I've put thought into how I can measure success on this project, and what features it will need.

1. Displays RPM in a way the rider won't over-rev during hard riding
2. No harness or enclosure modifications
3. Isn't too dim during day/too bright at night
4. Stays under $100 budget
5. Looks awesome

To meet these requirements, the general architecture will be using two VFD displays for numeric and bar graph display, along with a large shift light to ensure visibility in direct sunlight. A photoresistor will be included to adapt to lighting conditions. The ILT3-12L VFD is wider than the gauge face, but may fit inside the enclosure. Tomorrow I'll take measurements and maybe CAD to make sure that if this design fails, it fails fast. The RPM will be sensed by probing the negative terminal of an ignition coil and sensing the flyback pulse when the points open. Overall, I expect the project to run about 2 weeks until the final board review.

After measuring the enclosure, it's pretty clear I can't meet all of the project goals. The ILT3-12L is barely wider than the enclosure (requirement #2) but removing it would violate requirement #5. There's a notch that can fit the display, only needing cutting on one side. The numerical display won't fit, so that will be removed and replaced with cool looking trace routing and an 80's style corporate logo. This shouldn't affect usability much since knowing the precise RPM isn't needed. Although a partial redesign is a setback, I still believe I'm on schedule.

On the night of the parts selection deadline, I decided to change up the parts again to avoid cutting the enclosure. I'll be using a IVL2-7/5 as the numberic VFD display and replace the VFD bar graph with an adressable LED ring that lights the edge of the gauge. The first pass of the schematic was finished tonight, on schedule. I'm excited to see how this turns out, since I think I've found a solution that hits all the requirements, especially #5. Short update this time because it's late, but more pics and updates soon.

Aside from some design work for the boost converter, the schematic was pretty similar to previous designs I've made. Above is a picture of the finshed layout. I have days to spare so I'll spend some time polishing the looks of it before the final review. Shoutout to Mikel and Hunter for reviewing my board and being as hyped about it as I am. There is a fair bit of real estate on the bottom, so I'll come up with a corporation name like OptoDyne or Microtron and logo to fill in there.

Board review went well and it's looking like the plan's coming together. I ran the numbers on the BOM to see how close I was getting to design constraint #4 ($100 budget) and found about $15 worth of savings from changing packaging and ordering samples. I think that 100 is a fairly arbitrary number, and its usefulness was motivating me to double check my selection for savings. However, even including the CPU (which I already own) I've come in $5 under budget which I'll use to buy a fancy capuccino.

This project has slowed down, because I've been hired to build boards professionally. I've not given up though, I may repurpose it and add it to my new bike, a CBR600F3. It had its gauges removed for the street fighter look, so it needs some electrical work anyway. I'm really happy with the way this came out looking

Took a 3D scan of the headlight housing and modeled up an enclosure that should be rainproof, Update coming monday when the acrylic shows up

Looking good, just a few final touches and it's done