Modern Vespa

I have been reading the many posts on creating audible (or vibrating) turn signal indicators with great interest, as I am having trouble adjusting to the lack of reminders on my new (to me) 2005 GT 200L. Thanks to all the previous posters on the topic, I have learned a lot from your efforts!

Here is a quick list for anyone just getting started with their research on audible turn signal mods:

Hello, my first scoot, and turn signal buzzer mod
Installing a turn signal beeper in GT200/GTS
Video: Vespa loud turn signal mod
Turn Signal Beeper and 12V Power Outlet on a GTS
turn signal indicator
S 150: Adding audible turn signal
Loud Turn Signals Save Lives
LX-150 Audicator Installation - With Pictures


The quick and dirty Radio Shack/piezo buzzer approach is appealing, and I especially like the price, but I've been hoping to find a solution with a less jarring sound.

So...
I came upon the idea of using a cheap two-part wireless doorbell set-up, consisting of one or more "button" units and a battery powered receiver/chime unit. I figure that this is so simple, it's probably not a new idea. If you know of something like this posted out there, I would love to see it.



Anyway, what sparked my interest was that the button unit found in these wireless doorbell sets typically uses a little 12V battery. Somewhere in my very limited knowledge of electronics, it clicked that my Vespa also uses a 12V battery. Perhaps I could fix the button permanently in the "pressed" position, and tap into the turn signal wiring to power it...and voila! Cheap non-buzzer audible turn signal!

Another plus: many of these wireless doorbell units feature a variety of sounds, some units have as many as 32 or more different sounds to choose from. They range from chimes, to gongs, to holiday songs, etc. I even found one that features ten different animal calls, for those hunters and nature lovers out there. Something for everyone I suppose.

After a wee bit of research (reaffirming that I should really learn the basics of electronics some day), I threw caution to the wind and busted open the button unit from a wireless doorbell set that I had lying around. The receiver/chime unit was the wall-plug type (no batteries) but it sufficed for testing the button unit hookup, which used a 12V battery. I removed the battery from the button unit and wired the battery leads with alligator clips to the two appropriate holes (bottom left and second from right) in the larger of the three "extra" wire bundles found in the upper left panel behind the leg guard (this tip has been outlined in several posts on turn signal mods listed above, and is outlined in detail again below). It took all of ten minutes.

To my surprise, the doorbell in my house actually rang when I activated the right turn signal!

Next, I found a (completely) wireless doorbell set on Amazon made by GE for $18, with seven sounds to choose from. I also picked up a pair of diodes from Radio Shack. A little under $20 and an hour or two of experimentation later, I have an audible turn signal! My sound choices are on the goofy side, but I like most of them better than a buzzer ("Westminster", chime, ding dong, bronze chime, knock, cuckoo clock, foghorn, and gong). You can actually hear them here.

Ironically, after searching for a unit that had more than two or three sounds to choose from, the simple "ding dong" works the best for me.

So, my procedure...

Parts needed:

• Three wires, 6" to 12" long. I used one double wire and one single wire.
• Two diodes, 1N4004 Radio Shack RS part # 276-1101, 2-pk, $0.98 I think
• Wireless (completely, no "wall-plug" receiver) doorbell unit, with one or two button units
• Small nut, smaller than the diameter of the button
• Electrical tape
• Soldering iron, solder, etc. (may not be a requirement)
• Screwdriver

First, open up the left panel behind the leg guards.


Next, locate the largest of the three connectors, and rotate so that the side with the three holes is on the bottom. The first and second holes from the left are for the diode-connected wires, the far right hole is for the ground.


Open up the button unit, and locate the positive (flat) battery lead. That is where the two diodes will be soldered. The negative lead, the spring at the bottom, will be where the ground wire will be soldered.



Next, solder the two diodes to the positive battery lead. Make sure that the gray bands on the diodes are on the side that you are soldering to the battery lead.


Solder the single wire to the negative battery lead in the shape of a spring, and a wire to each of the diodes. I used heat shrink tubing to keep it a little tidier in there.


In order to keep the button unit in the "pressed" position, find something that can be taped to the button. A small nut works quite well.


Now use electrical tape stretched over the nut and down the sides of the unit to keep pressure on the button.


My button unit had two handy holes in the back for mounting to a wall. I just pulled the wires through the holes, and snapped the back onto the button unit.


Put the two diode connected (positive) wires into the left two holes on the connector, and the negative single wire into the far right hole. If you have batteries in your receiver/chime unit, you can now test the setup. Also, the three switches inside the button unit control the sound selection, so it is a good time to pop the back off again and hear all your options.


This picture shows the inside/outside connections more clearly.


Now snap the unit back together, and tuck it inside the compartment.


The glove compartment is one option for stowing the rather bulky receiver/chime unit.


I prefer the same compartment as the button unit, as I think I can hear it better.


I found quite a range of wireless doorbell sets available online, including some as cheap as $6 (with 16 different sounds). The quality is probably suspect on these units, but they may be worth a try.

My original plan was to use two separate button units, each set to trigger a different sound in the receiver, so that the right and left signals were differentiated. Although this is not a needed function for me, it would be a very easy add-on to the original idea. Unfortunately, curiosity killed my second button unit, and the circuit board was damaged beyond easy fixing by the time I had finished dissecting it. I have ordered a replacement single button unit to try the two-button version at some point.

My unit works well enough in the city. Some of the sounds are hard to hear, but the "ding-dong" chime works fine, either in the glove compartment or in the same panel compartment as the button unit. Some small holes in the panel would probably help a lot.

