I installed the Rostra on my 09 Concours about 18 months ago. I originally started out with the pretty little switch, but it went bad in a heavy downpour. I installed a momentary on/off/on toggle with the rostra power always on.me too, hope you get feedback from rostra..
The toggle worked well. However, I have an intermittent problem (the best kind!). If the cruise control is engaged and I hit the break or clutch then it releases as it should. When I go to reengage it, it "normally" will not work. I must kill the power to the bike and then it will function again. I say normally because about 80% of the time I must turn the bike off and then back on to get it to work again. Other times I can engage/disengage 3 or 4 times before it stops functioning.
I have posted this problem before and most advise took me to the ground wire. Unfortunately, the ground wire appears to be good. I currently have an email into Rostra, but am wondering if I am the only one experiencing this fairly intermittent problem.
It should be noted that the issue did not start with the install of the toggle.
The toggle worked well. However, I have an intermittent problem (the best kind!). If the cruise control is engaged and I hit the break or clutch then it releases as it should. When I go to reengage it, it "normally" will not work. I must kill the power to the bike and then it will function again. I say normally because about 80% of the time I must turn the bike off and then back on to get it to work again. Other times I can engage/disengage 3 or 4 times before it stops functioning.
.....with the rostra power always on.
I installed the Rostra on my 09 Concours about 18 months ago. I originally started out with the pretty little switch, but it went bad in a heavy downpour. I installed a momentary on/off/on toggle with the rostra power always on.
The toggle worked well. However, I have an intermittent problem (the best kind!). If the cruise control is engaged and I hit the break or clutch then it releases as it should. When I go to reengage it, it "normally" will not work. I must kill the power to the bike and then it will function again. I say normally because about 80% of the time I must turn the bike off and then back on to get it to work again. Other times I can engage/disengage 3 or 4 times before it stops functioning.
I have posted this problem before and most advise took me to the ground wire. Unfortunately, the ground wire appears to be good. I currently have an email into Rostra, but am wondering if I am the only one experiencing this fairly intermittent problem.
It should be noted that the issue did not start with the install of the toggle.
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I think the Rostra works well normally for what we ask of it, that is to respond linearly to a rotational device. Someone (maybe me, if I ever get the time) needs to come up with a curved arm (think quarter pulley) that can be attached to the throttle arm with the Rostra cable going around it and coming at it from the front of the bike instead of below the bike. That way the Rostra could respond rotationally to a rotational device. Ideally it would have a radius such that the full throttle cable range would closely match the full Rostra cable range. I think there maybe enough room for that, but just barely. Such a set up would make the Rostra less likely to go "TILT", in my opinion.
(It all made sense when I typed it, but now I'm not so sure. )
Does anybody with a McCruise have pictures of their install? I've always assumed that it came with a curved arm that attached to
the throttle arm or some how piggybacked on the throttle cable to use it's pulley.
I am also surprised that Rostra is no longer helping motorcycle customers- their CC was never intended for use on motorcycles but they had always been very helpful with me even knowing it was a motorcycle installation. In fact, the tech. at Rostra seemed curious and interested. Perhaps something has happened with motorcycle customers to have Rostra create a new policy regarding non- auto use?
Interesting. I have not seen or heard of that problem before although it seems that you are not alone.
I assume the ON- OFF- ON toggle is wired to function in place of the SET and RESUME switches on the Rostra switch? I had mine also wired so it was 'ON' all the time and used two momentary contact switches as the SET and RESUME buttons but the switches also failed over time and weather exposure. Other than the switches themselves failing, the actuator itself worked correctly all the time with the single switches in place of the gang switch.
Just a kind of off the cuff thought here but perhaps there is too much slack in the Rostra cable? The reason I mention this is because more than one person has had trouble with slack in the cable with a Rostra- that is one of its few internal checks against malfunction. When you engage a Rostra, the motor turns at a fixed rate (the only speed it has) and begins taking up throttle cable until the VSS registers and increase in speed. The Rostra measures the time between engagement and that VSS increase- if it takes too long, the Rostra disengages for safety reasons (it is assumed something is loose or incorrectly connected to the throttle). Once you have used the Rostra, it disengages a clutch and releases the throttle and <may> leave the actual throttle position alone. If this is the case (a guess on my part), then the unit would have to send the throttle all the way to closed, engage the clutch and then begin to take up the slack in the throttle until the vehicle's speed increases. So it would take longer to re- engage than it did the first time after a cold start (power off). If you are near the maximum amount of slack in the Rostra throttle cable to begin with, perhaps this extra travel time kicks the unit over the edge into an error? Again, just a thought on my part but I would check the unit and make sure there is no more than about 1/8" free travel in the Rostra cable until the throttle is taken off its idle stop. There has to be some play in the Rostra cable of course but it cannot be too much.
