Can the 'Remaining fuel range' readout be 'hacked'?

Nick V

Nick V

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Hi hi all! :)

I've just bought a 2006 R1200GS to keep the GS Adventure company.

It's been a bit of a culture shock, realising that the trip computer on this bike only has a fraction of the functionality of a 2009-model GS - but I can get used to it.

My question is this: has anyone here ever tried to 'hack' the trip computer functionality? Specifically, so that the Estimated Range Remaining readout can be accessed at any time - and not just when the fuel level reaches 'Reserve'?

For my long-distance rides on the GSA, I've grown to rely on the Range Remaining readout. The bike only making it available when it wants to warn you of a 'low fuel' condition seems a little pointless...
 
Bendy toy said:
Carry a spare petrol can. Even 1 litre is at least 10 miles.
Click to expand...

It's not an issue of struggling to get to the next stop because of limited fuel mileage - even in SA, fuel stops are usually never more than 200 Km apart on almost all the major routes. With even token advance planning and about R400 reserve cash on you, there's no excuse for running out of fuel.

For me, it's about having the full range of functionality available on the digital display.
The way I see it, if you're going to receive notification of a problem with only about 50 Km to do anything about it, what is the point of the warning? More importantly: if you're going to the trouble of providing a range-remaining readout, why make it available only in the last 50 Km of your estimated fuel range? It's a situational-awareness aid, so why hamstring the rider by depriving him/her of situational awareness? :blast

This smacks of design by committee. At least they changed it for the better on the newer models...
 
Use the Tripometer. I use this on all of my bikes, you generally have an idea of how many miles you can squeeze out of a tankful. :thumb2
 
Lord Snooty said:
Use the Tripometer. I use this on all of my bikes, you generally have an idea of how many miles you can squeeze out of a tankful. :thumb2
Click to expand...

+1. Fuel gauges are not terribly accurate or reliable so not good idea to rely on that.
 
Lord Snooty said:
Use the Tripometer. I use this on all of my bikes, you generally have an idea of how many miles you can squeeze out of a tankful. :thumb2
Click to expand...

+2 The range indication on my 09 GS is not worth the lcd's it lights up. At best it's rough general indication that you need petrol. I've done 20 miles past zero a couple of times. But don't try this at home; yours might be different!
 
Ah well. :) Would have been nice to have.

I agree about the fuel gauge being a token effort at best... there really isn't any excuse for design like that.
 
There is a fellow on a US site who has cracked the Canbus coding on his K 1600. It ain't easy.
 
walrus said:
+2 The range indication on my 09 GS is not worth the lcd's it lights up. At best it's rough general indication that you need petrol. I've done 20 miles past zero a couple of times. But don't try this at home; yours might be different!
Click to expand...

:eek You're sphincter must have been twitching wondering with every passing yard when you were going to hear that dread cough and splutter:clap
 
Wapping said:
There is a fellow on a US site who has cracked the Canbus coding on his K 1600. It ain't easy.
Click to expand...

Och aye? You reckon he might be willing to share info?
...Any chance you might be able to point me in his direction? :D

It had to have been done at some stage... the Hexcode GS911 originates from Stellenbosch; one of the finest winelands in my fair country. :aidan
 
walrus said:
+2 The range indication on my 09 GS is not worth the lcd's it lights up. At best it's rough general indication that you need petrol. I've done 20 miles past zero a couple of times. But don't try this at home; yours might be different!
Click to expand...

Mine was showing 70 miles range but the trip suggested I had a lot less. Then it was suddenly showing 30 miles. I now had 335 miles on the trip and saw a petrol station so chickened out. It took just under 32 litres to brim the tank in my usual way. So I might just have made it to my fave filling station. A couple of litres in a spare can would have let me take the chance.

Specs (about 75% down the page) http://www.r1200gs.info/misc/specs/
 
You should consider yourself fortunate not to have the same system as on recent F800ST (don't know if the GS version is the same). On this bike, the "low fuel" warning lights up when the gauge gets to zero, at which point you get a counter on the display that starts at zero and counts upwards - helpfully showing you how many miles you have covered since the warning. No indication at all of how many miles worth of fuel remain in the tank.
 
