Multi-Gauge Installation

This Multi-Gauge answers the need to fill missing features on the stock bike's instrumentation. Replacing the stock analog fuel gauge, this compact digital display unit provides readouts for:

  • Fuel level
  • Coolant temperature
  • Ambient temperature
  • Gear selection
  • Battery voltage
  • Speed

You can choose which combination of information is displayed as well as the manner in which it appears.

These images show the gauge and installation kit. The orange wire is present only on units with the speedometer correction option which allows you to correct for sprocket changes or stock speedometer optimism. This does also affect the speed displayed on the bike's analog speedometer.

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The gauge is unfortunately no longer available but inquires can be sent to the inventor at cvieth@arcor.de There is some more information here if you understand German.

Installation:

  1. Make sure ignition is in OFF position, transmission in neutral.

  2. Place bike on centerstand.

  3. Remove the windshield. I have stainless allen screws needing a 3 mm wrench. The stock nylon screws are Phillips head.

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  4. Pull back the rubber wiring connector boot and detach the instrument cluster wiring connector. Push down on the tab with a flat blade screwdriver and work the connector off slowly.

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  5. Remove both the right and left fairing inserts. The next two photos show the right side, the left side is the same.

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  6. Remove instrument cluster by unscrewing three nuts using a 10 mm wrench. There is one in the tool kit. The first two images are from the White Gauge Graphics Installation page.

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  7. Take away Gauge Cluster Assembly.

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  8. Remove Gauges From Plastic Enclosure.

    • Remove seven phillips screws.
    • Lift off back. Later model bikes may have two rubber strips on the edge of the back of the cluster to protect the contact point with the fairing inserts. You will need to remove those rubber strips. They are glued in three places, each end and in the middle. It takes considerable pulling to free them. A very thin spark plug gauge can be used to run along the rubber and separate the rubber from the case. Also, the back may be sticky to remove and you may have to carefully pry it off. Thanks to 'znsia' of the Owners Association for permission to use his photos.
    • Lift away gauges.
    • Clean inside of enclosure and windows inside and out. If you have an oily film on the inside of the plastic windows now is the time to clean it..

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    When working with the gauges it is a good idea to always either lay them down needles up or place them back in the plastic housing when working on the back. Otherwise the needles might become damaged.

  9. Remove the fuel gauge. Use a good quality Phillips head screwdriver, the screws have large slots. Hold the gauge unit in hand watching to not damage the needles and apply appropriate pressure to turn the screws.

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  10. Remove the low fuel warning bulb and amber window glass. The bulb removes with a quarter turn to the left. Then push out the amber window glass from the rear.

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  11. Trim the height of the plastic fuel gauge low fuel warning light post to make room for the multi-gauge. Cut this down 3/8" or 10 mm. Actually, just trim it flush with the frame. I used a hacksaw blade for this. There's not much room so use short strokes. Careful here not to damage anything. Blow away the plastic dust frequently so it doesn't settle into the gauge works. If more bulbs fall off from the back just put them back with 1/4 turn to the right.

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  12. Install gauge on the cluster. Push all wires from the front through the hole where the amber glass used to be. Position the gauge (right side up of course) so the screw posts on the gauge line up with the mounting holes. Pull the wires through very carefully from the back to take up any slack and excess length from the front. They are fragile so be careful not to pull them out of their soldered connections on the gauge or connectors. Then secure the gauge using the three supplied screws and washers. Make these snug but not too tight. Careful again with the needles on the other gauges.

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  13. In the following steps you will solder the wires to the circuit board. This shows an overview of the board and where modifications will be made. Trim the wires to the appropriate length and restrip a short bare end on each. The wire is 18 gage. Details for each wire are provided in steps below. Note that the cut on the circuit board, the resistor, and the orange wire are only for those units with the speed correction option. Do NOT make that cut on the board unless you have this feature.

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  14. This step is for the speedometer correction only modifications. If you do not have this option, skip this step.

    Make a tiny cut on the circuit board using an xacto knife or sharp edge. This must interrupt the electrical connection just underneath the surface of the board between R51 and R52. Next solder the supplied resistor at one end of R52 and point CL8 as shown below. Also, solder the orange wire to the same end of R52 where your are soldering the resistor. The resistor should lie flat on the circuit board.

