[Blaqkfox]

Ok, so I ordered it, the Acewell speedometer. And boy what a nightmare it was to get fitted and set up... but boy is it cool!

First of all, the unit looks amazing.



My phones being stupid and not letting me add photos I want to upload to imgur to post here, but they send you two big fold out pieces of paper with very convoluted instruction. I actually resorted to going onto Acewells website to figure out the set up process. And theres problems with the instructions so im glad im making a post about this install.

Its pretty straight forward but there was a couple of things that will trip you up...

For example, the bracket. The factory mounting bracket for my speedometer did not have two holes in it already (I had the kind with one big hole in the center and one large nut. "Not to fear!" I think, because the box has a punch out for a nice and easy template to drill the holes yourself! How handy! I thought! what a great product and ingenuity! WRONG.

I drilled my holes with the template...



But the studs on the unit were wider I quickly found...



SMH. who designed this...

Not a huge deal, I measure and mark and dill the holes in the correct positions, luckily it was far enough off the holes didn't overlap. so thats good.

Next I read the instructions to figure out which wiring adapters to use- they send you like 4 different harnesses, for EFI, non-EFI, the 350 and the 500.

Plug those in and left with this...



Plugged the one connector into the factory speedo connector and scratched my head realizing there weren't as many pins on the new cluster as there was the main harness side, but figured it was just differences in lighting or something for the clusters- hopefully thats all it is...



This is where I started scratching my head, because the written instructions and pictures/diagrams provided (if you can call it a diagram) are just shit. pardon my French.

The key switch interception took a second to figure out, but plug one end into the key switch side, the other end into the harness side to loop in the cluster, easy.



The RPM harness was more confusing. I started to question if I had bought a useless product that would only function as a speedo and nothing more really and got ready to pack it up and return it. But then I sat and thought- "well it has to pull off the spark, thats the only way they would've designed this..." So I go digging for the coil pack, find it under the tank, so had to take the fuel tank off and then it plugged in!





So far, not too bad if you just ignore the confusing wordy instructions and just think for yourself, its pretty straight forward to be honest. BUT this is where things got really confusing for me...


Setting up the unit once installed-

The instructions are very wordy here, overly convoluted imo. Acewell has some video on their website for this process, but it is also lacking imo.

First you turn the bike on (took me too long to figure this out) and hold both buttons down for 2 seconds to access the set up menu. Set hours, set backlight brightness, all very easy there.

You then have to set MAX RPMs- I set mine at 5000 rpms because I kept seeing 5000 or 5300 or 5400 rpms is supposed to be the max for this engine, I never got a solid answer from the google on that, but went with the lowest number to play it safe. What is the Max rpms on these engines anyways? everyone had a different answer it seems...

This is now where it gets complicated and I still don't know if I set it up right... guess ill find out tomorrow when I actually ride the bike...

It ask you to set how many revolutions per pulses to set the RPMs. In my mind it would want 4 revolutions per 1 pulse of the spark plug to determine that. But that is not an available setting. you can only do:

1R:1P
2R:1P
3R:1P

OR

1R:2P
1R:4P

My only guess is that 3R:1P is the correct setting and theyre just not counting the power stroke as a revolution. Which is odd to me, but thats the only way I can think this works.

EDIT: I found out these AVL engines do use wasted spark so it needed to be set at 1R:1P !

It only gets more complicated from here...

Next you have to set if its coming from a HALL or REED sensor. I assume these are HALL sensor style setup, to be completely honest ive never even heard of reed. I come from the EFI automotive world where its always a HALL sensor so I set it for HALL. hopefully thats correct.

Then it ask you for the circumference of the "the wheel the magnet is connected to" when I heard that in their video I thought "oh god I have to know the circumference of the crank pulley?!" but no, he goes on to say "or the outer circumference of the tire" so I go "Ah! for the speedo here now!" But this is also complicated. You get 4 digits (xxxx) to set that measurement. only problem is, I have no idea what unit of measurement this is in... millimeters I assume? well im in the states and we don't do that here, so I google and a 19in wheel is 486.6 iirc. I just realized I didn't factor in the tire so im going to have to go change my settings now, but I went with 486 since I can't put a decimal point in the measurement.

