I want to make a gear position indicator for my 1974 Yezdi. It is a thoroughly mechanical motorcycle and doesnt have fancy ECUs or Sensors. It does not even have a battery. I want to make a system that can register Upshifts and downshifts solely by reading the change in position of the gear lever.
I am confident in implementing the software and hardware, but I cant narrow down on what sensor I can use to read this movement?
I was thinking of installing two Hall sensors and attaching a strong magnet to the shift lever. One sensor will be on the top, for reading upshifts and one on the bottom for the downshifts. The whole thing will be powered by a lipo battery that will charge off of the rectified current from the motorcycle's electrical system.
Is there a better way to sense it?
I saw the various other posts on the forums where people have implemented gear position indicators, but most of them had sensors already in place and they just had to read the voltage and indicate accordingly. In my case I have to start from scratch.
Hi,
The system you propose is valid, but you need to find some way of knowing what gear you are in on powerup of the indicator.
As I understand the motorcycle gear lever is basically a sequential type selector, and itself cannot indicate gears, just up and down shifts.
Another way is to monitor engine speed and wheel speed, compare them and that will show which gear you are in.
Look at this link, it may help with a pure UP/DOWN shift method.
From my experience on a fair number if different motorcycles, accuracy is going to be a challenge.
How many times do you attempt to shift into neutral and just miss? How will your sensor know if you undershot and stayed in first, successfully made it in to neutral or overshot and made it in to second?
The article that TomGeorge linked to uses the neutral indicator as a recalibration method. I would also add that if the unit thinks you are in first and you down shift again, it should stay in first. Similarly if the unis thinks you are in top gear and you upshift, it should keep the top gear value.