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  15. Solder the four single colored wires. The red and black wires attached together will be soldered in the next step below. The connected green and black wires are not soldered to anything (see below).

    • Black - soldered to point CL6
    • Yellow - soldered to point CL5
    • Red - soldered to point CL34
    • Brown - soldered to point CL31

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  16. Then, separate the joined red and black wires and solder them to their proper separate spots on the circuit board.

    1. Black - soldered to point C101, RESET button
    2. Red - soldered to point on SELECT button (see image)

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    The green (tied to black) and black (tied to green) wires have a thermistor attached at the ends and serve as the sensor for the ambient temperature. Do not touch those. The sensor should protrude outside the gauge assembly when reassembled for proper outside temperature readout.

  17. Before reassembling the instruments assembly test the unit by plugging it into the bike's gauges connector. Turn on the ignition and make sure the multi-gauge lights up as well as the other lights in the cluster. The gear indicator should show an 'N' for neutral.

  18. If all is well reassemble the instruments assembly. Feed the sensor at the tip of the green and black wires out the hole for the connector. Make sure that none of the wires you soldered interfere with the mounting holes for the seven attachment screws. Reinstall the rubber edge strips if you had them.

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  19. Reinstall gauge assembly on fairing stay. Insert the wiring connector with a snap of the tab. Cover it with the rubber boot. Allow the temperature sensor to protrude outside the boot. The ambient temperature will display according to the location of the sensor at the tip of the wires. You can decide if you want this to protrude farther out.

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  20. Reinstall left and right fairing inserts.

  21. Reinstall windshield.

  22. Turn on the ignition. Check multi-gauge. Coolant temperature will be shown on the display once it reaches about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Gear indicator will not show a gear number, except for neutral, unless the bike is moving under power.

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  23. Installation complete.

You will need to reset the bike's clock as the instruments were disconnected from power.

  1. Press both the SELECT and RESET buttons simultaneously for at least two seconds.
  2. When the hours digits start flashing press the RESET button to set the hours.
  3. Press the SELECT button to change the minutes.
  4. When the minutes digits start flashing press the RESET button to set the minutes.
  5. Press the SELECT button to start the clock.

Configuration:

In general, navigation through the setup menus is done by the push-buttons SELECT and RESET. The SELECT button has a built-in delay time of about 2 seconds to avoid collision with the mileage indicator. SELECT moves the arrow pointing to the commands. RESET executes the pointed-to command/action. In case of doubt the configuration menu can be left at any time by simply turning the power off. Unsaved changes are lost.

When making configuration changes make sure you do not adjust the contrast in such a way that you cause the display to disappear completely.

VIEW MODE:

Select multi-gauge view mode as desired. Here are the various modes. My favorite is number 7. The unit can be switched between English to Metric units by a simple menu selection. In Metric mode the "Fazer" logo will appear when the ignition is turned on instead of "FZ1". Fuel level and temperature may be displayed as a bar graph or as fuel remaining. Other values may be displayed in a variety of ways.

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To change the view mode, make sure the multi-gauge is in the regular display mode then:

  1. press and hold SELECT until configuration menu appears.
  2. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry PLUS or MINUS to increment the selection up or down.
  3. press RESET until desired view mode number is reached.
  4. press SELECT until arrow reaches entry 'SAVE'.
  5. press RESET to save setting (arrow jumps to 'EXIT').
  6. press RESET to exit setup.
  7. Alternatively 'EXIT' without 'SAVE' to make the changes temporarily until the next OFF/ON cycle.

WELCOME MESSAGE:

Change welcome messages if desired. The start-up messages consist of two lines, each containing 9 characters. The function is disabled by leaving both messages blank.

  1. press SELECT to enter configuration menu.
  2. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'MORE'.
  3. press RESET to access extended set-up.
  4. press RESET, pointing to 'NEXT', several times until 'MESSAGE 1' is reached.
  5. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'SIGNS'.
  6. keep RESET pressed until desired character is displayed. The build-in alphabet is limited to the following signs: "N? 1234567890+-.eEABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ,*/°"
  7. press SELECT to move arrow to entry 'POSITION'.
  8. press RESET to jump to next string position (arrow jumps to 'SIGNS').
  9. keep RESET pressed until desired character is displayed.
  10. repeat until message is complete.
  11. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'SAVE'.
  12. press RESET to save message (arrow jumps to 'NEXT').
  13. press RESET to move to next message entry.

