Motorcycle Wiring Done Differently - This Can Be BIG!

Well, time will show if this will be big 🙄 The original wiring for my motorcycle needs to be customized as I have done a lot of changes to the bike. The original wiring is quite inefficient, I want to improve it.

I ended up creating a new wiring diagram from scratch, and it is based on having a computer controlling most of the electrical components on the bike.

To keep the project budget friendly, and to get a solution that fits perfectly for my needs, I thought it was best to build the computer myself. Then I thought this might be something others as well could have used. One thought led to another, and it all ended up with me starting an Open Source project.

Project name: Ctrl-MC
Goal: Create software for Arduino boards to be used as a motorcycle controller with documentation and hardware recommendations

Do you want to contribute check out my GitHub repository:

A Discord channel is also available, please join if you want to:

00:00 Intro
00:26 Bike overview
02:38 Reviewing original wiring
05:16 New wiring diagram
06.21 Arduino based MC controller
10:28 Open Source Project

#motorcycle #wiring #arduino

[BrickHouseBuilds]

Great video! Great explanation of how overly complicated the original system is due to the manufacturing process. Very trick stuff with making your own controllers!

[Mike]

You have no idea how blown away I am! For the past year I’ve set out to do the exact same thing from scratch with minimal starting knowledge. I’ve gotten so far with wiring and buttons as well as 3d modeling prototype parts, however the code is my struggle! I look forward to reading your code and modifying it for my own bike! 🎉 cheers on such a great make

[kickflipper]

Oh wow that interface you made is sooo cool!

[Martin_IPL]

That's taken re-wiring to a new very impressive indeed.

[andybobandy]

Oh man. I have a 77 Yamaha RD400 that is in dire need of an electrical overhaul and thinning! This idea of a computer controlled electronic system for all of the turn signals brake lights Etc is exactly what this bike needs. Trying to shove 6 Mi of wire behind the headlight is a recipe for disaster. Having 10 wires total on the entire motorcycle would be ideal. I love this idea and I want to follow it all the way!

[nrcan]

Im not an electronic guy. Just a motorcycle freak. Glad I came here. Now I cant wait to learn. This is advance motorcycling here

[djm]

Genius. Really great solution.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’ll definitely be testing this out on my KZ750.

[markadriangabis]

Damn this came in pinch, I was stressing out if I should get a m-unit as im in progress of rebuilding my bike, glad I came across this video

[tshansen]

Haha, love the drawings 👏🏻 makes it so much better to follow along on. Great video as always mate. You set a high standard for this kind of videos. 👏🏻

[falashlaba]

Holy crap dude. I don't know how to help. sorry. You're one hell of a nerd and I wish you the best of luck with this project.

[kimballscarr]

Ki… really great approach, in general. People need to understand this fundamental is before buying things like the m-unit; that you are buying a system, someone else’s system. So you must understand it’s limitations and possibilities, beyond its features and design philosophies. Essentially you are locked in with little choices in you design and functions other than a schematic layout, i.e. running the wires between components, and often caught in needing to use their complete pantheon of gadgets and accessories. Only if you understand all this upfront, and agree with it, will the outcome meet your needs and expectations. So before buying read the manuals over and over until you have picked all this detail information out. Also, unless you are up to this you will be under a commercial companies mercy as to solving problems.

Further now-a-days all automotive and motorcycle wiring system have standards to meet for EMI and power spikes like caused by switching… and modern electronic signal controlled systems use tiny (read near zero) current flow in control circuits and work by a micro-switch shorting to ground to provide microprocessor a momentary control signal / digital to control the microprocessors control… at low voltage. This means you at using very tiny signals to control the power relay / transistor so mixing power switching switches into a system with micro-electronic control of power relays / transistors you are asking for problems due to voltage spikes and high current flows in the “electrical or old fashioned bike wiring” Frankenstein electrical system. So it’s best to either isolate the Frankenstein robust stuff from the sensitive control aspects or convert it all to electronic controller off of power relays / transistors. So you’d be better of eliminating Frankenstein power switching in general from your system.

Modern power control switching circuits (relays) should have low pass filtering to rid the stem of voltage and current spikes when they open/close, and the control wiring should all be separated from power distribution particularly is there are capacitors or inductors inductive/coils. This goes for protecting signals from things like wheel or engine speed sensors.