Brian
I am also surprised that Rostra is no longer helping motorcycle customers- their CC was never intended for use on motorcycles but they had always been very helpful with me even knowing it was a motorcycle installation. In fact, the tech. at Rostra seemed curious and interested. Perhaps something has happened with motorcycle customers to have Rostra create a new policy regarding non- auto use?
Yep, you are absolutely correct about the Rostra's response being non-linear but it does not really matter. The useful range of throttle movement on a CC is so small that it does not change appreciably over that travel. As the cable attaches at approx. 90 degrees on the throttle arm, and the throttle's movement is only a few degrees, we can disregard any non- linearity in the loop closure behavior and treat it as if it were linear- really it will be close enough. Besides all of that, even if the CC's attachment were rotary, the response of the engine to throttle movement itself in non- linear anyway; opening the throttle 1/8 of the way allows more than 1/8 of the total airflow or total power, at least at low engine RPM, so whichever way you want to measure linearity.... it isn't linear. Further, as the throttle bodies and throttle plates are round, the entire system becomes even more non- linear and is less and less sensitive to throttle movement (in degrees) as the throttle is opened further and further. Put another way, the last 1/8 of the throttle travel has very little impact on power output compared with the first 1/8 throttle travel.Well, as usual Brian, that all makes sense and I most likely should just forget about it and save me some work. However I just have got to try my theory out, eventually.
The MC Cruise is considerably different than a Rostra or Audiovox but only in execution, the principle is the same. The other major difference is that the Rostra is a displacement system (based on position) while the MC Cruise and Audiovox are force based systems (based on force applied- the displacement of the throttle is a secondary function of that force). The MC Cruise actually uses an Audiovox or Audiovox copy actuator and creates a new end point for the throttle cables on the motorcycle. So instead of the throttle cables attaching to the throttle plate shaft, they are moved to attach to the MC Cruise actuator and in turn the actuator has a pair of cables that go to the throttle plate shaft. Functionally it is identical to the Audiovox system- as the vehicle speed pulses decrease per unit time, there is more and more force applied to the throttle to increase the pulse rate. As to if the MC Cruise system is rotary or linear, it is rotary in nature although because of the above stated reasons I do not believe that matters.
Brian
Same issue, but I can usually cancel/reengage the cruise 2-3 times before it won't reengage. I can get it to start working again by turning the cruise off and back on again. Then I reset my speed and can cancel/reengage the cruise 2-3 times before it happens again. Then I have to turn the cruise off and on again and reset the speed...this is what mine does,but didn't start til about 2 years after instal.granted it's annoying but other than this quirk it works great.bang for the buck it's hard to beat.
Nothing really major, but annoying... I hope you hear something.
Yep, seems to be the case. I too, contacted Rostra tech support just the other day, in an effort to solve a curious odd problem I was having on my unit and once they were informed the application was on a motorcycle...end of discussion. I had mentioned that they had responded to others questions from both forums in the past and this guy says "no, never". I then asked if I could just run something by him and the answer was simply "NO". His tactfulness and regard for customer service definitely left much to be desired. So for the moment, I think the only tech support is going to be each other regarding Rostra issues.
I am also surprised that Rostra is no longer helping motorcycle customers- their CC was never intended for use on motorcycles but they had always been very helpful with me even knowing it was a motorcycle installation. In fact, the tech. at Rostra seemed curious and interested. Perhaps something has happened with motorcycle customers to have Rostra create a new policy regarding non- auto use?
Using this setting method I could not make the cc NOT work. Each time I set it, it worked, absolutely no need to reset it.
I did some experimenting on my ride yesterday. If I used the brakes to disengage the unit, it never failed to re-engage. If I used the clutch to disengage, then re-engaging was intermittent...