should be pretty awesome. I think your biggest challenge would be figuring out how to make the touchscreen waterproof and theft proof. Would be cool if you could figure out a way to make it an all-in-one unit that you can take with you kinda like a portable GPS unit. What you could do to make it really sick and for the show off effect is ditch the keyed ignition and have a button on the screen that starts the bike, just put a cut of switch for safety reasons. Just my $.02. Ok it is past my bedtime. Keep us posted!

 

[Mr. Saturn]

Hey man thanks for your comments and suggestions. I will do this. It will look f**king sick, starting the engine from the screen. The idea didn't cross my mind. It's easy to implement, my fusion brain has digital outputs, so I'll hook up a 25A (need to know how many amps our starter motor utilizes) relay to one of the digital outputs of my fusion brain, set up a sick looking button onscreen and start that motherfucker up.

I haven't seen Yes Man yet, but I saw Gran Torino last night and it was pretty awesome.


I can tell you this much: If I get the new transflective screen (Which I think I will, I want to do it all RIGHT this time, no half-assing, as you can tell I'm serious about making this completely perfect and legit) I will mount all the computer and electronics behind the screen... There's a lot of space back there, it will all fit easily. And if I do it like that, I can have it like those removable faceplates that you see on those expensive head units / radios in cars.

As far as waterproofing... Shouldn't be too hard. The screen wont mind getting wet, won't get damaged from it, I've experienced that a lot in my miata (top down cruising, i didn't give a f**k, I wanted to feel like I was in a motorcycle ) and the screen just keeps truckin'. As far as the computer system and electronics components: I will put it all in a case, which I will seal with some kind of gasket... Only thing is, I need some ventilation in here... Maybe I can make an air intake and exhaust cowl/duct with a filter to capture dust/water and keep the shit cool. It's all low heat output anyway though, so maybe I don't even need the ducts and can let it all dissipate into the frame of the bike. Wouldn't trust it in the summer though, I can make ducts that I can open/close. I'll put a temp sensor in the pc case itself to monitor if I need ducts.

Thanks for your thoughts, keep them coming.

Man gotta love your energy.  Your like the energizer bunny or like Jim Carey on Yes Man after he had all those red bulls!   

Sounds like you have your hands full with this one, but once completed should be pretty awesome. I think your biggest challenge would be figuring out how to make the touchscreen waterproof and theft proof. Would be cool if you could figure out a way to make it an all-in-one unit that you can take with you kinda like a portable GPS unit. What you could do to make it really sick and for the show off effect is ditch the keyed ignition and have a button on the screen that starts the bike, just put a cut of switch for safety reasons. Just my $.02. Ok it is past my bedtime. Keep us posted!

 

[Mr. Saturn]

Just an update for those interested and for my own records:

SPEEDOMETER/ODOMETER:
Mechanical cable rotates at some ratio (guessing 1:1 for now) to the front wheel. I am hooking up a (hopefully brushless) motor to the end of the cable, motor will emit current at a voltage proportional (or not, if not it's okay too I can deal with that in software) to the RPM of the CABLE.

Problem: How do I determine what RPM of the CABLE/MOTOR equals what VOLTAGE?

Solution Part 1: Use a dremel tool to power the motor as though the dremel is my speedo cable.

Obstacle: Dremel tool does not run at exactly the same RPM as it says it does, so my calculations will be inaccurate and useless and not variable enough to plot out remaining points to determine if voltage/rpm ratio is linear.

Solution Part 2: Use a $10 ebay tachometer like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Digital-Laser-Photo-Non-Contact-Tachometer-RPM-Test-A0_W0QQitemZ330301386858 to measure and plot the RPM/Voltage while using the dremel tool. Slow down dremel tool with fingers or something and continue plotting values.

Life is good. Back to chatterbox/kebcom project.

[Mr. Saturn]

Thinking out loud in my PC thread.... I wonder if instead of using a full on computer system, if i could just go ahead and get a googlephone, which serves as a GPS, serves as a music player, internet machine, communication device.... Except it does not serve as my gauges...

Now--I need to think of a way to get my gauges on the googlephone...

Android is supposed to be easy to program for. The fusion brain, which serves as my conduit between the raw data (Fuel, RPM, Speedo) and the on-screen display, is a USB device that runs on windows. I need to find out if the googlephone allows external I/O devices and if it allows seamless integration of that device with the android software. If it does, then one can program something, but that would be such a pain in the ass, and I'd have to find out how fusion brain really works in deep detail. not to mention having to learn a programming language for real this time. UGH!

Another way is to forget about digital gauges, and to keep the spirit of the custom gauges that I wanted, I can buy a new speedo, tach, and fuel gauge and mount them if I find some that spark my interest. Kind of sucks though because I already did all that work and put all that effort into it...

Maybe I should stick to the plan I had before and buy a Netbook, forget the googlephone.... I dunno... googlephone just seems like a good idea...

I'd get on the bike, mount it (have some kind of mounting bracket), and now I've got GPS, I've got my phone charging, I've got my jukebox, and then when I park, I can just grab it and take it with me.... no theft.

I think I should do the googlephone route, might have to sell the fusion brain. Still I feel there's a way to get my custom gauges to display on my phone.... I'll post in the fusion brain forums at mp3car.com

Just sent this PM to the developer over at mp3car

Hey,

I bought the fusion brain awhile ago... I'm finally getting around to being able to install it on my bike... but now I'm having second thoughts about putting a permanent computer in the bike. I want to see if maybe I can use my googlephone... It will do everything a computer can do like GPS, music, internet, EXCEPT for the gauges (fusion brain's job)....

Have you guys been working on any type of Android application for the fusion brain? I dont even know if the g1 phone has an I/O port... Although you could make it bluetooth.

What do you think, is there hope?

It should be possible to get the best of both worlds here.