An Enhanced Harley Davidson Sportster Gauge System

Some people get in their vehicles, caring little about what’s going on in the engine compartment, perhaps only noticing the speedometer to keep them from getting pulled over. Others though, are obsessed with what’s going on internally, constantly monitoring RPM levels and any number of other factors. These are “probably” the same people that constantly grumble inside that their automatic transmissions just don’t give them the same control as manual transmissions that they used to drive…not that I would know anything about that.

Unlike cars, due to space constraints, the gauge setup of many motorcycles are quite basic. This includes the Harley Davidson Sportster, which displays only speed as an analog gauge, as well as a few items on a small LCD screen and indicator lights. Most people would probably just accept this state of things, happily or not, but Xavier Morales decided to instead do something about it. Over nearly five years, he designed his own gauge system using a PIC18F2553 microcontroller, picking up the necessary electronics and design skills along the way. His system keeps the original speedometer intact, while adding a digital display that can receive signals from the motorcycle’s control bus, displaying them to the rider on a second circular display.

If you’d like to know how to do this yourself, he’s put together an excellent blog here about his project. As for how it turned out, check out his results page, or the videos above.