Bendy toy said:
Mine was showing 70 miles range but the trip suggested I had a lot less. Then it was suddenly showing 30 miles.
Click to expand...

They do do some sort of dynamic calculation depending on how you are riding at the time. so the sudden drop towards the end might be a "feature" not a fault. If you watch it straight after you fill up it takes a while to settle on a sensible range for the full tank.
 
walrus said:
They do do some sort of dynamic calculation depending on how you are riding at the time. so the sudden drop towards the end might be a "feature" not a fault. If you watch it straight after you fill up it takes a while to settle on a sensible range for the full tank.
Click to expand...

My riding was trundling down the M6 so the consumption rate hadn't changed since I left home. By then, the mpg should have improved due to the Birmingham 50 limit and lane hogs.

What defeats me is the bike routinely meters its fuel really accurately into the engine so why cant it work out the total that's been pumped through? It *should* be far more accurate than mental arithmetic based on guesswork.

Why must the bike do some progammed logic that involves assumptions, which will almost never be right, when a simple measure of fuel remaining would be useful and should be accurate?

Here's a theory - BMW paid SFA for some standard car trip computer code that goes back donkey's years but flog it on as state of the art gismotronomy. They all do that sir.
 
Bendy toy said:
My riding was trundling down the M6 so the consumption rate hadn't changed since I left home. By then, the mpg should have improved due to the Birmingham 50 limit and lane hogs.

What defeats me is the bike routinely meters its fuel really accurately into the engine so why cant it work out the total that's been pumped through? It *should* be far more accurate than mental arithmetic based on guesswork.

Why must the bike do some progammed logic that involves assumptions, which will almost never be right, when a simple measure of fuel remaining would be useful and should be accurate?

Here's a theory - BMW paid SFA for some standard car trip computer code that goes back donkey's years but flog it on as state of the art gismotronomy. They all do that sir.
Click to expand...

Think its more the % gap/differences between gauges......it doesnt know how much fuel you have put in apart from what the gauge reads.
 
Good point but really how hard can that be? Oh yes, its a problem labelled "fuel strip".

TBH some strain gauges on the fuel tank mounts would do the job. Take a datum when the tank is filled and do the rest from the throttle metering. The strain gauges would be far from accurate with the bike moving, but they would only need to reset the datum when the bike is filled and that could be very accurate.
 
MUD said:
Think its more the % gap/differences between gauges......it doesnt know how much fuel you have put in apart from what the gauge reads.
Click to expand...

the gauge is pointless on these, its on one side of a split tank that's much bigger up top than at the bottom, so it can never be linear, prob why my gauge lives at the top for over 100 miles and then plummets over the next 50, add to that the constant flow of un wanted fuel from the injectors supply and its a wonder it works as well as it does

my KTM had a light that came on when it hit reserve and then a count down, I never wanted more
 
Roymondo said:
You should consider yourself fortunate not to have the same system as on recent F800ST (don't know if the GS version is the same). On this bike, the "low fuel" warning lights up when the gauge gets to zero, at which point you get a counter on the display that starts at zero and counts upwards - helpfully showing you how many miles you have covered since the warning. No indication at all of how many miles worth of fuel remain in the tank.
Click to expand...

WTF would the point of that be? :eek

walrus said:
They do do some sort of dynamic calculation depending on how you are riding at the time. so the sudden drop towards the end might be a "feature" not a fault. If you watch it straight after you fill up it takes a while to settle on a sensible range for the full tank.
Click to expand...

I had this happen to me once on my F800GS. Steady freeway cruising for around 300 Km, then I turned off to a set of twisties to get to Dullstroom. The estimated range readout had been dropping more slowly than average for about 150 Km, then suddenly it just plummeted. I could literally watch one kilometre being ticked off the estimated range every 2 to 3 seconds, and within 6 Km I had nothing on the display but horizontal bars. I thought I had a fuel leak.

Since then, I've also had it happen to me once on my '07 F800ST, and once on my previous GSA. It would seem that drastic changes in riding style on the same journey can 'confuse' the software.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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