Repeat the procedure for the second message entry. Keep RESET pressed to exit setup.

WATER TEMPERATURE CALIBRATION:

Set the VCCWATER parameter for proper coolant temperature readout. First detach the temperature sensor located at the top of the radiator plugged into the thermostat housing at the right side of the bike. Push up on the tab underneath to release the clip.

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  1. press SELECT to enter configuration menu.
  2. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'MORE'.
  3. press RESET to access extended set-up.
  4. press RESET, pointing to 'NEXT', several times until 'VCCWATER' is reached. Do not confuse this with 'VCCMAIN.'
  5. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'PLUS' or 'MINUS'
  6. change the internal factor at the top left corner by pressing RESET to increment the factor in steps of .01 to match with the actual measurement from the bike at the top right corner, mine was 4.95.
  7. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'SAVE'.
  8. press RESET to save value (arrow jumps to 'NEXT').
  9. press SELECT to move to the next screens until 'EXIT' is displayed.
  10. press RESET.

Then reconnect the sensor with a click.

Note: Later versions of the multi-gauge software do not require a manual adjustment of the internal factor and there will be no 'PLUS' or 'MINUS' menu items. The factor is matched automatically when you press 'RESET' after pointing to the 'SAVE' item in the 'VCCWATER' menu. You still have to disconnect the sensor though.

SPEEDOMETER CORRECTION:

To set the speedometer correction first compute the desired factor. For example if you have the 15/47 sprockets the factor is: (16/44 is the stock sprockets)

(15/47) / (16/44) = 0.3191 / 0.3636 = 0.878

I subtracted an additional 2.5% (.025) correction for stock speedometer optimism so my final factor was 0.853.

Then use the menus:

  1. press SELECT to enter configuration menu.
  2. keep SELECT pressed until arrow reaches entry 'MORE'.
  3. press RESET to access extended set-up.
  4. press RESET, pointing to 'NEXT', several times until the screen for the 'SPEED CORRECTION' is reached.
  5. press SELECT and keep pressed pressed until arrow reaches entry PLUS or MINUS to increment the factor up or down.
  6. press RESET to increment the factor in steps of .001.
  7. press SELECT until 'SAVE' is pointed to.
  8. press RESET to save.
  9. press SELECT until 'NEXT' is selected.
  10. press SELECT to move to the next screens until 'EXIT' is displayed.
  11. press RESET.

If you have an alternate sprocket configuration already programmed in the gauge, 15/46, 15/45, 16/46, 16/45, or 15/44, you can set the correction directly without computing or entering the factor. This does not let you correct for speedometer optimism though.

OTHER PARAMETERS:

There are various configuration screens to adjust other parameters, most of which you should not need to change.

  • VIEWMODE
  • CONTRAST
  • SPEED CORRECTION
  • CONVERTER SPECIAL
  • VCCMAIN
  • REFERENCE VOLTAGE
  • VCCWATER
  • GEAR DELAYTIME
  • LITER DELAYTIME
  • * ADC AVERAGE
  • COUNTER AVERAGE
  • * COUNTER TIMEOUT
  • STARTLOGO
  • TANK EMPTY
  • SPEEDMODE FACTOR
  • KNIGHT RIDER
  • MESSAGE 1
  • MESSAGE 2
  • US UNITS

Ride Report:

I must say this gauge is really great! Every function including the gear indicator works beautifully and the temperature readouts are very responsive. The battery voltage display is very interesting and illustrates the effect of prolonged idling and the effectiveness of the charging system. This unit functions in lieu of the Water Temperature Gauge and the SpeedoHealer performing both those functions in one unit.

The fuel indicator tends to be overly sensitive at the received setting. Up hill, down hill, accelerating, and decelerating produces widely varying readings as the fuel sloshes around in the tank. I increased the 'LITER DELAYTIME' parameter to its maximum value of 299 to abate this tendency.