Now the handle bars and wiring from them should be control side wiring, and low power instrument and indicator lights which are resistive loads LED fall into this. And this wiring should go to the micro controller fine. This includes all momentary or digital signal controls. But if using relay controls which are switched with latching but low power switches this needs to be installed separately and isolated from other digital control signal wiring, or in another words even if you are using low power Frankenstein latching switches to power relays keep this in mind it is not digital control. As far as the digital control wiring really that can be quite tiny maybe 28-30 awg sizing awhile for low power latching switches to control the relays stuff slightly larger is needed 24-26 awg . But I find 24 awg to 22 awg about as small as I can fumble around in wiring. Now wiring of loads including the power wires of relays and the supply you must go with large enough that you do’t overheat. But even todays headlights and other lighting loads you may be using 18 awg to 22awg. But the alternator wiring likely will be 10 awg to 16 awg on bikes.., while battery supply and ground as well as starter and solenoid wiring can be much larger too. What I am getting at your wiring now-days with LED lights etc. will be quite tiny stuff, but the basic wiring will not be small. And, this all means very in need of fastidious installation and assembly.

[chrispychickin]

Wow! as you described your idea, i had to laugh at how similarly you looked at this probelm to myself. I've been slowly working on practically the same project, for 9 or so months minimum.

I will be running my system with my (permanent) "project" build, a 2 stroke gilera runner from 2012. I'm nearing completion of the prototype boards, including custom multi segment RGB lighting boards for the tail markers, turn indicators, dash indicator lights. Power distribution and rectification and relay switching for headlights + starter. I'm still undecided on 100% new guages, or replacing the existing LCD in the original cluster with a dot matrix unit. Total configurability is my biggest motivation and design philosophy for it all- doing it right so somoene else can benefit from all the time and thought i've already put into the concept.

I have started preliminary work on the display/monitor MCU, which I'll be using a RPi2040 and RF control for the security side. I'm adding additional monitoring hardware (CHT/EGT sensor, flow sensor for coolant, and anything else that catches my fancy)

The lighting system is on it's own sub board, running a separate MCU with hardware LED drivers and various redundancy/failsafes + protection for the bike management side of things which is slaved to the RPi

I have stripped down the bars and some of the uglier panels, and will be using aftermarket switch modules to feed inputs to the system, and I'm keeping the (tidied up and simplified) stock ignition/charging system for now, but if I ever complete the rest of the rather daunting chunk of work, I'd like to work on custom charging/regulation circuitry in hopes of some added efficiency and reliability.

My biggest challenge by far is the code side of things, but that's what motivated me to take on a project of this magnitude to begin with- my skills relating to analogue and even logic level hardware massively outstrip my ability to code, and I'd like to work on bringing my skills up to parity.

I sincerely hope you're still working on this project, I will be following any further info that you put out with much interest, since our projects align so closely in goals and strategy. I'm interested in documenting my own progress, so I'll try and keep you in the loop once I put stuff out here on the internet.

I wish you the best of luck on this, I hope we can collaborate on some level as we both solve the problem, since as I'm sure you know, it's not a simple or straightforward end goal. Much respect for taking the initiative - I totally understand your motivation even if it's a huge undertaking

From down under the world, in NZ.

peace and much respect,
Chris

[kylesgeller]

very nice, I rewiring my 81 GS 850 now ... love it!!

[slabua]

Youtube just recommended me this video somehow, I am doing something similar though just at the beginning~

[matus]

This is awesome, it's always bugged me how low tech motorcycle wiring is. I'm building a recumbent prototype and wanted to build something like this. Subscribed and joined your discord!

[RustyWrecks]

I am really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out it looks perfect for my next project, great work and great video as always

[jeffhachtel]

I'm surprised there isn't more of this going on in motorcycling. I am watching the repo now. I don't know how much I can contribute; I don't have much time. But, we will see.

[stnucynuff]

This is awesome! I was looking at my wire spaghetti in my front headlight housing wondering how I was going to fix it all. I now have my answer!! I love tinkering with electronics and motorbikes so I'll be following along keenly. Thank you so much for taking the time to create this video and share your code to the community.

[NomHeads]

Cool! For budget builds the M-unit is very expensive i agree, have to fork your repo and check that out. Thanks for sharing!

[coreyriggle]

I've been waiting for someone to do this.