A quick ACIM VII 2015 update – In my original post I said it will be held at Argos (Greece). Well Trikkas (Iania) kindly pointed out my mistake – it is actually being held in Nafplio Argolida about 12Km south from Argos. Yes folks bring yer buckets and spades ….. we’re going to be by the seaside!! 😀
Dashboard repairs
Yes I admit it here and now, I’m doing a U-turn – a full 180° – and NOT stopping dashboard repairs at the end of January 2015. Jeez …. You’re thinking, I wish this chap would make his mind up!!
Why the change of heart?
A couple of reasons actually …. Firstly, a few emails over the past couple of weeks that have made me reflect on the initial decision, secondly a Christmas card. Yep – a lowly piece of card with a simple season’s greetings from a Capo owner in Finland.
Risto sent his board over almost 18 months ago and by all accounts is happy with the work done and each Christmas he has sent a card. That connection across the continent would never have 
happened without the dashboard repair service. This year I opened the card and felt a twinge of regret, uneasiness, a sense that a decision I was making was the wrong one. The bottom line is that I would miss the emails/calls and involvement if I stopped something that I’ve been involved with since the beginning of unravelling the dashboard circuits.
Jan and I sat down and worked out some ways to free up a little more time and I’ve decided to put other projects on the back-burner for now. So I will not stop doing what I’ve done for almost two years ….. Give folks a grain of hope that a piece of their pride and joy can be repaired or upgraded. Sorry for the wobble, but hey, I’m only human.
And Risto ….. If you read this, just remember that opening your Christmas card changed the course of moto-abruzzo as he staggers into 2015. That’s pretty awesome when you think about it! 😀
Happy New Year Caponauts!
Weather wise Christmas was pretty good really, 12-15c and sunny most days – but all good things have to come to an end I suppose. Throughout the morning, sunshine had given way to low cloud racing across the heavens pushed by the ever more aggressive wind. As I finished torqueing up the last of the engine protection bar bolts, it was easily up around 15-20mph and gusting a fair bit more as the temperature slowly slid below 10c and kept up its relentless trudge towards zero. Time then to slip on the Halvarssons and head out for a ride!
The truth is I’d seen the forecast. This was going to be the last opportunity of 2014 for a ride on the Capo. The wind and rain were set to get worse overnight (and it did!), then a few hours respite after which the wind would be back …. This time with three days of snow as its best mate.
But strangely all this pales into insignificance against the ride-out. Have you ever had one of those rides where everything seems perfect ….. your road position, your gear selection, every bend you hit right on the nail, every overtake is exquisitely timed and executed – no matter what you do, it’s RIGHT, first time, every time. It’s like someone else is riding the bike, because I sure as hell don’t ride like that normally! Sadly it was only an hour, a run around the block, but I think it left me in a happier frame of mind than I’ve been in for a while.
Now as I write this the Capo is tucked up in the barn, the battery quietly sipping from the Optimate trickle charger while I put the kettle on again and look out the window. The first flakes will be here soon and it’ll be time to batten down the hatches for a while. Time then to reflect on the old year fast fading and the hopes and aspirations of the new year to come ………
……… I hope 2015 is good to you all, your Capo’s are reliable, the adventures are fun, but most of all, that we are all healthy and fit enough to have them – Happy New Year from Abruzzo Italia!
Happy Christmas!
Yes it’s almost that time again – nuts, turkey, sod all on telly and a splash of booze as well! Santa of course came early this year with all my in-laws buying me a lovely mountain of Capo spares ….. absolute Aprilia heaven! 🙂 Thank you all!!!!
Of course the New Year will be tinged with sadness as the dashboard repairs stop at the end of January, but something has to give way so I can concentrate again on Motorcycle Instructing as well as moving on with other projects – the big-bore engine needs finishing, the dashboard isolator needs building and testing, while the new ECU interface loom sits all forlorn until I can afford to buy the M800 ECU, but then each year you have to have something to strive for – maybe they’ll happen, then again maybe they’ll just have to be moved on down the line or put to one side completely, who knows. Sometimes in life the doors just open and sometimes you just can’t find the damn keys!
I’ll end by saying a special thanks to all the folks who have let me loose on their precious dashboards and to the emails and occasional phone calls from Capo owners worldwide – I hope I helped in some small way and look forward to meeting some more of you through 2015. Jan and I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Capotastic New Year! Oh and how could I forget The Andy’s, Manuel, Steve & Andrew (Aus) and StuO …… you guys rock!
Give me a brake will ya!
Working slowly through the ABS parts, the thought of building a stand-alone test rig to power up the ABS pump and test a working system on the bench crossed my mind ….. that and tinkering with code again to see if I could have a swift chat with the ECU bit. Quite a few of the bits have been cleaned and modelled and that also gave me a chance to try and work out the specific differences between the ABS part numbers (caliper/master cylinder) and the standard bike ones. What little I found is added to the ‘Rear brake’ page.
So now a rig is slowly coming off the drawing board with a trusty Arduino being used to power two motors for the phonic wheels …. the idea being that if I can get the wheels to speed, then apply a brake, the brake light switch will tell the Arduino the brake has been applied which will then make the Arduino retard the speed of that particular phonic wheel by 20% or so – that SHOULD (if everything works!) cause the ABS unit to trigger and begin pulsing the brake ….. that’s the theory anyway! 🙂
All I need now is a front ABS sensor and one more brake line to complete the rig and I think I can power this puppy up and see what happens …. flames, fountains of brake fluid or a big fat nothing at all! 😯 Hmmmmm.
