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DIY Gizmo - Honda ATV Programmable Fan Control Unit

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One of the coolest DIY projects ever.

 

i finally got back to the bench. finished removing the components needed to prep the board for the Gizmo reconfiguration. love that solder removing braid! i am using a fly tying vise as a board holder lol At the stage where i can start fitting the controller board to the Bud enclosure.

 

gonna stop by the electronics shop this aft to see if they have the pretinned wires retro described. 

 

 

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Well not the smoothest job I could do centering the board—because then the buttons aren’t centered. Next time I’ll make a template. I used a scribe and cut off a fob cover so I could get the button spacing right. Used too big a cutting bit at first

 

i had to trim off the edge of the button strip and grind off the switch buttons to get the enclosure to close. I hope that’s gonna seal well with some clear silicone maybe?

 

Found that i needed to cut the enclosure mounts down and got my dremel cutting bit got hung up in a hole and it got away from me. So keep cutting revs high LOLs.

 

now to cut the window 

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When retro gets back will be interesting to see the details on his display window construction.
I’m fumbling around a bit with the construction But using the fake boards—good training eh?

 

i used dabs of permatex dielectric grease on the switch tips to help mark the inside of the enclosure to align my drill marks for the switch holes. This was Using the board to set the alignment for the switches—not great, because the board was crooked. I will use a template on the cover, using the more neatly aligned switch cover holes to align the board next time.

 

Another question for retro.

are there single button covers that can be adapted instead of using the fob button strip? Similar to one in this pic?

 

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Okay i made my viewing port. The display is aligned nicely but I drilled the LED hole too big and too far to the right. I’ll be satisfied with it, but I learned that if you use the smallest cutting tool you have, it’s still too big!! lol 

The electronics store here in town had NTE WH24 AWG tinned copper stranded wire in PVC retro described. in all the colors i wanted plus. $4 each. Plus some of those newfangled NTE butt splices.

maybe tomorrow I’ll solder in the trimpot 

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Edited by Goober
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Maybe you could make a templet out of metal to lay over the fog and then cut the holes 

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I found that I forgot to order the trimpot retro mentioned. Found this Bourn PV36 10KOhm 25-turn he described.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Bourns/PV36Y103C01B00?qs=pFP7BvE1PmwQfgsP8uFHEw%3D%3D

 

i wired up the trimpot retro sent me and now ready to test. My TRX350A uses a two-wire sensor so wiring in the trimpot in circuit parallel allows me to lower the overall circuit resistance (Ohms law: resistance in series is summed while resistance in parallel is averaged). The trimpot curve Might not match well with the sensor curve just have to try it.
 

I gutted two of my worst sensors—used a dremel with cutting wheel to remove the steel wire protector. The wire terminals are protected by a red rubber plug and potting below. I used a jewelers screwdriver to dislodge the plug. Scraped out the potting. The wires are terminated at a disc used to mount the thermistor.  clipped the wires off and saved them.
the thermistor is mounted in more white potting so i Used a torch to cook it and then pulled it out by the wire terminations with needlenose pliers.

i then used a drill bit and bore brushes by hand to remove all the remnants of potting.

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Well the trimpot worked but the range and adjustment wasn’t right. When i set the high temp resistance (231Ohm at 338F, the fan set temp was 126F—should be 212F. So unless i want the fan to run all the time i need to try something else.

 

so i will go back to the Gizmo build, starting with the two trimpot connections.

 

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Edited by Goober

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Dumb question, but why set it to go off at 212 and not at 160-180 range.....?

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1 hour ago, TBRider said:

Dumb question, but why set it to go off at 212 and not at 160-180 range.....?

No it’s a good question 


i need to make sure the overheat light stays off when the fan comes on and if it comes on at the 231Ohms high heat stage. Pretty sure it works like that—i want to preserve that monitoring function.

 

i was able to set it to 0.95-1.05KOhm range so the fan would come on between 188-212. I can still use that range, without the monitoring function, and should have tried it to see how it worked. 

