Anyone install the STS self cancelling turn signal module?

Great stuff. I imagine my Super Tenere would be connected similarly but with different wire colors in the OEM harness perhaps?
 
wjbertrand said:
Great stuff. I imagine my Super Tenere would be connected similarly but with different wire colors in the OEM harness perhaps?
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Yes, I suspect so WJB. Having said that, I think that all of the OEMs follow a company-wide wiring colour standard (i.e. all Hondas the same, all Yamahas the same etc.) so from that perspective, the chart provided by STS should be helpful.

Pete
 
I also am having trouble with my STS installation. Question for the gurus upon initial Power up the instructions state that the blinkers will flash once maybe twice does this happen every time you power the bike up? Or is it just the very first time that Power is applied to the STS unit? thanks for your help in advance.
 
sabrekip said:
I also am having trouble with my STS installation. Question for the gurus upon initial Power up the instructions state that the blinkers will flash once maybe twice does this happen every time you power the bike up? Or is it just the very first time that Power is applied to the STS unit? thanks for your help in advance.
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It happened during the install,,, which is done before the switch-side wires are plugged in,, AND, I noticed that it also happens every time I turn the ignition on, now that my installation is completed. Hope this helps,,, Cat'
 
sabrekip said:
I also am having trouble with my STS installation. Question for the gurus upon initial Power up the instructions state that the blinkers will flash once maybe twice does this happen every time you power the bike up? Or is it just the very first time that Power is applied to the STS unit? thanks for your help in advance.
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Catmandu2 said:
It happened during the install,,, which is done before the switch-side wires are plugged in,, AND, I noticed that it also happens every time I turn the ignition on, now that my installation is completed. Hope this helps,,, Cat'
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Yes, when you power up the unit, you should hear two clicks from the module (per Mark's instructions to me on how to test if the unit is dead or alive). As Alan said, this is done before all the wires are connected, but after you connect black and red.

MaxPete said:
The key point is - PLEASE READ MARK's note carefully.

I am jammed with work (dang-it) so I won't have time to try this for a little while,, but I'd sure like some feedback on what is written.

In closing, let me say that Mark seems to have come through for us in a pretty graceful fashion which, after the slagging in this thread (much of it from me) is admirable. As I did say above, STS folks have done a great job on the technology and I sure hope they pick up on their customer support. Perhaps this whole episode has given them a push in that direction.

Cheers,

Pete
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Thank you Pete. I do want to add that I also asked Mark for additional instructions and repeated my inquiries after receiving instructions from him that were not clear. He insisted to me that ST's have a second gray wire coming from the Hazard switch, so I sent him Anna's Dad's color wiring diagram which I believe he incorporated into his email to you. At that point, he told me to combine the pink and gray wires. To be fair, Mark also told me he was going to check the ST's wiring diagram so it is possible that a factory diagram as well as Anna's Dad's convinced him of his error.

My module never worked after the first Hazard failure. I tried testing it (above) per Mark's instructions, but it is truly dead. I cannot be sure that I did everything correctly and did not blow it up myself, so I cannot honestly say my unit was defective from the beginning. However, I agree whole heartedly with comments made earlier about their cavalier attitude about disabling an emergency feature built into the bike and every car I've seen in many years. I ride with a small group (local club) weekly in spring and summer and we often pull over to the side of the road after the group gets separated by a stop light. Everyone in the group hits their flashers at this point - that's not a feature I am willing to give up.

To say I'm not happy with this unit or Mark's performance is a gross understatement - customers should not have to surf the internet or Youtube to find other instructions to augment what the vendor supplies.

To sum up the additional changes that Mark specified to me in order to make this module work on our ST's:
1. Combine the gray and pink wires as Mark shows in Pete's pdf when connecting them to the module.
2. Play with your handlebar switch - the foam pads need to be the exact thickness to prevent the switch from latching. This means shaving them might be needed. If they are too thick, the switch might not make contact unless you push it hard and hold it for an instant.

I'll finish with this. Mark (or his company if he has employees) has joined this website and posted a thread saying he was available for help. Good move, but for those posting here, its too little too late. (Pete solved that issue.) I wonder if that means that STS will monitor posts to his thread or just ignore that unless you send him an email or PM.

Peter

P.S. Mark talks about alternating 12V. Is not the wiring on the ST Direct Current? What is he talking about? Does anyone know? Is this another of his errors?
 
My guess is he knows the difference between AC and DC and I don't think he means 12VAC. He might be referring to the pulsing voltage from either the bike's flasher or from the STS module to the switch or bulbs.

I've been waiting for the dust to settle so haven't been following the wiring portion closely. I think the issue is Mark not being a native English speaker so there may be some confusion with some usage.
 
Alrighty folks, the time has come to raise the proverbial curtain on my STS install.

