replacing instrument cluster with after market TFT

[Paul Stafford]

Hi all

I'm new to the group as of today.

I have a 2011 F650GS twin. I'd like to replace the instrument cluster with a AiM MXS TFT display. This connects via either a CANbus or the OBD connector.

I've never interfaced to the CAN yet, but am familiar with two-wire buses. After studying the wiring diagram in the Haynes manual, it appears the CAN connects the ECU, ZFE, instr cluster and the ABS units. In fact, the connector to the instr cluster that I want to replace has the CAN +/-, and power +/- : just what the MXS needs. So the physical connections would be straightforward.

The challenge is that my bike isn't in the AiM dB. This means manually creating the proper driver. Fortunately, AiM offers CAN driver builder s/w, but using it requires knowledge of the format of data in use.

I wrote to AIM support, and the news is mixed. On the one hand, while time consuming, there is a YouTube video on how to collect this format info. On the other hand, a potential show stopper- they wrote "Many motorcycles are also receiving feedback from the stock cluster instrumentation that we often do not replicate, and are in turn, not recommend to be removed."

That might be the end of the idea if it's true, as keeping the stock cluster would defeat the whole purpose. I found the Excel reference on this forum which should help me decode or program the driver, but the question remains - does the instr cluster supply critical info to the bike?

Thanks for any help!

[Keith Conger]

Hi Paul,

I'm not familiar with the F650 but on the models, I've looked at there are messages that the cluster does send to other modules.  If those messages aren't being sent the modules would produce faults and in some cases not work.  Probably could test this by pulling the OEM cluster.

Keith

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