But it started raining and I broke the connections while cleaning it. Simple matter to rebuild and retry.

 

i also ordered some new trimpots used in the gizmo and will try pairing them with the new thermistors to see if i can find a better range.

 


 

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I have to ask—do I misunderstand how the overheat system works?

 

i thought the fan came on at 200F and stayed on until 338F, when the oil light came on. Does the Foreman model shut down at this temp? 


I rebuilt the sensor and calibrated it. if i set low resistance value (stated in manual) at 338 i expected the fan to come on at 140. I got the oil temp up to 180 but the fan never came on. so I plugged the fan back to a manual switch.


im still building a gizmo based on retro’s instructions. Im learning a lot about technique here!!! my model looks pretty crude compared to retro’s work. i have to pot the sensor, wire the connectors and then i think I’ll be ready to build the power supply.

 

still coming up short on supplies but getting there

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Hey FF

thats an oldie. No leads came with it? Hard to tell if it can work but likely it still does. Probably could buy some leads for it at a electronics shop.

 

looka here i got some lil button caps to fit. The first ones I ordered were too big but these are OK.

i ordered more and will send some to retro

 

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Edited by Goober
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7 hours ago, Goober said:

Hey FF

thats an oldie. No leads came with it? Hard to tell if it can work but likely it still does. Probably could buy some leads for it at a electronics shop.

 

looka here i got some lil button caps to fit. The first ones I ordered were too big but these are OK.

i ordered more and will send some to retro

 

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Looking good with the buttons.   There is a guy looking for a foreman electric front diff engage gizmo  could probably round you up some work

 

There were some leads on the table.  The lady’s husband was not there at the time and she never even knew what he wanted for it. Do you see any buttons on there that do anything out the norm ? 

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I’ve seen those for sale ~ $15 but you might pay $25 for a good set of leads if they’re missing. 

If it will do Ohms and KOhms, and volts that’s pretty much all you need for troubleshooting.

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I potted two rebuilt sensors even though I’m missing the right size of heat shrink and connectors. So i have a long way to go to get a finished gizmo. I am now to the point where i can finish the programming module and calibrate the sensor.

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I’ve enjoyed completing the window of the gizmo enclosure.  Think i have a good placement. I really like the new buttons. I still need to buy the window material, connectors and various smaller size of heat shrink. A couple of components on my mouser order are still back ordered.
 

I’m using the power supply @retro sent me to program the sensor. here I’ve set something to occur at 85C lol
 

I don’t want to pot it all up just yet til I understand placement. My plan is to build a cell-phone shaped gizmo mount so i can use old RAM-style X-mounts to fix it to my front carrier so i can watch it.

 

 

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Finally got my Mouser order filled 

Nichicon capacitors and GP relays.

looking forward to finishing the Gizmo builds this winter!

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Goober , did you see that de-soldering tool they advertise on facebook , has a suction and heats the solder ,then sucks it away , looks amazing on video

 

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I gotta get back on this project too. I keep telling myself "soon"... but I still have crap piled up in my shack that I moved from each room while repainting and that work ain't completely finished yet either. Soon....

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12 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

Goober , did you see that de-soldering tool they advertise on facebook , has a suction and heats the solder ,then sucks it away , looks amazing on video

 

I saw that thing FF that person was soldering and desoldering pretty fast. Seemed like too many moving parts for a slowpoke like me!

i used my new soldering kit to fix my tilt trailer harness and now going to fix my friend’s atv sprayer.

Yup retro later this winter I’d be interested to spend some time on gizmos. This fall very busy scouting for my deer and elk hunts.

Edited by Goober
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On 9/17/2020 at 12:04 AM, retro said:

I gotta get back on this project too. I keep telling myself "soon"... but I still have crap piled up in my shack that I moved from each room while repainting and that work ain't completely finished yet either. Soon....

 

retro, I was thinking about the mounting bracket for the the gizmo the other day....an adapter could very easily be 3D printed that could go from an existing handlebar type mount to the gizmo itself. so if you have any ideas of how you want that done, sketch something up and i can model it and have it made.

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