fiziks
I brake things.
The St has been in the garage since last Wednesday, when I caught a cold. On Sunday, I felt well enough to start installing a Rostra/Audiovox electronic cruise control. But not well enough to get to far. I worked on it a little on Monday and Tuesday evenings as well. I finished up tonight. I used a Rostra dash mount pad with an "on" LED and and "Engaged" LED as well as backlight. I wired the power for the control pad to a hot wire and a ground wire coming out of the CC unit. I wired the red wire for the brake switch sensor and power (and ground) for the CC unit and the Centrodyne VSS signal divider to the quartet harness (using switched + ACC line). When I first turned the key to "on" (but without actually starting the bike) the backlight on the control pad lit up as expected, but when I pushed the "on" button, the "on" led turned on but the backlight turned off. I thought that a bit odd. After playing around for a few minutes, I noticed that I had not connected the ground wire for the CC unit. When I did that, and then turned the key to the "on" position, the keypad lit up much brighter and when I hit the "on" button on the CC control pad, the "on" led turned on and the backlight remained on at the original brightness. But why did I get any power to the control pad without the ground being connected? The brake sensor is wired through the control pad. Is it possible that the purple brake sensor wire (connected to the brake switch wire) acted as ground?
Anyhow once I had the ground connected and double checked all my other connections, I ran the CC through it's diagnostic mode. I had an issue testing the brakes and it turns out the handlebar brake switch is busted. Once I figured that out I continued on with diagnostics. After spinning the rear wheel, the diagnostic LED in the CC unit continued to blink after I stopped spinning the wheel. At first I thought this was an error and spent some time futzing with dip switches in the CC unit and with the signal divider before I reread the instructions that said the the LED would continue to blink and that diagnostic testing was complete... duh. So, I stowed the wires and secured them with electrical tape and zip ties, reinstalled the air box (discovered if you don't connect the white sensor wire on the lid of the air box the FI light blinks 9 times), and put most of the plastic back on.
I turned the ignition to "on" and hit the starter... nothing... the trip meter went to zero and the clock reset to 12am. I hit the starter a second time and the starter feebly turned the engine over then quite and I heard the fuel pump recycle. I put the battery on my BatteryTender Junior for about 20 minutes and it seemed to start up OK. I ran it for about a minute and turned it off. Then hit the starter button again and it turned over very weakly, but caught. It has been on the battery tender for three hours now and the battery shows 11.9volts which seems a bit low to me. I'm wondering if I have a short or a drain somewhere, but what might I have done during the install? Everything that required power was wired to a switched power source, could tapping into the VSS, brake light wire or ignitor coil somehow have caused a short when the bike ignition is turned off? Am I just being paranoid?
Anyhow once I had the ground connected and double checked all my other connections, I ran the CC through it's diagnostic mode. I had an issue testing the brakes and it turns out the handlebar brake switch is busted. Once I figured that out I continued on with diagnostics. After spinning the rear wheel, the diagnostic LED in the CC unit continued to blink after I stopped spinning the wheel. At first I thought this was an error and spent some time futzing with dip switches in the CC unit and with the signal divider before I reread the instructions that said the the LED would continue to blink and that diagnostic testing was complete... duh. So, I stowed the wires and secured them with electrical tape and zip ties, reinstalled the air box (discovered if you don't connect the white sensor wire on the lid of the air box the FI light blinks 9 times), and put most of the plastic back on.
I turned the ignition to "on" and hit the starter... nothing... the trip meter went to zero and the clock reset to 12am. I hit the starter a second time and the starter feebly turned the engine over then quite and I heard the fuel pump recycle. I put the battery on my BatteryTender Junior for about 20 minutes and it seemed to start up OK. I ran it for about a minute and turned it off. Then hit the starter button again and it turned over very weakly, but caught. It has been on the battery tender for three hours now and the battery shows 11.9volts which seems a bit low to me. I'm wondering if I have a short or a drain somewhere, but what might I have done during the install? Everything that required power was wired to a switched power source, could tapping into the VSS, brake light wire or ignitor coil somehow have caused a short when the bike ignition is turned off? Am I just being paranoid?