Now it gets even trickier. The kit comes with a cable for the speedo that only has an electrical plug in on the gauge cluster side, so it now want to know how many pulses of the speed sensor per 1 revolution of the front wheel of the bike. I honestly have no clue here. I put it at the default setting of 1. How many pulses do these put to 1 revolution of the wheel?

The rest is pretty straight forward- do you want a trip meter or hour meter for the maintenance reminder, what voltages do you want for the battery warning light to come on at (which was a little confusing- theres a battery on, off, and running settings to set for this, and some don't go below 12.5v which seemed odd to me). Then set the odometer which also confused me because I wasn't sure if they used a decimal here for 10ths of a mile, but I didn't figure so the way the guy talked in the video, and you only get one shot to do this and it locks it in and can't be changed again. So I did it without the 10ths of a mile since there was no decimal point and the way the guy made it sound in the video.

Also it did ask at one point "re350" or "re500" and there was nothing in the video or written instructions about this... I assume it was asking if this was a royal enfield 350 or 500 since this unit is comparable with both models, so I selected the re500.

So the unit was very confusing to set up, im still not sure if I did it all correctly, luckily you can go in and change anything except the odometer once its set. So ill find out tomorrow if I did this all correctly I suppose.

There was also a random resistor in the packaging with some heat shrink that I assume they want you to solder somewhere if applicable but theres nothing in any source of information about it. So I have no idea why they provided that or where they expect me to know to put it. So for now ive left it out.

The unit does a sweep when turned on and displays a big "0" for MPH and you can use the needle to output RPM or MPH/KMP. or vise versa. and it has a host of other wonderful settings. I do believe its smarter than I am, but I found it complicated to set up, but happy with it. This whole process took me a solid 3 hours from unboxing to completion.. and I still need to runout there and change the wheel size setting and R:P setting and hope it works lol

[AzCal Retred]

Nice pics & write up! These electro-whizzie devices always take some fiddling. Eventually you'll puzzle out what they thought were trying to say after you play with it long enough and have developed a frame of reference.

This looks like a real nice piece. The trip-resettable odometer function alone is a real upgrade, let alone having a speedo that is accurate. You'd be out at least as much or more for a single-function Smith's unit and adapted speedo cable, and the electronic unit will likely be more accurate.

Keep beating on it, eventually it'll become clear. Having both the website and the written instructions is a plus.

[tooseevee]

Ok, so I ordered it, the Acewell speedometer. And boy what a nightmare it was to get fitted and set up... but boy is it cool!

It ask you to set how many revolutions per pulses to set the RPMs. In my mind it would want 4 revolutions per 1 pulse of the spark plug to determine that. But that is not an available setting. you can only do:


My only guess is that 3R:1P is the correct setting and they're just not counting the power stroke as a revolution. Which is odd to me, but thats the only way I can think this works.

EDIT: I found out these AVL engines do use wasted spark so it needed to be set at 1R:1P !
 You get 4 digits (xxxx) to set that measurement. only problem is, I have no idea what unit of measurement this is in... millimeters I assume? well im in the states and we don't do that here, so I google and a 19in wheel is 486.6 iirc. I just realized I didn't factor in the tire so im going to have to go change my settings now, but I went with 486 since I can't put a decimal point in the measurement.

           So I'm glad you figured out the difference between "strokes" (intake, compression, power & exhaust) and "revolutions" of the crankshaft. The plug is fired EVery revolution of the Crankshaft. And this is by no means exclusive to RE AVL engines.

          Another hint to determine your TIRE circumference:

          Roll the bike until the valve stem is at the exact bottom. Put a chalk mark directly below that valve stem (BDC).

          Roll the bike for 3 full revolutions of the tire until the valve stem is again at BDC. Make another chalk mark.

          Measure this distance with your tape measure and divide by 3. This is the number you enter into the OS for Tire Circumference.

          If you measure in Inches & want MMs, just Google it.

          And it doesn't matter where you mount the speed indicator trigger (near the hub or farther toward the rim), it will still only trigger ONCE per revolution of the tire & That's what gives you your speed indicator signal.

