Thinking of a new gadget...

[Csory_imp]

Bazbro: the "algorithm" of the display right now:

0. User menu (if selected by 3 direct flashes at the bottom of the unit within 15s after power-up), as long as it takes.

1. Boot-time animation, user selectable out of 6 different eye-candies.

2. Battery voltage until engine fired up, but at least 10s

3. Lowest cranking voltage after engine fired up, for 10s with flashing"LCU" message once per second

4. Oil temp displayed until oil gets warmer than 60C/140F with flashing "OIL" message once per second. Should oil temperature not rise to this level after 20 minutes (might happen in extreme circumstances) it switches to air temp display.

5. Air temp displayed (no flashing markers, just the temperature). I believe this could be considered as "settled down"

To install over the Honda logo I'll have to create an alternative housing. Temp sensor, light sensor, cables will have to be routed through the forward looking side (bottom side would be unusable, being the mating surface...)
GoldOxide: Thanks

* Please see my previous post about the current "algorithm" and timings. It settles down to air temp only.

* It's a bit like NYC - never sleeps

* Oil flickers once per sec until engine gets warmed up a bit (60C or 140F). If it does not warm up after 20 minutes it stops flickering anyways and goes to air temp. Flickering is meant to "warn" the rider to be easy on the throttle.

* Using the decimal/non decimal as a visual clue is a great idea! Now that you came up with it, I can even use the decimal points as a "marker" - have 3 of them! Say, 2 on the left could be air temp, 2 on the right oil temp, single one battery, or something along these lines...

A few things I learned from yesterday riding:

1. The display is too bright. Will have to reduce current (i.e. change in hardware). This will - as a side effect - extend the life expectancy of the display and also cut down power consumption (now around 10 milliamps, but will be about halved - practically nothing with a running alternator).

2. The display is too "reflective", i.e. direct sunlight makes it look busy with detail. Its not distracting, just not as pleasing as it could be. Will change the housing and move the display deeper behind the glass (about the same depth as the instrument panel LCD is). Will also try covering with a thin layer of matte lacquer.

3. Thermal coupling between the oil temp sensor and the oil line is crappy. It keeps showing oil temp at 55C even under extended load (riding up the mountains), after stopping it jumps to normal levels. Must be wind cooling effect. Will cover in aluminum tape and see if that helps. In that case will have to come up with an alternate method to mount the sensor to the oil line. If the problem lies with the engine cutting off (shunting) oil cooler depending on load and temp, will have to move the sensor to somewhere on the crankcase.

4. Flickering OIL (and LCU) messages are a bit too obnoxious. Will change to non-flickering ones (or just a few slow blinks) and see. Might be easier on the eyes - and less prone to cause problems for people with lurking PSE (photosensitive epilepsy).

Also, what Bazbro asked for: to have a mounting option over the "Honda" logo would require a new (bigger) housing to flow nicely with the outline. May even opt for splitting display and "brains" for better look.
Oh, just one more thing: if you fire up the engine while the boot-time animation is still running, it will entirely "miss" the lowest-cranking-voltage reading. (The microcontroller is busy animating, and does not read sensors during that phase). I can't do anything about this - to put it simple, the micro has not enough program space to make boot-time animations multi-tasked...