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 Motorcycle Signal Timer
This project was submitted to Parallax by Brian Hambleton of Uxbridge Ontario
I have a Kawasaki sport bike and I had a problem remembering to turn off the manual cancel turn indicators. The chin bar of my full face helmet gets right in the way of seeing the dashboard turn signal annunciators. Consequently, I was frequently riding along signaling a turn that had happened miles ago.
Now most people would likely just have wired another set of annunciator lamps where they could be more readily seen, but where would the fun be in that?! I solved the problem by building a BASIC Stamp® circuit that monitors the two turn signals. The monitor looks to see that only one is flashing not both and it looks to the clutch lever switch to see if the clutch lever is pulled in. For this bike, the clutch switch signal also provides an indication when the bike is in neutral too, but this was just luck rather than good design.
 When the bike is in gear and the clutch lever is not pulled in, the right or the left turn signals will flash normally 24 times. On the 25th and all subsequent times, a short LOUD beep from a pair of handlebar mounted peizo electric transducers aimed at the rider reminds him/her to cancel the signal. If the bike is in neutral or the clutch lever is pulled in, the signals will flash indefinitely without sound. Thus you can sit at a traffic light waiting to turn, without being annoyed by the beeping. If the indicator lights on right and left sides are both flashing, then it is assumed that the 4 way hazard indicators are on and so no sound is produced. I can ride with my 4 ways on, which I do sometimes when it is foggy, without any beeping.
The 24 flash count was arrived at by trial and error. I started out with 10 and then 20 eventually settling on 24. The 24 count works quite well for me, and no one else rides the bike so it's hard coded and not field adjustable. In normal traffic it is almost always right to begin beeping just after I complete a turn. On the highway however, where off ramp signaling calls for longer use of the turn signals, I just flip the signal off and then on again when the beeping begins. I had thought of including a 'snooze' button to quiet the beeping for another 24, but decided I didn't need any more complexity while riding. The off and on again solution works well enough.
I used a serial data shift instruction and a delay loop to debounce the turn signal voltage levels. In effect the program looks at the voltage level on the two signals and if either one (but not both) is high 8 times in a row, then the bulb must be lit. Any less than 8 consecutive high readings and the signal is considered off. This has worked amazingly well and was dead simple to code.
 The whole gizmo is housed in a small plastic project box and fits neatly into a dead space in the front of the fairing nose cone just below the headlight. The whole system is powered from the dashboard illumination circuit which is on whenever the ignition is on. As a POST, I have the BASIC Stamp microcontroller programmed to emit three rapid beeps on power up when the ignition is turned on. I often get people asking why my bike beeps when I turn the key on. Most have never heard of BASIC Stamp controllers and eventually go cross-eyed with boredom when I give them the whole story.
The system works amazingly well and has many thousands of kilometers to its credit now. The only problem I have had with it results from an intermittent power connection thanks to a loose quick connect. It loses contact sometimes as I am riding along and the BS2 gets a reset and does the three beep power up. At 70 mph though, you can't do a lot of troubleshooting.
 I have disabled the system once or twice for other work on the bike. I really miss it when it isn't there. I have come to rely on it. Or is it that I hate the beeping so much I am extra vigilant to turn off the signals to avoid hearing from it? |
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