Sprocket to me daddy-o
April 2020 – sadly Aurasma was bought out by HP (Hewlett Packard) who have now closed down the whole thing.
Once again I’ve been playing ….. this time with Aurasma. No sniggering at the back!
Another augmented-reality app that does video and 3D, admittedly the 3D isn’t as good as Augmented in some ways, but in others it has definite potential. For this little magic show, you’ll need to download the app (Android) to your phone and (on your PC) go to the website and open a free account. Then open the app and tap on the white triangle in the bottom/middle of the screen, now tap on the search (magnifying glass) and search for ‘moto-abruzzo’ then on the next screen tap on ‘follow’ in the top right hand of the screen …… and your done!
Now click on the sprocket above to open a larger version on your screen, point your phone’s camera at it and watch Aurasma do its stuff! Impressive eh? 😀 A basic model of a Sunstar 16 tooth front sprocket animated around two axes. Unlike Augmented which is VERY expensive after your 14 day intro, Aurasma is free (for now) – and we all like freebies. I think I’ll start porting my CAD/3D library of Capo parts over in the New Year and see how it goes. 😉
If you gave it a go, please leave a comment. Any feedback thoughts or ideas on how best to use this with reference to our beloved Caponords is always welcome.
Have fun!
Bye Bye Wi-Fi … one poorly GoPro camera
Yes after 10 months of excellent service, the GoPro Hero 3+ Black has sadly ended up toes-to-the-sky in the bottom of the bird cage. Everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago, when all of a sudden the camera ceased talking to the wireless remote or my smartphone … in fact no Wi-Fi activity at all. So I twiddled and fiddled, reloaded the firmware, stood on one foot in a bucket of rice pudding reciting Winnie the Poo out loud…. nothing worked. Time to contact GoPro.
From initial contact (website form) I must say they were very quick to respond – the automated reply says 1-2 days, I got a response within 3 hours! After that things happened rapidly and within a few days I was standing at the local UPS office (actually sign posted SDA – don’t ask!) handing over the demised camera in its little cardboard coffin resplendent in a pre-paid return label for the journey to its final resting place in the Netherlands. That was Monday, it was delivered on Wednesday and today, Thursday, I’m getting my kit ready for a run out….. Helmet, gloves, wallet, phone, cam…….
…..I miss that little fella already. 😥
This I guess is the halfway point through the warranty claim, so far so good. I have to say the experience has been very smooth with GoPro being totally professional and helpful throughout. The emails were clear and concise with everything integrating seamlessly to avoid confusion. At this point I’m very happy with GoPro, let’s see how things pan out over the next week or so!
Augmented reality Capo luggage!
(AR) – Augmented Reality, the overlaying of graphics, data etc. on real-time video or imagery. Nothing new really, it’s been done for years ……. but not in my back yard it hasn’t!
I’ve been playing with an Android app called ‘Augment’ which in combination with its website, allows 3D models to be uploaded and then selected from your smartphone and overlayed/inserted into the real-time image from your phones camera. These stills and video were taken after uploading a basic model of a pannier/water bottles I knocked up last year. The bit of paper in the pannier frame is a target I printed out from the website – it’s this that the model is oriented and locked on to.
And here’s a couple of stills taken via the app. I must say I was bloody impressed with how well it stayed in position … I could move round to quite severe angles to the target before it lost position lock. Even moving the camera around quite agressively didn’t seem to phase it much.
Since playing with the pannier, I’ve tried a few more models – coils, various brackets and brake caliper bits …. it’s fantastic fun just sitting at a table looking at various Capo parts over a cup of (real!) coffee.
ACIM (Aprilia Caponord International Meeting) VI – 2014
After thrashing out our diaries for 2014, Jan and I have managed to keep the 11-13th of July free for ACIM VI 2014 – held this year in San Marino (Italy) …… and so the registration has been duly submitted to the organisers. 😀 😀
So we’re looking forward to plenty of pics, video, laughs and good conversation over the weekend in a spectacular part of Italy. We really hope to meet up with some of you over the weekend and finally put a face to a name!
Reading the current situation
With the new inlay nearly complete and sufficient testing of the modified dashboard to prove its reliability in day-to-day use, it’s now time to move on and complete the next stage of miniaturising the circuit board. The big grey box and wiring loom holding the Arduino Uno stays for the time being, but now it will house the smaller circuit board and Arduino Nano. Once thoroughly tested, the box and loom will disappear as the board finally gets mounted inside the case.
This time around the microcontroller will be programmed differently to speed up the start time and free up more memory space. For that I’m using a Pololu 1300 programming device ….. Something I’ve never done before, let’s hope I don’t fry it! If all goes well, that then leaves me an Arduino Uno spare and it would be rude not to find another Caponord related little job for it! So here’s the next project…..
I’ll be installing the Uno and three of these naughty little puppies along with and LCD screen into the redundant grey case. Self-powered, it will measure current flow through the 30A rec/reg fuse and the two main 30A fuses simultaneously. The screen will 
then display measured and calculated data as well as storing the data onto an SD card mounted into the display. So it’ll be a data-logger as well!
The idea is to have the three ACS714 devices, wiring loom and a single multi-pole connector under the saddle. The unit will then simply plug into the connector and merrily measure away. A decent battery and memory card should make data logging for 2hrs + pretty straight forward. So watch this space ………