Ducati Monster Forum

It's raining
I'm bored
Enjoy
 ;D

half way done
(http://www.mikemo.org/bikes/gauge.jpg)

imobilizer
(http://www.mikemo.org/bikes/gauge.gif)

I never was a big fan of orange

Ooooooo...

Zexy!  [thumbsup]

So speedo is going to look blue?

I went with white.  The lighting is bad in my garage.  I wanted to do blue but nothing is really blue on my bike so I figured white was safe.

Are the LEDs surface mount, 3mm, 5mm, or ???

PLCC2 SMD / SMT LED
bought them here LED Mod (http://store.ledmod.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=16&products_id=47)
(http://www.mikemo.org/bikes/penny.jpg)

Here is a IZ style picture.  I will bust out the tripod later.  When I get sometime I am going to write up a rough tutorial.
(http://www.mikemo.org/bikes/gauge1.jpg)


Anyone remember how to adjust brightness?  I have no clue what mine is actually set at right now.
edit: turn bike on > press button B to adjust

How did you split your gauges?

Ooooh ... itsy bitsy surface mounts.  Not sure my soldering hands are that steady.  Looks good, though!

There are a series of screws you have to undo.  3 in the back then 1 in the front.  The front one is revealed when you remove the plastic piece that is between the gauges.

Yeah I had to stop in the middle of it to resteady myself.

Having split yours, think it's possible to get the clear plastic out, and replace with glass?

its defintely possible. But why?

Id love to do this mod, but how much would a soldering iron that can do a job that precise cost?

maybe you can be a mini sponsor!

Very Nice.

It is very difficult to get the plastic out as it is 'fused' into the case. I haven't heard of anyone doing this successfully
Why? to replace a cracked glass, otherwise you have to buy a complete cluster.

I've got some light scratches on the outside, that I'd like to eliminate by replacing with glass.

Tried the usual scratch removers to no avail...

How were you able to remove the speedo and tach needles from the motors to completely remove the circuitry? I tried to separate them, and they seem to be permanently mounted to the drive shafts off the motors.

That is freaking sweet and ballsy to boot.

mitt

Mine were glued on.


So a quick update.  I like the white, I think blue would look good too.  My needles are hard to see at night but that is because I repainted them red.  I might go back to the orange needles just so I can see them better.  To get the best effect a new faceplate need to be made.   If anyone knows how to do that let me know.

How much effort is needed to do this mod, I hate the orange on a black bike.  Prolly going to go with the white LEDs as well, not knowing what other color I'm going to incorporate.  I've got some electrical and soldering skills, is it pretty much plug and play?

Hey Heath.  I hadn't seen this till it just got bumped back up.  Sweet idea.  Like the look and may have to add this to the list.   [thumbsup]

back when I was into my vw a guy on the site modded the gauges so all the little hash marks lit up as the needle passed by them,  He also had a different color led for near red line...   I thought this was so sweet and wonder if it could be done to my duc.   Im going to try and track this guy down and see what he needed to make that happen.

btw yours looks great... I like the white alot

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2898256 (http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2898256)

Good link Drew.  Pretty in depth mod.  Looks cool though.  [thumbsup]

Mucho trabajo

nice results!

I got a hold of a hand full of PLCC-2 SMDs they are not as small as i thought they were. My soldering skills are a bit weak though... :-X

how are they holding u health?

Very nice.

It gets the "lots of work just to make something perfetto" Drunken Monkey seal of approval  [thumbsup]

They are still working great.  I just wish I never would of touched the paint on my needle.  It either has to do with the color or something when reinstalling it but it doesn't light up that well.

good lookin out... haha It had been so long ago that I was talking to that guy I couldnt remember his tag on vortex...

are you on there as well? or how did you know about it

i drive a 2005 mark 4 gti  [evil] so it wasn't long before i stumbled upon vortex and started reading through the faq when the vw would do something funny.  best was when my window fell into my door on the way home from work new years eve.  hey what's that sound? oh my window is down a lil bit, i'll roll it back up.. BOOM! anyways, i didn't know the guy who posted that how to, but i remembered seeing it at one point or another.  i guess it stuck with me cause i have the digital tach on my 750.  vortex is a good forum.  reminds me a lot of this place; flaming and help all in one place [drink]

Alright I finally got the equipment I needed to do this and tackled it this afternoon.  I went with blue and think the color turned out awesome.  Unfortunately along the way, I make the beast with two backsed up my RPM gauge as shown, probably from a bad battery connect/disconnect.  When I turn the key on it dances around all over the place, but for the same amount of time as before.  When I start the bike, it shudders around 2000-3000 rpm, eventually settles and stays around 1000.

It's useless now, but it looks cool!

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_gL_kEbFV6-U/ScQvSG6_Q8I/AAAAAAAAANE/bUAXir_LztM/s512/photo.jpg)

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_gL_kEbFV6-U/ScQvSBcBXbI/AAAAAAAAANM/nVHVOw311J4/s512/photo%284%29.jpg)

that sucks man! but it still looks neat, any idea exactly did other then look at it wrong?

i doubt a bad batery disconnect will do it. ive (at more than one occasion) pulled the battery while it was sweeping. im still waiting for my damn LEDs!!!! i bought a 100 pack of red and white.

MaxPower, maybe one of the connections is not making full contact from when you put it all back together?

i got my guages split open right now... how the hell did you get those needles off? the clear piece is 1 solid piece.

actually max power, i think i know how you can fix your gauges. if they are anything like mine....

open them back up, and apply glue to where the needle tube meets that motor pin. its slipping, which is causing the gauge to go wild.

edit: it really doenst look you can do this with out just yanking on that needle...which i suspect will cause the guage to go nuts when you reinstall it

edit twice: yea i figured it out. you should leaves the needles out, turn on the bike let the needle set down to 0 install them. then add a dab of glue.

Edit: The LEDs i purchased were not bright enough. I'll order some brighter ones next time.

(http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/640/sdc10479i.jpg)
(http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9522/sdc10491y.jpg)

do you think it would make a difference to put antifog on the inside of the gauge lenses to keep the condensation off? it always seems to be foggy on the bottom half of the inside of the lens when it is cold out....

He Man the gauges look pretty good in the pictures, having them too bright would be annoying.

As for my tach, I'm pretty sure it's not the needle slipping because during the first sweep sequence, the needle will rotate backwards when it should only be going forwards, slipping wouldn't cause that.

I went so far as opening up the motor driving the needle and actually found one of the windings had somehow become disconnected from the motor terminals.  After some careful soldering, I hooked it back up, turned the key, and voilà!  No difference... Something is still effed.

hmmm..thats strange....hope you get it sorted out eventually. Maybe you just pulled on the needles too hard lol.


Probably would help, but i dont know how long that stuff lasts, or if there are any ill effects on the gauge facing.

Desoldering Ducati Monster Gauges (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iSTPAJg57w#lq-hq-vhq)


Xilsoft!

So does that mean I simply need to
-open up the gauge by undoing 3 screws
-desolder the led that are in place (like heman's video)
-and then solder on the new leds? (like heman's video in reverse)

or am i confused?  ???

http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=21891.0 (http://ducatimonsterforum.org/index.php?topic=21891.0)  [thumbsup]

Some solder wick would make that job a lot easier( the no clean flux kind is the best) and a lot safer. A solder sucker would work ok too. Be careful you don`t lift up the pad when you only desolder one side and move the led`s. Then it will be fun to fix if you are not experienced.

I bought a hot air rework unit off eBay.  Worked awesome, made it super easy.

The hot air knife`s are awesome. I just don`t think most people are as lucky to have one.  [thumbsup]

How did you break them loose?