Article [13] ST1300 - Rostra Cruise Control Installation

Hello Dooman:
It has been a few months since I put mine on. Here is what I am sure of:
I drew and then followed the diagram and it works great.

Here is what I recall, but am only as certain of as my memory:
(As I recall) the orange wire provides a ground when the unit is "engaged." It does not produce a voltage source. The purpose is to allow you to light an LED on whatever control you are using when the unit is engaged. Although some people do not like these little LEDs I find them very helpful and I want them to light.

So, ideally, you should run power through some form of current limiter (normally a resistor) through your LED and then to the orange wire. On the control I used, (Rostra 250-3592) control this is not possible, since the wire that lights the LED is looking for voltage and the ground/ resistor is on the other side and inaccessable. Thus you use a simple cube relay to convert the power "ground" to a power source.

Unfortunately, just this week I was cleaning up and pitched all of the instructions and diagrams that came with the unit. Honestly, I knew I had posted the diagram and it would be available should I ever need it.

IF you are using this switch, don't forget the dip switches to convert the unit to momentary.

Good luck with your project. It is worth it in the end, but it is not easy!

Re: ST1300 Rostra Cruise Control Installation

ok snow i have a ? on the brake side do i connect to the power constant or the switch side also i get a volt reading when not switched of 0.018v and full battey voltage when switched is this right

I really hate answering this without the schematic, but I am leaving town for several days, so from memory, I'm going to try and answer part of your question. I hope others with better memories or more knowledge will join in. Please draw all of this out and make sure that it makes sense to you and that you agree with my memory.

As I recall, there are two separate places the instructions tell you to get power- one power source goes to the unit and one is for the control. The control is supposed to get power from a connection to the UNSWITCHED side of the brake light circuit. That is, the side of the switch that is "hot" when the brakes are not depressed.

The reason they want this is as a safety measure. If the fuse that fed your brake lights blew, if the cruise was on and you applied your brakes, the brake lights would not light and you would not disengage the unit. They solve this dilemma by obtaining power to operate the control from the unswitched side of the brake light switch. If the fuse feeding the brake light circuit is blown, then the unit will not come on, so there is no need to worry about disengaging it.

Now, (although for liability reasons I can't recommend it to you, but then again, we are putting an automobile cruise control on a motorcycle... which you apparently ride, so caution isn't our long suit, so to speak), when I did mine, I did not follow this excellent advice. I wired the power for the switch and the for the unit directly to a switched power source on the bike. I routinely use my emergency stop switch and in the event of a runaway, I am counting on my doing to stop the bike.

In the process of installation, I completely destroyed the wiring harness, soldered and heat shrinked (shrunk?) the connections and followed my own diagram that I drew based on their diagrams which I combined. It works, that's all I can tell you. You may not want to do this.

Concerning the small voltage, it sounds like a bit of bleed through and I suspect when everything is properly grounded it will disappear. I did not check for such when I did my installation.

Re: ST1300 Rostra Cruise Control Installation

hi snowmoer i have a ? i have got every thig hooked up triple checked and will not pass test I my have an answer but not sure purple wire to cold side of brake switch is showing 6.58 volts then when triped it shows battery voltage do not have led taillights but there is a deal in there called a signal minder that makes the brake light flash for about 5 seconds could that be acting like an led taillight. i think i need a relay but wanted to run ti by someone first. please give me your opinion.

ok guys all hooked up passed all tests except set decell have checked evrything the manual says and everything works except the led test light have power where the green wire connects to the main unit and 12v when pressed and 0v when released at the unit but no red led test light, works fine for all the other test need help please

Re: ST1300 Rostra Cruise Control Installation

hey milehigh may i ask how many ball links you used in your throttle set up I am haveing a hard time determining how many to use anyhelp would be helpfull thanks sir your install looks great hope mine does too

Hi guys I decided to pull the trigger on the Rostra. I am going with the 250-1223 and the Rostra divide by 4. I also decided on using the GW cruise switch set and have found a 2010 unit on-line. Am I mistaken in the belief that the 2010 switch set will work or do I need to go with the earlier 04/05 model? I haven't bought it yet but who knows when it will sell. Thank goodness I have Sennister and a BMW buddy of mine to help out with this project because most of these electrical issues are a little over my head.