The 'GEAR DELAYTIME' parameter can be increased to minimize false gear number displays during recomputation when shifting or slowing with the clutch lever pulled.

Because of the way in which the gear indicator determines the value, by comparing engine rpm and bike speed, if you have, or ever plan to have, any alternate sprocket configurations and wish to correct the indicated speed and indicate the right gear, you are strongly advised to get the multi-gauge model with the speed correction option. If you use another speed correction device like the SpeedoHealer or the Yellow Box the gear indicator on the multi-gauge will be confused and not indicate the correct gear.

The bike should have come with this gauge from the factory.

Addendum and Update:

The display went blank on the multi-gauge but the backlight and low fuel light still operated. After checking all the wiring and solder connections, I contacted Peter (2FZ1) who suggested the contacts on the display may have been interrupted through dust or surface oxidation. This can be corrected with some disassembly and contact cleaning (see below) but I was offered the opportunity to upgrade to the latest multi-gauge version and install a white face on the gauge to match my other white gauges. The circuit board on the latest version has been revised as shown here:

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Christian, the gauge's brilliant designer, informs me he will be soldering the contact springs on one side directly to the circuit board to minimize the contact issues on future units.

There is some information here if you understand German.

The menus are different from what I described above for the earlier version but they still are accessed the same way. The coolest new function is the acceleration time feature. This lets you use the gauge's internal timer to perform 0-speed or 0-distance acceleration time trials. The speed as well as the distance is defineable from the menus. More on the software below.

I received a white face multi-gauge plate from Lee (board member FZ-fan) with the powered glow feature. I didn't connect the power since my other gauges aren't so equipped but I preserved the capability to do so in the future. To install the white face you must remove the old face by detaching the four tiny screws and nuts that hold down the face against the spring loading of the LCD display contacts. Just hold the nuts with your fingers as you turn the screw with a small Phillips head screwdriver. They are not tight and should not be reattached too tightly either when reinstalled.

Remove the peel off backing then carefully stick on the face. Lastly reattach the screws and nuts. This is somewhat tricky to do and it's best to leave each screw loosely attached until all four are in place then hold down the face and tighten them all.

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When the face is removed the LCD lifts right out and the contacts can be cleaned. Alcohol and a Q-tip works as does an ordinary pencil eraser. Take care though not to distort or otherwise damage the contacts.

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The electrical connection tab on the white face interferes with reinstalling the gauges back in the housing. There is a plastic tab in the housing that contacts the tab on the gauge face. Since that tab in the housing performs no apparent function I simply snapped off the offending tab. It bends back easy and just lifts right out.

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Installation pictures:

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Software:

The software version I have is numbered 104 for circuit board version 6. There are some significant enhancements over the earlier release I had. The acceleration time features accessed through view modes 14 and 15 are really interesting. The incorporation of three preset view modes makes access to the functions more useful and convenient.

My favorite view mode, formerly 7, is now number 8. View mode 0 is a demo mode and the display will cycle through the various displays to allow you to decide which you will want to define for the main preset, numbered 0, as well as presets 1 and 2. My selection for preset 0 is view mode number 8. For presets 1 and 2, I selected view modes 14 and 15 corresponding to dragmode 1 (0-speed acceleration) and dragmode 2 (0-distance acceleration). View mode 13, the digital speedometer mode is also very useful and I may eventualy substitute it for dragmode 2. You toggle through the preset view modes by pressing the RESET button on the instrument cluster. If your odometer is showing one of the two trip counters it will be reset to zero when RESET is pressed. So, place the odometer in the mode showing total mileage before toggling if you wish to preserve the trip mileage.

You define a view mode as a preset by first placing the gauge in the desired preset condition (by pressing the RESET button until the desired preset number appears) then by pressing and holding the SELECT button until the view mode selection screen appears. Then press and release the SELECT button until the selection arrow points to PLUS or MINUS. Then press RESET until the desired view mode number appears at top left of the multi-gauge. Move the selection arrow to SAVE with the SELECT button then press the RESET button to store that selection so that it will be effective when power is resumed after a shut off.