        (It's the same for the spark ignition trigger on the alternator rotor. It triggers a spark EVery revolution of the crankshaft).     

[Blaqkfox]

          And it doesn't matter where you mount the speed indicator trigger (near the hub or farther toward the rim), it will still only trigger ONCE per revolution of the tire & That's what gives you your speed indicator signal.

        (It's the same for the spark ignition trigger on the alternator rotor. It triggers a spark EVery revolution of the crankshaft).   

So this is really neat, but it doesnt use the magnet trigger like every other digital speedo for a bike does! Instead it has some magic wire they've created. Its got a regular connector for the factory speed gear attached to the wheel, but then it turns into just a wire with a two pin connector that plugs into the gauge! Its really weird but I love the way they did that! like its got the screw on with the square cable insert at the wheel hub, but then somehow is just a wire at the other end 

the whole revolutions vs strokes thing still confuses me. but hey it works now lol

thats great info for the circumference issue, thats the last thing im dealing with, when I left this morning it said I was doing 30mph when I felt like I was doing 60mph. so I doubled the number, but then riding with my friends this morning I asked what speed they were at, they said about 55mph but I was reading 68mph lol. So ive been messing with it literally all day. I think ive got it within about 5mph now, but ill do this instead so I can have it be accurate.

[Blaqkfox]

So today I went for a long 400 mile ride into the next state over with a bunch of friends so I had plenty of time to play with the unit.

here's the 8 of us at the bakery we stopped to eat breakfast at. (one guy was in a car)



here's the unit off



when turned on it does a calibration sweep



and on with the bike off (ignore my battery voltage, I had my regulator rectifier take a shit on me today. it was cranking out like 14.9-16.7 volts while we were riding through the mountains)



my only complaint other than its not easy to set up is the little led screen is a little difficult to read from an angle. Im a pretty average height guy, like 5'9" or whatever probably, and when the sun is out and bright I found I had to lean over a little to get a clear view of what the display was showing. I may rotate the angled rubber gasket around 180 degrees if I can so the gauge will be a bit more tilted my way. This might require messing with the bracket some too though, im not sure. granted I do still have the scratch protective film over the gauge cluster so removing that might help some lol



some more photos of our journey today:















I will also be making a YouTube video today showing the gauge in action that ill post the link to here shortly...

[tooseevee]

So this is really neat, but it doesnt use the magnet trigger like every other digital speedo for a bike does! Instead it has some magic wire they've created. Its got a regular connector for the factory speed gear attached to the wheel, but then it turns into just a wire with a two pin connector that plugs into the gauge! Its really weird but I love the way they did that! like its got the screw on with the square cable insert at the wheel hub, but then somehow is just a wire at the other end 

the whole revolutions vs strokes thing still confuses me. but hey it works now lol

thats great info for the circumference issue, thats the last thing im dealing with, when I left this morning it said I was doing 30mph when I felt like I was doing 60mph. so I doubled the number, but then riding with my friends this morning I asked what speed they were at, they said about 55mph but I was reading 68mph lol. So ive been messing with it literally all day. I think ive got it within about 5mph now, but ill do this instead so I can have it be accurate.

       Pretty soon, it seems, we won't even need wires any more for ANYthing.

       There are a million YooToob videos out there (some animated) illustrating that whole revolutions vs. strokes thing. You Reely should get it clear in your head if you're gonna be a conversant RE AVL (or any other) owner/maintainer/tweaker 

       ...and you're never going to be happy until you enter a good number for tire circumference.

        I put one of those magic little speedos on the last harley I built (built in '01 & '02, rode until 2016) because the '77 speedo lost its mind at 60 & I'm sure it was the speedo not the cable. It was VERY accurate (with the correct number entered) 

[Paul W]

I have a similar Smiths speedo on my trials car, although it doesn’t include a rev counter.

What you really need to know is the number of actual wheel revolutions per mile. This is more accurate than trying to measure the wheel circumference because the “rolling radius” differs from the measured radius with weight on the vehicle, due to tyre sidewall flex. To simplify the calculation, mark the tyre where it contacts the road and push the bike ten wheel revolutions. Then measure the distance it’s covered in feet and divide by 10. That will give the distance in feet. Divide 5280 by that figure to get wheel revs per mile.