Gary (watching the snow come down hard)

Twinpine said:

Hi guys I decided to pull the trigger on the Rostra. I am going with the 250-1223 and the Rostra divide by 4. I also decided on using the GW cruise switch set and have found a 2010 unit on-line. Am I mistaken in the belief that the 2010 switch set will work or do I need to go with the earlier 04/05 model? I haven't bought it yet but who knows when it will sell. Thank goodness I have Sennister and a BMW buddy of mine to help out with this project because most of these electrical issues are a little over my head.

Gary (watching the snow come down hard)

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Not sure about the later models but since all the R&D was already done for the 05 switch I would go with that. That's what I used.

I'm not going to argue with what works. A 35130-MCA-A21 is coming my way.

Thanks Fred

hey everybody I just finished install today and am trying to find the best setings for smooth performance and am not having any luck. i have the new centerdine pluse divider and tried it at divieded by 4 gain high and module set at 16900 and high gain when it is set it run to a hundred before i can stop it setting at like 60 or 65 mph

Can the goldwing switch be used with the audiovox set up?

Culomorena78 said:

Can the goldwing switch be used with the audiovox set up?

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Yep. check the Audiovox w/Goldwing switch install thread.

dooman22 said:

hey everybody I just finished install today and am trying to find the best setings for smooth performance and am not having any luck. i have the new centerdine pluse divider and tried it at divieded by 4 gain high and module set at 16900 and high gain when it is set it run to a hundred before i can stop it setting at like 60 or 65 mph

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i set my module at 24000 pulses with the divider by 4 from rostra. Are you saying the bike surges to 100 when set at 60?. This may seem like a dumb question but are you trying this on the stand or on the road. When you initial engage the CC the bike will have a slight surge 5-10 mpg depending on the terrain. Hope this helps

Mine was doing a surge. Found I had accidentally set the unit for a normally closed switch when I was really using a normally open controller.

Have not looked at this thread for a number of years, it seems that the same issues keep arising. I posted this elsewhere but have put it here so that the info can be considered.
I have had the Rostra as well for about 4 years now. After setting up it worked well, sort of. The major problem with cruise control on a larger engine capacity bike is that the power to weight ratio is not catered for in any of the Rostra settings. After 4 years of using it, the following was happening. It was totally unreliable or better still surges below 80KPH or your speak 50mph. Riding solo this occurred across the range, 2 up OK above 80kph. It has a lot to do with desensitizing the throttle action by the Rostra servo. When I installed the cruise control, I followed an article by ALEXST1300 which is excellent ( I have the ST1300, the same issue will apply to ST1100). However, he placed emphasis on maintaining Wide Open Throttle operation. Over time I started questioning this concept with the following change. I marked the throttle grip and over time observed the amount of travel used by the cruise control under all the operating conditions. For me, at no time was half throttle ever reached. I fabricated a "Divided by 2" lever arm and placed it between the Rostra servo cable (end of arm) and the throttle arm (set halfway down the arm). This halved the sensitivity of the throttle action and also halved the throttle travel. The result, very reliable operation from 50 kph/30mph to 160kph/100mph. There is no surging at all, especially downhill, even solo. It engages quicker and I can't explain why, maybe I have left less cable slack. Now done some 5,000klms and am ecstatic with the result. I have no photos as I reassembled for testing and it worked first time. On the next air cleaner changes, photos will be taken, coming up soon.
A couple of serious points though, be carefully that the operation of the whole throttle system is not compromised by cables bowing and hooking up on things, make sure that the hand throttle comes back to idle cleanly, fully unaided, make sure that moving arms etc do touch anything, a problem on the 1300 with the Airbox directly above, and below 80kph use 4th or 5th gear as needed without laboring the engine. When fabricating the arm, use a precision bearing and adjustable "Arm Connectors" available from hobby shops, making certain that there is no side movements of the arm and no clearances in the connectors.
It is now perfect for me, equal to any factory automobile cruise controls that I have used. I am now convinced that Wide Open Throttle capability is not required and unnecessary. On the original install, I used an Aussie made divider set to divided by 4, used the DIP Switch settings recommended by Alex. The use of the Goldwing Switch is highly recommended, looks factory fitted.
Regarding the "Engaged" LED indication, I diode "Anded" the Rostra wire (Neutral) to the Neutral light. This does not affect any of the operations associated with the Neutral functions. My thinking there was no extra holes and lights, the Neutral light is only used when stopped or nearly stopped, it is then used as my Cruise Set indication. The 'N' in the neutral light is now my "Ngaged" as well.