View mode 16 is an interesting dynamometer display which displays the calculated horsepower on a 'horsepower curve' for the current speed. Higher numbered view modes are for diagnostic purposes.

You use the acceleration time functions by first defining the target speeds and distances of interest in the ACCEL STOP SPEED and ACCEL DISTANCE menu functions described below. Once you have selected and stored three target speeds and two target distances you can use the function. Place the multi-gauge in view mode 14 for 0-speed acceleration. Stop the bike. The display will show the reaction time countdown awaiting you to begin the acceleration trial. As soon as movement is detected a separate clock will run for each of the three speed goals. As soon as you reach that speed the clock will stop for that speed goal and show your time. When you next stop the bike the display will revert to the reaction time counter for another trial. To preserve the results so they can be read when stopped change gears to neutral before coming to a complete stop. The 0-distance acceleration time function (view mode 15) works the same way but for two predefined distances.

View mode 13, the digital speedometer, contains a maximum speed display in smaller size numbers over the instantaneous speed display. When you stop, rather than showing 0, the maximum speed reached is displayed on the large display. The maximum speed is reset when power is shut off to the multi-gauge.

The menus contain the following functions:

VIEWMODE selection as described above. To access the remainder of the menu functions move the selection arrow to MORE with the SELECT button then press the RESET button.

CONTRAST. Be careful with this not to select a value that causes the screen to completely disappear because then you are out of luck.

SPEED CORRECTION. I use a value of 0.853 as described above for my 47/15 sprockets plus optimism correction. This calibrates well with GPS results.

VCCWATER. This is now easier to set than before. Just disconnect the sending unit (see water temperature calibration photos above) the select SAVE to calibrate the multi-gauge. Remember to reconnect the sending unit. This is set to provide additional precision in the voltage reading used to derive water temperature. If you don't do this the water temperature will still be correct but slightly less accurate.

GEAR DELAY TIME. I left the default value of 8.

FUEL DELAY TIME. I use the maximum value, 399.

FUEL EMPTY. Default is same as with the stock fuel gauge reserve light, 1.1 gallons.

SPEEDMODE FACTOR. So that the digital speedometer (view mode 13) matches the correct analog display select a different value here than in SPEED CORRECTION. This also affects the acceleration time results since the same internal speed value is used in those computations. With some trial and error and GPS speed matching, I found that a factor of 0.82 produced a displayed speed that matched the analog speedometer as well as the GPS indicated speed.

START MESSAGE, MESSAGE 1, and MESSAGE 2. These are as before. You can center your message by using leading spaces in each of the two message lines. Nine characters are available for each line.

UNIT SPEED, UNIT FUEL, UNIT TEMP. I selected mph, U.S. gallons, degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.

LOGO TYPE. FZ1, Fazer, etc. Select as per preference.

LANGUAGE. English or German.

SHIFT LIGHT. Select the rpm at which the low fuel light flashes to indicate a selected rpm has been reached. I left it at the default of 10,000 rpm.

ACCEL STOP SPEED. Select three target speeds for the 0-speed acceleration time trials. The three speeds are accessible by toggling POSITION. The units will be in mph when UNIT SPEED is so selected. I chose 30, 60, and 100 mph.

ACCEL DISTANCE. Select two target distances. Again, toggle POSITION to access the two distances. The units here are: 1000 = 1 mile when UNIT SPEED is in mph and 1000 = 1 kilometer when UNIT SPEED is in km/h. My choices are 125 = 1/8 of a mile and 250 = 1/4 mile.

The remaining menu display is a 'signal scope' for diagnostic purposes. There is also a second menu accessed when the multi-gauge is in view mode 0 that contains purely diagnostic information.

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Last Updated: 12-06-2007

Copyright © 2001-06, Patrick Glenn, All Rights Reserved.
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The information presented here reflects solely my personal experience with my motorcycle and is presented for entertainment purposes only. No information presented here is to be relied upon for issues of rider safety nor to replace the services of a qualified service technician. Any attempts to follow or duplicate any of these procedures are done so completely at your own risk. By reading the information on this site, you agree to assume complete responsibility for any and all actual or consequential damages that may arise from any information presented herein.