My summary of pros and cons of the doorbell dinger solution:
Pros:

• Low cost (potentially as low as $6 plus shipping and a pair of diodes, my unit cost was $18 )
• Variety of sounds, and easily reconfigurable if you get sick of one
• Potential for differentiated right and left sounds
• Receiver/speaker unit can be put anywhere without any additional wiring (well, anywhere it will fit, preferably where you can hear the sound)
• Very easy to install. I even tested a no-diode two-button, one receiver install, modeled after the super simple two-buzzer no-diode install from a previous post, and it seems to work fine (Installing a turn signal beeper in GT200/GTS)
• Some units have a volume adjustment knob (although mine doesn't)
  
  

Cons:

• The receiver units are much bulkier than a piezo buzzer
• The receiver units are powered by batteries (some use AA's, mine uses three C's), which will have to be changed, perhaps frequently...(time will tell)
• Some of the units that have a lot of sounds to choose from appear to have a lot of really bad sounds to choose from (i.e., lots of "melodies", which very well could be to your liking, but I'm not crazy about using a song for a turn signal sound)
• They may not be loud enough, although I can't help but think some of the better units are probably quite loud.
• Quality may be an issue on cheaper units. The sound on mine is a bit rough, in a digital sort of way.
• I may be ringing doorbells all over the city as I ride around...

Some options I hope to find in the future: better-quality/smaller units, and recordable sounds (there are a couple of the latter out there, but they are really expensive and/or wall-plug units). Also, it may not be too hard to power the receiver/chime unit from the scooter's battery, but that is a little beyond my abilities at this point.

On a similar note, I found a transmitter driven brake light that could be used as a visual cue for the turn signals, if placed up high somewhere like on the mirrors or windshield: http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/15567

I would love to see some other variations on this solution, so please post if you update/alter/modify/adapt/steal/borrow/improve/critique/etc.

Thanks!

Welcome to MV duomatic, a great first post and novel approach to this issue.

I love the idea of wirelessly ringing folk's doorbells as you ride past

Any other mods planned ?

Thanks 60yoMod!

I have only been a scooter owner for two weeks, so haven't had time to discover all the missing features that I "need" as yet. The lack of turn signal sound presented itself right away. I will probably acquire the habit of turning them off over time, but I don't want to be a hazard on the road in the meanwhile.

Diving into the wires for this mod has started my brain mulling over additional locations for brake lights (top case?), maybe a louder horn. Safety first, then perhaps performance down the road a bit...

Hey duo

Plenty of options for a louder horn, and in yours you've more space for the electropneumatics than we have in the LX.

I've just put a Stebel TM80/1 in mine.

This was a top case high level lights mod from our esteemed leader but others have done LED strips in the case itself. Use the Search, you'll spend many happy hours there

GT200 L.E.D. Bullet Light Mod (with pictures!)

Oh, and post more pics. We like pics

Thanks again. I like those bullet lights. Yeah, I could spend a whole lot of time in search.

My replacement button unit arrived today, and I wired it up so that the left and right turn sounds are now different. Not sure how useful this will be in practice...

Here are a couple of photos of the new wiring. It was really very easy.

Quick note: before I did all the new soldering, I made sure to run all the wires through their respective holes in the back plates of the button unit housing. It might not be so easy to do so afterward. Also, while the backs are still open it would be a good idea to set up the switches in each of the button units that determine which sound will be used. I determined left vs. right via trial and error.

In a nutshell, I just unsoldered the diodes from the positive battery lead in the original button unit, soldered one of the diodes back again, and soldered the other one onto the positive battery lead in the new button unit. I then soldered an additional wire to the negative (spring) lead in the new button unit, and twisted the non-soldered ends of the two negative wires together, with a little bit of solder to hold them together.

Here are the two units wired up



...and snapped back together again (note the positive and negative sides marked in red)



...and installed



It took 30 minutes, and worked right off the bat.

I suppose an alternative or added feature would be to have the source of the sound associated with the direction of the turn signal, in other words the sound would come from the right side when the right turn signal is on. The units come with something like 64 frequencies to choose from to isolate one unit's signal from others, so if I only had another receiver/chime unit to work with the second button unit...

would be safer, to add a small fuse on them. Just a suggestion.

Well that is just totally crazy........ I like it.
I played with the sounds and some of them are too long to work with the blinker. I will be way currious to see how long this lasts. I am hoping it lasts for a long time.

G03, the fuse idea sounds like a good one, I'm all about safety.

But...I cobbled this project together based on information in other posts...I merely stood on the shoulders of folks who actually know a thing or two about wiring. I would not know where in the setup the fuse(s) should go, or which fuse to use.

Any suggestions?

Thanks Copper Dolphin!

I decided to pull the contraption for a few days because I was having start and stall problems, and I wanted to reduce the variables to confirm the culprit was the evap system, which was still hooked up from the previous owner. Now I am sure that is what it was. Took care of that, so I'll be plugging my doorbell back in. I'll let you know how long my rechargeable C batteries last. I'm hoping the whole setup lasts at least that long...

Oddly enough, each sound plays out fully, even though some sounds are longer than the blinker cycle. When I first tested this with my plug-into-the-wall model receiver/chime unit, the sounds were cut off in sync with the blinker. But the battery powered model I installed on my Vespa is wired differently. So even the Westminster chime, which is like a little melody, plays fully each time before it repeats. When the turn signal is turned off, the melody plays out fully one last time before the unit goes quiet. This was an unexpected plus, taking advantage of the separate power supply for the chime unit.