A reed switch consists of two very small electrical contacts that are closed when a magnet passes them and it doesn’t need an external power supply because it is just a switch. They have just two wires.

A Hall sensor does need an external power supply and it will have three wires. Positive, negative and signal.

[Blaqkfox]

Hey thanks for the info guys! I'm not super concerned with max accuracy of the speedometer, if its 1-2mph off I can live with that lol 5-10 not so much.

I did go out in the garage and just gave it a role once, not the most accurate, but more accurate than where im at. my driveway is all gravel so I can't get very exact with that, the shop floor is concrete so its a good place to do it but I could only roll the bike one tire revolution. Ill probably take it out to a big parking lot somewhere and give it a good 3 revolutions, I don't feel the need to go beyond that really, but obviously the further I go the more accurate it would be. im just not that concerned with pinpoint accuracy on this.

my YouTube video about it is uploading, if you have that newfangled TikTok I have a video of it here as well:

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTdKgJcMA/?k=1


Ok so on the reed vs hall switch- I understand how it works now, but which does this royal use? a hall switch I imagine? and why do you think it matters for these settings? shouldn't the pickup be the same either way?

[Blaqkfox]

Here the gauge cluster in action.

Feel free to skip towards the end it’s a long video.

https://youtu.be/Wqt5MrIIC_8

[tooseevee]

What you really need to know is the number of actual wheel revolutions per mile. This is more accurate than trying to measure the wheel circumference because the “rolling radius” differs from the measured radius with weight on the vehicle, due to tyre sidewall flex. To simplify the calculation, mark the tyre where it contacts the road and push the bike ten wheel revolutions. Then measure the distance it’s covered in feet and divide by 10. That will give the distance in feet. Divide 5280 by that figure to get wheel revs per mile.

        As far as I know there is no way to enter the number of wheel revolutions per mile. These little devices that I was talking about want to know the tire circumference in either inches or millimeters.

[Paul W]

In which case, they've already done the calculation in the software. Easier than with my speedo and my Brantz Rally meter, which are tricky to set up. 

[Adrian II]

        As far as I know there is no way to enter the number of wheel revolutions per mile. These little devices that I was talking about want to know the tire circumference in either inches or millimeters.

The tire maunfacturer's web site will list these in the specs, or at least the diameter. Circumference = 2πr = πd

https://byjus.com/circumference-formula/

Try this with some Avons, they will list the diameters.

http://www.avonmotorcycle.co.uk/

[Blaqkfox]

The tire maunfacturer's web site will list these in the specs, or at least the diameter. Circumference = 2πr = πd

https://byjus.com/circumference-formula/

Try this with some Avons, they will list the diameters.

http://www.avonmotorcycle.co.uk/

Yeah I think Paul was just saying to do the same thing 2cv was saying to do, just calculated at a longer distance. But same-same.

That’s cool I’ll see if my Dunlop k70 tires have it listed. Although Tim sure there’s some slight discrepancies between their listing and reality, probably negligible, but yeah

[Blaqkfox]

So I also just stumbled across this old thread:

https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php?topic=30458.0;all#lastPost

Apparently these bikes charge at 16v?! Why lol

Is this still true of the AVL? I’m guessing so.

I would’ve never noticed without this new gauge. Cuz at idle it’s usually like 13.5-14v which is normal, but when riding at 3-4K rpms the other day the battery warning light kept coming on, so I toggled over to see the output- and 15v… 15.5v… climbing as I rev all the way up to 16.7v sometimes.

These bikes just get weirder and weirder man.

So I guess I need to do something about that 12v battery I’m running before it overcharges and whatnot. Hasn’t been an issue so far, still reading 10-11v with key in the on position- so headlight and other lights on and whatnot. Still, how odd

[tooseevee]

Yeah I think Paul was just saying to do the same thing 2cv was saying to do, just calculated at a longer distance. But same-same.

         'Fraid not all same-same, Grasshoppah.

         Tire Revolutions per Mile is not the same as Number of Inches on the ground per Tire Revolution.