STella's lovely clothes came off around 2 pm, well the left side in any event. (I must say I'm getting good at taking off the plastic.)

I found the red connector, pushed the covering back so I had lots of wire to work with.
Singled out the grey, pink/white blue and orange wires, got the male connectors out of the bag.
I wanted to get the troublemakers done first so I took a deep breath, and I mean a really deep breath and 'snip' went the grey and pink/white.
No turning back now!
First connector went on no problem.

Next up, orange!
Where I promptly messed by not crimping the connector hard enough and the wire slipped out.
But it was too blasted crimped to put the wire in again!
What to do. Previously when I've done this I've managed to uncrimp them, not this time though.
So I took my smallest drill bit and drilled out the mashed up part. Worked like a charm!

Fast forward... all wires cut and crimped, power and ground located. More on this in a bit.

Connected exactly as per Mark's instructions. Heard a click and got one flash from the lights.
Okay I think, so I connect the switch wires.

Next I open the switch housing, do a bit of housecleaning in there, pick up my angled forceps and like a skilled surgeon, pop in the thin pads. Suture please!

Moment of truth time.

Ignition on.
Press left. Nothing. WHAT???
Press again, a bit harder. Blink, blink, blink. Huge sigh of relief. Press again and they're off. Woo hoo!!!
Press right, harder this time 'cause old David is a quick learner. Blink, blink, blink. Second cheer from the surgical ward.
Press again, and they just keep blinking like they've gone mad. Press again. And again. WHAT. THE. BL00DY. H?
Wait a second, why is the left side also blinking? What's going on? How badly have I messed up???

Deep breath, press right again. Nothing.
Wait a second... isn't that the hazard switch? It looks like it's in the 'On' position!
Right then, I guess I should turn the hazards OFF!

Re-test both sides. All good.
I use up half my supply of zip-ties securing the unit to the front fairing support, pinch my finger while cutting them off because I made a jungle of loose nylon ends.
Remember kids, if four zip-ties are good, sixteen is at least four times better!

I proceed to waste a dozen operational cycles turning them on and off just for the sheer joy of it.

Time to button her back up so I carefully tape everything back together.

A few minutes later the plastic is back on and I'm back to playing with the lights. Honestly I'm just overjoyed that I didn't let the magic smoke out of the little black box.

Road tested and all is good. Quite magical really.

No pics as I'm too embarrassed by the mess was while STella was under the knife.

Honestly it was really easy to do. If I hadn't kept dropping tools and running back and forth to my bench it would have taken about an hour or so.
One question: in the bundle with the signal switch connector, there's a white, six-pin connector. It wasn't connect to anything.
What's it for?
 
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DavidR8 said:
Honestly it was really easy to do. If I hadn't kept dropping tools and running back and forth to my bench it would have taken about an hour or so.
One question: in the bundle with the signal switch connector, there's a white, six-pin connector. It wasn't connect to anything.
What's it for?
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Good work,, David. How is the "feel" on the switch,,, and how positive/reliable is the action of turning on the signals ?? Let us know how well the auto-cancelling works, please. Where did you mount the box. Since the unit uses accelerometers,, I chose to mount it as far away from the road as possible for so that it might experience slightly higher accelerations. Cheers, Cat'
 
This morning I received an answering email from Mark. He is going to send me a replacement unit. I think this is more than fair, especially since I cannot rule out 100%, that I did nothing that might have caused the original unit to fail. It sounds to me like much of the dust has settled and Bob can install his unit especially if you follow the modified wiring diagram sent to MaxPete, and Cat's instructions to deal with your turn signal switch first.

In the end, Mark has come through with good customer service. To be fair, I think a lot of the problems here are due to the language barrier - he certainly writes better in English than I do in ANY foreign language, and replied to my every complaint quickly.

Now that my bike is completely assembled, I'm faced with taking the left side fairing off, and installing the new STS. At least I have bullet connectors and all that needs to be done is to plug in the new unit. Oh, and fiddle with the turn signal switch. This might have to wait for a rainy day - but here in Ohio, I won't have to wait long at all....
 
Catmandu2 said:
Good work,, David. How is the "feel" on the switch,,, and how positive/reliable is the action of turning on the signals ?? Let us know how well the auto-cancelling works, please. Where did you mount the box. Since the unit uses accelerometers,, I chose to mount it as far away from the road as possible for so that it might experience slightly higher accelerations. Cheers, Cat'
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It feels pretty good. Switch is a bit notchy but I had it fully apart to clean and lube so maybe it's a just my switch.
Turning on the signals takes a firm push. I didn't cut the foam pad as I thought that they'd likely settle in a bit. It's not a big job to pop them out and trim them if they don't.

I placed the unit at the front of the fairing mount. Someone earlier on has a picture which is where I drew my inspiration.

