Well, there are a couple of things that are perhaps not as straight forward as they may at first appear.
First of all, there are thresholds on all of the parameters required by the Rostra: to sense ground, of course it does not have to be 0.00000 volts but only <close>. And therein lies the problem- what is close enough? I believe on the brake light circuit, it is less than 3 Ohms resistance to ground but even that is undefined because at what current? This is probably the biggest single problem with the various Rostra installation differences- we are all tapping into various circuits in different places. I personally have found the clutch switch to be a little 'spotty' in working and I believe it is because it is not a very effective ground. And yes, a relay would absolutely help in those circumstances.
As far as a ground loop, I do not think that is likely but electrical noise absolutely is. I do not know how well the Rostra is protected from electrical noise but I suspect we are using it in a considerably noisier environment than a car would be.
The second thing is that parts of the Rostra do not actually sense voltages in some cases but rather sense a change in voltage. That is how the VSS pick up on the Rostra works. Again, I am not sure of the boundaries of either low or high, or how much of a difference there has to be to trigger a case change (low or high). ?? The VSS input from a C-14 does seem to work well enough though.
As to the other thing, nah, lots of people have <correctly> pointed out my wrongness. I am wrong a lot- so much so that sometimes I think I should give up entirely. But then I forge ahead and before too long.... more wrongness. Hey, I am still trying to circumvent this whole mortality thingy and really hoping I am not wrong about that (that it can be circumvented).
Besides, if we all point out each other's wrongness, the only thing left will be all the right answers, right? I believe in professional circles that is called 'peer review'; in the school yard it is called "Oh yeah! OH YEAH!!! Make me!"
Brian
Well there seems to be two problems. (1) Some Rostra units need to be reset occasionally. This maybe because of some safety factor built into the Rostra that puts it in an inactive mode when it gets data that doesn't compute. It may also be caused due to less than optimal cable slack and the variable installations that we all seem to have. Maybe even temperature related or there may be multiple factors working together to cause this . It may never be solved completely. (2) Some need to power the whole bike down to get a reset condition and some just need to power the Rostra off and on to get it to reset. This second condition seems like it could be more wiring related and have a better chance of being solved so that all would be able to reset on the fly. Perhaps some sort of ground loop is involved? Maybe if instead of getting power directly from the taillight circuit we should try using a relay triggered by the tail light circuit that actually provides power to both Rostra power lines from the same circuit? (another relay Marty? is the collective groan) Then again there could be unknown internal changes between these units based on date of manufacture that only Rostra knows about. Still it would be nice if we could solve item one as it would make item two moot.
Ha! That's funny, all I said was I wasn't sure and I didn't understand. Well now that I think about it, I was right, as I wasn't sure and I didn't understand.
As for you being wrong....only Andrea has the power to make that call...I'm not going near that one.