Trail Tech Voyager - Interesting GPS Speedo!

It might not hurt to slit some windshield washer hose and glue it to the edge of the aluminum to soften any contact.

Mine isn't even close to accurate or stable. In fact, it exhibits a behavior that I did not see anyone else in this thread mention... even if the engine is NOT running, the tach is still registering some RPMs. Will not go to zero unless the ignition is turned off.

In other words, if you stop the engine with the kill button or by dropping the clutch, the Voyager thinks it is still running.

Quite annoying since it defeats the "engine running detection" feature of the Voyager...

This is on a Yamaha WR450 with the stock on/off push button for the ignition and the Voyager tach wire wrapped around the coil.

The tach feature is extremely sensitive against signal interference. I spent several hours finding an optimal sensor positioning and finally got acurate values _as long as_ I do not connect Voyagers external power supply.
Look here:
http://youtu.be/fpd29gQK45E
(Yamaha WR250R)

My tach bar looks perfect, but when connecting Voyagers power wire to vehicle power (parking light), values get garbled all over.
Next stage of experimenting is putting in some signal flattening capacity (used for car audio) to get rid of those unwanted peaks.
Previously I tried one more experiment: when connecting the tach sensor wire directly to the orange wire of ignition coil, the signal is way too strong: in this case (without external power connected) the Voyager displayed a riding speed of 100 km/h in my garage as soon as the engine was running. Woah. Connecting external power on the other hand fixed this and set riding speed to 0.

However, as Trail Tech describes, I found the optimal sensor wire positioning after lengthy experiments: a low number of loops around upper part of integrated ignition coil. Cable routing without interfering with other cables as much as possible. Now lets solve that external power issue. I want to fix that now, because I really like that tach bar.

Regards, Phil

Good point. I have followed that advice just on the off chance that I might crash.

Yoyager with WR250R and external power supply now working cleanly!
Videolink (Picasa):


This is the trick I used (clickable images):



That little black circuit is very cheap and is available at every car audio shop or whatever.

For me it's "when" not "if".

That looks like a automotive noise filter normally used to keep ignition noise out of the radio. Little more than an electrolytic capacitor in a can. I was also thinking a filter cap would help here but I thought someone had already tried that a few posts back... maybe not...

Major thumbs down to Trailtech for overlooking this simple electronics design feature that should have already been present in the product. Especially a product that is touted as able to be used on a multitude of bikes with wildly varying voltages and power cleanliness. Incoming voltage filtering is just electronics 101...

Whatever, the Voyager is a great and outstanding device.
I really appreciate it.
Phil

Oh don't get me wrong, I like the Voyager... However, given the target audience it is a bit shocking that "noisy power" which is common on nearly every offroad bike can give the unit fits...

The fix is easy enough though... you can confirm that the filter has reliably solved your issues for the long-term?

Thanks!

Give me some weeks to confirm. Currently riding my NC700X mostly. But this is the first time my setting looks really good. Up to now values were unusable. Now they seem spot on.
Phil

Good guess, and I am sorry to say so, but it does not reliably solve the issue.
It works for a test slope around the block with cold engine and low revs. As soon as revs go up and throttle goes up values will get garbled as always. The main factor seems to be riding speed and throttle status, suprisingly. When going in first gear and with low throttle it will display acurate all the way up it seems.

So, for a calm commute it might work out. For an enduro ride it will definitely not work out at all. I will give up on it now.
That was my last try, I really tried everything on it. The only way to get this going reliably was to disconnect external power completely. And thats no option to me.

Sorry again, and let me know if you got a better fix some day!
Phil

Can you call me in the morning? I would like to hear more about the issue you are having with your Voyager tach.

Thanks

Garridan
Trail Tech
360-687-8643

Im sure this has been covered, but after reading this long thread i've still got questions.

I know the Voyager does not come with maps like my Garmin 60csx, it basically tracks where you are and have been. Can you import a map in .GPX form say the size of a state in order to get all the street, trail, ect. If so where?

Nope.

You can load tracks and routes onto it though...

I just installed my Voyager in time for the LA-Barstow-Vegas dual sport ride. However, it appears that the temp sensor wire is only long enough to work if the unit is mounted down on the triple clamp. I set my bike up in a Rally style with the Voyager high up behind the fairing.
Do you offer a longer temp sensor? If not, what's the best way to lengthen the one I have?

You can import roads after converting them with GPS Babel. I load in county roads on mine and then use them for reference to know where I am. A whole state is too big for one file but you could have multiple files with different portions of your state. The manual covers how to do this.

FYI, I added a guard to the front of my Voyager and then had difficulty picking up satelites; usually just took it a long time to acquire. I installed the external antenna ($30) and now it acquires in a few seconds even sitting in my garage with all the doors closed. Neat little thing it is too.

I've converted some roads using "OpenStreetMaps.org" but it takes forever and 9 times out of 10 it locks up the computer. The only way to ensure it doesn't lock up is to only do an area about 5 sq miles at a time. Not very practical. Any ideas?

They do 12, 24 and 48" sensor wire extensions.
http://trailtech.net/temperature_sensors.html

Any photos of mounting options with 3 inch risers and a submount steering stabilizer?