Hello everybody,

After doing a lot of reading and experiment my Rostra CC is now working quite good.
Here are my experience with different setting.

First of all I installed the Futaba arm has Alex did with the same angle as he did.
Installed a Divide by 4 from Rostra and set the dipswitches as he did except for the PPM set at 19300.

The thing was surging like hell. So I tried different setting like Extra Low gain, 16090 PPM, 8 Cylinder Low.
The thing was still surging.

Took everything off and installed a divider arm just like TREMAG did but took it off since I did not feel safe with my installation.

This time I changed the PPM to 38600 and re-adjusted the Futaba arm with less angle. Now its almost pointing straight up.
Also did what MileHigh did (see Post #9):he installed a clamp to hold the breather hose out of the way of the Futaba arm on the linkage. It was catching at WOT.. That was part of my initial problem for the surging, it was caching the hose at one place very slightly.
Put every back and tried it.

Now its a lot better, no surging even going down hill or up, hold steady at around 40MPH.

Here is what I experienced...
Going up or down hill, it takes a lot of time to re-adjust to the right set speed. There is some lag period before the CC re-adjust itself to the set speed.
Maybe I have to set the gain to LOW or set the Engine/Setup Timer to 6 Cylinder Low or even 4 Cylinder Low.

ONE LITLLE PROBLEM... Pulling the clutch does not cancel the Cruise Control. Its the same ignition wire I was using for my old CCS100 Audiovox. I must be missing something here...

For now, I will keep this set-up and next spring I will do more checking. Its time to go riding.

Pall

Well, i could not wait any longer...

After 3 more test here are my dipswitch setting and comments.

No surge at all on level road, quick response when going down or up hill without the surge problem, no more delay when it has to catch up for more or less speed. .
Smooth as butter.

Dipswitch setting
1 and 2 ON (High gain)
3,4,5,6 ON (38600PPM)
7 off 8 ON 9 off (6 cylinder low)
10 ON
11,12 off

I beleive my initial surge problem was cause by the Futaba arm that was catching on the rubber hose.
Also, maybe by changing the Futaba arm 5-10 degree before top dead center help in a certain way.

Now i can go riding for the rest of the summer.

Pall is happy and smiling now.

Pall said:

Well, i could not wait any longer...

After 3 more test here are my dipswitch setting and comments.

No surge at all on level road, quick response when going down or up hill without the surge problem, no more delay when it has to catch up for more or less speed. .
Smooth as butter.

Dipswitch setting
1 and 2 ON (High gain)
3,4,5,6 ON (38600PPM)
7 off 8 ON 9 off (6 cylinder low)
10 ON
11,12 off

I beleive my initial surge problem was cause by the Futaba arm that was catching on the rubber hose.
Also, maybe by changing the Futaba arm 5-10 degree before top dead center help in a certain way.

Now i can go riding for the rest of the summer.

Pall is happy and smiling now.

Click to expand...

This is great news. I installed mine last year but it surges so bad that I am not using it and it is so painful to keep taking everything apart I gave up trying. I cannot picture what tremarg means by "divide by 2" between the servo arm and the throttle. If there is any chance of a picture I will owe you a beer and a pizza if you happen to be in the Toronto area.

Hello AP4000,

If I understood Tremarg, the divide by 2 is just an arm that de-multiply the distance travelled by the servo going to the Futaba Arm on the
carb linkage.
Here is a picture. Its only to give you an idea.



By the way, my cruise is still not perfect. The only problem is that it does not work too well under 60-80Km/hr.
This is where Tremarg linkage would probably fix that issue, I don't really know.
My original vacuum cruise control was better at low speed but lack the stamina when going uphill even with a vacuum canister.

Take care and good luck.

Pall.

ap4000 said:

I installed mine last year but it surges so bad that I am not using it and it is so painful to keep taking everything apart

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Yeah.. I had serious surging when I would be at 50 or lower in hills.
I quit riding so slow.

But in reality.. I have been trying some different settings when I have the bike apart for other maintenance. But I do believe the 2:1 lever arm would help more.