I only had a short ride but they seem to work as designed. I'm quite thrilled.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Excellent news SMSW!

As you say, I suspect that much of the difficulty has been a language issue, and while those can sure be frustrating, a little good will and patience can usually fix things up. So glad this situation looks like it is being addressed to everyone’s satisfaction.

I may have been one of the first purchasers of an STS unit back many months ago and am really impressed with the technology they incorporate. I just wish that my work schedule would permit me the time needed to actually install the unit on my bike (dammit). I truly believe that this device will improve motorcycling safety and so I look forward to a good resolution.

Cheers,

Pete
 
SMSW said:
This morning I received an answering email from Mark. He is going to send me a replacement unit. I think this is more than fair, especially since I cannot rule out 100%, that I did nothing that might have caused the original unit to fail. It sounds to me like much of the dust has settled and Bob can install his unit especially if you follow the modified wiring diagram sent to MaxPete, and Cat's instructions to deal with your turn signal switch first.

In the end, Mark has come through with good customer service. To be fair, I think a lot of the problems here are due to the language barrier - he certainly writes better in English than I do in ANY foreign language, and replied to my every complaint quickly.

Now that my bike is completely assembled, I'm faced with taking the left side fairing off, and installing the new STS. At least I have bullet connectors and all that needs to be done is to plug in the new unit. Oh, and fiddle with the turn signal switch. This might have to wait for a rainy day - but here in Ohio, I won't have to wait long at all....
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This is excellent news for you and the company.
I think that you should have better luck this time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DavidR8 said:
It feels pretty good. Switch is a bit notchy but I had it fully apart to clean and lube so maybe it’s a just my switch.
Turning on the signals takes a firm push. I didn’t cut the foam pad as I thought that they’d likely settle in a bit. It’s not a big job to pop them out and trim them if they don’t.
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I think foam buffers are supplied because the 'give' means fitment doesn't have to be to precise. But I'd want to trim them to have the factory feel.

spiderman302 mentioned possibly modding the original bits so as not to latch instead of limiting the travel short of lock. Not having opened up that pod and studied it would you say some part could be ground or modded so that the switch didn't latch? And could that part be replaced later if the STS were removed? Probably have to find a new a new switch pod.
 
So I wanted to post this update on my STS installation. I am still not on the road,,, but that is because of my forks being rebuilt. That is all done now. But while I was doing these other things,, I would occasionally test/play with the STS,,, and noticed intermittent manual cancelling difficulties,, and unreliable initiation of the signals,,, and upon canceling, the loss of the marker/running light on that side,,, which would then re-appear after the opposite side was activated. Anyway,, I want to strongly point out that these oddities were NOT THE FAULT OF THE STS. I just did a complete rebuild of the turn signal switch,,, right down to the contactors (as per the video posted earlier),, and now everything works (in the garage) as one would expect it should. So a properly functioning switch is critical to proper operation of the STS. I found contamination inside my switch,, and it also looks like someone had done a servicing of it, and used a heavy silicone brake grease. With years of dirt and me hitting it with spray contact cleaner,, it was gummy and very sticky I cleaned that all out,, and replaced everything using permatex electrolytic lube,,, in only the right places. The difference is like day and night. If you experience difficulty,,, do not over force the switch,, as you can break it. Pay attention to the thickness of the foam discs,,, and consider if you may need to rebuild the switch. I should have known,,, because my switch was not performing %100 before I installed the sts. If you do decide to dive into the switch, watch the video first and work very carefully. The pieces are very small,, and if you lose one,,, then you will be looking for a new switch assembly. Anyway,,, just wanted to pass along what I have learned. I am looking forward to road testing by Thursday,,, Cheers,, Cat'
 
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Thanks for the update Cat, I may dig into my switch a bit deeper as it's a bit notchy activating the right signal.

That said, I had a longer road test on my commute in this morning.

Signalling for a corner works great. The only comment is that they seem to deactivate during the corner if I've rolled through the stop.

Lane change works like a charm.

The “turn off†if no turn made function works as designed.

The only time it gave me pause was when I activated the signals partway into a lane change, i.e. I was already leaned over to the left when I hit the left signal. It didn't seem like it deactivated automatically. This was one time and I want to try and reproduce it if I can.

The only other thing I'll say is I was so nervous about it NOT turning off the signals, that a few times I manually cancelled them at the same time as the unit cancelled them so the net effect was that I turned them on again.
I have to learn to trust them. 40 years of ingrained behaviour is hard to un-train!

Overall, I'm very happy with the product.
 
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DavidR8 said:
It didn't seem like it deactivated automatically.
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Did you test them to see if they turn off with the 15sec timer cancellation if the turning maneuver doesn't cancel properly?
 
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